• 3 Posts
  • 89 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 4th, 2023
  • loopedcandle@lemmynsfw.comtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•If you are a Libertarian and hold liberty as your core value, why do you not believe in universal healthcare? Nothing impacts liberty more than sickness and death.English
    76·
    6 months ago

    I am libertarian-ish, but generally don’t like all the loud libertarian nuts (I register Dem and vote Dem because the things I care about aren’t represented anywhere on the ballot anymore).

    For me, it comes to a very simple economics truism: Governments are pretty damn inefficient and tend to waste a lot of money because of the process and bureaucracy. Markets on the other hand, tend to be really efficient at allocating capital when left alone. The times a government should step in is when the market has created a form of externality that breaks things. The old economics example is the people downstream from a chemical plant are paying the price for the plant’s pollution.

    From a libertarian lens:

    • The government should negotiate SPH b.c. it’s obvious that markets failed and we’d all be better off (spend less money) if everyone had healthcare.
    • The government should stay out of people’s bedrooms and love lives, it has no business there.
    • The government should use UBI and then eliminate every other deduction, and tax break, and subsidy (Social Sec, . The office running UBI could be one guy sending checks out once a month (exaggerated obvi)

    Unfortunately the things I’d like to see from a libertarian don’t actually show up.

  • loopedcandle@lemmynsfw.comtoNews@lemmy.world•U.S. University Did Something Crazy: Listened to Student Protesters Instead of Calling the Cops on ThemEnglish
    14·
    6 months ago

    Ok I. The interest of an honest conversation these are my thoughts:

    • I haven’t seen any reports of beatings during the arrests. Can you send me something if you saw that? Were there brutalizations taking place? If so, you’re absolutely right.
    • I have no problem with the protest, but I do think there is a line between protest and vandalism/rioting. I went to the NYC MeToo marches and a protest in DC against the US in Iraq when I was younger, causing material damage is just not what you do. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/campus-protests-live-updates-students-occupy-columbia-university-rcna149926
    • Looking at the pictures of the baracades and furniture, doesn’t Columbia have an obligation to disperse a situation that is becoming dangerous? Isn’t that one of the police’s jobs?
    • I haven’t been in a situation like that, but I’m pretty sure the police officer in that situation can’t tell the difference between a Nazi and not a Nazi. And they might not self identify. I’m guessing things are getting heated. I read somewhere (sorry I don’t have a source on this either) that the students were let off with a misdemeanor of trespassing, and the identified external agitators were charged with more. Then the students freely went back to protesting. I’m going to reiterate, b.c. this is the internet, I would be protesting Israel too if I were a bit younger. My issue is with the way the story was reported.
  • loopedcandle@lemmynsfw.comtoNews@lemmy.world•U.S. University Did Something Crazy: Listened to Student Protesters Instead of Calling the Cops on ThemEnglish
    727·
    6 months ago

    Ok listen, I’m all in favor of Israel knocking it the f*ck off and students protesting, but this article is written with a very specific skew.

    Last week, Columbia University summoned an army of heavily armed, riot gear-clad police officers to attack its own students for peacefully protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and the university’s financial ties to Israel.

    Couple of notes here.

    • It has evolved to a non peaceful protest. Some neo-nazi assholes were physically engaging with Jewish students. That’s not cool.
    • A good number of nom-students showed up and we’re the ones causing the problems.
    • Columbia called the local police to disperse a situation that was getting unsafe fast, because a university isn’t really qualified to do that. Which is the right call IMO. It’s the NYPD that choose riot gear.

    Should it have been handled differently? Yes. Was the school dumb? Yes. We really don’t need this slanted BS news to see that.

    This is some of the quotes from a Newsweek article:

    One video posted on X, formerly Twitter, showed a masked protester outside the university’s gates appearing to chant: “Go back to Poland!”

    Another video showed a man telling Jewish students outside the campus gates that “the 7th of October is going to be every day for you.”