Warren spikes in the polls and progressivism begins to eat itself.

I actually read someone say today that now that Elizabeth is ahead in the polls, anyone who is sticking with Sanders is outed as a sexist.

Dear comrade, you’re a fool, and Krystal Ball (again) has some words of wisdom for you.

I don’t hate Warren. I just like Sanders better, and Krystal Ball in this clip is articulating very well indeed on some of my half-baked intuitions. The Professor is better than Hillary, on paper. But so was Obama, and that didn’t get us very far …

Meanwhile.
Richard Stallman, another good recent case study in the outraged taking down the correct, just keeps being himself from day to day. Spilling, in a fashion far less self-absorbed and, oh, perspicacious maybe than mine.

Meanwhile.
I respond to someone else who is half right–this is decontextualized and maybe pointlessly opaque, but I did spill it and so it gets included thus.

Heya my french dude. I enjoy the work you do on the tubes and elsewhere.

Your assertion that other things are more important works just fine.

Though in my opinion any good argument can be wrecked by slapping the “I just want it to work” fallacy on it.

You buy a car. It just works. But at some point it will stop just working, if you don’t put gas in it. Change the oil. Get new tires. Et cetera.

Stop making the payments and they will come take it away. It may still just work, but not for you.

If you drive it into a tree or a lake, it will probably stop just working. So your use case matters.

Anyway, systemd.

I buy a GNU/Mazda and I like it. When I go to trade it in, I find that the new GNU/Mazdas are all automatics now–can’t get a new one with a stick. Also, there is a microphone hidden onboard “for emergencies” and I can’t turn it off, or know when it’s on. Does it still work? Yes. Will I be buying a new GNU/Mazda? No.

I don’t need to feel militant about my choices, but I do have to make them–I am condemned to be free as another bright Frenchman once said.

“Just works” is a standard, but not a very fine-grained one.