Politics Discussion Thread January 2013

OrphanWilde

Top-level comments should introduce arguments; responses should be responses to those arguments.
Upvote and downvote based on whether or not you find an argument convincing in the context in which it was raised. This means if it's a good argument against the argument it is responding to, not whether or not there's a good/obvious counterargument to it; if you have a good counterargument, raise it. If it's a convincing argument, and the counterargument is also convincing, upvote both. If both arguments are unconvincing, downvote both.
A single argument per comment would be ideal; as MixedNuts points out here, it's otherwise hard to distinguish between one good and one bad argument, which makes the upvoting/downvoting difficult to evaluate.
In general try to avoid color politics; try to discuss political issues, rather than political parties, wherever possible.

As Multiheaded added, "Personal is Political" stuff like gender relations, etc also may belong here.

Top-level comments should introduce arguments; responses should be responses to those arguments.
Upvote and downvote based on whether or not you find an argument convincing in the context in which it was raised. This means if it's a good argument against the argument it is responding to, not whether or not there's a good/obvious counterargument to it; if you have a good counterargument, raise it. If it's a convincing argument, and the counterargument is also convincing, upvote both. If both arguments are unconvincing, downvote both.
A single argument per comment would be ideal; as MixedNuts points out here, it's otherwise hard to distinguish between one good and one bad argument, which makes the upvoting/downvoting difficult to evaluate.
In general try to avoid color politics; try to discuss political issues, rather than political parties, wherever possible.

As Multiheaded added, "Personal is Political" stuff like gender relations, etc also may belong here.

This question is probably a violation of rule 4, but I think if we're discussing politics then it just has to be asked:

Regarding American politics, which party's general stance is more optimal for ensuring prosperity?

I realize that politicians often fail to meet the idealistic standards of their affiliations, and that both parties' s positions are too biased, general, and simple to actually be correct, but which one do you think comes closer to the mark, overall?

I believe Eliezer said somewhere that, if you had to choose between one of the two major tribes, the Republican camp was slightly better. He may have updated since then. Politics may kill minds, but it is still important, and individual votes do influence it even on a national scale, so if we're going to talk politics, we may as well spend the time trying to figure out how best to apply our conclusions.

Again, I'm sorry if this question is too mindkill-y even for this thread, but I believe that this is the most relevant question we can ask if we're talking politics. Also, I don't mean to fence off non-Americans, but I am American, as are the majority of Lesswrongers, and in any case, America has enormous influence on other nations one way or the other. If you have an opinion on the matter, please share it, whether you're American or not.

First, I think this is a very useful and interesting question. It actually impacts decisions.

Second, I think the question itself is biased, in a sense. It asks which is more optimal for ensuring prosperity implicitly leading some to think this is the only possible criterion for choosing. However, the party that leads to more prosperity by many definition might also be the party that produces a poor underclass and a society which is, overall, significantly less happy or healthy on average. Might do, I'm saying, the point being that prosperity alone is n... (read more)

7FiftyTwo14y

How do you define 'prosperity?' Do you mean it in a narrow economic sense of a wider sense (e.g. ensuring general utility).

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Politics Discussion Thread January 2013

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Politics Discussion Thread January 2013

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