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At the same time though I do identify
with non-political groups with fuzzy boundaries, so why not political groups as well?

One obvious difference is that identifying with non-political groups invites far less controversy. But I think the more fundamental difference is the presence/lack of "central"/"typical" instances/characteristics. At least for the sociopolitical groups I can think of, it's hard for me to pick these out because the groups are so broad with many factions.

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"All in All, Another Brick in the Motte"

slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/

"[The motte-and-bailey fallacy] draws its strength from people's usual failure to debate specific propositions rather than vague clouds of ideas."

This isn't even the main point of the essay but it succinctly captures something I've noticed for a long time, and it's basically why I can't really align myself with any broad sociopolitical (?) movement.

"I don’t like Kiwi Farms at all... But as loath as I may be to say it, Kiwi Farms is far more harmless than their enemies on Twitter and in the media would have you believe. They are the simple side of this battle. Keffals, on the other hand…"

"Suicide-by-Kiwi-Farms." by Taylor Stuckey in Default Wisdom defaultfriend.substack.com/p/s

"The core message I'm going for is that 'universal' debt forgiveness is not universal. It benefits people who took out student loans at the expense of everyone who didn't take out student loans, privileging a class who are disproportionately likely to be privileged and telling the rest to suck it up and be happy for them."

"Anger At Student Loan Cancellation Is Justified" by TracingWoodgrains tracingwoodgrains.substack.com

It's days like these I'm actually glad I don't actively check my Twitter feed.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that I'm definitely not ardently progressive or leftist. And sometimes I wonder how my my moderate positions would be taken in some circles. (I can honestly imagine people picking apart my post about the SCOTUS ruling in Dobbs because I said was only "cautiously" pessimistic about its ramifications.)

"Clear communication is difficult... I am only sometimes good at it, but a major piece of what makes me sometimes good at it is described below in concrete and straightforward terms."

"Ruling Out Everything Else" by Duncan_Sabien on Less Wrong lesswrong.com/posts/57sq9qA3wu

I've been trying to write something with my thoughts about COVID-19 safety policies (mainly inspired by the the debates I witnessed around the policies for fan conventions I'm attending this year, but applicable more broadly) but it always just feels like a disjointed collection of thoughts on disparate issues.

US politics 

Watching the reaction to ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturning and I'll say I'm cautiously pessimistic about the ramifications. Also watching what comes of Justice Thomas's concurrence re other major decisions that may be reconsidered.

Next step would be of course to campaign against restrictive state laws prohibiting esp. provisions prohibiting travel to other states for abortions (or federal legislation preventing this?).

"Internet 'algospeak' is changing our language in real time, from 'nip nops' to ‘le dollar bean'" by Taylor Lorenz in the Washington Post washingtonpost.com/technology/

To be fair, Orac does acknowledge the possibility as part of a comment: "I suppose it’s theoretically possible to be provaccine but antimandate, but I’m struggling to recall the last time that I’ve encountered one." Which is basically the same as how I feel.

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It's not because I agree with that libertarian sort of position, but rather because I think there needs to be a genuine political debate informed by the science, not a scientific debate in a political arena.

Also, it means one side can claim to be "pro-science" and advocate for particular policies under that banner, while portraying other policies as "anti-science," even though the disagreement is (or ought to be) a political one.

Same thing happens with climate change.

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"How to identify most antivaxxers with a simple question" by Orac in Respectful Insolence respectfulinsolence.com/2022/0

Good post but the header image (with a person holding a sign reading, "I'm not Anti-Vaccine; I'm anti-Mandate") bothers me, because I genuinely wish the position of, "Vaccines are generally good and you should get them unless you have a medical condition that precludes it, but they shouldn't be mandated," was more prominent.

"My first impressions of web3" by Moxie Marlinspike moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-firs

"People don’t want to run their own servers, and never will." I think this is a fundamental principle to keep in mind when trying to create decentralized systems on the Internet.

I previously expressed annoyance at the fact that Linktree, a site for creating a Web page with links to other sites, exists as a commercial service ( qoto.org/@collectedoverspread/ ) but I recognize that this is just that principle at work. Still, it still bothers me how even simple things are now being placed on other people's servers because of this.

Targeted advertising based on online behavior doesn’t just hurt privacy. It also contributes to a range of other harms. eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/ban-

"You really couldn't ask for a better encapsulation of the NFT bezzle: buy an NFT to 'flex' and 'show off you can afford to pay that much.' Ignore the intrinsic value or satisfaction of the underlying work. You're doing this for 'clout.'"

"Right-Clicker-Mentality" by Cory Doctorow pluralistic.net/2021/11/08/tin

Science can inform public policy but it doesn't determine it.

The Twitter account for is suspended but it seems like they're still minting tokens under the original contract: 0x7EE256bdEe18870320666bB61dD3c33C64025c78 on the Polygon PoS chain ( polygonscan.com/address/0x7EE2 )

(Confirmed this contract address through this archived tweet: web.archive.org/web/2021031004 )

Latest transaction at time of writing is 0x71a221241e0bfe242c20213a0da30a0314ce0f57e0d9e06b4e3982fa67e2754a ( polygonscan.com/tx/0x71a221241 )

Sender is 0xFc336c125085F20958d4caa62963e2C693242D43 which appears to be the same address that originally created the contract.

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