This Week in Google Alerts: Home Fires

Gwern Branwen · 10 Apr 2012, 00:43 · from 2012-April.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 20:43:21 -0400
Subject: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: Home Fires
In-Reply-To: <80F57724A3D24FF5BCA7647A3DED9B70@Rover>
References: <CAMwO0gzO39om7rf+grQ5gap44RqgshTVUUBU5REyx1eSn=_YbQ at mail.gmail.com>
	<80F57724A3D24FF5BCA7647A3DED9B70@Rover>
Message-ID: <CAMwO0gyFgS5w3ASWxmO=Wf3iOea_t9mfJryfiYxVbr13rsbRDA at mail.gmail.com>

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 7:52 PM, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com> wrote:
> Is a single North American currency such a right wing concept as all that?
> Nobody calls one a Nazi for favouring European monetary union ? quite the
> opposite, if anything.? Personally, I don?t really care what currency I hold
> so long as it is hard and fungible.

It's a right-wing concept in the same way as writing a story in which
the literal Antichrist takes over the UN and uses it to prosecute his
Satanic designs is right-wing. Which is to say, a caricature of it is
feared and predicted by right-wing nuts to a degree far beyond the
support the actual idea has in any circles, left or right (especially
after the Eurozone has proved to be such a mixed blessing, the
Canadians have not the slightest interest in a unified economic zone).

It is comparable to things in left-wing circles like anti-vaxxers or
many conspiracy theories during the Bush administration like 9/11
Truthers or Alternet posters convinced the government was setting up
concentration camps for liberals.

If I read an ostensibly apolitical novel set in 2020 in which
President Romney incarcerated all employees of the DNC and major
donors, mentioned in an side as a mere background detail without
extenuating circumstances like parody, I'd regard the author as a
little bit unhinged, for such a detail is so mindbogglingly bad
worldbuilding that it must reflect the author's own crankery.

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

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