I think my view is that I don’t like how oppressive Iran’s regime is, but there are many world governments I don’t like (including that of the US). I also think the US and Israel probably shouldn’t be murdering Iranian civilians with bombs just because Trump and Bibi don’t like Iran’s government.

Why would somebody trust AI with access to their production servers, and why would that person also not have remote database backups

Quite right. The Trump administration are the ones who decided they don’t need allies. Fine, then there is no obligation for America’s old allies to help America.

Maybe there should be an official alliance between America’s old allies: Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, etc. A big free trade area with Americans excluded.

Obama clarified his comments on Instagram:

I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!

What’s crazy is that Trump would never say anything even half as intelligent as that.

I was reading an opinion piece about this sort of thing earlier today, “Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam’s clouds and go EU-native”. It opens by saying:

I’m an eighth-generation American, and let me tell you, I wouldn’t trust my data, secrets, or services to a US company these days for love or money.

America at the moment keeps providing reasons why Europe and Canada should seek to become more independent of the US

I was looking at Democratic polling for 2028. Newsom and Kamala Harris are apparently leading the polls. Pete Buttigieg and AOC are a bit behind in 3rd and 4th place:

I would be interested to see primary debates between Newsom and AOC. But I guess that’s 2 years away.

I think TikTok is bad. But maybe the reason young Americans condemn Israel is because of Israel’s actions (bombing Gaza, starving Gaza, withholding medicines from Gaza, trying to deny Palestinian statehood).

I think Hamas’s attack on Israeli civilians in 2023 was not in any way justified. Civilians should not be attacked. But if we’re going to say that, then it also means that Palestinian civilians should not be attacked.

Maybe. But I think it’s worrying if young people are now feeling more emboldened about being racist.

I hope the US doesn’t invade other countries. But I would say I can be wary of both the US and China at the same time.

All societies have morals right? In pretty much any country, if you say something that is considered bad in that country, people won’t like you. That’s not censorship, it’s just morals. In many countries, racism is usually considered bad, so if you say something that seems racist, many people won’t like you.

If DHH wanted to make a point about culture in London then it’s possible to do that without tying it to ethnicity.

Let’s not say that reverse racism is a real thing, because that’s an imaginary racist trope.

My view is that racism can happen to any ethnicity: black, brown, white, anybody. It depends on the situation. If a business run entirely by white people disallows entry to a black person because they’re black, that’s racist, but if the races were reversed (a business run entirely by black people disallows entry to a white person because they’re white), I’d say that’s also racist. In fact if I end up talking to a white person about racism I might deliberately give them an example of a situation where a white person could experience racial discrimination, because that might make them think “fair point, I would dislike it if someone was racist to me, so maybe racism is a bad thing”.

I’m not a fascist or a troll, and if someone wants to read exactly what DHH wrote, then they can click on the link to his blog post, which is in my summary. I think it’s good that you’re quoting more of it to be honest, so people can see what he wrote, and they can decide for themselves what they think about it. I’m not trying to “whitewash” anything, I just wanted to give people an overview of the situation so they can draw their own conclusions, whether positive or negative.

Firstly because when he says London is “no longer full of native Brits” he links to a Wikipedia page about ethnic groups in London. So he seems to be talking about ethnicity. Secondly, he says that these “native Brits” are now “about a third” of London. Looking at the Wikipedia page he linked to, the stats show that white Brits were 37% of London according to the 2021 census, which is about a third. It seems to me that’s probably what he’s talking about.

If “native Brits” just meant people born in the UK, or people with a British passport, then those figures are higher: 59% and 77% of London respectively (that page says that “In 2021, more than 4 in 10 (40.6%) usual residents in London were non-UK born, and more than 1 in 5 (23.3%) had a non-UK passport”).

I think DHH is talking about ethnicity specifically though, not culture. He said London is “no longer full of native Brits”, and he describes “native Brits” as now forming “about a third” of London. White Brits were 37% of London at the 2021 census, so I think that’s what he’s talking about.

It’s possible to express disagreement with a cultural practice without making it about ethnicity. E.g. someone might object to men and women being separated for religious prayer. They might believe that men and women should pray together. It’s possible to make that point without making it about ethnicity.

I’m just interested to see what the other side of the argument might be. Sometimes you might very strongly disagree with other people’s views, or even be disgusted by those views, but you might still want to find out what those views are.

Ethnicity and culture are different. A person can choose to adopt whatever culture they want regardless of their ethnicity. Also if you said something like “I don’t want that particular ethnicity to move to my neighbourhood due to their culture” then I think that’s probably racist. I think it’s fine to object to certain cultural aspects as long as you don’t tie it to ethnicity though. E.g. if you said “I object to a cultural practice of treating women worse than men” then I think that’s okay.

He doesn’t seem to be talking about culture. He didn’t say something like “London has fewer pubs than it used to”. Instead he seems to be referring specifically to ethnicity. His interest in London seems to be reduced because more non-white people now live in London.

Is it okay for DHH to express his unhappiness that London is no longer mostly White British? He said “I thought I might move there one day… Now, I wouldn’t dream of it. London is no longer the city I was infatuated with in the late '90s and early 2000s. Chiefly because it’s no longer full of native Brits.”

Let’s say a lot of white people move to a previously black area. This causes a prominent person to write a blog saying “I thought I might move there one day… Now, I wouldn’t dream of it. It’s no longer the place I was infatuated with. Chiefly because it’s no longer full of black residents.” That would be racist wouldn’t it?

The only issue I had was his police “apology”. I get why. It’s him trying to make sure he can control them as governor. It’s basically him acknowledging the militarized police state and playing politics. It’s not what we want to hear though.

I just watched the interview. I thought his apology was fine. Surely if you want a safe society then you need an effective police force? Obviously you don’t want an unjust police force, and Zohran mentioned that, but I think what normal law-abiding people want is an effective and just police force who can keep everyone safe.