Yearly Archives: 2025

The zero-sum fallacy 2

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged SanityProject on by

Authoritarian thinking of the right and left often relies on the assumption that “your gain is my loss.” The supporters of ICE think immigrants are taking jobs away from them. If enough people are deported, they think, there will be fewer people competing for the same jobs. The left’s version is that there’s a fixed amount of wealth to go around, and if the people who make the most are taxed heavily, that’s more money for everyone else with no downside.

These are both cases of zero-sum thinking. They assume that the amount of a resource, such as jobs or spending power, is a given and that the only question is who will get it. They think that taking resources away from others means more for them. In some cases, there’s a factual underpinning to that kind of thinking. The conservation laws of physics say we can’t create matter or energy out of nothing. The amount of air and water in the world is pretty much fixed. But most of the things we rely on are the products of human effort. Many didn’t exist till someone invented them.
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Anti-ICE activity in New Hampshire

This entry was posted in News and tagged ICE liberty New Hampshire on by

ICE has its claws in New Hampshire, even if not as obviously as in some other places. The secret police force has abducted people on multiple occasions. Local politicians are collaborating with ICE in exchange for a little federal money. But New Hampshire residents are pushing back. A new movement called Sanctuary Communities is forming to protest and monitor ICE’s brutal actions.

In my area is the Seacoast Interfaith Sanctuary Community. I’m still finding out what it’s all about, but it looks interesting. It’s been around since 2017 and says its members are “working together to support people facing the threats of immigration detention and deportation.” I’ve sent an email asking to sign up for their mailing list, and I’m still waiting for a reply. Hopefully the person running the list was just away for the weekend. (Update, Nov. 18: Yay! I’m now on the mailing list!)

These groups have been targeted by a campaign of lies. New Hampshire has a law against “sanctuary cities.” It requires law enforcement in every municipality to cooperate with federal immigration officials. The MAGAs are trying to claim it bans private activity protected by the First Amendment. If it did, that would just make the law null and void. Americans’ freedom to gather information and speak out takes precedent over Trump’s wishes.
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The Montreal Worldcon code of conduct 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged Canada conventions fandom on by

I’ve registered as an attending member for the 2027 Worldcon in Montreal. Even though it’s in another country, it’s an easy day’s drive from my home. I hope that crossing the border won’t be too dangerous to consider by then, but today I’m here to talk about its code of conduct. There have been better ones and worse ones. I have concerns, but they weren’t enough to scare me out of registering. Let’s take a look, as I have with other conventions.
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The opaqueness of medical pricing 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged economics insurance medicine on by

Go to almost any business for a product or service, and you can expect to be told what it will cost you, or at least to get a plausible estimate. The big exception is medicine. You’re never told what anything will cost. If you press your provider, the best you’ll get is a spread of a couple of orders of magnitude. People sometimes get hit with huge charges that they weren’t prepared for.

I recently experienced a bit of this. My medical provider billed me for $630 for a routine blood test as part of an annual physical. This came as a complete surprise. I called the billing department, and the man who took my call said that I should have been billed only for the copay, with insurance covering the rest. He filed an inquiry on it, which he said might take a couple of weeks to process. This left a big question open: Do blood tests by my provider routinely cost over $600? That’s a lot, regardless of whether I’m paying for it or Medicare is. Since he was working for billing, he wasn’t able to answer that question.
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Moving away from Mastodon 1

This entry was posted in Personal and tagged mastodon on by

For several years I’ve had an account on Liberdon, a Mastodon instance. Recently they announced that only paid accounts, at a minimum of $3 per month, will be allowed, starting in December 2025. That’s perfectly reasonable, but it’s not worth it to me. Expect my posts to disappear soon.

I could move to another instance. However, I haven’t been getting much value out of Mastodon. Most of the people I personally know and follow haven’t been active for a long time. What’s left of my feed is mostly organizations. Discovery between different instances is awkward. If I find an instance I really like, I might move there. Suggestions in the comments are welcome. My account is archived to keep my options open.

This doesn’t affect the Fediverse feed of this blog or my Filknews account. They’ll stay active for the foreseeable future.