Hacker News Reader

Comment by Peteragain | Hacker News Reader

As a leftie - admittedly one who thinks - I thought the article was actually quite positive and didn't bring politics into it: "What would that look like for something as simple as EV charging stations? Standardized approval processes. Pre-approved vendor lists. Streamlined permitting for routine infrastructure. Clear timelines with accountability mechanisms." A clear and sensible suggestion. Cool.

View on HN

I think state capacity shouldn't be a left-right issue. Whether you want oil rigs or public parks to be built, everyone can agree that once the decision is made, it should be built swiftly and well.

And the public should be able to have an expectation that when the government says they'll do something, they're capable of doing so within a reasonable budget and timeframe.

In my neck of the woods, you’d be called a capitalist bootlicker for this point of view by many lefties. I get called that for basically any suggestion besides complete communist revolution.

I can always tell who on the left is ideologically poisoned by how vehemently they hate anything related to the idea that current government processes and regulations could improve or that government regulations can go (sometimes very) wrong. As if somehow that admission is the same as wanting anarcho-libertarianism.

As a “liberal” (American definition), you’re in a far different bubble than I am.

I'm an American, in my circles "liberal" is almost a curse word. It's what we tend to call people who support corporate power, profit motivation, and social progress as long as it doesn't inconvenience them personally.

We broadly use "leftist" to refer to ourselves, whether that's democratic socialists, anarchists, communists, syndicalists, unionists, etc. Philosophically, these folks are fundamentally pushing for wellbeing of all, social motivation, and social progress even if it inconveniences me personally.

I don't think it's helpful to refer to these differences in ideology as bubbles, though. I think there's a very real philosophical difference between liberals and leftists, and has been for generations. 60 years ago Phil Ochs sang "Love me I'm a liberal", and it wasn't a new idea back then. Liberals and leftists hold incompatible worldviews. Just like liberals and conservatives do. I think deploying the term "bubble" for such broad groups is probably more reductive than helpful.

I'm a lefty, but off the anarchist stripe, if you start calling for communist revolution I'll be there to oppose you. ;)

But more seriously, I think we could do a lot more with local governments and our capacity to build things. Part of that is regulatory, but a I think a majority of the problem is we focus too much on getting a thing built and not enough on continuing to run it. Whether it's housing, transportation, bridges, whatever, everyone is excited for opening day then we immediately start paring back funding and support for it. Which results in loss of quality, which makes people go "why are we even paying for this", which leads to loss of funding.

Where is your neck of the woods? (Vaguely, of course, nobody wants to reveal where they live on the internet). I spent a lot of time in New England college towns (the region is stereotyped as very blue, and so are college students), but didn’t much like that. The activists I knew were… not so interested in infighting that they’d turn away anyone who was willing to canvass.

Maybe it is a West Coast thing though, stuff seems more acrimonious out there.

There’s a typo in my post but the edit window has closed:

> I spent a lot of time in New England college towns […], but didn’t much like that.

I meant

> I spent a lot of time in New England college towns […], but didn’t see much like that.

With that being liberal vs leftist infighting. I loved living in New England college towns, they are great. You can walk to a cafe or a bar, it’s like being in another country.

They can't think far enough ahead to see that competent government would make more people more comfortable allowing more things to be done by government which would help their goals.

These are the sort of "can't think two steps ahead" voters that historically voted for the people who passed the laws that we here in these comments are lamenting now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com