koopa's recent activity

  1. Comment on US President Donald Trump announces 25% tariffs against Canada, Mexico starting Tuesday; 10% against China in ~society

    koopa
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    And the Wall Street Journal is calling it the “Dumbest Trade War in History”.

    And the Wall Street Journal is calling it the “Dumbest Trade War in History”.

    9 votes
  2. Comment on Is there a reason that we aren't seeing pushback to US President Donald Trump's blitzkreig? in ~society

    koopa
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    There has been some amount of pushback, courts have already blocked multiple unconstitutional executive orders. The funding freeze got pulled back because the message “Trump is taking food out of...

    There has been some amount of pushback, courts have already blocked multiple unconstitutional executive orders.

    The funding freeze got pulled back because the message “Trump is taking food out of the mouths of babies, seniors, and veterans” is one that cuts through to the public. The public doesn’t care if he is technically breaking a bunch of laws firing inspector generals etc. That’s the kind of stuff that requires other institutions to push back on.

    But fundamentally Democrats have no institutional power at this point. Add on the fact that MAGA/Trump are using primaries in gerrymandered districts to hold the Republican Party hostage. And you have a recipe for little pushback from congress while they hold the majority (at least for public pushback).

    Ultimately something more dramatic would need to happen to spark public backlash but the mass chaos stops any one thing from becoming the main thing. There’s a new outrage every day, a bunch get blocked by the courts, a bunch don’t. It all just becomes background noise.

    It is also true that any kind of pushback just takes longer than the two weeks he’s been back in power. The Watergate scandal played out over years and that was at a time of much lower partisanship than today.

    11 votes
  3. Comment on AI is creating a generation of illiterate programmers in ~tech

    koopa
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    This discourse always reminds me of Socrates’ thoughts on the potential harms of writing. He wasn’t exactly wrong either, look at how certain religious texts have been twisted and used to control...

    This discourse always reminds me of Socrates’ thoughts on the potential harms of writing.

    In the Phaedrus, Plato quotes Socrates as follows: "If men learn this [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks." Books, "by telling them of many things without teaching them" will make students "seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows. Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone who takes it over from him, on the supposition that such writing will provide something reliable and permanent, must be exceedingly simple-minded."

    He wasn’t exactly wrong either, look at how certain religious texts have been twisted and used to control the “simple-minded”. But just because his fears were correct in some ways, doesn’t mean it’s all downside or even that the downside you can see will be worse than the potential upside.

    So I don’t really disagree that some people will become overly reliant on AI, but I don’t think that tells the whole story of what the future will be.

    12 votes
  4. Comment on Is the United States in its Soviet Union era? in ~society

    koopa
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    I really don’t see a Soviet style collapse coming at all. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with American economy or society at large other than social media powered rage. The US is still the...

    I really don’t see a Soviet style collapse coming at all. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with American economy or society at large other than social media powered rage. The US is still the richest country on earth and its only real economic problems are too much government debt. But that’s the kind of thing that takes a long time to become an issue and pretty much all the other rich democracies are in worse debt situations.

    Trump is a bad guy and a worse president but I would look towards the way authoritarianism has succeeded in the American system in the past for answers rather than the Soviet collapse. I think things like segregation, Jim Crow, the Chinese Exclusion Act etc are much more along the lines of what we would see in a potential breakdown of American liberal democracy. And we should look for guidance from the history of abolitionism, desegregation, and other anti-fascism traditions in America that ultimately won out in the past.

    46 votes
  5. Comment on Visitor visa for staying in Canada while waiting for spousal visa? in ~life

    koopa
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    My wife did the opposite move from Canada to the US so I am very familiar with US immigration law but not the other way around. I would try to find a dedicated immigration forum like visajourney...

    My wife did the opposite move from Canada to the US so I am very familiar with US immigration law but not the other way around.

    I would try to find a dedicated immigration forum like visajourney but for Canada. They will know more about what the rules are and what you can/cannot get away with.

    My wife and I had to spend years apart while her visa processed, as you generally will not be let into the US for visa free travel if you have an application for a permanent visa pending. Canada could handle things differently, but if they are allowed to stay in Canada while the visa processes they likely will not be able to leave the country while that process plays out.

    6 votes
  6. Comment on US President Donald Trump to make historic move towards revoking birthright citizenship in ~society

    koopa
    Link Parent
    If you ignore Mexico and about every country in South America… Pretty much every country in North and South America has birthright citizenship.

    Most countries don't have it outside the US and Canada.

    If you ignore Mexico and about every country in South America…

    Pretty much every country in North and South America has birthright citizenship.

    20 votes
  7. Comment on TikTok is coming back online after US President-elect Donald Trump pledged to restore it in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    There has been some pushback from a couple of Republican senators today. https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/19/24347280/tiktok-ban-shutdown-ends

    There has been some pushback from a couple of Republican senators today.

    Trump and TikTok are receiving pushback on their attempt to skirt the ban, though. Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts put out a joint statement Sunday morning saying there was “no legal basis” to extend the ban’s effective date beyond January 19th while praising Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for pulling the app from their stores. Both senators had called “some of the major tech companies in recent days to say they needed to comply with the law,” according to The New York Times.

    https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/19/24347280/tiktok-ban-shutdown-ends

    11 votes
  8. Comment on US Supreme Court unanimously backs law banning TikTok if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    Chaos gets blamed on the incumbent by the public at large regardless of who’s fault it factually is. Biden took the backlash for the chaotic Afghanistan pullout regardless of the fact that the...

    Chaos gets blamed on the incumbent by the public at large regardless of who’s fault it factually is.

    Biden took the backlash for the chaotic Afghanistan pullout regardless of the fact that the withdraw deal was negotiated and signed by Trump.

    Places with BLM protests had increased democratic vote share

    If the CCP understands anything, it’s the danger of mass protests to incumbent power.

    3 votes
  9. Comment on US Supreme Court unanimously backs law banning TikTok if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    Not if they’re attempting to put their thumb on the scale for the incumbent president in an election year.

    Not if they’re attempting to put their thumb on the scale for the incumbent president in an election year.

    3 votes
  10. Comment on US Supreme Court unanimously backs law banning TikTok if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    Because China is a power actively hostile to the United States and global democracy generally. Loudly pledging support for Russia in their invasion of Ukraine and proclaiming their intent to...

    Yes, and that's an ethical issue. How is that a national security issue?

    Because China is a power actively hostile to the United States and global democracy generally. Loudly pledging support for Russia in their invasion of Ukraine and proclaiming their intent to invade and conquer Taiwan in the next decade. China’s invasion of Taiwan will spark war with the United States. If you game theory out their best chances of success for invasion, they will preemptively bomb American military bases in Japan and Guam at the same time they launch their invasion.

    Nothing you are complaining about it actively supported or directed by the United States government. The Biden administration is opposed to everything you are complaining about but they didn’t go in and ban Fox News or block Musk’s ownership of Twitter because the US is a strong constitutional democracy. And China is trying to exploit our values of free speech and debate for their own malicious ends.

    China has banned American social media in China for over a decade. The CCP by law has a golden controlling share on ByteDance’s board to directly assert its control. These situations are not the same.

    6 votes
  11. Comment on US Supreme Court unanimously backs law banning TikTok if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    There is plenty of evidence that TikTok is manipulating the visibility of videos on political topics sensitive to the CCP TikTok has censored #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd, blocked a teenager...

    There is plenty of evidence that TikTok is manipulating the visibility of videos on political topics sensitive to the CCP

    TikTok has censored #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd, blocked a teenager discussing China’s genocide in Xinjiang, and blocked a video of Tank Man. The Guardian published TikTok guidelines that censored Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, and the Falun Gong. TikTok also censored the Hong Kong protests and even hid highlights of the Houston Rockets basketball team when the general manager tweeted support for the protests.

    11 votes
  12. Comment on US Supreme Court unanimously backs law banning TikTok if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    To be clear not just any foreign entity, only specifically controlled by China, North Korea or, Iran. And must have at least 1 million American users.

    OR a social media service owned by a foreign entity that the president under his discretion considers a national security threat.

    To be clear not just any foreign entity, only specifically controlled by China, North Korea or, Iran. And must have at least 1 million American users.

    7 votes
  13. Comment on In praise of California. It has its flaws — what place doesn’t? — but it plays a big role in America’s greatness. in ~society

    koopa
    Link Parent
    Not only is change slow but every step forward always comes with a backlash.

    Not only is change slow but every step forward always comes with a backlash.

    5 votes
  14. Comment on Any real AI recommendations from the community? in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    The amount of training data available for your tech stack definitely influences how good your output is. Typescript/React is pretty easy to get decent output out of the best models. But when I’ve...

    The amount of training data available for your tech stack definitely influences how good your output is. Typescript/React is pretty easy to get decent output out of the best models.

    But when I’ve tried to use anything more obscure like GDscript (Godot game engine’s scripting language) I mostly get garbage.

    8 votes
  15. Comment on TikTok says it plans to shut down site for US unless Supreme Court strikes down law forcing it to sell in ~tech

    koopa
    Link Parent
    And it’s not like Trump is a reliable actor in general but also on this specific issue. He issued an executive order to try to ban TikTok in his first term. By not following the law you’re...

    And it’s not like Trump is a reliable actor in general but also on this specific issue. He issued an executive order to try to ban TikTok in his first term.

    By not following the law you’re essentially handing over blackmail that Trump could use against you the next time he’s mad at Google etc. “Stop doing this other unrelated thing or we’ll start enforcing the TikTok ban law” is not the place you want to be.

    7 votes
  16. Comment on Tencent designated as a Chinese military company by US in ~tech

    koopa
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    Important context in terms of what this designation actually does (not much)

    The designation itself does not carry any legal consequences such as sanctions, but inclusion on the list is not ideal for companies looking to conduct business in the United States.

    Important context in terms of what this designation actually does (not much)

    17 votes
  17. Comment on US Republicans introduce constitutional amendment to impose term limits in ~society

    koopa
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Many states such as California have tried term limits on their legislature which achieved little of the desired effect and instead ended up weakening the power of the legislature to the deference...

    Many states such as California have tried term limits on their legislature which achieved little of the desired effect and instead ended up weakening the power of the legislature to the deference of governors and lobbyists. So if you want a more powerful presidency and more influential lobbyists then sure add term limits to Congress, but I don’t think that’s the outcome people are hoping for. https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/do-political-term-limits-work-387692/

    If you want more democratic results in the US you’d be far better served by increasing the size of the House of Representatives or if you’re going to go through the trouble of a constitutional amendment, abolishing the senate completely.

    10 votes
  18. Comment on CES 2025 in ~tech

  19. Comment on A deadly accident has Hawaii officials pleading for an end to amateur fireworks shows [three killed, twenty injured] in ~society

    koopa
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    Fireworks are seriously getting out of hand. My neighborhood has a common lawn across houses with front doors facing each other. One of our neighbors decided this year on New Years that shooting...

    Fireworks are seriously getting out of hand.

    My neighborhood has a common lawn across houses with front doors facing each other. One of our neighbors decided this year on New Years that shooting fireworks into the sky in the middle of everyone’s houses was a great idea. This ended up with fireworks flying around for hours, shooting to hit my front window with dead flammable bushes in front of it. As I finally went out to confront them I saw them accidentally shooting one into their open front door and smoking up the entire place as they panicked to put the fire out.

    A couple years ago I also called in a fire started by teenagers doing fireworks at the base of a small mountain that had set the entire mountainside on fire before firefighters could arrive.

    I’m not sure if I’d say ban all fireworks, but I sure wouldn’t stand up against it.

    20 votes
  20. Comment on Poll results show the percentage supporting the position 'let them burn' regarding American institutions in ~society

    koopa
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    This is a strange headline to write when 80% of people in this poll disagree with the statement. Honestly from the headline here I thought it would’ve been much higher. But strongly disagree got...

    This is a strange headline to write when 80% of people in this poll disagree with the statement.

    Honestly from the headline here I thought it would’ve been much higher. But strongly disagree got both the majority support and more than 10x support than the small 5% that said strongly agree.

    But nobody is going to click on an article that says “The supermajority of Americans do not want to burn down their institutions” so I guess they got me.

    10 votes