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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Uncontacted indigenous

mardi 22 octobre 2019 à 02:00

Eliminating the protections for uncontacted indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon will surely lead to killing them.

Diseases will kill most of each group, and they are so small that they could not continue.

Hate and phobia

mardi 22 octobre 2019 à 02:00

There are many systematic forms of hate, but hatred of the poor may be the biggest.

Hatred and phobia are different things. A phobia is an intense, irrational fear. People who are afraid of heights or small places do not hate them; conversely, people who hate the poor do not fear them (though they may feel disgust, which is not the same).

To avoid building confusion, let's not refer to systems of hatred as "phobias". I disapprove of antigayism, antimuslimism and antitransism, but I reject the terms "homophobia", "islamophobia" or "transphobia".

Another systemic form of hatred, which the article cites an example of but doesn't discuss, is hatred of atheists. In the domain of religion, atheists are the most hated group. We should oppose antiathism (short for antiatheistism) as well as antimuslimism and antisemitism.

Kurd allies

mardi 22 octobre 2019 à 02:00

Leading US generals are extremely angry at the conman for abandoning the Kurds. Those who have retired are saying so.

The argument that the US should not abandon an ally has validity, but only to a certain extent. It was used to argue for continuing the war in Vietnam, and the war in Cambodia. ISTR it was also used in Iraq, and I think it has been used to argue for continuing the war in Afghanistan.

In the case of the Syrian Kurds, this argument reinforces other reasons why the US should have defended them.

Smuggling antibiotics

mardi 22 octobre 2019 à 02:00

Prohibiting the routine use of antibiotics in farm animals, necessary to slow the evolution of resistance genes that can spread to organisms that cause disease, has led to a new form of drug smuggling.

I don't think this will be as hard to control as smuggling addictive drugs. A farm uses the antibiotics to increase its profits, so it won't pay any more than the increased profit would be. Indeed, given the risk of legal trouble, it won't pay even half that much.

Taliban condemn suicide bombing

mardi 22 octobre 2019 à 02:00

A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Afghanistan and killed 62 people.

The Taliban condemned the attack, which makes sense: they are strict Islamists, and their policies violate human rights, but they are not madmen. I suppose this was the work of PISSI.