Why beat a dog when you can beat its master?

Legally speaking, weren’t the tariffs paid by companies that import stuff into the US? (Sure, they passed on those costs to consumers, but I don’t think that would matter in court.)

Give me an example of true theocracy being used in history.

The theocracies that actually existed - the caliphate, or imperial Japan - are the true theocracies. In general, whatever exists is real and true; if our expectation does not match up to it, then it is our expectation that is flawed or incomplete.

Aren’t those things already in place, to a degree, yet proven to be easily circumvented,

If they were easily circumvented, you would not hear billionaires crying about progressive taxes or labour standards.

as those same people create and uphold the laws regulating them.

And that’s the problem with a completely free ‘democracy’. The rich will use their greater wealth to buy politicians or spread disinformation. We need to either remoce wealth inequality, or at least prevent it warping democracy. This requires rules, and an authority to enforce them.

Anarchism is not the removal of regulations, it does remove central authority, the coercive and corruptible bodies in control.

If rules are not enforced, they might as well not exist.

Democracy in all of its current forms, in the world that we live in today, is not working. It is badly broken. There is far too much to fix, even by your own admittance. It has grown into the very ugly behemoth that we see today.

I agree with all points except the third. A truly democratic state - one in which all people have equal voice - is the only defence against the rich and powerful abusing their wealth and power.

That will not happen within the democracy that we currently have.

I don’t know. I hope peaceful change is possible. But those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable.

Theocracy has never been tried in history (not properly).

You’re looking at it wrong. If your understanding of theocracy has never been seen in history, that only means that your understanding of theocracy is flawed. More generally, we need to accept that all systems evolve and change, and account for that.

The problem with the ‘democracy’ we have now is that it is a democracy of the rich. Those with the wealth to buy politicians, courts and media houses. So the solution is to prevent that - either prevent people becoming that rich in the first place, or, as a compromise, regulate political donations, media ownership and the assets of judges and other regulators.

Anarchism is the removal of such regulations, and any public authority that can enforce them. As such, it will only make things worse.

That was fascinating.

Why “sitting is the new smoking”

Oh, I’ve been warned about this by a doctor, but I can’t do much apart than keeping my legs raised when I can. (My work involves both sitting and standing in one place. My veins are so dead.)

Almost worth the thousands of dollars it cost

:-(

The Aryans are a steppe (modern day south Russia) people who migrated to India four thousand years ago. Depending on who you ask, they mixed with / drove out the native people from India’s north and west.

Modern Indians speak Indo-European languages (often seen as being of Aryan origin) in the north and west, Dravidian languages (supposedly the native languages) in the south and Austroasiatic and other languages (from China and southeast Asia) in the northeast. In the 1950s, after India became independent, the Indo-European majority wanted Hindi, an IE language, to be the national language of India. There was opposition in the south and northeast, and the result is that India today has no national language, with the union (=federal) government using both English and Hindi, and states free to choose their own language(s). In Tamil Nadu, India’s southernmost state, opposition to Hindi was strongest, and it gradually extended to other aspects of ‘Aryan’ culture. So the names Arya / Aryan would be considered a bit ‘culturally insensitive’. They would also be rare in the northeast, but more strange than rude.

Arya / Aryan is a valid name in many* parts of India. (* It would be rude in Tamil Nadu and rare in the northeast.)

yet

Cute

It’s the fair thing to do. They get a choice. Best case they learn to live like everyone else, and maybe do something good. In which case, great! Worst case they show they can’t be let out in society, and are sent to prison. In which case, hey at least they got a second chance, which is more than what their victims got.