Tejretics

So you need atheists to increase debates and discussions about God. Wow!!

Too bad that was a total waste of time. I heard DDO is done and no one archived those debates.

You’re an atheist, how shocked would you be if when you died it turned out a religion was true? Which religion do you think is most likely to be true?

On your profile your “life’s priority” is “other.” What is that other and what drives your motivation for it?

What do you hope to do career wise, and where? 

Inflation was caused by a shortage in the supply line due to Ukraine war, Covid caused shutdowns both in China and US and demand was growing. The stimulus also made plenty of cash available to consumers that drove the demand and price higher than expected. Hence the inflation.

So you’ve been around for a while - what are your perceptions about how debate and discussion have changed in a general sense since you started debating - what common topics and themes of the past have dwindled and (aside from Trump) which themes that get a lot of air time today do you feel are brand new?

He only has a few debates to his credit and not a regular poster. Try asking a member who is more active.

While I won’t necessarily say all of that ended up being used for support and not stimulus or was all well spent - I think there is definitely a case to be made that the conversation about inflation is being had because the stimulus prevented a wider recession that would be being talked about otherwise.

well we can take the best of dart and the best of ddo and make them face off. If someone is on both then that means they are here which means they would be in my calculation on the DART team ( I assume barely and white flame aren't the best of the best on dart) So who do you think would win? 

Reasonable take.  But my question is, what other time period was the United States supposed to pass large pieces of domestic legislation?

In 2010-2016 when Republicans had majorities over Obama and blocked literally everything?

In 2016-2020 when Trump was president?

In 2023-2024 when Democrats likely lose the Senate while Republicans likely lose the house, and basically neither party is able to do anything?

It's unlucky that 2021-2022 is the one period where inflation is occuring, but it's also the only window of time in 10+ years where it's even possible to pass big bills.

Some definitions of god can be ruled out due to lack of predicted evidence. Any god, as in some kind of non-corporeal being of great power, has no theoretical mechanism of existence and therefore no probability analysis can be done.

To be ultra technical what I would say is that the idea of a god is fully explained by human capacity for self-delusion and that there is no better reason to believe in a god than elves. Since there are many more things that can be imagined than actually exist (within scope) it is almost certain that something which has no supporting evidence beyond assertion does not exist.

Free will is actually poorly defined. I've drilled into it a couple times with people. Some people realize they don't actually know what they mean, others go on to essentially define free will as true randomness.

Problem is true randomness doesn't give you warm fuzzies when you really think about it.

Disagree: The best moral theory is an objective one based on deduction. Such a theory does exist and I have yet to see it debunked.

What does that say about abortion?

The possibility of a person is not a person, but the values of most people are already instinctively aligned with the desire to ensure their descendants have it good.

• It’s possible to value future generations without valuing potential lives (i.e., the distinction between making people who will exist happy, and allowing people a chance at existence). 
  
• Having an abortion doesn’t necessarily shut happy lives out of existence. Lots of people who have abortions have kids with good lives later in life, but wouldn’t have had those kids if they hadn’t been allowed access to abortion. Also, any given increase in population potentially reduces the number of kids other people have (e.g., if a kid is adopted by foster parents, those parents might not have kids of their own). 
  
• Even if I thought having a kid with a good life was morally praiseworthy, I value bodily autonomy too much. It’s similar to me thinking donating a kidney is good, but it would be insane for governments to mandate that everyone donates a kidney while still alive. 

Very wrong and very wrong. Animal intelligence has not been objectively defined, that's why none of the tests match up and why they haven't a clue if they're getting warmer or colder in artificial intelligence.

Inverse of reality. Nuclear power is infinitely scalable. What we have built so far is a dingy compared to the supertankers we could make.

By contrast we've already enough windmills to learn we don't like them very much and they're not nearly enough. (that was predicted long before the first government grant)

There are plenty more places to stick solar panels but in order to make them cheap enough you're going to need really cheap power, leading to a chicken egg problem. Nuclear (as I said) is scalable now because it is efficient now. When energy is cheaper it will still be easier to build bigger nuclear reactors.

Solar panels have a place as an auxiliary system that you slap on for redundancy and because it doesn't cost much. Like oars on a sailboat.

Taxes are immoral, CO2 is almost certainly not warming the earth.

That is something I've only heard Indians say, and since you talked about India in several other points I think you have some affinity with it.

What is your feelings about world population?  What do you suppose is the carrying capacity of the Earth?  If you think the Earth is overpopulated do you have any policy proposals?

• The Iraq War was an absolute failure, and the War in Afghanistan was way more prolonged than it could’ve been.
  
• I opposed US intervention in Libya, the War in Iraq (though evidence shows the 2007 surge saved lives), and US support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen. 
  
• American human rights abuses in the Middle East, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are evil.
  

• Lots of research points in the direction of drone strike efforts resulting in reductions in terrorism, with fairly low civilian casualty counts. 
  
• People who actually live under drone strike-targeted regions, on balance, don’t oppose them. This is according to several polls. 
  

War on terror as in what specifically

Since your studies are focused on both Economics and Mathematics, are you considering an M.S. or phD in Econometrics at the London School of Economics? 

• Factory farming should be illegal. Animal suffering is the world’s most pressing immediate problem. 
  
• It sounds weird, but there’s a legitimate risk that artificial general intelligence (AGI) could cause human extinction -- I’d say something like a 1 in 20 chance in the next 100 years. There’s also more plausible-sounding risks like a sharp rise in inequality from being able to automate most tasks in the future. We should regulate companies like DeepMind and OpenAI more carefully, and fund labs working on making AI go safer. 
  
• Nuclear power is good, but overrated. The focus of climate policy should be solar, wind, and, more speculatively, geothermal. 
  
• Fracking should be legal in the US. It creates jobs and generates economic efficiency. Banning it would make energy sources more unclean and empower Russia and Saudi Arabia. 
  
• Gas tax holidays are bad. Gas taxes should be coupled with carbon taxes on corporations. 
  
• In general, hiring more police officers is a good idea. Most countries have fewer police officers than optimal. This might require increasing law enforcement budgets. Police over prisons is a good approach to criminal justice reform. 
  
• The current government in India has done more harm than good, both by mismanaging the economy and hurting India’s advancements on social justice. It’s quite plausible to me that even the Indian National Congress would have done a better job. 
  
• On balance, India’s system of quotas for disadvantaged caste groups has done more good than harm. 
  
• Feminism does more good than harm. 
  
• Abortion should be safe, legal, and accessible, as should contraception. 
  
• Biden is partly responsible for the ongoing inflation crisis in the US. 
  
• Developed countries should admit a lot more immigrants, including low-skill immigrants. 
  
• The War on Terror was, on balance, a success. 
  
• The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was, on balance, a good idea, even with the benefit of hindsight. Biden pulled out of Afghanistan too early, and, by cutting aid flows to Afghanistan, has since been an absolute failure there. 
  
• Biden’s response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has been, on balance, pretty good. The same goes for Zelenskyy’s response. 
  
• Rent control is a bad idea in most cases. 
  
• Excessive zoning regulations, like the Floor Space Index in Indian cities, are very bad. Most coastal American cities are seriously hurt by it. Denser cities are both greener and more efficient. 
  
• We should ban gain-of-function research and fund the Biological Weapons Convention a lot more. There’s a legitimate risk of major epidemics or even a pandemic that’s man-made. 
  
• Developed countries are underpopulated. The US doubling its population would mostly have positive consequences. Population growth should be driven both by systems that make it easier for people to have kids (e.g., child allowances, efforts to lower the cost of living) and large increases in immigration. 
  
• Biden has done a poor job on COVID vaccines. It’s time to invest in creating cross-variant vaccines, and speed up access to nasal and oral vaccines in developing countries. 
  
• Conferences and events in US cities that continue to have mask mandates should abolish them. People can wear masks if they want to, but we’ve reached a point in the pandemic in the US where mask mandates are no longer required, and are frankly kind of silly. 
  
• Free international trade is broadly a good thing. 
  
• It is very hard for developing countries to grow through services. Export-oriented manufacturing is the best tried-and-tested model for developing countries to catch up. 
  

Do you plan on post-graduate study?

What are your thoughts on the debate format of this site?

Rather than your political views, may I ask to which school or schools of Economic thought you subscribe?

Go for it.

The Republicans also supported Bush W. and Bush W. saw a recession, housing and stock market crash. So republicans know what to do to hurt the democrats.

Even though trillions of dollars of covid relief bills were signed during both Trump and Biden's terms.

• The Fed’s credibility is really important for long-term economic stability. To prevent a future inflation from spiraling out of control as people and firms make early purchases to avoid the risk of future inflation, you need to believe the Fed will act. 
  
• The function of a flexible average inflation target is that, in times of low inflation, you know there’ll be high inflation in the future and hence make a bunch of purchases now. In times of high inflation, you know inflation will go below 2% in the future, so postponing some purchases might make sense if the nominal interest rate exceeds expected future inflation, even if it’s below current inflation. 
  

I assumed that the labor market will cool on its own as job openings fall two-thirds of the way back to what they were before Covid. I also assumed that inflation expectations will fall back toward where they were before Covid and that the recent good news on gasoline and other volatile prices will keep coming for the rest of 2022. Under these assumptions, which are more optimistic than the authors’ midpoint scenario, if the unemployment rate follows the Federal Open Market Committee’s median economic projection from June that the unemployment will rise to only 4.1%, then the inflation rate will still be about 4% at the end of 2025. To get the inflation rate to the Fed’s target of 2% by then would require an average unemployment rate of about 6.5% in 2023 and 2024. 

Which is your favourite debate on this site?

• The rematch between Bsh1 and Whiteflame on military contractors. I’m sad it didn’t get any votes; probably the best debate that happened well after DDO’s decline. 
  
• Thett and Whiteflame’s debate on jury nullification. Just a really enjoyable back and forth, interestingly written and well-argued, even though both cases had some missing links. 
  
• F-16 and Raisor’s debate on whether the U.S. should eliminate its nuclear-armed ICBM force. A great lesson in how to do a “plan” topic well. I also think Bluesteel’s RFD here has some really informative feedback; also check the comments, where Bluesteel has further excellent thoughts. 
  
• I believe Yraelz and Raisor had an excellent debate once, but I can’t remember what it was about. I’d love if anyone could link me to the archive of it. 
  
• Probably some of Bluesteel’s older debates, like the short one against FourTrouble on whether same-sex marriage bans fail the “rational basis test” (to be clear, both were pro-gay marriage, it was a specific debate about a legal technicality; I’m actually not sure if Bluesteel deserved to win this, it was very close), the one against F-16 on whether an amusement park should build a steel or wooden trolley, and the one against Innomen on the Nicaraguan election (though the last one was controversial, since Bluesteel lost essentially through a bunch of vote bombs -- and I actually think he won it pretty clearly). 
  

That is two financial reasons you admitted  made you pick an American University.

So I was right. There are financial reasons for you picking an American University.

Really? Do you happen to have the archive link for it? I remember Mikal winning it.

Just use the waybackmachine, he did win it. Although bluesteel strikes me as someone who was likely male who enjoyed pretending to be a woman on the internet to fulfill some sort of fetish of his. 

There is no debt forgiveness in Indian universities unlike in the US.

For an Indian to believe that god probably doesn’t exist is no different than the British who did not believe the Indian gods exists and invaded India. They were probably met by Indians Ike you who agreed with the British and let them in.

Why did you choose to study in the US? And how’re you liking it? 

Also, how have your political views changed over the last few years and why? 

• I’d say I was quite left-wing in late 2016 and through much of 2017, and I moderated a lot (became broadly pro-capitalism, pro-free trade, and anti-excessive economic regulation) in 2018. I went from socialist to regular liberal. 
  
• I became a decent bit more hawkish on counterterrorism measures, and less dovish (though not quite hawkish) on military intervention. For example, I got convinced that the War on Terror was largely a success, drone strikes seemed often (though definitely not always) effective at saving lives, and that the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan did more good than harm. I still think the Iraq War was bad, as was the 2011 intervention in Libya, though. In part, this opinion was formed by watching the fall of ISIL, as well as the serious failures of the pull-outs in Syria and Afghanistan under Trump and Biden. 
  
• I think I became a fair bit more conscious about the importance of reducing caste inequality in India, and its importance to intergenerational mobility. This wasn’t necessarily a shift in views, as much as views forming -- but I gained some appreciation for, for example, Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian politics and the Self Respect Movement. 
  
• I used to be in favor of legalizing all drugs (as you, no doubt, remember). I’m still in favor of legalizing soft drugs (especially if they can substitute smoking, which is terrifyingly bad), but I oppose legalizing hard drugs. 

I mean... Mikal was #1 even after leaving the site for 5 straight years. He also destroyed bluesteel on gun rights. So I would argue he was the best debater on the site by far.

You have built a compelling case for both for and against God. So you would hardly be blamed for picking either side.

But your remain undecided so if either position is proven right you have nothing to gain having remained on the fence.

What is even more surprising is you are from India a country which has a god for every occasion. For you  to walk away unconvinced of your own heritage smacks of betrayal.

What is your reaction to India's Joint Military exercises with China in Russia this week?

Give me your honest opinion of me.

Are there any blind spots in America's actions or views, that you might see, but many Americans miss, that come to mind?

• My thoughts on trends in modern competitive debate 
  
• Any of my political views
  
• Anything about India
  
• My honest opinion of you, if I have one 
  

• The teleological argument, based on a fine-tuned universe
  
• Perhaps something like this, or versions of the simulation hypothesis -- just broadly based on the idea of a “superintelligence”
  

• The notion of God is prima facie absurd (or invokes tons of ad hoc assumptions), and naturalism can explain most observable phenomena 
  
• Generally, God tends to be defined as a mind that created the universe/space-time, but minds are a process that -- to our knowledge -- only exist within space-time/seem to require time to even be coherent 
  
• The universe probably doesn’t have an external/original “cause” of existence, insofar as (1) an efficient cause requires time, and it’s unclear whether simultaneous causation is even possible and (2) philosophers and theoretical physicists seem to converge on a B-theory of time, under which the universe probably doesn’t have a meaningful “origin”
  

1. No
   
2. Yes

• I like free trade. 
  
• I support abolishing most occupational licensing, regulations on building market-rate housing, price controls (including on pharmaceuticals) and rent control, and lots of regulations on businesses. (I do like some other regulations though.)
  
• In the U.S., I oppose a lot of policy priorities that progressives generally share, including a wealth tax, single-payer healthcare (e.g., Medicare for All), a Green New Deal (at least, the version advocated by the more left-wing Democrats), auditing the Fed, free college, and student debt cancellation. 
  
• I support increasing investments in police departments and hiring more police officers. 
  

Yeah,  it's true Dems can't abolish the filibuster because of those two peeps (and I just realized my typo from my last post -- I meant to say put back the filibuster in the end, I think). I don't agree that the Senate is necessarily an un undemocratic institution, although I see what you mean in the sense of majority rule. But I do think the Senate is good for checks and balances and specifically a check against majority rule. Sinema and Manchin are just doing what their constituents want them to do. It's not like W Virginians are super liberal. 

If  Democrats had the shameless will to win like the Republicans do, they would #1 get rid of the filibuster; #2 make Washington DC and Puerto Rico states; #3 pack the court; and finally #4 overturn the filibuster.

Inflation is a tool of the state used to correct any time the market begins to favor the workforce. When people are paid high wages and cannot afford to improve their living standards you know that inflation is working.

Money is not an end in itself it is the means to an end

Inflation is not a bug of capitalism it is a feature.

As a feature of capitalism inflation can be used by the ultra rich in the same way they use money and towards the same end. To concentrate wealth in as few hands as possible. 

Honestly any "liberal" who supports capitalism is actually supporting meritocracy and exploitation. You cannot have capitalism without those.