I'm logging out and taking an indefinite break from Twitter, which has many cool people, but sadly has become a haven for literal Nazis. Happy to chat at alyssamvance@gmail.com or on Signal (203-850-2427), or Discord. Thanks to everyone who followed me or posted good content :)

@NguyenLuce TBF, Kagame is a dictator but he's also pretty much the best leader in Africa, and an election that put Hutu leaders back in power could end very badly

@pacificroaming @DanielParker_13 The US has recently jumped on this bandwagon, but China has been mercantilist for decades as general policy

@benlandautaylor Who are you thinking of?

@RFishBlueFish China can keep factories running with weak demand via state subsidies, but the US can't really do anything about not having imported goods, and China has to care a lot less because there are no elections and the CCP will stay in power anyway

@RFishBlueFish It means that if there's conflict between the US and China, trade will be cut off and that will destroy the US economy

@RFishBlueFish Because China is a hostile genocidal dictatorship which actively plans to invade key US allies

@StatsLime I'm not sure why that would be the tradeoff? The tradeoff would be that a weaker dollar means that Americans have to pay more for Chinese products, which is painful but necessary, unless the US wants to be dependent on a hostile dictatorship for critical goods

@StatsLime I think giving militaristic genocidal dictators control over key industries which will increase their economic and political power is bad

@DanielParker_13 I think giving militaristic genocidal dictators control over key industries which will increase their economic and political power is bad

@StatsLime Americans aren't, like, genetically hardwired to consume. They buy a lot of Chinese goods because they are extremely cheap, and they are extremely cheap because China manipulates the market by subsidizing exports and blocking imports. Behaviors have causes

@StatsLime *especially if you count

@DanielParker_13 The problem is agglomeration effects. If all of the EV industry is pulled into China by subsidies, there's a very strong incentive for it (and all of the supply chains, research, etc) to stay in China forever, for the same reason finance stays in NYC and tech stays in SF.

@StatsLime The problem is agglomeration effects. If all of the EV industry is pulled into China by subsidies, there's a very strong incentive for it (and all of the supply chains, research, etc) to stay in China forever, for the same reason finance stays in NYC and tech stays in SF.

@AndrewCritchPhD I don't think "we" have that power, even for a very broad definition of "we"? AIUI, you'd need some sort of conservative legal scholarship to get Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on board with overturning the precedent, or else what activists want won't really matter.

@JgaltTweets Biden won Maine by a larger margin than Trump won Iowa by in 2020, although you could argue both are overconfident

@jim_rutt The problem there is that ideological extremists get funding and attention for extreme positions, even ones that obviously have zero chance of passing. It's in their personal interest to advocate craziness, even if it harms their own party and the country as a whole