Moral Panic Next Door: The new "Internet radicalization" boogeyman for the simple-minded

[antaeus]

Offtopic: Nazi Germany was anything, but not efficiently run.

Just compare the execution of public building projects. The Federal Republic is incapable of such feats.
The New Reich Chancellery had a build time of 11 months. Airport Tempelhof is a wild success story whereas the cost-overrun, botched, never opening Airport BER("Willy Brandt") only highlights the corruption of politicians and construction companies involved and is a embarassment for Germany. Or the eyesore of the Elbe Philharmonic Hall which is hilariously claimed to be a symbol of democracy, but doesn't even perform its main function as concert hall properly with its botched acoustics. Stuttgart 21 is another disaster.

In modern-day Germany, we can't even build a road without some tree-huggers throwing a hissy fit. Meanwhile China builds whole cities in record time.

Did I just see a "dictatorship is good because of buildings" argument?

China builds stuff to keep people employed. Like empty cities and unused freeways. All they're waiting for is a demand side crisis to see how good that is going to turn out (wait.. post CV-19 depression anyone?) Then there's that 3/4 built palace in Romania or the occasionally airbrushed hotel in North Korea. And Nazi Germany blew up it's debt so badly that they had to go to war with the world to avoid paying it (I know I know absurd simplification and avoidance of all the other contributing factors)

But don't worry, there's a second British aircraft carrier with "democracy made me" stamped on the side waiting to be thrown on the pile of "useless builds to keep the economy alive" so it's not unique to any form of government.

Cost overruns happen because of positive-outcome-biases in planning. Dictatorships don't have to deal with this because "get it done because I told you so" and pointing guns at people to make them work harder. I'd much rather a cost blowout for a roading project than have people worked to death en masse to build a freeway.

This thread is well and truly derailed. But I prefer rubbishing dictatorships over treating the internet like 1950s America.

[Mayer]

Or maybe a strong hierachical form of organization is in general more efficient to get things done. Like private businesses who are run like a dictatorship and have only one goal, to make profit.

[antaeus]

Or maybe a strong hierachical form of organization is in general more efficient to get things done. Like private businesses who are run like a dictatorship and have only one goal, to make profit.

Countries that run like a dictatorship are dictatorships...

The problem with dictatorships is that they tend to be hierarchical in form, but extremely competitive within the structure of that hierarchy because there are so few paths for ambitious people to climb. And because climbing the ladder depends on approval from above, authoritarian government forms tend to encourage lies, obfuscation and cover-ups as people compete against each other for the approval of a senior, without accountability to those beneath. This might create great looking buildings, but it also opens up room for gross inefficiency. We've seen what can happen in China during the coronavirus' early stages - where local officials first sought to hide and obfuscate the epidemic in order to not bring problems to their seniors. So get things done... perhaps, but not necessarily well, or for the right purposes. The world is littered with pointless statues of important authoritarian leaders.

In fact, I'd argue that dictatorships are highly inefficient and insecure. They're always one step away from a competing underling doing anything to move up.

A well functioning democracy offers infinite pathways for progression, and accountability. And a system that is bigger than any individual. Visible cost overruns becoming political issues and the fallout they generate are actually a good thing. They show that a project is accountable, and that there is a reputational cost to not staying on budget.

[Coughdrop addict]

Back on topic the ideas this thread is based on are nonsensical and easily proven false. No one is going to forget the massive amounts of death and carnage the right is directly responsible for within the last few years. So your only options are:

1: Denial. The deep state and Obama fake every shooting to take your guns.

2: Whataboutism. This other guy did something bad decades ago so your side isn't responsible for it's rhetoric that encourages spree killings of "libs" and "inferior races".

3: Blaming the victims. Those parents shouldn't have sent their kids to a daycare in a federal building if they didn't want them killed.

This isn't a moral panic. This is people realizing there is a very real chance they or their family members will be murdered by right wingers and being understandably worried and wanting to prevent it from happening.

[Common Soldier]

Back on topic the ideas this thread is based on are nonsensical and easily proven false. No one is going to forget the massive amounts of death and carnage the right is directly responsible for within the last few years. So your only options are:

1: Denial. The deep state and Obama fake every shooting to take your guns.

2: Whataboutism. This other guy did something bad decades ago so your side isn't responsible for it's rhetoric that encourages spree killings of "libs" and "inferior races".

3: Blaming the victims. Those parents shouldn't have sent their kids to a daycare in a federal building if they didn't want them killed.

This isn't a moral panic. This is people realizing there is a very real chance they or their family members will be murdered by right wingers and being understandably worried and wanting to prevent it from happening.

The same thing the left is guilty of with regard to Islam.

1. Blame the actions of lone gunman on the Right, but say Islam had absolutely nothing tondo wirh the cordinated group attacks on the World Trade Center, Paris, London. Madrid, and Sri Lanka

2. Shutdown alt right sights but call anyone who criticizes Islam an Islamophobe and shut down their sites for criticizing Islam.

3. Blame the victim in islamic attacks. It was their fault for upsetting Muslims.

Ben Affleck gets furious when Bill Maher and Sam Harris criticize Islam the same as they do other religions https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EN52CP2_F0U

Now,there are those of the left who are consistent with their stance and hold Islam to the same standards as everyo ne else, people like Sam Harris and Bill Maher, but many are like Affleck..