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It's been one heck of a week:
Against the backdrop of record-setting numbers of COVID-19 deaths and infections in the US and around the world, there was turmoil in Washington, DC. As court cases surrounding the presidential election were filed and dismissed, a close race in Georgia was coming down to the wire and with it control of the US Senate. While the US Congress was completing the Electoral College tally and certification, a mob formed outside — and eventually broke into — the US Capitol. This resulted in a 4-hour lock-down. Eventually, the intrusion was repelled, and the Electoral College count was completed: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was confirmed as the 46th president of the United States of America.
Conspiracy theories have flourished. Propaganda has streamed forth across multiple platforms. Tempers have flared.
And SoylentNews has been there for you. And have you ever spoken up! Two of the most-commented stories in the site's nearly seven-year history were posted in just the past week!
Insomuch as the activities in the US Capitol were far from the US' most shining moments, neither were things all unicorns and rainbows on SoylentNews. Tempers flared. People were attacked and called names. I even accidentally deleted a story and the 17 comments attached to it! [NB: Problem addressed: the delete button no longer appears by default for our editors.]
IRC (Internet Relay Chat):
Even our IRC service was not free from controversy. We had a spate of nick (nickname) impersonations. Going forward, IRC users are free to use whatever nick they like with the following caveats:
- Prefix / suffix of a nick is fine for practical purposes (e.g. ${nick}_laptop)
- Impersonation or misrepresentation will not be tolerated
- The use of another user's website nick or derivative thereof on IRC will be subject to sanctions up to and including perma ban.
Further, we understand conversations can easily ramble from subject to subject, but there are separate channels for different topics. (Use the /list comand to see what is available.) As #soylent is the default landing channel, we want to keep the discussions there civil. Name calling and personal attacks are grounds for a timeout. I have had discussions with deucalion (the site's CEO and also IRC-maintainer) about these activities.
NOTE: we are NOT going to sit there watching every discussion, poised to take action. But, if such activity is seen by staff on IRC, they are free to take such actions as they deem necessary.
Aspirations:
As I approach posting my 10,000th story(!) to SoylentNews, I think back to when it all started. How a group of people got together. They shared freely of their expertise, of their free time, and of their hard-earned funds. They tried to create a place free from corporate overlords where people could engage in discussions that focused primarily on technology, but with a dabbling in other areas and current events.
SoylentNews provides a forum for discussion. It also provides tools so the community can express themselves in the comments and moderate those comments, as well.
This got me to thinking. What are our aspirations today? What are our guiding principles? I will list some of my guiding principles, and I encourage the community to share what guides them in the comments.
- "Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong." --H. L. Mencken (cite)
- "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." -- Isaac Asimov (cite)
- "If you speak when angry, you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret." -- Groucho Marx (cite)
- "Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it mean."
- "Don't get furious, get curious" -- Miley Cyrus (cite)
- "Humiliation is when someone points out my shortcomings. Humility is when I confess them myself."
- "I need not participate in every fight I am invited to."
- The most difficult behaviors to observe in another person are the ones I dislike in my own.
- "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." -- John, Lord Morley (cite)
How about you? What sayings guide your aspirations?
Thank You!
Lastly, I thank all of you for supporting me as Editor-in-Chief. I have no formal background in writing or management. I've made mistakes, but I've tried to own up to them as they happened. I strive to be fair, impartial, and open-minded. Under the watchful gaze of the community, I have grown. It is my hope that I may continue to earn your respect and continue in service for many years to come.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @09:21PM (8 children)
Let California secede, repatriate conservatives to other states, then see how california does on its own.
I keep hearing conservatives in California, and even non-conservatives from other states bashing on us for all our nutty environmental protections, labor laws, hollywood bullshit, etc. Why don't we find out whether California needs the Union more, or if the Union needs California. If any other states or regions want to redistrict or secede, let them, but California is the one state that could be largely self-sufficient given, say, 10 years to decouple infrastructure from adjoining states. This would of course require four major shifts in state policy: nationalizing PG&E and refurbishing *ALL* power and gas infrastructure, installing state-wide battery backed load balancing systems, going pro-nuclear for baseline power (renewables may handle most in time, but batteries AND nuke would be required to really 'go green' in the short term.), and lastly: major coast-wide desalinization efforts. This last one would require pumping water inland to help replenish the water table, reduce excessive well demand, and slowly reduce drought and desertification state-wide, even if the weather patterns no longer support it. If California can do all that, it will be much stronger as an independent entity than it ever has been as a US state, with the added bonus of not being detracted on and sabotaged from both without and within.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday January 11 2021, @10:52PM (2 children)
If California decided to leave (and let's assume for argument the rest of the country was amenable a voluntary dissolution, which is probably a bad assumption given the way things went the last time some states tried to secede, and the precedent that set), I suspect several adjoining states would want to leave with them, particularly OR and WA. NV and AZ might want to go too.
The reality is that CA has either the 6th or 8th largest economy (forget which) *in the world*, all by itself. It's unlikely it would do poorly on its own, just because of that. Almost all the tech companies are headquartered there, and tech is the one thing really keeping the American economy afloat these days, and which actually brings in lots of money from exports. The other thing bringing in lots of money from exports is Hollywood, which is also in CA. Anyway, there's significant tech presence in OR and WA too, and their policies aren't that different from CA's, so I could see the 3 of them all leaving together. Some adjoining states might want to join them if they figure out they'd be better off hitching their wagon to CA's economy rather than the moribund economy that the rest of the nation would have without the west-coast states.
The southeast and central states are really the ones dragging things down, both culturally and economically. They do produce a lot of agricultural products, but so do Mexico and Brazil, and their economies are nothing to be proud of either.
However, due to high costs in CA (esp. labor costs in the Bay Area), a lot of tech stuff has spread around the country more, so a separation like this could be very problematic for tech companies that now find themselves to be international companies. Really big ones like the FAANG companies are already used to having offices in different countries so it might not be a big deal for them, but for smaller ones it might. Austin, DC, some cities in FL, SLC, PHX, Boston, and others (and of course Portland and Seattle but let's assume they join CA) have significant tech presence in them now. Tossing out AL and MS wouldn't affect that part of the economy at all, however, since they have zero presence in those states; FL would affect it, but probably not so much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:36AM (1 child)
I propose the US keeps it's Pacific ports in the NW, and sets up a trail of tears for all the Californians who came up here and wrecked the place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @04:38AM
Said too little -- this presupposes CA becoming its own country. There would be no objection -- there would be widespread support likely -- in the states the CA infection has spread too.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 12 2021, @12:49PM (4 children)
"If". That would require leadership that can find its ass, using both hands. This sounds like the Brexit argument again - with a government even less competent than the UK.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Tuesday January 12 2021, @02:47PM (3 children)
Seeing as they are one of the only states with a balanced budget and paying down their debt- they will manage. Especially since they get back $1 for every $2 they pay in to the fed. Without the drain on their economy that the red states represent, all that extra cash will just make it work even better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:17PM
That used to be true but isn't really true anymore.
California no longer pays more to Washington than it gets back, study finds
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-no-longer-pays-more-to-Washington-than-15243861.php [sfchronicle.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:57PM (1 child)
I doubt the first order spending is that one sided. And keep in mind the hidden second order effects. Most IT, for example, bought with federal funds anywhere in the US, will involve California firms. A lot of other states' money gets redirected to a few states because that's where certain basic services concentrate.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 13 2021, @02:59AM
California is not the worst (Illinois has that title), but they are pretty weak financially. And we're seeing some business drain now as businesses move to more business-friendly places like Texas.