Rick Camp

@reallutze @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath We have different definitions of waste & we will likely never agree. Just because we waste billions on the military doesn’t mean we should waste billions on USAID and the Department of Agriculture, senators’ pet projects, etc. This isn’t how society works, it’s how it withers.

@RJCamp3 @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath Only the sith deal in absolutes 😀. I am sure there is waste in govt. All previous measures have shown it is relatively small. You don't have any data to back the claim ' vast majority of USAID is wasteful'. I don't want to pay for a huge military but that's how society works.

One of the reasons that I don't accept the "nuking USAID killed millions of people" framing is because most of the people saying this never took the stance that the US was a tremendously good and heroic force for saving millions of people

@reallutze @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath That is all philosophy and no fact. How can you possibly say there is no reason for government funding to be cut? Are you honestly saying all government programs are useful and efficient? The vast majority of USAID is wasteful and I wouldn’t support privately.

@RJCamp3 @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath Except no one is stopping private funders even when govt is funding it. Privatization does not solve the problem because it created the problem in the first place. And remember there is no reason for the govt funding to be cut. usaid was not a partisan issue.

@reallutze @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath That is true. And if a program got cut once, it can be cut a second time or a third. Privatization also solves the problem of it never started to begin with. A program supported by a significant minority should be able to fund virtually any program without ever passing a law.

@RJCamp3 @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath The solution for a govt program being cut is not always to advocate for privatization. It could also be to ensure it gets restored.

@reallutze @Denzera @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath I understand that this is your philosophy and we differ, but this is why many dislike government funded programs. When money is seen as unlimited, efficiency is ignored and programs never end. There will be massive private funding sources after the Gates foundation is gone.

@Denzera @RJCamp3 @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath I know it sounds appealing but it just can't fill the gap. Since inception, Gates has spent ~110b. That is like 3 years of usaid or 2 yrs of nih. And Gates plans to run out by 2045. So not even sustainable.

@reallutze @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath Most who ask for government action see that as doing something. She is better and more effective than I am, really the vast majority of people. Discussing a program that got cut by political forces, and you think I should educate myself for advocating privatization.

@RJCamp3 @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath Just admit when you got owned and walk away. If you don't know why government might be more reliable than private donations, just educate yourself. It is not hard.

@max_spero_ @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath I am still working to make a positive impact that I am proud of on my immediate circle of influence. I don’t claim to be proud of any government programs or advocate that others should pay for my charitable preferences.

@RJCamp3 @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath Your turn, Rick. What have you done to make the world a better place?

@KelseyTuoc @eyezcreems @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath I think if a tenth of the people who said they care did a tenth of what you do it would reduce a great deal of suffering.

@eyezcreems @RJCamp3 @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath If everyone did a tenth of what I do, we'd end global poverty. At the same time, there are people who are dead who'd be alive if I gave even more. I'm proud of what I do and would admire someone (and do admire people) who do even more than that.

@KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath What got a better return on you time and resources: The donations and work or the lobbying and advocacy? I respect that you do both while most people just advocate, but why not do it without government so as to be less susceptible to political whims.

@RJCamp3 @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath I personally donated about $40k to $50k last year to GiveWell to try to expand private aid programs. I helped write pepfarreport.org about my best guess of PEPFAR's efficacy with allies from across the aisle so it'd be credible to all Americans.

@youngzeegy @eyezcreems @KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath Did it create goodwill or an obligation? PEPFAR might be cheap by government standards, but $5 billion/year is a lot of money. There is no reason this needs to be done by the US government vs a US or international nonprofit. If it’s so popular get $130 35 million people.

@eyezcreems @KelseyTuoc @RJCamp3 @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath PEPFAR costs about $13 per American per year. Altruism aside, it’s an incredibly cheap way of buying massive goodwill for the U.S. The idea that it’s some kind of appreciable economic burden is just innumerate people’s brains turning off when they hear “-illion”

@KelseyTuoc @blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath You have 65k followers. What have you done to replace PEPFAR?

@blinky4thewin @besttrousers @politicalmath They are neither as awesome nor as wealthy as us.

@KelseyTuoc @kbean511 @politicalmath That attitude allows spending to snowball. Everyone gets something they want.

@kbean511 @politicalmath If we lived in a world with a strictly minimal government that did nothing but national defense, absolutely. But most of my tax money goes to random shit that Congress or the President decided they wanted to do. I think it's good when it's good random shit and bad when it's not.

@CAgovernor Even if Plutarch had said that, so what? The economy is already democratized. People vote with their purchases. What you actually mean is socialized, or some other variant, where people like you get to control it, and tell the rest of us what is good for us.

This is not sustainable. Plutarch warned us 2,000 years ago that the imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. We have got to democratize our economy so that it works for all.

@MatthewRideout @AndyMasley @MorePerfectUS They still block traffic and bike lanes, just for shorter periods of time, but more often.

@AndyMasley @MorePerfectUS you could fit 5, 7 seat passenger cars in that space, each taking the riders to a closer proximity of their final destination without blocking traffic and bike lanes. But ya'll aren't ready for that conversation.

NEW: If Waymo gets its way, 2 million workers will be out of work. When Waymo gets a firm hold on a city, wages go down. Some drivers now have to work 12 hours day, 7 days a week just to get by. This isn't inevitable — but Big Tech is spending millions to make you think it is.

@conor64 Every bit of information that has come out makes it worse. They weren’t mistaken, they were lying or just choosing their preferred option. The better question would be why does anyone still trust public health officials.

@conor64 The reasons have been well documented. Highlights include Fauci’s lies/changing stories, the Lancet’s letter condemning lab leak theory, 15 days to slow the spread, the vaccines prevent infection, and the utter lack of humility when dealing with limited evidence.

A question for everyone: survey data suggests that by the end of the Covid-19 emergency trust in public health institutions had decreased significantly. If you are among the people who reacted that way, why specifically? I'm hoping for long, diverse, individualized answers.

@gilbert_henry @whyjohngalt @ShameVincent @avidseries @mehdirhasan It is not convincing that terrorism is mostly Muslim because Muslims are in violent areas, because the Muslims are why most of those areas are violent. Muslims have an inordinate share of terrorism and violence. The problem of the ideology is in how it views/treats non-Muslims

If you can articulate the specific goal post shift I’ll concede it I’ll even help you out with a summary - explicitly stated ideology matters - gave data for why so much terrorism is Islamic currently - gave a response as to why suggested low conflict zones (Indonesia / Philippines) have issues with terrorism

John Cleese is a perfect example of Dunning Kruger. Spends all his day tweeting incessantly about the evils of Islam, misquoting the Quran, attacking Sadiq Khan, and making points about comparative religion that are demonstrably wrong. Buddhist extremists don't kill their religious enemies? Go to Burma. Hindu extremists don't kill their religious enemies? Go to India. Catholic extremists don't kill their religious enemies? Go to Northern Ireland. FFS.

@gilbert_henry @avidseries @mehdirhasan High Muslim population isn’t sufficient to cause terrorism or violent conflict, but how much of that violence exists without it. The stable countries might show what is needed to control/stabilize radical Islamic forces, not that those ideologies aren’t more violent than others.

@RJCamp3 @avidseries @mehdirhasan Except I already noted the stable Muslim-majority countries with near-zero Islamist terrorism. That undercuts the idea that ideology is the primary driver of the conflict zones

@gilbert_henry @avidseries @mehdirhasan Why do almost all the conflict zones involve Muslims? Easy to use conflict zone as a get out of jail free card for Muslim ideology when Muslim ideology is a contributing factor to most conflict zones.

Uggggh this is just such weak framing. Yes ideology matters, but no it isn’t why Islamist terrorism is so over-represented. The over-representation is almost entirely (>90-95%) because terrorism overwhelmingly occurs in active conflict zones, and the vast majority of those hotspots since 2001 have been in Muslim-majority regions (Iraq, Afghanistan, Sahel, Syria, Somalia, etc.). Stable Muslim-majority countries see almost none of it

@getjonwithit @naval I think Shakespeare said this same thing 400+ years ago: “Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, … … … … … …”

I think one of the conclusions we should draw from the tremendous success of LLMs is how much of human knowledge and society exists at very low levels of Kolmogorov complexity. We are entering an era where the minimal representation of a human cultural artifact... (1/12)

@LucisLuvChild @LisaBritton Exactly. That is why they don’t support them.

@LisaBritton Left Leaning Women already know how important they are. Just ask them.

Surveys show left-leaning women are the least likely to support male-only groups and spaces. What can we do to wake them up so they can see how important they are?