those brain differences aren’t innate

Makes sense. Surely political views are most of the time just a product of someone’s life circumstances. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that billionaires are conservatives who want to lower taxes on rich people. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that people who face particular struggles in life (low income, discrimination, dangerous work, health problems) often support left-wing politics.

Israel has no right to exist, it is stolen land that needs to be returned

You could say that about nearly every country. Perhaps white people need to leave the US and Australia. Perhaps anybody with Anglo-Saxon genetics needs to leave the British Isles and return to the area around Germany and Denmark.

I think Israel’s current far-right government is terrible and has committed genocide, but I don’t think that means Israel needs to stop existing as a country altogether. Germany didn’t stop existing after WW2, although of course it was split into two parts.

I think some people don’t like the idea of an explicitly Jewish state existing, but if someone uses that logic, then surely they would have to also object to every explicitly Muslim state: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and so on.

I noticed this in the article:

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Lineker is “very welcome to pay more tax he can write a cheque to the Treasury, no one is stopping him.”

But I guess Lineker might argue that he’s saying all wealthy people should shoulder the burden of taxes, rather than just him individually

I guess it’s not surprising that the Tories will think of any creative excuse possible to protect their wealthy backers from having to pay even a single penny more in tax

Even if someone is more to the left than I am, is attacking Starmer so much really a good idea? If Labour fails over the next few years then the most likely consequence will be a Reform-led government.

It reminds me of people on the left refusing to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 because they thought she was too pro-Israel. The consequence was Trump regaining the presidency, and Trump seems much more pro-Israel to me than Harris would have been.

I disagree, I think Starmer is a decent guy, more so than the Tory PMs we’ve had for a long time

Support for Reform correlates with fewer academic qualifications (see chart below, from here) so maybe what has happened is that politicians for too long have failed to help people with fewer academic qualifications. Maybe that’s why such people are willing to support a different sort of politician like Farage.

I just watched that, good video. I hope his victory is binevitable.

Yeah I did think that. But if I were such a person, I think I would quite enthusiastically support the bin, since it is clearly the lesser of two evils.

Maybe they’re not unified because they believe in a common good, but instead because it serves the interests of each of them to see Farage make a fool of himself and potentially lose support in the polls

Is he? I don’t think Newsom demonises immigrants as much as Trump does… and Newsom has talked recently about favouring federal taxes on very wealthy people, to fund things like healthcare, while Trump seems to be happy to allow the wealthy to keep getting richer and act however they want towards the American public.

I think it’s fair to say that you shouldn’t blindly vote for someone just because they’re a Democrat. You should definitely evaluate the person. But I think Gavin Newsom specifically is an alright guy and I think he would lead a fairer administration than Trump’s, if elected. But I guess most people, if elected, would lead a fairer administration than Trump’s.

If Newsom is the Democrat candidate in 2028, I think that’s an alright outcome. I think he would be a better president than Trump. Not just because he has a “D” next to his name, but instead because his viewpoints seem more rational and fair than those of Trump.

Some people might think that Newsom isn’t progressive enough, but whoever is the Democrat candidate, they need to have broad enough appeal to win a national election. If the candidate is someone who is very progressive then they might alienate a lot of centrist voters and fail to win a national election.

I think Farage will be the prime minister following Burnham, unless anti-Reform voters unite behind a single party like Labour.

At the moment, anti-Reform voters are split among Labour/Greens/LibDems/SNP/Plaid, and because of First Past the Post, this is likely to make Farage the prime minister.

I don’t think the US blew up Nord Stream. There’s a Ukrainian man in Poland who is wanted in Germany for blowing up Nord Stream. But a Polish judge refused to extradite the Ukrainian man to Germany because he thought a Ukrainian attack on Nord Stream would have been a justified response to Russia’s “bloody and genocidal attack” on Ukraine:

If Ukraine and its special forces… organised an armed mission to destroy enemy pipelines – which the court does not prejudge – then these actions were not unlawful… On the contrary, they were justified, rational and just

As for your claim of a “coup”, I don’t think that can be considered true in any way. Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency. That’s democracy at work.

I don’t like the current governments of the US or Russia, but let’s remember that Russia is currently waging an invasion of a European country while the US is not. I hope Europe can build sufficient defence capabilities to prevent further Russian aggression towards Europe, or indeed any future American aggression towards Europe.

I think it’s right for the UK and Europe in general to invest in defence. Europe is on its own; nobody else will defend the continent. If Europe can’t defend itself then it probably won’t be long until the US or Russia or China decides they’d like a piece of European land for themselves (well Russia is already trying to take European land of course).

Sure it looks unlikely that the US will become more humane soon. The best hope is that a more humane leader wins the US presidency in 2028.

As for a multipolar world, I don’t think it would necessarily be better. China is the most powerful nation after the US, and I don’t think China is a bastion of humane government, given their political repressions, such as their treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Then there’s Russia and their invasion of Ukraine.

Hopefully the world will become more humane but I guess that terrible things like wars and genocides may continue.

I don’t like the current government of the US, but I also don’t like the current government of Iran. I wouldn’t see either government as a “necessary evil” - I would rather see both countries have more humane governments.

Also I wouldn’t see the “weakening” of the US or Iran as a goal. I think they just need more humane leadership, who can wield power in a moral manner.

Iran killed civilian protestors, but yes it seems the US killed civilian children. I think both regimes are bad.

My view is that antisemitism is a very real issue, but yes I agree with your point that Israel’s current government uses the label of antisemitism to dismiss genuine, non-antisemitic criticism of Israel.