Suppose you were trying to pick a U.S. city that could possibly be riddled by violence due to drug cartels, street gangs, or some other sort of violent crime (even though none of these were reported by the major news agencies). Perhaps the last place you would go would be Portland, or any other place in Oregon.
That’s because (per AI), Oregonians are known for:
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Love of the outdoors:
Many Oregonians are passionate about outdoor activities like hiking and biking, thanks to the state’s natural beauty.
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DIY and foraging culture:
The state has a strong do-it-yourself ethic, visible in hobbies like knitting and brewing, as well as a culture of foraging for items like mushrooms and fruit.
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“Oregonian” identity:
There is a sense of identity tied to being “different” and sometimes a playful aversion to anything seen as “Californian”.
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Environmentalism:
Oregonians have a reputation for being environmentally conscious, with a history of pioneering environmental protections and progressive policies.
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Quirky and authentic:Oregon has a reputation for being “weird” and “wonderful,” with a unique sense of humor and a drive to do things differently.Moreover, Portland boasts well-educated, well-read, people, many of whom are affluent due to various forms of involvement in the tech industry.It’s vaguely possible that federal troops are going to encounter people with guns, though it’s far more likely that they’ll find wealthy, retired people dressed as frogs.
I wish I had $100 for every time I heard some uneducated Trump supporter tell me this.
A democracy is a system where governmental power is derived directly from the will of the majority. A constitutional republic is a specific type of representative democracy where the people elect officials to govern, but those officials are strictly limited by a supreme, written constitution designed to protect minority rights from majority rule.
I remember a conservative friend who lived in Hawaii who complained that the native people objected to a project directed from Washington to build something at the top of one of their volcanoes, on the basis that this was their holy land. My friend asked, “Doesn’t the majority rule?”
“Not necessarily.” Trying to make my point in the simplest way possible, I explained, “People have rights. My neighbors like me, but imagine that they didn’t, and 20 of them, a 20:1 majority, wanted to come in here and beat me to death. I have a right not to murdered. When you think about it, we’re lucky not to live in a country where ‘the majority rules.’”
“Oh. I guess you’re right,” my friend said.
My biggest beef with Trump isn’t the many individual points of failure, but the fact that they are all the product of the mind of a criminal sociopath whose only way of thinking is self-enrichment, normally at the expense of anyone who cannot serve to make him richer and more powerful.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson says that our problem isn’t that our children don’t understand science, but that our adults don’t.
Three comments:
1) Wind is not a finite resource as long as the sun comes up every morning and disproportionately heats the Earth’s surface. 8th grade Earth science.
2) Wind doesn’t cool anything except the skins of certain animals that perspire. 9th grade biology.
3) Putting one’s ignorance of public display is not a strong idea, even in rural Texas.
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