TheDemonBuer

A few win, most lose. That's America.

Without realizing it, Mike Beasley makes a great argument for why private, for-profit health insurance shouldn't exist.

All I'm saying is: if you really feel strongly about defending and enforcing the human rights of the historically marginalized groups you've mentioned, you will need to fight very, very hard to acquire and accrue as much power as possible to do it. It will probably require a fairly significant, prolonged, organized, possibly violent movement.

I think it's great that academics and intellectuals are trying to come up with educated and informed human rights recommendations, but that's all they are: recommendations. Like you said yourself, their recommendations are often ignored. That's because there is an inherent power dynamic to human rights. Rights must necessarily be given by the powerful to the less powerful, and only when and if the powerful decide it is in their interests to give them. Many times, it takes prolonged, organized, often violent rebellion to convince the powerful that it is in their interest to grant rights to the people.

Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do!

Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do!

Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We do! We do!

Who robs cavefish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do! We do!

Well, I think some people would disagree. But, that's my point. YOU think there are certain human rights that should be enforced, at least for certain people, but in order to do that, you need to be in a position of power to enforce those rights. There are people here in the US where I live that are in positions of power to enforce gun rights, and so gun rights exist.

I didn't say that I disagreed with anything, but I wouldn't consider myself the biggest supporter of gun rights, for an example.

I don't necessarily have anything against human rights, but which rights, and for whom? Who decides, and then who enforces those rights? Rights are kind of meaningless without enforcement, and for that you need a state. In that regard, the rights that exist and are enforced, and for whom, depends primarily on who controls the state. That's fine if the people who control the state share your ideas about which rights get priority, but it sucks if you and the state disagree.

Edit: I think this video essay explains it much better.

Also, the new Honda Prologue EV is just a Chevy Blazer, but people are snapping them up. Apparently, the way to sell GM EV is to slap a Honda logo on it.

It's true, Chevy has earned a reputation for being low quality, while Honda has a much better reputation. Also, Chevys are usually just uglier, in my opinion, especially the interiors. I really hope Chevy can use this opportunity to reinvent themselves and start making more desirable vehicles, but in the meantime at least the Ultium platform is selling, in some form.

It won't necessarily destroy the EV market, but it will make it less competitive. Elon Musk is ok with ending the Federal tax credit because he believes it will hurt Tesla's competitors more than it will hurt Tesla, and that will help Tesla get closer to full monopoly power. Nearly 50% of all EVs sold are Teslas, I expect that to go up.

The company that I think has the best chance to compete with Tesla is GM. Their Ultium platform will allow them to deliver quality EVs at affordable prices. As of Q3 2024, GM is selling the second most EVs, though they are still only selling a fraction of Tesla's numbers.

For EVs, affordability is key, and GM has positioned themselves well to compete with Tesla on price. However, the GM brands aren't exactly the most popular, and it's hard to say if GM will be able to overcome that and convince American EV buyers that GM EVs are worth considering. Which is unfortunate, because GM, of all the legacy, domestic auto makers, has committed themselves to EVs the most.

You're right, I shouldn't say they've embraced their populist wing, I should say they've captured it, or harnessed it. Trump doesn't necessarily care about any of those populist ideas, he just knows that saying he cares about them helps him win elections.