Seen on Y!IM

[cjsmith]

Random snippets from CJ's mind this morning.

On emigration:
me: I've lived overseas, and I don't mean someplace that speaks English and watches American movies. It's not easy.

On the aging population, Social Security, and immigration:
my conversation partner: So yeah, I can imagine going from "trying to keep people out" to "trying to bring those ppl in"
me: As soon as we start realizing work is valuable.
my conversation partner: Damn, CJ, I had soda in my mouth.

On dating:
me: I would have trouble dating someone who automatically looked down upon [label], if [label] can be applied to me.

Comments

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

You're right, we're too far apart to have a useful discussion. I figured out long ago from Usenet that there's often too high a conceptual or terminology or ideology barrier between people to allow it, and stopped having such arguments because they're pointlessly stressful.

More to the point, this isn't our space to rant in, and I doubt the owner would appreciate it.

[yoak.livejournal.com]

Fair nuff. :-)

If you'd like to talk about the more basic issues and perhaps circle around to this again, I'd be happy to do so, but as you point out this is perhaps not the best place. If you'd like, you can drop me a line at jeff@yoak.com .

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

No need to stop (or move the discussion) on my account! I like well-thought-out discussion when I see it. If it's here I get to see it.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hey wait, I'm enjoying this! No need to stop on my account. :)

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

Well... all I'm gonna say is that it looks like Jeff is coming for an anarcho- or perhaps minimalist-libertarian perspective. If we actually lived in a totally unregulated economy and environment then such arguments would carry more weight. But the fact is we don't and won't anytime soon, so they are too abstract to convince me.

Also, saying someone is "crazy" if they don't accept your ideological premises doesn't strengthen the argument. Kinda the same problem some "blue-state/red-state" partisans have with each other, they won't even acknowledge their opponents' sanity much less their arguments.

As a purely pragmatic matter, if we dropped all the border controls and let every one of the hundreds of millions of people in the world who want to move here do so, I would be trying really hard to meet the immigration requirements in New Zealand or Australia or Canada - not for political reasons, but for breathing room and a culture I could live somewhat comfortably in, because that culture wouldn't exist here any more.