Comments by "bj0rn" (@TheLivirus) on "OxfordUnion" channel.

  1. Some very wise words from Albin regarding prerequisites and measures of democracy. A particularly good point regarding populism in democracies.
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  2. Speaker 1: Ukraine isn't Russian. Speaker 2 & 3: Europe must fight more actively for its values. Speaker 4: We must exclude Russia from the international community. Speaker 5: Must must impose sanctions and seek energy independence from Russia. Speaker 6: We should have committed harder to the inclusion of Ukraine into EU/NATO since 2008.
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  3. He explains that GB is so dependent on the rest of Europe, member or not, that whatever awful trajectory EU is heading GB will be dragged along. So it lies in the interest of GB to try and repair EU rather than leave, and he believes it is easier for GB to do so as a member.
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  4. I think we can support Ukraine independence and sovereignty and still reject their request for membership in NATO.
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  5. Its crazy how such basic wise words have grown to be viewed as radical lately. Our systems have been corrupted.
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  6. Feels good doesn't it, to win an argument you made up in your head. Now can you respond to the speaker?
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  7. Jonathan drank the coolaid.
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  8. I believe there is a legitimate fear that the return to strong self-serving nation states in Europe increases frictions and tensions between nations and may ultimately lead to war. The recipe for peace proposed by liberals after the world wars is democracy, openness, transparency, collaboration, multi-culturalism, etc. leading to shortening of cultural distances, more understanding of other cultures, and less war profiteering. I would like to hear how Nationalists believe that peace can be maintained in a world of strong self-serving nation states. How are disputes between the states best resolved in a peaceful manner? How do we deal with power disparities between nations, preventing weaker and less resourceful states from being dominated by more powerful states? How do we prevent escalating security competitions between nations?
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  9. Peter Thiel seems oblivious to the fact that the technology appears to go hand in hand with the globalist vision. Just listen how the globalists at WEF fetishize technology and conspire how they can best utilize it to manage populations at scale.
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  10. This wasn't a debate though.
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  11. He makes it very easy for himself by arguing against socialism at its most extreme form. A more relevant question is whether elements of socialism can complement capitalism in a positive way, or whether any degree of socialism leads to negative outcomes for most people.
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  12.  @willnitschke  I'm curious as to what makes you think any redistribution necessarily makes everyone poorer. Are there any good studies/data on this topic you'd recommend?
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  13. ​ @willnitschke  Looking at the median wealth per adult, it's in no way clear that it's a monotonic function of the level of redistribution. Iceland has less redistribution than Switzerland? Singapore has more redistribution than France? Italy has less redistribution than USA? Hardly. If we extend our analysis to tax as percentage of GDP (a rough representation of redistribution), the top 10 taxers include all of Scandinavia, Germany, France and Belgium, all of which show fairly high median wealth per adult. Within top 10 you also find countries like Algeria and East Timor which show low median wealth per adult. If it's such an indisputable relation between redistribution and wealth (of everyone), why do we see so much scatter? I think you should lower your confidence to better match the data.
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  14.  @mrpotato442  In the video.
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  15.  @drwalka10  A lot of name calling and sarcastic remarks being thrown around, no substance.
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  16.  @PutinIsKing  Inform me...
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  17. I think we should be careful not to read too much into Putin's words, given that words are often used for their effect rather than their substance, in particular by politician's seeking to rally support for military action.
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