Other stuff matters. “let’s take a step back and use a different example: Child labor. Child labor is very “useful” if you want cheap labor. It’s 100% deplorable to use it or accept it. Child labor is a monstrosity. But… Read More »“Useful” is not sufficient
Some good points some not so good, but nice insights. “AI being completely oblique also means that ‘AI engineering’ or ‘prompt engineering’ is a complete scam; same like SEO in the day, any claim of being able to manipulate a… Read More »User Submission: AI is a Bad Tool
Is this true or a meme? “With a new kind of monopoly came a new kind of monopolist. As Das argues, Gates was an “early template” for a species of capitalist overlord that has since become excruciatingly familiar: the nerd-bully,… Read More »Whither the Nerd-Bully?
History is mor3 complicated and narratives matter. “By the time Pope Urban II preaches the First Crusade at Clermont in 1095, Islamic powers have held two-thirds of formerly Christian territory for more than four hundred years. The immediate trigger is… Read More »Load-Bearing Walls
History is connected. “We tend to learn history in discrete chunks, carved up by area studies and chronology. The Protestant Reformation, the Thirty Years War, Queen Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada, the Sengoku, the conquest of the New World,… Read More »The Empresa de China & the Hapsburg Bid for World Supremacy
Don’t trust people who claim to speak for God or people. “Hitler never commanded majority support. This is common for populist authoritarians – while they claim to speak for ‘the people,’ they generally only speak for their own supporters, who… Read More »New Acquisitions: 1933 and the Definition of Fascism
When judging history, you need to know the context. “whereas today, national independence movements often take it as a granted principle that a people ought to be free to make its own government, ought to be free of the domination… Read More »Collections: On the Declaration of Independence
Stating you can rebel against a government so you can rebel against the government. Declaration of Independence. “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a… Read More »Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
So short. So powerful. “A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.” https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp
Reading Magna Carta is quite interesting. Most people, like me, think it is about freedom as such, but in the end it is a business contract. And war was necessary to have it written. “Neither we nor our officials will… Read More »Magna Carta, 1215 – The National Archives