EgoEimi's recent activity
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Comment on I think I've failed the United States in ~society
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Comment on An antitrust advocate reflects on the Democratic Party's cult of powerlessness in ~society
EgoEimi LinkThis was probably the most interesting section for me. I've long been wondering, what makes a society, anyway? I'm socially liberal, but I find that liberals and Democrats don't really present a...that [old] left “was committed, or so we believed, to the universal, egalitarian values of the Enlightenment represented by Jefferson, Paine, and Lincoln.”
In the 1960s, a set of disillusioning arguments prevailed on the left, particularly in academia... they “disconnected Lincoln’s proposition from the idea of America and reattached it to the aspirations of those subordinate groups of Americans—women, African Americans, the working class—oppressed, victimized, or excluded by an irremediably corrupt nation.
If America itself is immoral, then who cares what the governing apparatus looks like? ...
Politics, which is fundamentally the forming of a society, itself becomes immoral.
This was probably the most interesting section for me. I've long been wondering, what makes a society, anyway?
I'm socially liberal, but I find that liberals and Democrats don't really present a coherent vision of what society should be besides a pluralistic one — which to me seems like a cop-out "D. all of the above!" non-answer answer that leaves many important questions unanswered, like what makes us even a people? What makes this our country? What is sacred? What unites and connects us? McDonalds and mindless consumerism? Don't say "we're united because we're Americans!" because that just seems tautological.
Is this even our homeland? If we accept the premise that this is native land first and foremost and we're occupiers, then where is our homeland? China, Mexico, Ireland, or wherever our immigrant ancestors came from? And if we all don't share a homeland here, are we just guests to each other?
If the premise of our country as a project is hopelessly tainted, does that also invalidate its many ideals? And if so, then is there anything civically worth aspiring towards, or are we left with only selfish pursuit of our own individual interests?
The Republicans have a vision of what society should be: a conservative, traditional, Judeo-Christian one that I disagree with. But hey, at least they have one.
Now that a whole bunch of new areas have been opened up to critique, from trade to corporate power to mergers to industrial policy to the Federal Reserve, and the expectation among the public is that our political leaders can and should do stuff, well, voters will start to expect our democratic institutions to function. And if we can make the case, that will lead us back to being a society again.
I actually agree with this. I think the election of Trump is a bad thing, but there are many positive signs too. Many voters were willing to ignore his many, many flaws because he had a bold vision to undo the sins of globalization. But there are a lot of people who want the dots connected between global trade, corporate power, domestic economy, and how economy structures society. There is opportunity for Democrats to draw those connections.
The Democrats' message that tariffs are a tax on the working class fell flat. There is a certain indignity in being forced to buy Chinese-made goods as a middle American living in a town that has been hollowed out by deindustrialization, and there are no competitive American-made goods available to buy because the game is tilted in disfavor of American manufacturing.
I'm not sure if going all-in on unions without trying to balance the trade game is politically sustainable. I think that even union workers see and fear the writing on the wall. Why hire an American worker for $18/hr + benefits when you (and your competitors) can hire a foreign worker for 1/4th of that (or less) to make the same product and then import it?
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Comment on China population set for 51 million drop as pro-birth moves fail in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentI've been thinking about this a bit more, as I piece back together memories of old studies and analyses. The ethics of achieving progress in a developing country are... difficult, to say the...Human beings are not livestock: you can't just forcibly abort babies for a couple decades and then suddenly give the okay and a carrot and birth rate rebounds. They're gonna try with all their might, though, may God have mercy on young women.
I've been thinking about this a bit more, as I piece back together memories of old studies and analyses.
The ethics of achieving progress in a developing country are... difficult, to say the least. I'm glad that I'm not god or the leader of a poor developing country and have to make difficult decisions.
It's thought that China's population control methods prevented its population pyramid from becoming too bottom-heavy with children. Had it not, it probably wouldn't have achieved such rapid economic growth. It hit the goldilocks zone of 1. having a big adult labor force and 2. without impossibly too many youths to feed and school.
Developing countries where youths far, far outnumber working adults experience multiple demographic crises:
- With any modicum of modern medicine, many of the youths will grow up. (As opposed to premodern times when a large portion would've died before adulthood.)
- Lack of educational resources in a poor country; existing resources get stretched extremely thin.
- Too many youths can eat economic growth that could have been otherwise reinvested into development.
- Too many youth in a country that doesn't have enough opportunities from the development pipeline yet. Uneducated, unemployed youths always create political upheaval.
And China doesn't want upheaval: every time the country experiences civil unrest, tens of millions of people die.
In countries that have explosive birth rates, like Egypt and Nigeria, their extremely bottom-heavy population pyramids drive political instability and hinder development.
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Comment on China population set for 51 million drop as pro-birth moves fail in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentI think that of all the factors that contribute to low birth rates, the strength of women's rights, women's education, and the ability for women to be independent is one. As paradoxical as that...I think that of all the factors that contribute to low birth rates, the strength of women's rights, women's education, and the ability for women to be independent is one. As paradoxical as that sounds. These stories make it out of China because enough citizens cared. In more women-hostile countries, these stories are much more common yet never make it out because their people think they're non-stories.
Chinese women are able to lead independent lives in China: they can pursue education and work any career. Female entrepreneurship is common. This isn't to say that conditions are ideal, but they're much better than any country like Nigeria or Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has a very high birth rate (above replacement) for being a developed country, and conditions for women there are objectively worse, where women are still pseudo-property of their male guardians that require male guardian permission to do anything important.
China's gender pay gap is 13%. Saudi Arabia's is a whopping 49%.
Interestingly, as Saudi Arabia liberalizes and grants more rights and protections to women, like the right to drive, its birth rate declines sharply.
Looking at countries around the world, countries with weaker women's rights and opportunities have higher birth rates, while countries with stronger women's rights and opportunities have lower birth rates. If there's any signal, it's that crashing birth rates signals significantly improving conditions for women.
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Comment on "Americans get screwed because they can’t read" in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentChinese is taught phonetically through the use of the phonetic alphabet Pinyin invented in 50s China for the purpose of improving literacy rates and romanizing Chinese, or the older Zhuyin system...Chinese is taught phonetically through the use of the phonetic alphabet Pinyin invented in 50s China for the purpose of improving literacy rates and romanizing Chinese, or the older Zhuyin system if you're in Taiwan. I learned Chinese through Zhuyin, sounding words out. Literacy rates in China used to be dismal; now it's almost 100%, which is impressive considering that learning to write and read Chinese is arguably much more difficult than learning to write and read English. (Grammatically, Chinese is actually simpler, funny enough.)
As an outsider to literacy education, it seems a bit funny that Chinese moved to phonics to improve literacy, and now English is moving away from it. Maybe Chinese and English are different enough that paradoxically both approaches can be right, but right now I feel that one is probably wrong.
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Comment on Japanese workers in their twenties turn to resignation agencies in ~life
EgoEimi LinkAsian agencies sell agency… (by the seashore?) An aside: I find Japanese work culture—and any culture in general—interesting because victims become the tomorrow’s victimizers. Surveys show that...Asian agencies sell agency… (by the seashore?)
An aside: I find Japanese work culture—and any culture in general—interesting because victims become the tomorrow’s victimizers.
Surveys show that many Japanese feel overworked and stressed out by work, yet it seems that they also collectively reinforce and perpetuate the norms that lead to overwork.
Similarly in the west, a 40 hour work week is normal, but there’s little natural to it. We just expect it, so we make it so.
It seems to me that most people, when they reach senior positions, just reenact what they know and are familiar with. But a progressive minority push for a gradual shift.
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Comment on Graduating college, starting work, and being lonely in ~talk
EgoEimi LinkI feel for you, and it seems that you've already figured out what your next step should be. Oh most definitely: you should check out Haight-Ashbury or anywhere in the "progressive crescent"....I feel for you, and it seems that you've already figured out what your next step should be.
I feel like I'll have a way better chance of meeting people who are like me and are my age up there.
Oh most definitely: you should check out Haight-Ashbury or anywhere in the "progressive crescent". Oakland and Berkeley also have the kind of people you want to meet, maybe even more so because they're more affordable for people who aren't super career-driven. I'd recommend Berkeley more because of the ecosystem of doctoral students at Berkeley + Berkeley's cozy, post-hippy vibe. I recommend against Oakland since I used to live there: violent crime is a big issue there, and everyone in my co-op there had been held and robbed at gun or knife point at least once.
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Comment on AirPods or not? in ~music
EgoEimi Link ParentSuper, super useful and, for me, one of the biggest selling points. Saved me hours, sanity, and the need to tear apart my house. I find that it works well if both my AirPods and my iPhone have the...Third, they’re tied into FindMy which makes keeping track of them easier (admittedly, when it works).
Super, super useful and, for me, one of the biggest selling points. Saved me hours, sanity, and the need to tear apart my house.
I find that it works well if both my AirPods and my iPhone have the U1 chip. It's for when I've ditched my AirPods in a pile of clothes, forgotten it in a pocket in one of my three bags or myriad jackets, or left it just somewhere in the house. I just use the Find My scanner thing and it brings me within a foot of my AirPods.
Two AirPods can connect to an iPad (or a Mac with an easy workaround) for movies and music, which is another quality of life feature.
It seems like such a niche, "when am I ever going to use that?" feature but my partner and I use it when we want to listen to something and not bother other folks.
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Comment on Wonder announces acquisition of Grubhub in ~food
EgoEimi LinkI've never heard of Wonder before. It appears to be a small food delivery startup that serves only NYC. I'm very surprised. This comes off as if a local hardware store were announcing that it's...I've never heard of Wonder before. It appears to be a small food delivery startup that serves only NYC.
I'm very surprised. This comes off as if a local hardware store were announcing that it's acquiring Lowes or Home Depot. Like, what. Where did they get all that cash?
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Comment on How self-driving cars will destroy cities in ~transport
EgoEimi Link ParentThat's what I've always imagined them eventually becoming: mini buses with dynamic routes and stops. You just hail an autonomous mini-bus by app, it lets you know when to come outside 2 minutes...That's what I've always imagined them eventually becoming: mini buses with dynamic routes and stops. You just hail an autonomous mini-bus by app, it lets you know when to come outside 2 minutes before, and you hop in. It'll then pick up and drop off several people, but eventually drops you off at the doorsteps of your destination.
The thing about the current state of public transit is that unless you're an affluent professional and live in a desirable area that's within walking distance of a main line that goes straight to the central business district, the public transit experience is tedious, uncomfortable series of disjointed bus and train routes with awkward walks and long, boring waits in between segments.
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Comment on Donald Trump didn't win on the US economy. He won on the perception of it. in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentGreat catch! That's actually a very telling artifact. Each party's platform is written by their platform committee, made up of party leaders and members, policy folks, and representatives of the...Great catch! That's actually a very telling artifact.
Each party's platform is written by their platform committee, made up of party leaders and members, policy folks, and representatives of the party's key stakeholders. So each document reveals each party's culture.
So for the 2nd page, which is probably the first and foremost thing that the parties' committees discuss and hash out, their respective cultural processes produced these two very different statements.
The Democratic committee settled on a token gesture. The Republican committee was laser-focused on Americans who feel forgotten and left behind.
Everything else about their campaigns play out from these perspectives.
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Comment on Donald Trump didn't win on the US economy. He won on the perception of it. in ~society
EgoEimi LinkIt's difficult to assess whether Trump is an idiot or a genius pretending to be an idiot, but one thing he understands better than Democrats is that politics is theatre. He made an excellent...- Exemplary
It's difficult to assess whether Trump is an idiot or a genius pretending to be an idiot, but one thing he understands better than Democrats is that politics is theatre.
He made an excellent performance of personally intervening with individual companies to bring jobs back to the U.S. He had that whole dog-and-pony show with Carrier that had moved its manufacturing to Mexico, which didn't succeed. And he makes a very loud fuss over trade with NAFTA and China.
It gives the superficial appearance that he cared — and that speaks to the millions of Americans who have lost their job to offshoring, have a family member who has, or live in a town that has been impacted and hollowed out by offshoring.
People in white-collar professions are concerned about outsourcing. If you work in IT and you and your team gets sacked and replaced by a team in India or the Philippines being paid pennies, that's really humiliating.
The Democratic brand is garbage in wide swaths of the country, and this is the reason.
I mentioned in another comment that Democrats suck at storytelling.
Now, relatively few people read the parties' platform statements, but I think that these documents are representative of each party's communication culture because they pass through many critical hands and eyes.
The Republican platform pdf is shorter than 30 pages ad sticks to several bullet points per category.
Check out the Democratic platform pdf. It's 90 pages long and rambling.
You have strictly 1 minute for each document to figure out each party's economic platform. Go!
You've probably figured out what the Republicans' ideas for the economy are. But what are the Democrats'?
Some important people in the Democratic Party reviewed that PDF and said, yeah, this looks good.
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Comment on How Donald Trump won, and how Kamala Harris lost in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentI've been reading the NYT almost everyday for about 20 years, and they've been slinging constant shit at Trump for the past everyday for the past 8 years. -
Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentThere aren't enough college-educated urbanites. The Democrats depend on its coalition of largely working-class minorities — and the Republicans just figured out the code to breaking it. They're...There aren't enough college-educated urbanites. The Democrats depend on its coalition of largely working-class minorities — and the Republicans just figured out the code to breaking it. They're going to spend the next 4 years driving that wedge. The Democratic base is in critical danger.
If the Democrats double down on its left wing and don't figure out how to save its coalition, things are going to get worse.
Also: we have a growing Venezulean population in the US that'll eventually naturalize. Having fled a socialist government, they're going to be just like Cuban Americans: very reactionary against anything remotely "leftist".
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Comment on How Donald Trump won, and how Kamala Harris lost in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentIt's more that Republicans understood their audiences well and were able to craft narratives that made sense to the working class. Being right and making sense can be different (though ideally we...It's more that Republicans understood their audiences well and were able to craft narratives that made sense to the working class. Being right and making sense can be different (though ideally we hope that they're the same).
I think the takeaway for Democrats is: how do we start crafting narratives, stories that make sense to the working class? I thought our storytelling this election cycle was quite lackluster, and we allowed Republicans to tell our stories for us. Our stories were too high-minded, too abstract; the Republicans' were very concrete.
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Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentWe keep on living and make the best of it, but let's not kid ourselves: we'll be living diminished lives.We keep on living and make the best of it, but let's not kid ourselves: we'll be living diminished lives.
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Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentI think it'd be a very grave mistake to underestimate Vance. If anything, we must be afraid because he won't be a mere continuation of Trump. He's not your grandpa's Republican; he's the next-gen...I think it'd be a very grave mistake to underestimate Vance.
If anything, we must be afraid because he won't be a mere continuation of Trump. He's not your grandpa's Republican; he's the next-gen model and is the future of the GOP.
A future where the GOP is no longer a white American party but a racially diverse one that will have built a coalition with minorities through social conservatism in opposition to Democrats' social progressivism. Vance's own personal life is a reflection of that: he's married to an Indian-American woman and has mixed-race children.
The Democrats' "we're the party of inclusion and diversity" card is getting old; the Democrats need to find new cards to play. The GOP is moving from racism to nativism, as second and third-generation immigrants assimilate and view themselves as native.
My partner's family—super white, super rural, super Christian—is a racially blended family. His sister's (soon to be ex) husband is Kenyan, and her children are mixed-race, and they're all accepted by the rest of the family. My best friend's family—also super white, super rural, super Christian—has the same deal: various cousins have married people of color and have mixed-race kids, and their MAGA grandma loves them all.
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Comment on 2024 United States election megathread in ~society
EgoEimi LinkEven uber-liberal bastion San Francisco shifted rightwards. The Latino and Asian neighborhoods shifted up to 10 percentage points toward Trump. Chinatown voted 29.4% for Trump; Visitacion Valley...Even uber-liberal bastion San Francisco shifted rightwards. The Latino and Asian neighborhoods shifted up to 10 percentage points toward Trump. Chinatown voted 29.4% for Trump; Visitacion Valley at 34%; Outer Mission at 28.9%.
Four years ago, no San Francisco neighborhood gave over 24% of its votes to Trump. The increased Republican votes in more diverse neighborhoods mirror the country, where Latino voters for Trump increased by over 10 percentage points
This is a very worrying trend and it doesn't bode well for Democrats and social progressives.
The Democrats once banked on Latinos, America's fastest growing demographic, to buttress its base; this is backfiring. I think that once they're naturalized and become Americans, they find their interests—being generally working-class, very Christian, socially conservative—much more aligned with the Republican party than with the Democrats. Immigration policy is becoming less relevant to them: why should they care when they're already here?
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Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentBack in July I thought that JD Vance was "the right's Obama and the perfect foil to Trump", and other people dismissed him as a Thiel puppet. He's a kid who rose above his circumstances from a...JD Vance: Picking Vance was a base pick and a gamble, but it paid off handsomely I think. The base loves him and it made the non-full-out-crazies in the Trump camp feel like they were voting for something than against something. He was smart to be on a constant media blitz and to routinely go to adversarial settings; if you go into a room where everyone hates you, you only stand to gain.
Back in July I thought that JD Vance was "the right's Obama and the perfect foil to Trump", and other people dismissed him as a Thiel puppet.
He's a kid who rose above his circumstances from a poor hick family in opioid-ridden bumfuck, USA, to go to Yale Law School and helped his addict mom and rebuilt their relationship. He's basically a redneck Obama, and that story really sold.
His book Hillbilly Elegy sold as many copies (~3 million) as Obama's A Promised Land. And he's not even a former president.
JD Vance has weird ideas, but at least he has ideas.
He was smart to be on a constant media blitz and to routinely go to adversarial settings; if you go into a room where everyone hates you, you only stand to gain.
Agreed. The Republicans got their message, like it or not, out to everyone and on full volume. Vance went on CNN, NBC, NYT... everywhere.
I think it was a mistake for Harris and Walz to largely stay in friendly territory. I thought Harris' final campaign stop to hang out with Maya Rudolph on SNL added literally nothing to her campaign. She should've done long interviews and argued her case on conservative talk shows and podcasts directly to the people her message struggles to reach unmediated. Her snubbing of Joe Rogan—sure he's a conspiratorial asshole but he literally has the #1 podcast; his interview with Trump got 47 million views on Youtube alone—was a mistake.
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Comment on 2024 United States election megathread in ~society
EgoEimi Link ParentI think the opportunity to clear student debt was politically risky: it alienates tens of millions of Americans who did pay off their own loans. Of course, college is so much more expensive these...I think the opportunity to clear student debt was politically risky: it alienates tens of millions of Americans who did pay off their own loans. Of course, college is so much more expensive these days, but it's about the optics. As for the other issues, Biden walked the tightrope because there was so much more to lose were he to miscalculate.
But I do agree that he should have done something popular and bold. He should've sided with the railworkers, even if it didn't make economic sense — because he could've made it a political melodrama that could've left the Republicans without good moves to respond.
Because politics is a reality TV show, which is one thing that reality TV star Trump astutely understands.
In retrospect: he should've gotten Democratic lawmakers to haul rail companies' CEOs into congressional hearings for over-the-top witch trials. When prices started to rise and store shelves emptied out and the US economy began to crater, he should've laid the blame on rail companies: he should've held rallies (unconventional for a sitting president, but people love to see someone in-person angry and up in arms) and orchestrated the Democratic Party to use any means possible—ads, talk shows, you name it—to make boogeymen of the rail companies.
As long as their messaging got ahead of and was stronger than the Republicans', it could've been political checkmate against the Republicans: the R's couldn't argue for siding with the rail companies.
They forgot the popular vote means doing popular things occasionally. And things that are popular to everyone, not just those in your circle. The culture war was a trap democrats walked into and told every American to suck it up and worry about these issues important to subsets of already blue states (I'm not saying they're not important issues with serious outcomes for many people, but it doesn't apply to 50% of the electorate).
Agreed. We're in a climate where many Americans are foremost concerned about rapidly rising housing, energy, and consumer costs.
Every time Democrats chose to fight Republicans on niche culture issues, it alienated economically struggling Americans who don't feel strongly about them. I think I've seen more articles about the political battle over trans athletes than there are actual trans athletes in the US. I'm for trans rights, words that I'm aware seem hollow here, but these niche culture war issues were a political Napoleonic march to Moscow: the Republicans successfully egged on the Democrats to way over-expend their political capital, energy, and messaging bandwidth on issues that made them appear unaligned with voters' priorities.
As mentioned, the Democratic Party holds a tenuous coalition between social liberals and socially conservative minorities. It could push cultural issues when times were good and it had a lot of political capital. But I think it was a strategic mistake to push cultural issues during economically challenging times when it needed to conserve its political capital to win the messaging war on the economy and fighting corporate power.
I think that as an exercise of empathy, such statements could be reformulated for one's own careers.
For educators: "if teaching pays little and isn't respected, why not retrain for a green job?" which doesn't really address the concerns of pay, respect, administrative support, classroom discipline, bureaucracy, etc.
For tech workers: "if tech companies are laying off people, why not retrain as a plumber or electrician?" which is kinda fair because it's oversaturated, but it doesn't address concerns around instability, lack of workers' rights, outsourcing and offshoring, lack of respect from employers (an AI could do your job for cents! This team of questionably-credentialed Indian and Filipino IT workers can do your job for cents!), etc.
For communities whose entire raisons d'être revolved around certain industries, there is a certain indignity in being told that they're deprecated and irrelevant by extension of their deprecated, irrelevant industries.