#increment policy

[mylittleredgirl]

this one’s for the aging tumblr userbase: what’s your least favorite bit of corporate jargon? not the worst corporate concept, just the particular string of PowerPoint®️ Presentation words that makes you want to depart your own skin whenever you hear it

mine’s “drip plan”

[townpostin]

Government Seeks More Time to Address Teachers' Demands

Assistant teachers may protest again as the government requests another week for deliberations. The government asked for another week to address teachers’ demands, with potential protests on the horizon. JAMSHEDPUR – The government seeks another week to resolve teachers’ demands, with future protests looming. In a meeting with Education Minister Baijnath Ram, representatives of assistant teachers…

[txttletale]

hey everybody. we're glad everyone's been enjoying politics! to keep things interesting and keep the meta balanced we'll be implementing these new ideologies in 2024:

peronism with chinese characteristics

twitch streamer philosopher kingship

absolute military junta (sortition-based)

hunnic nationalism

anarcho-sharia

marxism-leninism-maoism-klobucharism (primarily klobucharism)

three chinas policy

antitranshumanist trans humanism

puppygirl rights activism

representative shogunate

pan-midwesternism

tetsuya yamagami thought

liberal arts college technate

discordian-thelemite lebanon-style religious powersharing

armed insurrectionary incremental reformism

narcotheocracy

sex-positive feudalism

social democratic taliban entryism

badism-worseism

believing in judeo-bolshevism but thinking it was a good thing

ineffective altruism

[ntrlily]

Every time I explain why periodic password expiration is not just a useless cybersecurity policy but in fact an actively bad one, because it encourages bad practices (writing down passwords, using repetitive or otherwise weak passwords, incrementing the same password because how the fuck are you supposed to constantly learn new passwords that fit regs, etc) someone goes "Oh yeah my work makes us cycle passwords so I do this specific bad practice to keep track of mine" it's scary out there

[sybbi]

Like. It just doesn't seem like enough. Idk, I know this is a case of pie-in-the-sky, trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube wishful thinking, but I do genuinely believe that, at least in extremely populated and developed areas like Southern California, not everybody should have the right to a car.

And I know changing it so that not every individual would need access to a car is such a major overhaul of American society and culture in itself that would not be achievable without years of work and policy changes and tons of funding, but. Come the fuck on.

How many millions or billions of dollars does the state spend maintaining existing roads and bridges, and building more out as the sprawl expands, as more houses and apartments (which are still too few to meet demand) are added and our car-centric culture demands more of the space that's so highly in demand for vehicles that, point blank, not everybody should own?

The initial investment is no joke, but how much cheaper to society would it be over time to devote resources to functional public transport, like a mix of trains and buses (or fuck it, even streetcars)? Less maintenance for wider and wider roadways, less wear and tear on bridges? Fewer public resources devoted to accidents, car fires, or the resulting wildfires FROM car fires and/or the climate change sped on by the sheer amount of vehicles along routes that could be turned into a higher-capacity, more fuel-efficient railway? Less smog, fewer accidents, less of a burden on the healthcare system? Less of a burden on the average person who would no longer need to worry about getting a license, financing a vehicle, insuring said vehicle, registering it, gassing it up and maintaining it? More space for pedestrians and housing?

Idk. Idk. I'm rambling and this is not well organized or thought out and has been said better by others but. I don't think even if we did a 1:1 conversion of all gas vehicles on the road to electric vehicles it would solve the issue of over consumption, which also contributes to climate change. I think in highly developed areas AT LEAST, it should be the duty of the local government(s) to say no, we're not giving any more space to individual vehicles, not every adult in every household needs a vehicle, use this functional public transport system instead.

There's something funny about getting a smog check for your car done the same day the sun is blotted out by wildfire smoke and it's literally raining ash.

[komsomolka]

Democracy promotion became a central objective of US foreign policy since Woodrow Wilson declared it as an objective for joining the First World War. The US had previously defined its morality as avoiding entanglements in destructive European wars. However, President Woodrow Wilson ran a powerful propaganda initiative to depict the war as Right versus Wrong. Wilson’s Committee on Public Information was an agency to create support for the US in the war. The objective of the Committee on Public Information was to convince Americans that their enemy was a regime and an ideology rather than a people and an army, and if democracy was defeated in Europe then democracy would be endangered everywhere (Taylor, 2003: 184). Wilson thus introduced a significant shift in the role of US democracy, from the passive posture to be emulated, to taking on an active missionary duty. [...]

There was some resistance towards clothing US policies in the language of democracy and human rights as it could end up constraining US policies. George Humphrey, the Treasury Secretary during the Eisenhower administration, opined: “We should stop talking so much about democracy, and make it clear that we are quite willing to support dictatorships of the right if their policies are pro-American” (Streeter, 2000: 33). Henry Kissinger famously attempted to reassert the realist foundation in US policies by stating “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”.

The rivalry of the Cold War featured two ideologies with competing concepts of universal values of human freedom. Early on in the Cold War, the US shifted some focus from capitalism to democracy in response to the negative associations with capitalism even though several states in the capitalist camp were dictatorships (Gaddis, 2006). The focus on democracy, human rights, aid and economic development presented a Universalist appeal to the wider world under US leadership. [...]

The West attempted to establisha values-based international system after the Second World War. However, the Soviet leadership was concerned that the West would merely use human rights as a weapon for interference into the domestic affairs of the Soviet Union to weaken an adversary. In December 1948, the Soviet Union abstained as UN members signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). [...]

It was important for the US to present the democratic and capitalist ideals it championed as universal values, as opposed to exporting Western values and institutions as a continuation of colonialism. The spread of capitalism, democracy and human rights was initially presented openly as a strategic political weapon, although incrementally it was expressed more as apolitical values that the West had a moral obligation to promote in the name of human freedoms. Policies were deemed more moral and thus efficient when they were seen as rooted in benign and universal ideals. Language and actions thus diverge as the increased moral justification increased the ability to manoeuvre in pursuit of national interests.

Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics by Glenn Diesen.

[collapsedsquid]

Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature. The policy prevents the NSF, one of the world’s biggest supporters of basic research, from awarding new research grants and from supplying allotted funds for existing grants, such as those that receive yearly increments of money. The email does not provide a reason for the freeze and says that it will last “until further notice”.

[centrally-unplanned]

3 questions:

What is it you like... do, where does all the political expertise come from?

Do you have a platonic ideal of city development and what is it?

What's your take on communitarians? I never got the basic intuition about what makes it appealing, honestly smells totalitarian

- I lie about having political expertise on the internet mainly, that is where the expertise comes from!

But otherwise I am an ex-political analyst/quasi-academic - I took many classes and read many books on the subject. And also blogs, which certainly used to be an incredibly good source for more "foundational" knowledge - still good ofc, but we are past the heyday of the blogosphere. I personally think there is no substitute for "reading a bunch of diverse books in sequence on a topic", not only because you learn about the subject but because you start to see all the diverse approaches to any subject and how to synthesize it all, which can be applied elsewhere.

My actual job these days is in higher education, I build courses, degrees, etc. It definitely is something that keeps me exposed to good info sources but it is not load-bearing on how I grow as a writer. It's true perk is giving me access to good scanning equipment for anime archiving.

- I don't "actually" have one as I think all city development should be organic and contextual, no two places should look identical. In particular you can't really force economies, the industries be where they are. Overall I think the key things are to reduce localism while preserving democratic engagement, so you build up a strong regional government with elected officials holding critical power that can't be overridden by institutional stakeholders so they can pursue majority-benefitting policies. To be more granular, I think diversity of housing options is perpetually underappreciated - you want neighborhoods having studios to 4 bedroom units to even detached homes as you trickle out from the metro stops all next to each other so you can cultivate local economies that cater to diverse crowds and governance units that are "full stack" on the people they need to support. This happens pretty organically without zoning restrictions - US cities just try very hard to force housing types into specific zones.

I do also support every city of a sufficient size having a Kowloon Walled City-esque hyperdense housing complex at their center as a "stopgap" housing option for anyone of any stripe who wants to come to the city and try their hand at it. I am not even joking on that.

-Definitely too diverse a field to have "one" take! So to paint a very broad brush, they are a classic "cause" ideology that hits on correct social problems but doesn't give their solutions the same treatment. It is true that no one is an island, that social dependence is endemic to modernity, that "we are all connected" and individualist decision-making results in suboptimal outcomes. And not only for "others", but even for the individual, the isolating anomie of modernity that everyone falls into is a legitimate problem. In the abstract "more community" can do a lot of good.

But once you move away from abstraction the grubby realities of implementing something like the Responsive Communitarian Platform it tends to fall apart. Individuals are not the best deciders for themselves, but they are typically better than the rest of the options on the table as flawed, biased, or openly hostile governing authorities are the only real alternative. Community orgs are often populated by niche interest groups and oddball activists as typical people are too buys living life to care. Welfare is typically better done by distant, standardized, centralized cash payments instead of a "community" with its fickle resources and personal agendas. And so on. Obviously community has its place, but it is a place that typically already exists - we have had say schools and school boards for a long time! So as a movement it tends to collapse back to good ol' incremental social liberalism as those are the only practical things it can offer.

(But again YMMV based on individual thinkers, a diverse field)

[love-and-deepspace-wiki]

Hunter's Association: Departments, Sectors, and Sub-groups

Details:

The Hunter's Association is divided into multiple departments, sectors, and sub-groups. All such entities that have been mentioned in-game (thus far) are listed below.

Sectors:

UNICORNS:

The best combat unit under the Hunter's Association. Known for their unmatched power and fast responses, they specialize in tackling extremely dangerous Wanderer incidents that regular hunters can't handle. Their elite sector is small and notoriously unconventional.

DAWN

Departments:

Advanced Tech Labs

Archives

Armory:

The Armory is where a Deepspace Hunter's weapons are stored, serviced, and maintained. Following a mission, the returning hunter relinquishes their equipment to the Armory so that this service can take place.

Data Analysis:

Data Analysis (also referred to as "Data Analytics") serves as the intelligence processing center for individual teams while providing support to other sectors. Their responsibilities include gathering and analyzing data, detecting and identifying Protocores, and monitoring regional energy fluctuations.

Data Center

Hunter's Association Support Center

Intel Department

Linkon Hunter Dispatch Center:

This department responds to urgent Wanderer reports across Linkon City by dispatching hunters, deploying medical teams, raising hazard alarms, and monitoring real-time positioning. Their work area features a holographic control console in the center of the room that displays a 3D map of Linkon City. Blinking red dots represent high-level threats, blue dots represent hunters in the area, and yellow dots represent Wanderers. At the conclusion of each case they resolve, an incident repoer is submitted. This department's positions include multiple dispatchers, a surveillance officer, and a Captain (currently Captain Colin). They have a break room and their own cafeteria, a feature Alpha Team lacks.

Case Numbers: Case numbers follow the incremental naming standard "LK204×01101", "LK204×01102", "LK204×01103", etc.

Emergency Response Protocol: A high-level procedure triggered for threats only equivalent to five or more Wanderers. It requires the coordinated effort of at least five hunters.

Logistics Department

Medical Support Department:

The Medical Support Department, in partnership with the Logistics Department and Operations HQ, recently implemented an updated "Hunter Health Policy" which introduced three new regulations:

Monthly period leave for female hunters increased from 2 to 4 days per calendar month.

A "period subsidy" that will be added to their pay structure

The Medical Support Department and Akso Hospital will offer specialized health consultations and support for menstruation-related diet, exercise, sleep, and mental well-being, helping them maintain a balanced lifestyle during their period.

Operations HQ

Protocore Research Department

Security Department

Sub-groups:

Armament Tech:

Armament Tech is a specialized team dedicated to the development, optimization, and maintenance of Deepspace Hunter combat equipment. The Hunter's Association assigns an Armament Tech team to each squad. This team provides state-of-the-art technological support to hunters and enhances the combat capabilities and efficiency of the entire squad.

[liberalsarecool]

DeSantis and the terrorist who murdered 3 AAs represent two sides of the same violent white supremacist violence coin. One kills with long guns; the other kills incrementally through racist policies of suppression and erasure.

[dhaaruni]

The reason Democrats can't pull another Obama is because people feel like they won't get anything substantial out of them. Obviously, the ACA is the type of groundbreaking policy that helps people immensely, but it doesn't have the sheen of universal healthcare or basic income. It's easier for Republicans to get what they want because their base really just wants them to own the libs and destroy the federal government. 

Repealing Roe V Wade is far less difficult than creating a stronger social safety net. And even then, social safety nets aren't catch-alls that alleviate neuroticism or depression. 

Even as a partisan Dem, harm reduction is starting to sound less and less appealing. 

What's the point of electing Democrats in 2028, so that they can do fuck-all for 2-4 years and lose again? 

No offense but that's really stupid. It's not for me that you're voting for Democrats, it's so that you can prevent grandma from losing her health insurance and prevent a 13-year-old from having a rape baby. If Democratic governors hadn't been elected in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, there would be very strict abortion bans on the books in those states.

I'm sorry that Democrats can't give you unicorns and ponies on a silver platter but making the world a better place has always been an incremental process. I can't make you vote but I can call you stupid for not doing so if you truly care about the greater good.

[thatstormygeek]

Let’s be real. The struggle for justice in this country has always been led by people of color. From civil rights to labor organizing to immigration justice, our movements are rooted in the lived experience of navigating systems built to oppress us. We don’t have the luxury of abstract theory or aesthetic rebellion. We organize because we have to — because our lives, our families, our neighborhoods depend on it. But too often, we find ourselves pushed to the margins of our own movements by white “allies” who want to lead without listening, critique without context, and burn bridges in the name of ideological purity. They enter spaces demanding revolution while ignoring the incremental work required to keep people alive. They shout louder than the folks who have been doing the work for decades, then accuse others of selling out when they push for policy reforms instead of collapse. What’s worse — and needs to be named — is how often these people are not just misguided, but actively colonizing the politics of justice. They take up space, control narratives, and dominate decision-making in movements that were never meant to be centered on them. They are not trying to liberate us; they are trying to liberate themselves from their own guilt. And no one asked them to.

[theculturedmarxist]

I think a big part of what is driving libs to double down on Biden is the fact that they really don't have any other (electoral) choice. In the US, the entire electoral process is run by the two big parties, which the government (that they just so happen to run) has decided are in fact private clubs and can do whatever they want and more or less run the election process however they want.

Liberals as a group are comprised mostly of two cohorts: the comfortable and the comfortable-aspirant. The first are made up of the professional classes which have the wealth, credentials, and connections to basically be okay except in the most dire of circumstances. The other are the otherwise comfortable or comfortable adjacent which are threatened by the policies of GOP and rely on the largess of the Democrats to get by, hopefully long enough for them to escape into the comfortable category.

Both of these constituencies want Biden (or whatever creature the DNC dredges up) to win because Democrat control is essential to their comfort, which is their primary concern. The Comfortable would just as soon vote Republican if it served the same purpose. The Comfortable-Adjacent are usually in more of a client position and more reliant on a Dem being in control for their comfort, real or perceived.

Stopping genocide, fighting fascism, protecting minorities, whatever, none of these are actual concerns of these groups, though they do make useful moral bludgeons. Their central concern is their own comfort, and because of that they are devoted to the status quo which provides it. Any alternative requires a greater or lesser degree of discomfort, to put it mildly. There's the discomfort of confronting their own complicity in the whole rotten system for so long. There's the discomfort in having to cut ties with friends, family, colleagues based on having values other than their own well being. There's the discomfort of having to do the actual work of building alternatives to the current political system. There's the discomfort of that system reacting oppressively to you trying to subvert it.

So for the liberal, there really isn't any actual alternative to Joe Biden. They're either already in or trying to achieve access to the best of all possible worlds, a world which they have no interest at all in trying to upset via anything except the most painstaking of incremental changes, much less destroying with something as uncomfortable as revolution.

[kvetcher2]

the reason so many leftists are willing to not vote, and potentially let trump win, over whatever issue they’ve decided kamala is not progressive enough on, is because they don’t see voting for what it is. they don’t see it as a civic duty, or an incremental effort towards improving their own government. they definitely don’t see it as a social responsibility that they have toward other people, especially those who will be the most negatively affected by trump’s policies. no, there’s a massive subset of mostly young leftists who see voting as a form of self-expression. as a public display of their own enlightened political virtuousness. that’s why so many leftists will not vote for a candidate that they think is imperfect in any way, even if they have no other options. in their eyes, voting, like anything else, is an opportunity to virtue signal and proudly display that they’re the most leftist of leftists in their unwashed polycule. it’s somehow more progressive to protest <insert political issue> by refusing to vote for the woman who is indisputably more progressive on said political issue than trump… simply because she doesn’t go far enough? these are the same people that romanticize violent revolution but panic over calling the dentist. be fucking for real you’re not voting because it would mean you have to go outside 🙄