There is a danger the National Security Law will be weaponised, he says, with people saying: “If you don’t agree with me, I accuse you of infringement of the national security law.”

“I don’t agree with this type of stuff,” says Mr Tang.

After years of searching, we finally found him. The least self-aware man on the planet.

What can be done about this? Obviously Trump won’t intervene, so what other levers of action can people push against?

Yes, more so in this tradition though I have significant differences of opinion from him as well.

The piece or the events upon which it’s based?

I think Freetown Grafton it was an interesting experiment though obviously poorly organized and underpinned by wacky people with an excessively individualistic idea of how human society should work, which predictably led to many problems.

It’s important to note that the core ideological thread of libertarianism is liberty. That is, opposing domination and coercion of people by others. These other ideas the modern American libertarian movement has grafted on about individualism and capitalism really aren’t that closely related to that core concept, and in some ways are in tension with them. It’s fully possible to be an anti-capitalist libertarian who believes that humans need to work together to solve problems. That is my position, and my hope is that with more rigorous planning and cooperation, a society where state coercion is minimal or absent is possible. But it would require a less coercive form of social organization to take on the services currently offered by the government.

In my view, this should happen first before attempting to completely overthrow or dismantle government. This is one of the mistakes made by the Grafton libertarians. That said, there are some institutions like the military or prison systems that are so harmful that I think it’s justified to fight against them even without a clear alternative in place.

But I still think it’s good to see people experimenting with alternative social arrangements so we can gather evidence on what works and what doesn’t. The results weren’t great, but neither were they so catastrophic as to not be worth the attempt and information gained from it. In contrast we see many horrific failures and abuses of government power all around us, but people fail to question the foundations of that power, despite these dire consequences.

Very true. I consider myself one but I don’t usually share that since people will get the wrong idea.

He’s just not any kind of libertarian. He’s the head of state and supports a lot of strong and unnecessary interventions into people’s lives. As well as power grabs like the one in the article.

“Libertarian”

Isolation is the one part of the carceral system that does have some effect, but I don’t think it’s the best way to achieve even that part.

I guess I don’t know the previous situation in Italy with regards to this issue. Was there a large number of people getting caught for these offenses and then released? Because killing someone and locking them up for 20 years is basically just as good from the perspective of separating victim and offender. It would be better to focus on consistent investigation and capture than on harsher penalties.

Or on programs that work to prevent violence in the first place. But we would only pursue those if we cared more about helping potential victims than about hurting offenders. That doesn’t seem to be the priority for most people.

Extreme punitive measures from the police and carceral organs of the state will not solve misogynistic violence. I’m glad people are fired up about the problem but this is the wrong approach. It’s been tried 1000 times for other things and it never works.

What shady stuff have they published in the past? I’ve generally found their coverage good and they often cover stories like this that other mainstream sources won’t.

Why would they ever approve the adoption of a 13-year-old to another continent? This seems extremely sus even without any evidence of wrongdoing.

I don’t think it will be enough but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong.

But what kind of support are they going to offer that changes the outcome?

Won’t shed any tears for him but I wonder what this means for the balance of power in the Philippines? Will we see the rise of a new Marcos regime as potential rivals are targeted? This one comes with a pretty solid excuse in its international origin but I hope it’s not the start of something darker.

I know people like to pretend that every institution in the world is controlled by the US but this is certainly not true for the ICC.

That said, the US has maintained a very threatening posture towards the court so they might fear a reprisal even if they’re not directly controlled.

Honestly while Rubio sucks and it’s not really his place to say this, it’s hard to imagine any peace deal that doesn’t have involve territorial concessions. It’s up to Ukrainians to decide whether that or continuing the war is worse but I just don’t see any other options. Ultimately, Russia has to agree to end the war somehow.

Agreed. My sense was there was a disproportionate Jewish presence at Palestinian liberation protests I attended.

Hating entire groups of people based on assumptions that they are all the same is always ignorant and wrong. People just need to remind themselves of this no matter how “right” it might feel in a particular instance.

Was this some kind of protest or just for fun?