It's just my opinion, I could be wrong

To begin with here, I'm hesitant to write anything about this event. That is, in part, because I'm still processing thoughts about it, but also in part because of the uncertain environment around expressing viewpoints around it. There is a lot of crackdown on free speech happening at the national level, as the Trump regime tries to silence any speech which they do not like, and other organizations (such as employers) are firing people for expressing views online as well. There are endemic attacks on political discourse and free expression ongoing in the US, and any speech entails risk (up to and including moral risk, as per the example case here). That's the state of the union. However, I have thoughts, and I think it's important to express them regardless. First, I wholeheartedly agree with Bernie Sanders (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlIvH6ozvv4): political violence is unacceptable in the US. I would go a step further, and say that efforts to suppress free spe...

So, this is a topic I've been dwelling on a bit recently, and I have some mixes and nuanced thoughts, so apologies in advance if this post ends up a bit scattered. Also, this is probably going to be a more controversial take, so if you might be offended by controversial opinions, maybe skip this post. I have kids. My kids do activities. These activities usually cost money (some a little, some a lot). Almost all of these activities involve some sort of fundraising, to subsidize the costs of the activities for people and families with less money. Sometimes this is voluntary, sometimes this is compulsory, with a strong aspect of forced wealth redistribution (eg: the soccer club my son plays for requires parents to raise or directly pay around $500/year extra, to subsidize other families with less money, in addition to the roughly $4000/yr in club fees). All of this fundraising, donations, required donations, etc. is socialized wealth redistribution. Now, I'm torn on if this is ...