Monumental advance in number theory posted to the ArXiv by Yitang Zhang

Re:Monumental advance in number theory posted to the ArXiv b... by s1artibartfast on Monday November 07, 2022 @08:59PM (#33515109)

This is probably not the best thread for a political discussion, but I will take a shot. Nobody disputes that governments should be a force for good. Government's obviously can do both good and bad. Many reason atrocities like the cultural revolution came of under the pretext of trying to help. If you think the government has veered into doing bad, it is natural to want to reform it and make it stop doing that. the talking point and metaphor simply conveys a belief that some of the governments work is bad and should be stopped. It's a lot more complicated, but that's the 5-year-old explanation of it

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Re:Monumental advance in number theory posted to the ArXiv b... by civilized on Monday November 07, 2022 @09:19PM (#33515214)

Government that limits its own power by law is humanity's greatest political invention.

Anyone can make a government that sometimes does good. The challenge is to create a government that cannot do unfathomable evil.

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Re:Monumental advance in number theory posted to the ArXiv b... by joshuamorton on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:22PM (#33515562)

> the talking point and metaphor simply conveys a belief that some of the governments work is bad and should be stopped

This is a nuanced and thoughtful position. The statement "The 9 words you never want to hear are I'm from the government and I'm here to help"" is not nuanced and thoughtful, it doesn't suggest governments do good and bad, it positions governments (and their agents) as incapable of doing good. That someone from the government trying to help you must not be, for whatever reason.

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Re:Monumental advance in number theory posted to the ArXiv b... by s1artibartfast on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:43PM (#33515939)

I don't know what to tell you. It's not a literal statement. At Best it is a heuristic and more often, a platitude.

It's like don't talk to Cops or corporate HR works for the company and not you.

If you were to take it at face value and debate it against it, you would be making the fallacy error of secundum quid. If you want to have a real discussion about how much good and or bad the government does, you need to find a real human to have that discussion with. The saying alone is a not complete self-contained philosophy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secundum_quid#:~:text=Secund...

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