Category Archives: Social Commentary

History, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Obeying The Law

It starts at the top:

…for people to want to obey the law for reasons that go beyond avoiding punishment, several things have to be true. First, they must generally approve of the law: Maybe not of every individual provision, but they have to believe that, in general, the laws are just rather than unfair. Second, they have to feel reasonably confident that most others will obey the law, too: People like to feel like good citizens, but they don’t like to feel like suckers. Finally, they have to feel as if the people in charge also respect the law. Examples are set at the top, and if the government treats unwelcome laws as unworthy of respect, you can expect the populace to feel the same way.

Nonsense. Laws are for the little people.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

California

13 Comments

…is so over:

…we are producing a California that is the polar opposite of Pat Brown’s creation. True, it has some virtues: greener, cleaner, and more “progressive” on social issues. But it’s also becoming increasingly feudal, defined by a super-affluent coastal class and an increasingly impoverished interior. As water prices rise, and farms and lawns are abandoned, there’s little thought about how to create a better future for the bulk of Californians. Like medieval peasants, millions of Californians have been force[d] to submit to the theology of our elected high priest and his acolytes, leaving behind any aspirations that the Golden State can work for them too.

I don’t know what it will take to break the back of this destructive aristocracy.

[Monday-morning update]

Jerry Brown’s Oedipal struggle.

[Bumped]

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Social Justice Warriors

3 Comments

They’re appropriately named, “angry, vicious people who want to eliminate disagreement.”

Ultimately, they want to eliminate more than just that.

[Afternoon update]

Here’s an example: Hey, remember that First Amendment?

I touch on these other assaults on free speech to provide a context for Hillary Clinton’s foray into the battle to shut people up (a procedure, it is worth noting, that is often a harbinger of a battle to lock people up). The constitutional amendment that Hillary Clinton told the world she would consider would be directed against the Supreme Court decision in the case of Citizens United. “We need to fix our dysfunctional political system,” quoth Hillary, “and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment.”

Free speech for me, not for thee.

[Update a few minutes later]

Women ejected from a conference to protect (beta, or perhaps even omega) men. This whole notion of “safe spaces” is culturally insane. What happens to these delicate flowers when they have to go out in the real world? But these people have to politicize every freaking thing. They are totalitarians.