Berlin can be good value once you’re settled. The problem is usually finding a decent apartment, not paying for it.

We’ve always liked the Swedish Labor movement. They stood with us against the King when we wanted independence.

The effect of the 2 party system on how people understand politics and society is incredibly interesting

It’s been seventy years now. How long do you think dead Britons will have more responsibility for and power over India and Pakistan than the people in those countries?

Maybe? We’re currently trying to implement a different economic transition, from pollution to green. I don’t think popular resistance to those changes imply that we should try for a happy medium instead. Similarly, the difficulty in achieving Socialism democratically doesn’t necessarily imply anything about how desirable the end state would be.

The big issue with “trying” communism is that it historically has only really occurred through violent revolution. The political instability in these situations gives a perfect opportunity for the seizing of power by exactly those kinds of people.

Gradualist Socialism was the political project for Social Democrats in post-war Europe. They had 30-odd years to achieve it in several countries. The issue becomes that once they started notching up victories, radicalism decreased, and that when they’re not starving and oppressed people categorically will not vote to let someone collectivize their farms and expropriate their homes. It seems clear to me that in real-world conditions, a Socialist state can only come about through revolution, because the path in a democracy is far too long and leaves far too many angles of attack from a liberal opposition.

Norwegian dock workers refuse to help Tesla bypass Swedish strikers, so not completely alone

We do our best to limit damage under the assumption that nearly everyone should be allowed a licence and a car, that’s not the same. A small share of drivers are responsible for the majority of fatalities, and while some of these drivers are obscure until they kill someone, many have offenses, lose their licences but are allowed back on the roads because we see the right to drive a car as sacred

Alcohol has been a fellow traveller for millennia, so it only makes sense that evolution would give us the tools to survive it

Only through historical social norms it has achieved its acceptability. Were it to be “discovered” today, it’d be banned in a matter of minutes.

Ease of production is at least as important I think. You can’t really ban access to starch and sugar, and as long as you can get those you can make alcohol.