Different people will have different opinion on the issue. Some want a abolishment of patents while others don't
The people who want to abolish patents would presumably also support shortening them and being more selective about granting them.
That's a very difficult topic. There are a lot of people who pretend to want tax code simplicity but at the same time do favor specific tax deductions.
Politicians do that; doesn't mean people here do. And even so, that doesn't prevent identifying particular deductions that everyone wants to eliminate.
I would guess that there are a fair number of people who oppose the idea of curricula.
But they would support improving it given that there is going to be one
The people who want to abolish patents would presumably also support shortening them and being more selective about granting them.
Shortening patent duration is a policy question but I'm not sure that everyone wants to short pharma patents. If we want to live to 1000 years it's useful to have a way for the inventor of a drug to make a lot of money.
Be more selective about granting patents isn't a direct policy question. It a vague fell good position.
We might very well disagree over specific approaches to be more selective about granting patents. For cons...
I was thinking about the hazards of bad government, and wondering if there was a way for the LW community to do something to oppose them, and it occurred to me that we might be picking up the problem by the wrong end.
The usual way of thinking about political action is to start with one's political identity (progressive, libertarian, whatever), and that's likely to put one at odds with people who have opposed identities.
Instead, I believe there are projects which could appeal to rationalists across a wide range of the political spectrum. A couple I can think of are opposing the war on drugs and improving judicial systems. Any other suggestions?