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Self in Society Roundup 54
Presidential politics, DeAngelis cancelled, zoning, racism, Mexican crime, and more.
Copyright © 2024 by Ari Armstrong
October 8, 2024
The Presidential Campaign
The fundamentals of the race have not changed. Trump is morally unfit to serve as president. He tried to overturn the last election, a direct assault on the foundations of our democratic republic. He continues to run mainly on conspiracy mongering and racism. He shares responsibility for the abortion bans in various states that have killed several women and subjected many more to legal jeopardy. A vote for Trump is a vote for bigotry and authoritarianism. Following are additional notes about the race.
Mike Huemer understands the critical issue: "The U.S. President, for the first time in the history of the country, made a concerted and credible, illegal attempt to not leave office after he was voted out."
Trump is a straight-up racist, claiming that some immigrants bring "bad genes."
Liz Cheney gave a speech endorsing Harris. Because, unlike Trump, Cheney promotes Republican principles.
Trump has called for vigilante violence, promoting "one really violent day."
The Pennsylvania Republican couple who filed a pro-Harris ad, predictably, were threatened by Trump supporters.
Noah Smith: "Much of [Harris's] platform is about abundance—building more housing, building more energy, lowering costs for health care and groceries, etc. When it comes to lowering costs, Harris tends to favor deregulation and pro-competition policy instead of handing out big subsidies (which raises the cost to the nation even if it lowers the price for the user). The platform is also surprisingly pro-business, with lots of proposed deregulations, as well as financial and logistical support for small businesses and startups." As Ilya Somin points out, Harris has backed away from the worst of her price-control schemes.
Trump called Harris "mentally disabled," again demonstrating that he has the moral character of a schoolyard bully.
Robert Tracinski writes: "Trump has a consistent obsession, a theme that runs through his entire time in politics, even before he was a candidate for president, and that is whipping up a hysterical fear of the other—which includes an implicit conception of America as a white-majority ethnostate. . . . [T]he online right's focus on Springfield has been inflamed by a neo-Nazi group called Blood Tribe."
As Brodie Farquhar points out, Trump also has picked up fascist terminology about "re-migration."
Cathy Young writes about "the MAGA hoax about pet-eating Haitians." See also the New York Times on the "debunked claims about Haitian migrants eating pets."
Speaking of Neo-Nazis: "Federal prosecutors in the U.S. have charged Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison, two alleged leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, with a slew of felonies including soliciting the murder of government officials on Telegram."
No bueno: "A majority of Americans support mass deportations."
During his debate, Vance said, as part of his anti-immigration pitch, "You've got schools that are overwhelmed, you've got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you've got housing that is totally unaffordable." Notice something: These are all industries that government has massively screwed up. This is a great example of how government controls breed more controls.
Trump lied, "The Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of [North Carolina are] going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas" following the hurricane. Of course many of Trump's baseless accusations of others actually are his own self-projected faults. As Rolling Stone summarizes, "In 2018—as wildfires ravaged large swaths of California—Trump initially refused to approve aid to the state because he felt some of the affected regions didn't like him enough." In related news, Republican governor from Tennessee Bill Lee tried to put to bed "rumors circulating around social media about Helene donations being confiscated."
Vance appeared at a campaign event with an evangelical leader who accused Harris of . . . witchcraft.
Oklahoma wants 55,000 Bibles for schools and seems to favor specifically Trump Bibles. This brings to mind a verse from Matthew: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits."
ProPublica discusses Paul Dans, a major force behind Project 2025.
Harris has a more ambitious campaign, for whatever that's worth.
Sam Elliott recorded a great pro-Harris ad for the Lincoln Project. One line: "If it's the woman thing, it's time to get over that. . . . It's time to be a man and vote for a woman."
Quick Takes
Books: Apparently many college students can't read them.
DeAngelis Gets Cancelled: As I was just saying, Cory DeAngelis made a huge mistake tying the school-choice movement to the religious right. Well, it turns out, go the allegations, that DeAngelis once made gay porn. And you can imagine how well those claims went among the religious right. "Mr. Personal Responsibility" said, "I was a victim of poor decisions and poor influences." See Robby Soave's article. I'm a homeschool dad, and DeAngelis is not my ally.
Exclusionary Zoning: Ilya Somin says it violates the takings clause. I don't know about that, but it's definitely bad and a flagrant violation of property rights!
Too Many Laws: Jacob Sullum reviews Neil Gorsuch's book.
Social Media: A new paper finds "no evidence that time spent on social media is correlated with adolescent mental health problems." Via Cowen.
Racism: It continues to be fairly popular in Europe too.
AI: Cowen: In one trial, doctors performed worse than AI in diagnosing disease.
Externalities: Marginal Revolution University uses the example of bacterial resistance to antibiotics to illustrate principles of externalities.
Walsh: Bryan Caplan finds some things to like about Matt Walsh's new documentary. The problem is that Walsh focuses on the absurdities of the left while completely ignoring the obvious and serious racism on the right. Just because many on the left are paranoid about racism, doesn't mean there are no racists.
Liberty Fund on Race: LF has out a discussion on classical liberalism and race. Timothy Sandefur laments that "libertarianism is often associated with outright racists, thanks largely to the political tomfoolery of the Libertarian Party's so-called Mises Caucus."
Mexican Crime: NPR: "Organized crime has become so powerful that gangs are extorting everything from gas stations to avocados growers and trucking companies." The U.S. drug war long has destabilized the region (not that that's the only problem).
Taliban Oppresses Women: Still, "I sing the anthem of freedom."