HandwovenConsensus

Oh, whoops. That went over my head.

What’s the issue? They’re illustrating the cultural divide rather than discussing policy. The cultural divide is least as relevant to understanding American society as policy differences between the parties.

I agree. But there were a few moments where the Ferengi were shown not to behave consistently with the principles they espoused.

They shouldn’t have had any problem with (Edit: Rom) forming a union, for instance. After all, what’s wrong with a little collusion and price-fixing between the sellers of labor?

I guess some hypocrisy is to be expected in any society.

Sounds like The Probability Broach.

Huh. I always thought the song was meant to be sarcastic. Like, the singer is friends with someone way more famous/popular than him, and people only pay attention to his friend when they’re together. “They must think we have the same name, because they never say mine!”

Is this an alternate history where Africa colonized Europe instead of the other way around, or a speculative future?

If the former, then it should be noted that the names of many of the African countries you mentioned are the product of colonialism. Might be better to use the names of indigenous cultures.

What baffles me is that despite that, whenever there was an international food festival at my school, the US booth operators dressed like Uncle Sam instead.

When you think about it, it’s pretty unreasonable to expect the entire population to become educated and engaged about everything involving running a modern society. Modern government is incredibly complicated. It’s no wonder that tribalism wins over nuance. Who has time for nuance when they’re worried about their jobs and families?

That’s why I’d like to see some form of sortition tried. Draft a jury to do nothing but learn about a single topic for a period of time. Make all of their contact with the outside world public record to ensure nothing shady is going on. Let representatives from all sides of the issue address them. Then let them make their decisions and go back to their normal lives. No campaign donors or political careers to worry about.

Yeah, I’ve been having the same issue. It clears the page after a BRIEF period of inactivity.

Here I thought I was doing OpenAI a favor by keeping garbage out of their training data…

This is similar, albeit much better written, to a theory that I posted on reddit ages ago.

What’s interesting about this is that is seems like Worf is among those who misunderstand what Klingons mean by “honor.” When Worf refused to support the invasion of Cardassia, Gowron warned him that he’d lose his standing in society, he’d have nothing. Worf answered, “Except my honor.” Whereas that act entailed losing, not saving “face.”

Another interesting scene was in The House of Quark, where Gowron told D’ghor, “…if you can stand here and murder this pathetic little man, then you have no honor, and you have no place in this Hall.” If this theory is correct, Gowron was in a sense ceremonially stripping D’ghor of honor with that statement.

It’s possible that the answer is somewhere in-between, however. Klingon honor involves both being trusted and being trustworthy.