Overton Window vs. Ratchet

The New Right, whatever they want to call themselves, is obsessed with a few key ideas. One of the most prominent of those ideas is the Overton Window.

The Overton Window is the idea that at any time there exists a range of acceptable policy options and unacceptable policy options. According to the New Right, the Overton Window almost always shifts left. In other words, progressive policies slowly become more acceptable, and conservative policies slowly become more extreme.

An extreme version of this view posits the existence of a ratchet effect. In other words, once the Overton Window shifts left, you cannot shift it right.

Naturally, this differs from the view expressed in the United 93 Election. That viewpoint holds that it is possible to shift the Overton Window right, and that is what the Administration is trying to do.

On the front page of the USA Today, the headline reads: Koch pumps up Trump agenda. Few things can be more reassuring to the administration than the prospect of the Koch brothers joining the cause. Specifically, the brothers are supporting overarching tax reform.

Nevertheless, the prospect of such tax reform and deficit reduction and increased military spending smacks of magical thinking. Simply put, it isn't possible, not even for Trump.

WannaCry and Botnets

Evidently, ever since the WannaCry killswitch domain was registered, botnets have been attacking the site, trying to take it down. This is interesting because it is difficult to understand the motive behind such attacks. Are the people operating these botnets really Joker like figures, bent on causing maximum chaos? Or do they have some other motive?

Only time will tell.

Useful Rules for Evaluating a News Article

The Washington Post and New York Times have been blanketing the news cycle with stories attacking Trump and the Trump administration.

I find myself in the awkward position of not liking the man, but liking many of his appointments. In any case, I think many conservatives can agree on one thing: the media is over doing it, and harming itself in the process.

The Federalist has a neat little list of criteria for evaluating news stories. I suggest you make use of it.

Article Bounty

Here at the Tangential Dispatch, we are interested in covering the recent cyber attack. Sadly, we're not experts on the topic. So, to remedy that short coming, we are offering a bounty for your content,

If you have some special insight into what happened, we want to hear from you. Please submit a brief  but informative article to us at kindlycallmegod@gmail.com, and we will publish your submission. Sadly, however, we have shallow pockets.

Still, we'll be offering bounties for your content. Every week we'll select one post and reward it with a $20 bounty. Future bounties will be rewarded by a jury of previous users. So, please, feel free to comment and contribute. 

Together we can create a meaningful platform for serious investigation.  

Ransomware

Ransomware is nothing new. Neal Stephenson wrote one of his worst novels on the topic. A few years ago, a school I worked for lost months worth of files because we were attacked and hadn't backed up our files. It really sucked to lose months worth of planning, but maybe something more is going on.

Over at NEO-NEOCON, there is speculation about just who Marcus Hutchins is. We face, I think, a serious dilemma. The most important thing to keep in mind is Snyder's advice to remain calm when the unthinkable happens. This exploit is just a harbinger of things to come. What needs to happen is a real investigation into what happened.

For the next few weeks, the Tangential Dispatch will be devoting most of its time to covering this latest Ransomware attack.

What we need to combat cyber attacks is what we already have: a relatively decentralized system. What we don't need to combat cyber attacks is a more centralized system.

Establish a Private Life

Timothy Snyder in On Tyranny has provided us all with twenty important lessons to keep in mind. My particular favorite is Number 14: Establish a Private Life. Many of us, perhaps myself included, are guilty of spending too little time protecting ourselves online.

The recent wave of ransom ware that swept Asia and Europe and barely gave America a miss is a case and point. People online are trying to private public. Certainly some brave souls fight against this trend, but major firms have an interest in acquiring as much data as possible. And some will use underhanded methods to acquire it.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Instead of engaging in an encryption decryption arms race, we should simply live non digital lives. What do I mean by that? I mean forsaking places like Reddit and online forums and engaging in local politics.

 A civic life lived offline is worth far more than a civic life fed by upvotes and downvotes.

Not A Trump Supporter

I find myself in a difficult position. I am not a Democrat. I am not a Trump supporter. I am not a civic nationalist. I am not an ethnic nationalist.

I believe in institutions. Truth be told, I have my doubts about American institutions. I think past tinkering has already placed us in an untenable position, but I believe that we must respect those institutions nevertheless. Why?

Because those institutions are the product of our liberal democracy. We liberal democrats, we classical liberals, must keep that simple fact in mind. Colin Powell had his famous Pottery Barn rule for Iraq: You break it, You bought it.

The same applies in our present crisis. We broke it. Now we have to fix it, whilst respecting the institutions that have made us a Shining City on a Hill for the world at large.

No matter the man, we should never join ourselves to a cult of personality.

I believe our institutions are strong enough to weather the storm, especially if the average citizen defends and safeguards them.

Reddit and Politics

I've reached a simple conclusion, one that many people have probably already reached on their own.

Reddit is the hemlock of civil society.

In real life people are atomizing themselves. Online people are Balkanizing themselves. Truth be told, this is a false dichotomy. A lot of things are going on, but I believe people are devaluing themselves and finding values in tribes.

Reddit is a platform, a battleground, for digital tribes. Reddit allows these digital tribes to engage in rhetorical combat. Upvote allies. Downvote enemies. This is nothing new.

I belong to the first generation that took the internet for granted. Sure, it was expensive and frustrating, but you could always count on a connection. But the generation before us were the true trail blazers of the internet. They were the first trolls, the first sock puppets, the first tribes.

Centuries ago, Rousseau answered a simple question with a simple answer. Has civilization benefited humanity? No, it hasn't, he answered. A simplistic answer, but at least he has the guts to bite the bullet.

When asked about the French Revolution, Zhou Enlai said it was too early to tell. Perhaps he's right.