9 Comments

This is a very worrying development made worse by the EU's apparent institutional impotence to be able to do anything about it. Add this to the already long list of crappy 2020 developments...

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Seen from a Danish perspective it's sad that one of your neigbouring countries chooses the iliberal path. Many Danes, me included, work with Poles on a daily basis, but this election might spell the beginning of the end of such fruitful cooperation. Around one percent of the Danish population is Polish and it worries me that PiS could be spreading anti-semitic conspiracies and authoritarian ideas amongst my fellow countrymen.

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Addendum - the Opposition needs to take heart from the narrow loss and begin campaigning for the next election, appealing to hope, highlighting the government’s failures and weaknesses. As Yascha says in the article, ‘(o)ver the next three years, demographic changes are likely to favor the opposition’. A disciplined and united Opposition can assist ‘the precarious balance of public opinion shift(ing) against the government’, so that the vote at the next election cannot be anything but ‘free and fair’. The worst thing the Opposition could do or become is as illiberal as the Government

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PiS is wasting no time and they’ve already mentioned they’ll be working towards expanding the number of voting districts from 41 to 100. This aims at eliminating smaller parties, as simulations shows PiS (and PO) would gain many seats while smaller parties would be limited to 1 seat tops. This is a gamble, though, because the same play in the Senate made all opposition parties create one common list, thanks to which they hold a narrow majority.

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A disappointing result indeed, confirming a trajectory that does not bode well for Europe. As an aside, I’ve just finished listening to Yascha’s interview with Ezra and I was really surprised to hear such raw emotion in Ezra’s voice. He was clearly worked up and had confused the reason for a community such as this one, namely, the need for due process, natural justice - the need for reasonableness and proportionality in response to inadvertent mistakes, or ill-informed statements / actions

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Is there a place people from persuasion can discuss the Ezra interview?

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A few points - thank you for referencing the Ezra interview. It is a must listen for Persuasion folks as Yascha does a fantastic job of explaining the "why." Second, on the inaugural meet and greet we talked about ideas. It is clear to me that we need a clearing house of resources/articles/programs, etc. that are core to the cause. Not everything can/should fit under the Persuasion banner but there are a ton of relevant and important resources that would be helpful to have referenced from one starting point. It's not about having enough information but curating it based on our collective core interest. Lastly, re: the Ezra interview - I really liked the conversation around "safety." This is effectively what we are talking about - everyone wants it and there are trade offs that need to be made as the "safety" of various perspectives/constituents bump up against one another. I know how I/we wash out but Ezra's point is still valid and should be addressed. Leaving the discussion with the possibility of a "Code of Conduct" at least touches on the point of how we get to the "AND" - freedom of speech "AND" safety for those engaged in it. JS Mill at the end of Chapter 2 talks about fighting fairly and he errs on the side of open debate as not doing so generally chills minority opinion. He leaves a coda effectively saying that if you do talk about constraining how you speak, you need to ensure this is held up by both sides. This point, I, too would like to explore further.

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This raises a good point that a forum would be of tremendous use. It poses nightmarish moderation issues since anti witch hunting communities are apt to draw witches. But we'll hit those in comments too, in time.

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I thought Ezra’s point about ‘power’ was a good one to make and one we can all understand and agree with. Yet he kept missing the key point Yascha was trying to make (and the reason I’ve signed up to Persuasion)namely, illiberalism ‘chills’ discussion and can be the very opposite of a ‘healthy workplace’, particularly if you are dismissed from your employment without the benefit of the right of reply, due process or even the simple dignity of knowing what items of information (let alone evidence) you have been arraigned on that justify a unilateral termination of contract

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