zlacker

I like Michael Hobbes's succinct gripe regarding the "debate RFK" nonsense about a week ago (alas, on Twitter, hence no link to the thread):

> The problem with this asinine debate over debating is that everyone is trying to come up with a content-neutral principle.

>>0xcde4+(OP)
I think the bigger problem there is that RFK could win the debate but that still wouldn't make vaccines cause autism.

>>0xcde4+(OP)
Disclaimer: I'm not American and have only the foggiest notion of who RFK is, but the urge to identify boundary conditions for 'permissible wants' does feel especially America-y to me. I speculate that it has something to do with the veneration given to markets --- the underlying anxiety being that having feelings about an intensely cultural use of forty billion dollars is somehow antithetical to the conduct befitting an ideal rational agent.