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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      Since the same *kind* of person (broadly liberal/progressive) person is likely to be generally sympathetic to trans rights and black men not getting shot, attacking *either* will weaken resistance on *both* fronts. To attack the weakest front is to treat them as an enemy.

      2 replies 1 retweet 7 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      This is a partisanship tax. Though pro-TERF/anti-cops-killing-black-men is a philosophically coherent position, it is hard to meaningfully express it through things like voting. To exercise agency rather than merely express a pointless opinion, you have to pick a side.

      2 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      So if you choose to seek agency rather than ineffectual truthiness, you have to ask: what positions are you willing to support, *at what cost* -- the cost being other positions that come along for the ride in your bundled options set.

      1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      The unethical way to do this is to support what you want the most, and then rationalize away whatever comes along for the ride. It is a de facto "war vote" (win at any cost) The ethical way is to minimize the maximum worst thing you're supporting in the bundle (a peace vote)

      2 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      A vote is a chain of linked positions. Your vote is only as good as the weakest link it supports. You're always voting for the worst thing that could happen if your side wins, not the average thing or the best thing.

      2 replies 8 retweets 22 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      Why is this? The 2 questions to ask about an action like voting are on the face of it symmetric. A) "What's the best thing that could happen?" B) "What's the worst thing that could happen?" Isn't it just optimism to vote based on the first question rather than the second?

      1 reply 2 retweets 8 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      NO because there is a hidden asymmetry (quite apart from the asymmetry caused by best cases being generally lower probability than worst cases). Your idea of the best thing probably happens to YOU. Your idea of the worst thing probably happens to SOMEBODY ELSE.

      1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      The population directly affected by usually a tiny minority who, if they vote at all, can barely even act as a swing vote. This means if you vote for the "best thing" you are playing lottery for yourself, and externalizing potential losses.

      2 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      More likely, they are entirely disenfranchised people like children, immigrants, people who might be bombed into refugeedom by your air force and then turned away from your borders by secret police who look like you etc.

      1 reply 0 retweets 12 likes
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    10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      Seriously, compare the worst problems and best prospects in your life from anything a politician could do, to those of the most vulnerable to the consequences of your decisions (which remember, are very, very macro: how to use pools of taxpayer money)

      1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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      Much of this applies to everybody in the US. If you genuinely weighed Hillary v. Trump this way and concluded (say) that an unchecked militarist neocon agenda that might be pursued by H was the greatest risk and that Trump was all harmless fascism-theater talk, I respect that.

      12:33 PM - 12 Oct 2018
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      3 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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          One reason I am so openly partisan these days is that I don't think Trump supporters actually process in this "least worst" way. Their profile (people who never left hometown, live in homogeneous neighborhoods, have contempt for college) does not inspire confidence.

          2 replies 0 retweets 14 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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          To realistically assess "the worst that could happen to the most vulnerable people who could be affected by your decision" you have to have curiosity about the world beyond your borders. Because your tax dollars can buy airplanes that can bomb any point on the planet.

          2 replies 0 retweets 15 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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          The great risk of parochialism in globally consequential decision processes is the "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic" effect. Great mindset for purely local decisions with no spillover effects. Terrible when you are structurally complicit in global ones.

          1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
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        5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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          There aren't many ways to counterprogram parochialism in your thinking. It's not a question of intelligence, but input. The 3 known ways are education, travel, and seeking out interactions with people very unlike yourself. All three are driven by curiosity/openness to experience

          1 reply 2 retweets 12 likes
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        6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 12 Oct 2018
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          Guess what kind of people resist all 3 impulses? Guess how they act politically? In my processing, the greatest worst-case risk is simply having parochial people, contemptuous of the entire world beyond their horizons, making globally decisions consequential decisions.

          2 replies 2 retweets 19 likes
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        7. End of conversation
        1.  🕹 JB  💀‏ @neednewshorts 12 Oct 2018
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          Replying to @vgr

          This H/Trump thing is exactly why people are so frustrated, frustration leads to apathy...but H isn't openly racist, etc which leads to hate crimes in schools and the streets. Still you're right- worse for enemy countries and people overseas

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