Writing

Rebuilding from the wreckage

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In the roughly three weeks since my post on “Why America is dying,” things have continued on the same course. Trump is defying court orders, trying to annul pardons (Biden’s preemptively pardoning his inner circle was disgusting but legal), and in general playing the role of someone with absolute power. This should have been a golden opportunity for the Democrats, but their response has been inept, and their popularity has tanked. Charles Schumer declares that the Republicans’ “whole goal is to reduce taxes” as Trump imposes destructive taxes by executive decree. That’s insane both tactically and factually.

It’s an “I told you so” moment for libertarians. Give the government, and the president in particular, unlimited power, and it will eventually be turned to evil ends. But libertarians are in disarray too, and too many who call themselves by that name support Trump. The United States is in for a long stretch of bad years, even if the Democrats recapture Congress in 2026. It may fall to pieces. Parts may secede, but someone who wants to annex Canada and Greenland isn’t likely to let any territory go peacefully.
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Should Worldcons be held in the USA? 1

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In the past, I’ve written about some Worldcon bids that would host the convention in countries with a bad human rights record. Now some fans are raising the question of whether they should be held in the USA. Certainly Trump is acting like a dictator, issuing decrees without legal authority and going after enemies with the power of his office. Author Jo Walton has suggested that the Los Angeles Worldcon, to be held in 2026, should move to another location. This would be impossibly expensive, given the convention’s contractual commitments, but we can look at the question in the abstract. I don’t know of any serious bids from the US for 2027 and 2028, and after that a less horrible president may be in office, so the question doesn’t directly affect any active bids.
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Is an era of free speech ending?

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In his first days back in office, Donald Trump is launching a campaign against freedom of speech. He has declared that MSNBC “shouldn’t have the right to broadcast” and called for the revocation of CBS’s broadcast license (even though there is no license to revoke at the network level). His extension on the TikTok ban sounded good at first, but he has suggested that its future presence in the USA may be contingent on its turning over 50% ownership to the United States (which seems to mean the government but isn’t fully clear). (Update: Recent reports indicate he’s shifted to wanting a consortium of US companies to acquire a majority stake, which at least wouldn’t be American socialism.)

We need to remember that current levels of freedom of speech in the United States haven’t always prevailed. It was only around 1960 to 1970 that the Supreme Court recognized their present broad status.
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Let’s bring back blogrolls

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged blogs Internet writing on by

Blogrolls used to be a standard feature of many, if not most, blogs. A blogroll is a simple thing: a list in a sidebar or footer of links to like-minded or interesting blogs. They’re a way for related blogs to be mutually supporting. I’ve added one to the sidebar of this site, and it will grow in the future.

Blogrolls were popular until Google modified its ranking algorithm to downgrade their links. Maybe they had a good reason; it’s easy to set up a bunch of dummy blogs linking to each other to boost their search rank. But even if they don’t improve a blog’s Google rank, the links are worth posting as an alternative to the search engines. Readers will find interesting blogs and add their RSS or Atom feeds to a feed reader, letting them keep up with information on their favorite topics or from their favorite people. They will in turn have links to other interesting blogs. It isn’t mandatory to reciprocate when others add you to their blogrolls, but it’s considered courteous. (Hint to anyone I’ve listed.)
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Addressing an insane world 1

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged education SanityProject writing on by

Insanity is the default state of humanity. Ever since I can remember, people have been declaring that their present is Heinlein’s “crazy years.” It’s getting worse, though. People are openly applauding the thug who gunned down Brian Thompson in the street. A lot of them are undoubtedly the same ones who applauded the massacre of innocent Israelis in 2023. The current president of the US abused his power to pardon his son, and the next one has declared his intent to pardon rioters who invaded the Capitol in support of his lies. The latter wants to tax imports and kick out immigrant workers who contribute to domestic production, and people cheer the policies that will inevitably make everything more expensive.

It’s easy to give in to despair. You can give up on the world and just try to enjoy the show as it collapses. But it’s too easy and accomplishes nothing. Besides, there are two reasons not to call it quits.
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Words without meaning 8

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To answer an accusation, you have to know what it means. If the words have no fixed meaning, no argument can show that it’s false. Certain words in the culture of the left serve this purpose. They allow irrefutable accusations — irrefutable because they mean whatever the accuser wants them to. Denying the accusation or defending someone else against it can even become evidence of guilt. Words are supposed to be the tools of thought, but these words are designed to make thought impossible.
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Upcoming album: Beacons in the Darkness 2

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On December 4, I’ll release Beacons in the Darkness, my next album of living-room recordings, on Bandcamp. Since it’s strictly a home production, payment is optional. If you want to give me money, Bandcamp Friday, December 6, is the best time to buy. Bandcamp forgoes its usual cut of the income on that day, and it will help pay for my new Zoom recorder. In the meantime, you can follow me on Bandcamp so you can see my other albums and find the new release easily later on.
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On writing for freedom

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged liberty writing on by

As the election approaches, I’d like to offer an unpopular idea: There’s too much focus on the candidates. If you care about human freedom, it should be obvious that Trump and Harris are both inimical to it (thought Trump is far worse). However, they’re just symptoms. Whether we’re looking at sending the military into every neighborhood to expel people from the country or instituting price controls and handouts to create winners and losers, the underlying premise is the premise that a central authority should decide how things should be. This idea has gained in popularity in spite of all the evidence that it’s harmful. The Republicans have almost completely abandoned the free-market principles that once formed an inconsistent part of their platform. The Democrats have believed in a managed economy and growth in federal power and spending ever since Franklin Roosevelt, and they haven’t changed on fundamentals.

As the election approaches, writers spend many words on the candidates as people. News sites, no longer pretending to give news, jump on any little thing that makes their preferred candidates look good or their opponents look bad. Their goal is proxy power. People on social media do the same, often with even less regard for the facts and less of a reason. Their main line of argument is “I’m smart, anyone who disagrees with me is dumb, and if you’re smart like me you see that, right?”

If you write on current controversies and value human freedom, you can do something different. You can set a better standard. If enough authors and journalists do it, it can make a difference, pushing the national discourse in a better direction. It wouldn’t take much to make it less awful.
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The death of objectivity

This entry was posted in Commentary Writer ethics Writing and tagged ethics journalism news writing on by

Try to find a news source that just gives you the facts, instead of trying to sway your opinion in every story. You can find some on the local level, but national news sources that care about objective reporting are rare. You only have a choice between sites with “left-wing” and “right-wing” agendas. The result is that people don’t trust the news they get. They especially notice when people they like are hit with distortion and selective criticism. They’re likely to turn to sources whose biases match theirs, even if they’re less trustworthy than the mainstream ones.

This is a big factor behind Trumpism. A site which bashes him day in and out, pulling quotes out of context and picking on minor things, is less convincing than one which presents the facts and lets people draw their conclusions. When they repeatedly note that Trump has failed to back up a claim with evidence, yet never do the same with Democrats who do the same, people dismiss the stories as hit pieces. I just came across a CNN top headline: “Trump’s wild and lewd rhetoric reaches a new extreme.” I try to keep myself informed, I know Trump is horrible, and I don’t want to read that article. Do they really think anyone inclined even a little favorably to Trump is going to think, “This article may contain important facts. I should read it.”?
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