Andreas Schou: "Okay, I'll Stop Hiding the Ball: A Guide to My Politics"
There are a very few voices at the Plus I miss particularly. Andreas Schou is most of them. While I agree with much of what he has to say, more importantly, I really appreciate how he says it and writes. This is another great piece from him. A strong voice, a clear mind, and a potent message.
So, as I suspected, there was a great deal of variability in the description of my politics. I got both "liberal" and "conservative" and "libertarian" and "not libertarian," some comparisons to anarchists, and some things which were mostly just complimentary but not really descriptive. So, that being said, here are where my biases are....
My main priority is avoidance of misery.
I take "very bad things" much more seriously than "very good things," and when thinking about government policy, my focus is largely on avoidance of extreme poverty, starvation, wars, major recessions, imprisonment, sexual assault, and other things with a high propensity to cause large numbers of people to be miserable.
I think that there is very little to be learned from misery, and very little to be gained from it; there are some things that are just bad, and are to be avoided at all costs. I think the government ought to do what it can to keep misery from happening, because I evaluate inactions as being essentially morally equivalent with actions.
(Inaction is, however, easier.)
It goes on. I recommend reading it, and scrolling through his archives. Andreas, if you see this, get yourself a goddamned blog already.
Turns out he does have a best of stream.