What I believe

I’ve been thinking about making this post for some time.  With all the hate and evil in the world, and all the assholes in power, I thought I should make a quick list of where I stand on the important issues of the day. 

These are in no particular order, but I’ll start by saying I think people are people.  I don’t care if they’re white, black, male, female, trans, gay, ace, Muslim, Jew, atheist, born in America, born elsewhere, disabled, English speaker, non-English speaker, whatever.  I don’t care what people are, but what they do.  The only people I hate are the assholes.  I define assholes as people who hate people because they are black, or trans, or don’t speak English, or for whatever assholish reason they have. 

I believe the Palestinian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Israeli people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Ukrainian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Iranian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

Basically, I believe all peoples deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

Climate change is real, and caused by humans.  I believe we could slow down, halt, and eventually even reverse the warming of our world, but that would require a bunch of billionaires to either make less money or just find less destructive ways to make money. 

Speaking of money, my economic philosophy is basically a rising tide lifts all boats.  Helping those at the bottom, helps everyone. 

The people who should decide if a woman has an abortion are the woman, her doctor, the father (except in rape cases), her legal guardian if she is underage, and whatever family/friends she wishes to discuss the matter with.  If there isn’t a politician in that group, then it’s none of their goddamned business.

There are places where AI could be used ethically for good.  Unfortunately, about 99% of AI is used to make worthless slop.

No one – kings, popes, presidents – is above the law. 

I do not have an issue with the death penalty for terrorists or mafia hitmen.  My feeling is that once you’ve killed X number of people, you’ve clearly forfeited your right to life.  What X is, I can’t say, which is why I called it a feeling.  I also have the feeling that if you are the leader of some country that invades another resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, I’d say that could also be grounds for the death penalty. 

I’ll end this with something I realized years ago.  Humanity has but two choices: evolution, or extinction.  If we don’t grow and become better beings, we’ll likely destroy ourselves.