Post AT8EI0AMRM9msNOVs0 by henryfarrell@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by henryfarrell@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #AT8EI0AMRM9msNOVs0 by henryfarrell@mastodon.social
       2023-02-24T15:50:06Z
       
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       "advocates  ...want... a resolution of the struggle of democratic life, a point at which they must no longer contend with alternative and conflicting ways of living. But that is just another fantasy. The great virtue (or perhaps curse) of democracy is that it doesn’t settle — it keeps moving. There are no final victories, but there are no final defeats either. There is only the struggle for a more humane world or, for some among us, a more hierarchical one." Good stuff https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/24/opinion/marjorie-taylor-greene-national-divorce.html
       
 (DIR) Post #AT8EI0joJYVseJyp7o by vbuterin@cryptodon.lol
       2023-02-28T07:51:26Z
       
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       @henryfarrell I once tried drawing an imagined US secession map based on county-by-county data. It definitely looks weird and is still far from capturing all the divides:
       
 (DIR) Post #AT8Ed2JfdoPxcrmMQC by vbuterin@cryptodon.lol
       2023-02-28T07:55:15Z
       
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       @henryfarrell I think the part of that nytimes piece that I react most strongly against, however, is that the piece does feel like it has a nirvana fallacy mentality. We can't have political boundaries that fit literally perfectly with our differences, and so we should not even try improving on that dimension, and just accept political boundaries as they are and turn it into a morality play about how sticking together despite large differences is an inherently virtuous thing.
       
 (DIR) Post #AT8Eq4N9J9IdldcY1Q by vbuterin@cryptodon.lol
       2023-02-28T07:57:36Z
       
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       @henryfarrell It becomes easier to see the limits of that view once you expand beyond the US. US and Canada are in many important respects "kinda like one people", and yet they're two countries and that works fine, possibly even better than if they were merged (though I support fully open borders between the two).
       
 (DIR) Post #AT8FTwNeROWKZ2rr0K by vbuterin@cryptodon.lol
       2023-02-28T08:04:47Z
       
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       In general, the core idea that if two groups come to really dislike each other they should find a way to have somewhat less deep political ties seems wise to me. So I wonder what would be a better way to achieve some steps toward that goal.
       
 (DIR) Post #AT8qXdoB88CEQTu3qC by henryfarrell@mastodon.social
       2023-02-28T15:00:02Z
       
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       @vbuterin  My views as follows (also copying in @jbouie whose views surely differ from mine, in case he wants to express them). I liked what he said for a few reasons. First - and practically - it is _really hard_ to secede peacefully, happily and prosperously in a massively interdependent world.  A case in point (I'm Irish so perhaps biased) is what looks to me to be the genuine disaster of Brexit. I suspect US-exit would likely be much worse - violent and with far greater economic disruption.