Soleos

China's EV's putting brakes on oil demand

I appreciate your statement and generally agree. However, there is nothing complicated or contradictory about the harm caused in rape or the need to protect children from predators.

All good points. Sorry I'm coming from a non US perspective where climate change denialism is present, but less fervent. I like your definition of "truth from a rarified point of view", though I might also considered non-rarified or pervasive, and factually well substantiated truths can be used as propaganda as well. The 95%+ consensus of scientists on climate change is both factually/meaningfully/importantly true and also used with a propagandistic flavour in many examples of political persuasion for example.

My post was more aiming at acknowledging propaganda as a vehicle of persuasion for any and differing representations of reality (political groups) that exists in parallel with the the establishment of facts of reality. Some representations will adhere more or less with the factual arguments.

An interesting exercise is to replace "Communism is bad" with "Climate change is coming" and interrogate how we feel about that and why.

It is interesting to reflect that propaganda is involved for all kinds of policy application, including science. As someone trained in sciences, it's always a bit uncomfortable seeing folks extolling science as the exclusive solution to everything. The role of science in society is deeply tied up with values, norms, and policy. I think it's always good to have a healthy dose of critical self reflection, so we can engage better on the level of humanized reasoning, rather than on the level of regurgitated propaganda.

The difference is less that it's in some circumstances only marginally better. Rather, it's more that when you advocate for better coverage in EU, the pushback might be more along the lines of "that's too expensive or an inefficient use of highly limited taxpayer dollars, but I'm open to continuing to evaluate the impact and economics of it". In the US, sometimes the pushback is "you don't like it? Then GTFO, you communist traitor!"

Gotta love how the more "Applied" a field is, the more "Impure" it is.

Ukraine is doing fine building their own drones. They seem to have a fast iteration cycle with their growing drone industry. Their priority for foreign aid is artillery shells, missile systems, and vehicles/planes which is harder for them to produce en mass

Her PhD is in investigating the cultural/social context and implications of women in breakdancing. It's not PhD in performing breakdancing.

Well yeah, they asked for a simple example, I gave one. What's wrong with that? The discussion is already in the realm of "military dictatorship" which aren't exactly known for respecting human rights/freedoms of non-citizena. The question was about the sustainability of such systems for those deemed citizens.

It's not that they throw a ball around really well, it's that the NBA brings in over 10 billion in annual revenue because of these players. How much are you willing to pay someone to bring in that amount of money?

Looking at it a different way, that would be like a photographer taking a photo of the sandwich and proclaiming "I'm an artist" or a director telling a chef what to make, telling a cinematographer/camera operator how to shoot it, and an editor how to cut it to create a short film of a sandwich and proclaiming "I'm an artist". Art can be made from a series of creative and purposeful decisions that result in a piece of expression. It might not be good art, it might not be effortful art, it might even be unethically made art, but it's not not-art.

Again, if we read it as he literally said that, then sure I'd agree the behaviour is not okay. Given the context of the quote, I'd want more evidence to take that quote literally.