Rereading Forward part 2

 So, I reread part two of the Forward book, and here's my reaction to each chapter

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 talked about election 2020 post Yang dropping out. He mentioned Biden asked him to endorse him, but he wanted to let it play out. He considered endorsing bloomberg assuming he fronted money for a UBI trial, but given he would only do it if he won, negotiations broke down. After Super Tuesday though, he endorsed Biden, as it would be clear that he won, and he figured given how "on the fence" his voter base was, he wanted to give positive encouragement to support Biden. 

I know a lot of the Bernie camp hates him for this, I mean in their mind, anyone who wasn't 100% sanders was bad, but given the circumstances it seems like a reasonable ask. And given Bernie himself endorsed Biden after dropping out it made sense.

When COVID hit, Yang decided to do a couple more UBI publicity stunts with giving money away to people. i think this was good to do, since as I said at the time, we should try to show people UBI works. In retrospect Im glad we didn't do a full UBI as given the inflationary wave after, everyone would've blamed it on UBI (people are already denigrating UBI based on that), but yeah. I approve of his intentions. Later that year the government did give $1200 checks to people, which helped, but was a relative drop in the bucket.

Honestly, I do wish we handled the pandemic recovery a bit differently, but let's face it, if we did it my way, we'd still have inflation, I'd be blamed for it, and that would have been bad. There are just times where you dont wanna be in power because everything is going wrong and if you can't do anything about it, well, you're screwed. 

Chapter 10

Here, he talks about the failures of government agencies, such as how the CDC dropped the ball on covid due to being unsure who was actually in charge, and the government failing to make a functioning website for obamacare.

Honestly, this kinda reminds me of reagan's most feared words in the english dictionary: "we're from the government and we're here to help." This stuff really sank in with me growing up, and I've always had somewhat of a distrust of government. Now I'm more pro government than I was in the past, but we can see how this distrust has impacted my policies, and how my views are closer to yang than a traditional leftie. I think the far left trusts government too much. I see them proposing ideas like universal basic services and im just like "gee, just imagine how the government would screw that up." Seriously, we tried that crap in russia and it was horrifying. Government can handle some things, but not everything.

Honestly, I'm in the camp that Yang is when he says that the one thing the government can do right is to get cash checks to large amounts of people. Look at social security. That "works". Why does it work? because once you're into the government's database, you get money deposited into your account until you die. I mean, it's that simple. No one screws with you. Whenever you have people fill out a form, and deal with bureaucracy, and have means testing, it just makes crap complicated. The best government programs, are the most simple, and most universal government programs. The fewer moving parts that can go wrong with these systems, the better. And my ideas for implementing UBI are about trying to make stuff as simple as possible.

I mean, ya know with the ACA Im potentially eligible for medicaid, but i never claimed it because i have to fill out some BS 22 page form? True story. That's the power of bureaucracy. And it's the same thing when Yang talked about obamacare's website. It's a complicated mess. Medicare for all would simplify it, and if we need to go public option, it should automatically and aggressively register people, without them even needing to fill out a form, in order to maximize coverage. No means testing, no eligibility requirements, no bureaucracy. Thats the problem with mainstream liberalism and even, sometimes, the bernie bros. They love their means tested programs and bureaucracy. While I do admit the right overemphasizes bureaucracy (whenever I come across a pro UBI rightie, they think that we spend so much on it UBI would save money, which is probably wouldn't), the left tends to underestimate it, thinking flawed government help is better than nothing. In reality, we want what Yang will call "modern and effective government" later on in the book. Which is the philosophy I largely base my ideas and ideologies around.

Chapter 11

Here he goes back to the economy and into "war on normal people" mode, talking about inequality the loss of jobs and how other countries are ahead of us in so many things. And he's right. And I'm not gonna comment on this because we already discussed this with the war on normal people, and I already discussed this a lot on this blog.

Chapter 12

Here he talks about how traditional media is dying, cable media is biased, and social media is creating echo chambers. I do think he kinda leans into alarmism. I know he has weird ideas on regulating tech and social media time at times which I dont like. We already know the issues with cable, I beat that to death in how biased they are. As far as traditional media goes, I do have some things to say. I actually was discussing this the other day off of this blog. Someone posted a NYT article about why people become alt right, and I got paywalled, so i made a snarky comment about how maybe one of the reasons is the left makes their media inaccessible. I mean, if you can go to fox news or breitbart and get all of your news there, but you need to pay to read the NYT or WAPO, who is gonna get the business? I bring this up because local media often sticks to an old "pay for subscription" model like you're buying a physical newspaper, rather than getting revenue from ads or whatever. And it feels antiquated, and just...no. if a lot of knowledge is hidden behind paywalls, then that's a reason why people aren't going for it, to go into polarization here. So these old models are kinda dying outside of the really big papers, as in the 21st century the marginal cost of information is nearing zero. 

Chapter 13

Here he talks about how big tech spies on us and uses our data, which is creepy and dystopian. I know I mentioned internet sites using ads for revenue, but then i also am a hypocrite and use adblockers and stuff. Why? Because 1) i dont like the idea of being spied on so using different programs minimizes that, 2) ads are annoying and intrusuive. They used to just be blocks on the side of the screen, but then they started intruding into the middle, and making buzzing sounds, and its as if theyre trying to make them as irrating at possible. Third, back in the day, and probably now, those ads used to carry lots of viruses and malware. I havent had anywhere near the number of issues with malware in recent years because of that. But yeah, I digress. Point is, I dont like big tech spying on me either and i try to minimize that stuff to throw it off. I figure in a world with UBI we probably would have people doing this stuff for free any way and the for profit model wouldnt even be needed. After all, I make $0 on this blog yet look at how much content I have. 

Anyway, Yang's solution to the corporate spying thing is a data dividend. While I like free money, I dont like this. Because it basically normalizes these companies spying on people, and it would become part of the social contract that "oh hey, we give you $100 a year and you let us spy on you." Yang acknowledges this criticism but his counter point is people are already spying on you so you might as well be paid. I'd rather just rein in big tech's powers here.

Chapter 14

Here, yang talks about how relationships in politics can at times conflict with peoples' convictions. Much of politics is relationship, and in one point, he goes into how with one candidate, his heart said one thing but his relationships the other, and he went with the relationships. I kinda feel like that's what happened to forward and why he suddenly dropped UBI, he formed these relationships with people who arent for UBI, and now he aint for UBI. Maybe its easy for me as an outsider to judge him for that, but I really despise the fact that he did that. And yeah, that's one thing I will keep holding against Yang with his party.

Chapter 15

This chapter feels out of place in this book, but here he goes into BLM and police reform. I guess, given the zeitgeist of a couple years ago, it makes sense to focus on it, but Im going to be honest, I've significantly cooled on BLM since 2020. While I sympathize with them, and with Yang, over issues of police reform, and believing we need to demilitarize police and hold people accountable in cases of blatant malfeasance, but at the same time, I feel like BLM goes too far. Ya know, there is the other side of the story. I'll point out a couple things.

So, one of my majors in undergrad was criminology right? I always say political science and sociology, but sociology is actually criminology, which is a part of sociology. I have friends from college who have made it into law enforcement. One of them passed last year in the line of duty. He was ran over by some drunk chick who ran into him while he was on the highway. my friend apparently stopped her a few minutes before the incident, but then had to go deal with something more urgent up the road. So he let her off with a warning. About 5 minutes later, who comes flying down the high way drunk? The drunk chick. And he hits him, and he and his coworker died instantly.

Now this chick was a real piece of work. She was basically a total alcoholic, all over her social media she talked about how much she liked drinking and at one point said she was "the best drunk driver ever." So much for that.

Anyway, it seems like the justice system is giving her soft balls with her trial. Trying to get 2nd degree murder charges thrown out, that sort of thing. Why? Well, she's black, and because she's black, and the justice system is biased against black people, we dont wanna ruin this girls' wife over a mistake. Meanwhile, my friend's wife, who I'm also friends with, is now a widow and shes still grieving even though this happened a year ago. 

Sometimes maybe people deserve to have the book thrown at them. maybe we shouldnt be lenient because of social justice nonsense. Heck, there have been a lot of local incidents since 2020 involving police violence and police shootings, and any time it happens the BLM people lose their crap. But then we find out, no it was a justified shooting, the person charged the officer with a knife, and they fired, and then we hear them go on with these unrealistic scenarios about how they should have wrestled the person to the ground or tased him or something. Or...if you charge an officer with a knife, they can just shoot you, because that's kind of the natural reaction. 

I'm not saying police issues dont exist, mind you. Im not saying yang is wrong in wanting reform, we definitely need it. What happened to george floyd wasn't right. And I know there was a more recent incident in memphis if i recall that was messed up. But honestly? I dont wanna completely demonize cops. I know this is an uncomfortable opinion on the left, ACAB, blah blah blah. That's BS. We can recognize issues exist, while also understanding the police have a point of view too. 

 Chapter 16

Here, Yang talks about congress, and about the barriers to getting elected, and how you need money, and most people dont give money, and you need to cozy up to the rich, and how even if you beat the odds and are elected you cant do anything since you have no institutional power, everything is based on seniority, and most people are concerned about reelections. One thing i disagree with him on is that the people in the parties are pushed to extremism. On the right, sure. On the left, the dominant faction is actually moderate and obsessed with compromise, with progressives and outsiders shut out. I guess you could say it favors extremists, but the extremists of what the democratic party currently is. 

But yeah, this is why i dont blame AOC for not doing anything. How can she? The whole establishment is against her. It's a machine. It replicates itself. Everyone is forced into lock step or they're challenged and thrown out. 

One thing I wish Yang would realize, since this is a weakness of yang himself, is that money in politics is a problem. Yes, democracy dollars for example is a good idea, but even then, only high profile candidates will get most donations. We need publicly funded elections and we need to overturn citizens' united. I mean, this is a glaring issue here. I can see why he goes into like open primaries and getting rid of gerrymandering based on this chapter, but Yang's platform is still deficient. And I do think money (not on a personal level but for the organization) is a huge motivator in him merging forward. He clearly understands the money issue and felt a need to do this tradeoff in order to grow his organization, but in the process, he became part of the problem IMO.

Chapter 17

Here, yang talked about trying to help Biden get elected, and how Joe's message didnt seem to resonate. And yeah, he castigates the democrats here for being out of touch. How the GOP and their law and order message resonated with people, and Biden kinda went over like a wet fart. Ya know, in 2016, part of the reason i was kinda apathetic to trump winning was i figured if we were given 4 years of this guy the american public would be horrified and we'd get a blue wave, potentially with bernie being the candidate leading it. Instead, we ended up with Biden because the dems dont do anything, and we ended up with trump barely losing because of COVID. 

The democrats are terrible. He's totally right. Most people dont seem to think the democrats care about them, because they dont. They write off massive parts of the country because they play these stupid demographic games and have this arrogant snotty attitude that if you dont fit their target demographics they dont care because statistically you're gonna vote for trump anyway (im statistically a trump leaner based on demographics, but in practice i like yang and what he typically sells). And yeah, he talks about how much of the left is more focused on policing cultural issues than improving lives. WHich is a problem the left has. I mean, why does the left go all in with social justice issues? because again, demographics. They can play identity politics with their preferred groups while demonizing other groups. It's sickening.

And yeah, you guys know where im at with the dems. if I vote for biden in 2024 its' only because he's done a couple positive things (but nowhere near enough) and because i dont want trump or desantis winning again. But yeah, i cant stand the democrats as they exist. They're arrogant, smarmy, and dont give a crap about real issues.

Chapter 18

Here, Yang talks about constructive institutionalism, which is basically all of this feel good virtue signalling nonsense a lot of mainstream politicians go all in on. People will talk as if they're addressing the problems, they'll pat themselves on the back telling lies about how the problems will be solved in time, but then they do nothing. He mentioned a lot of governance is political theater and pretending to address problems, but not actually doing so. 

In a lot of ways, talking about job retraining, as yang would say, or even just "creating jobs", as I would say, are versions of this. Oh, robots are coming? Well just retrain people. or we'll create the jobs of the future. All during the 2010s i heard both parties talking about creating jobs. Romney would say if only we give the rich more money it'll trickle down. Obama talked about shovel ready jobs. And a lot of my politics came from my realization that jobs arent and will never be the answer to our problems. All that talk is hollow, crap is better getting better, and combine that with the issues with the dems in the past chapter in the 2016 election and are we really surprised trump won? Im as left as it gets just about on most issues, but then I got to the point i didnt even care who got elected. Between the dems being smarmy and actively turning me off, and no one actually doing anything, I just ended up just being disaffected.

Thats why i have the views i do, and thats why i was on board with yang until he merged forward with SAM and RAM and then dropped UBI. We need solutions. But it seems like the dems dont wanna do anything and the GOP never wanted to do anything. So we just talk about job creation and retraining, even though the economic reality is this crap will never get better. In a sense, to make a reference to this blog, all of this stuff is plato's cave, it's just the shadows on the wall while the real reality is much...darker than that to some extent. We pretend to do things that solve problems, while they dont do anything. And a lot of people are catching on. That's a huge reason a lot of the polarization yang talked about happened since 2016 anyway. Were all fighting amongst ourselves over cultural BS and all while the country is on fire and is burning to the ground. But meh, "this is fine" I guess. 

Conclusion

Yang had a lot of stuff to unpack here. A lot of it i agree with and i expanded on, while on other things i actively disagreed and engaged the material. I will say that this time around Im less hot on this book than the first time, mainly because i saw where his forward movement has gone, and i now see it as part of the problem as well. It's a shame. He could have been the guy to speak to our issues and solve problems, but even he couldnt evade the issues he mentioned in this book. The need for money to run campaigns seems to have dictated his choices, and now he put himself in a position where he compromised his vision and his ideas in order to advance a fraction of his agenda. 

Still, it's a pretty solid book overall, I recommend reading it. We already know what's coming in part 3, and man this is gonna be painful to read, based on what I just wrote.