Favorite Rejects 2022-12-04

Andrew Prokop @awprokop

The structure of the trolley problem is: Do you do something moral intuitions say is "bad" for the greater good? But per Fried, the inherent assumption is "we are dealing with one‐off cases in which the outcomes of available course of action are known with certainty ex ante”

Andrew Fleischman @ASFleischman

Trying to make sure I understand how government coercion works

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

Good article.

theatlantic.comTaiwan Faces Its Ukraine MomentThe island’s people seem blissfully oblivious of a looming conflict with China. The U.S. can’t afford that luxury.

Ben Dreyfuss @bendreyfuss

Fwiw, I don’t think you were doing PR for the world’s richest man. I think you jumped at an opportunity to dress up a bunch of banal bullshit in a sensational way for money and subscribers can’t say I wouldn’t have the done the same! Doesn’t make the story explosive tho

Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi

Looking forward to going through all the tweets complaining about “PR for the richest man on earth,” and seeing how many of them have run stories for anonymous sources at the FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, White House, etc. https://t.co/l0uzwofqPT

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett

Where each state's largest immigrant population was born, from 1850 (usually Germany & Ireland) to 2013 (usually Mexico) pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015…

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

What really stuck out to me about this article was use of the word "fratricidal" to describe a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Bro, the CCP doesn't see you as their brothers, they see you as the alternative civilizational model that could bring them down.

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

Russia is especially vicious and genocidal toward Ukraine not *in spite* of the similarity and close historical ties between Ukraine and Russia, but *because* of those ties. China will be the same with Taiwan.

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

Conflict doesn't happen because of deep fundamental difference. It happens because of similarity. The most savage competition is competition for a niche. And "leader of Slavic civilization" is a niche, just like "leader of Chinese-speaking civilization" is a niche.

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

Basically the NYT's coverage of politics devours a lot of its other beats. Elon's management of Twitter is a very interesting politics story, a somewhat interesting business story, and a not-very-interesting tech story. ChatGPT is just the opposite.

Flo Crivello @Altimor

The NYT still has 0 mentions of ChatGPT, which is basically all tech has been talking about for the last few days. Instead, 3 out of the top 4 articles in its tech section are about Elon and Twitter - mostly negative, of course. https://t.co/wbDVDeo2pm