What if Isaac Newton Had Discovered Electrical Conductivity?

Electrical conductivity was discovered in 1729. What if Isaac Newton had discovered it six decades earlier? Could he have combined it with his researches in alchemy to discover electrochemistry? Would the development of electrical and electronic devices have been accelerated by six decades or more?

Another Effect of the Chinese Government vs. Hong Kong

Earlier this month, the Chinese government pressured a gaming company to suspend a pro gamer who spoke out on the Hong Kong side of the recent controversy. I suspect that might have made free speech respectable again. Now, when you're pro-free-speech, you are on the side of Hong Kong and not merely on the side of seven zillion witches. That might even be responsible for Mark Zuckerberg defending free expression.

A Problem … and a Solution

We have a problem. For some reason, younger voters tend to favor left-wing policies.

My best guess that it that's due to left-wing teachers in high school (or possibly earlier). I doubt if it's due to immigration. Immigrants just try to fit in … and their children's teachers tell them how to do it.

To make matters worse, the Left blames any resistance on “white” racism and actual “white” racists (unless they're false flags) are taking advantage of it. (I try to remember to put quotes around “white” when used in this context.) We need a way to get right-wing voters who have nothing to do with “white” racism.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, we have hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against Communism. The Chinese Communist government will probably crack down some time. So… the US might have the opportunity to import a million voters who hate Communism.

One possible problem is that the current President might not agree to this. On the other hand, any such reluctance on his part might get Republicans to go along with the current impeachment effort.

This will also make it possible to distinguish between racists and conservatives. Real conservatives will either be in favor of this or will have reasonable objections (the Chinese Communists will almost certainly have some agents among the refugees). The racists will oppose this.

Once we have enough conservatives who are clearly not “white” racists, other groups (for example, anti-environmentalist Mexicans) may also start voting right wing.

The big problem with all of this is that it requires lots of events to go right. That tends to be unlikely.

The Left Thinks the Right Struck First

One reason the Left is so eager to impose their opinions is that, in some sectors, the Right struck first, sometimes without realizing it. For example, one characterization of moderates is that they might claim:

If conservatives use the power of the state to end drag-queen story time in public libraries, what will stop progressives from using the power of the state to end prayer in public schools?

In this case, prayer in public schools was an earlier example of imposing opinions.

Similarly, the current proposals to classify those social media that censor the “alt-right” as publishers (and therefore legally responsible for anything illegal on their sites) is a matter of repealing earlier laws that made it for social media to censor pornography without being classified as publishers. Leftists believe “You said our stuff was obscene? Okay, we say your stuff is obscene!“

In Addition to a Pride March

If there was a Pride March, should there be marches for other sins?

A Greed March on Wall Street, a Wrath March in either Portland or Charlottesville, an Envy March through gentrifying neighborhoods, a Gluttony March past four-star restaurants…

Three decades ago, the Lust March would have been at Times Square. Today it should be held in Hollywood.

The Sloth March would be cancelled because the marchers couldn't be bothered to show up.

A Few Notes on Social-Network Regulation

Many conservatives think the answer to possible censorship by social networks is to bust them up. I disagree for the following reasons:

1. We are winning on the two most important fronts.
   For some reason, many conservatives have actually been convinced by left-wing gloating and think they lost the “culture war.” The two most important parts of that war are abortion and guns. In the real world, poll results on approval of abortion have not budged in decades and the abortion rate has been declining. Support for gun-control laws has been declining along with the crime rate.
2. The problem is going away.
   The problem of censorship by social networks, to the extent it exists, is made possible by their monopolistic nature. On the other hand, the Left is also convinced they face a problem of potential censorship by capitalists and they're putting together alternatives such as Mastodon. They're already faced with the fact that people they don't like can use it.
3. Vertical integration is good.
   Breaking up the social networks and keeping them out of web browsers, etc., is a common recommendation. On the other hand, that can backfire. If different organizations control different layers, the censors only have to block one of the layers and they can pick the weakest.
4. Net neutrality is still a bad idea.
   First, the commonest justification (that the social networks are platforms instead of publishers) only means that they're immune from lawsuits that should not exist in the first place. Second, in LeftWorld, the rights to trespass on someone else's private property and to force people to pay to propagate opinions they don't hold are First-Amendment rights. I suspect that the right to shout down opinions you don't like will soon be regarded as a right and any attempt by a social network to deal the DDOS from the Left will be a violation of net neutrality.
5. Last, but not least: You cannot use the Ring!

A Theory about Left vs. Right, Part II

A few years ago, I posted that:

The Left wants to break down barriers between places and put up barriers between times. The Right wants to break down barriers between times and put up barriers between places.

In case you were confused about what is meant by “barriers between times,” the meaning is spelled out in Martin Hägglund's philosophy.

Mastodon Update

In addition to Mathstodon, I am also on Liberdon.

Dreams of Utopia

According to H. G. Wells:

Hitherto a social consciousness had been asleep and not even dreaming in human history. Before it awakened it produced nightmares.

Did you ever dream you woke up and were starting the day … and then abruptly realized you were still in bed?

It's Not the Stone Age Any More

The latest excuse for anti-immigration hysteria is that there's genetic evidence for many examples of one population's males replacing another population's males (typical example here). I can think of several counter arguments.

1. It's not the Stone Age any more. It's not even the Bronze Age. This sort of “kill the men and rape the women” warfare has been much rarer since the spread of iron weapons.
2. Many of the people propounding this theory appear to be on the Right wing … but are ignoring the anti-gun control implications of their ideas.
3. Binational states are notoriously unstable. Sometimes you can get away with bribing the leaders of the minority side but that's rare. Multinational states are more likely to be stable. Back during the invasions in question, we saw two ethnic groups interacting at a time.
4. We also see a similar pattern in a population that was not in a position to do much slaughtering.

One final comment: This is why you must not ignore racists. If you ignore or “no-platform” them, they will spread their ideas anyway but you won't hear of them until some nutcase shoots a few dozen people. If you listen to them, they can be refuted.

Immigration Costs and Global Warming Costs

Meanwhile, in the real world (according to a conservative who's trying to beat the Left at the self-congratulation game), Non-Western immigrants consume 59% of Denmark’s tax surplus. That sounds like they're saying “OMG, the Third-World hordes are eating 59% of our taxes!” but it's actually something marginal. Some people believe the horrifying apparent implication.

The really interesting point is that the actual amount is $2 per Dane per day. (For Americans, it's around $1 per American per day. Those figures are of the same order of magnitude as the estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon.

I won't more than mention that the costs of educating the second generation are compared to the taxes paid by the first generation in these calculations instead of to the estimated taxes that will be paid by the second generation. (The second generation usually earns more and pays more taxes.)

A Note on the Covington Controversy

Those of you who haven't forgotten about it by now may recall that many of us Never-Trump conservatives were a little too quick to jump on the bandwagon. I think I have an explanation for this.

Attending a pro-life rally wearing a MAGA hat does not make that much sense. On the one hand, the pro-life movement is based on defending the rights of Potential Americans (I believe they are real human beings, but that they are only potentially American since they have been neither born nor naturalized.) On the other hand, part of the MAGA movement is a matter of keeping Potential Americans away. The combination might be based on one of two possibilities: 1) The MAGA-hat-wearing pro-lifers were wearing the hats to annoy the Other Side; 2) they simply hadn't thought through the implications of their ideologies.

The early reports seemed to indicate the first … which is not a very good tactic. Of course, may of us criticized what it appeared to be … and apologized when a more complete video emerged.

Another reason for the early condemnations was that, even if the early reports were wrong, a condemnation could be retracted the next day and then forgotten about. A retraction may even make you look better to swing voters. For that matter, if an early condemnation makes the right-wing base angrier, that might help turnout. In the other direction, a lack of condemnation may increase left-wing turnout.