Tweet

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @SocDoneLeft

Socialism Done Left

@SocDoneLeft

2 Oct

The myth of "homelessness by choice" is pernicious. Here are the two main reasons that we know it's false:

First, we can ask homeless ppl.

The two studies that've formally done so (afaik):
- Stark 1984 in Phoenix: 93% of 345 ppl wanted to get off the streets.
- Caulk 1983 in Portland: 78% of 125 ppl said the same.

That's ~89% who say their homelessness is not their choice.

Second, we can give homeless people the choice: They overwhelmingly choose housing.

After Finland adopted "Housing First" in 2008, long-term homelessness dropped from ~4,000 to ~500 by 2017. That's a 7/8 reduction in 9 years, and just ~5% of the size of the 11k unhoused in 1987.

Read 4 tweets

Socialism Done Left

@SocDoneLeft

20 Sep

reposting as an OP: Nitzan and Bichler 2009 present a foundational problems with the Marxian labor theory of value:

the metric of labor (socially necessary (SN) abstract (A) labor-time (LT), or SNALT) cannot be directly observed; we can only observe actual, concrete labor-time:

The first conversion of "actual" to "socially necessary" is more feasible.

If competition forces most capitalists to produce efficiently (use no more labor-time than socially necessary), then average actual LT may be close to socially necessary LT.

Shaikh, Cockshott argue this.

The second conversion of "concrete" to "abstract" is much less feasible.

Concrete labor, observable labor-- cutting a log, hammering a nail -- is heterogenous. It is done by different people, in different places, with different skills and education, in different ways, etc.

Read 11 tweets

Socialism Done Left

@SocDoneLeft

13 Sep

A thread of some interesting studies about the effects of religiosity on political & personal behavior:

Many studies have correlated religiosity and social conservatism. Here are a few:

A simple one: Just 4% of atheists voted for Donald Trump in 2016: baylor.edu/baylorreligion…

This correlation between religiosity and economical & social rightism holds across nearly the entire world:

Gaskins 2013: religiosity correlates with conservatism (on left-right self-placement, divorce, euthanasia, abortion, suicide, and homosexuality): sci-hub.st/10.1017/S00223…

Read 11 tweets

Socialism Done Left

@SocDoneLeft

11 Sep

Political terrorism is a deeply ineffective strategy with a high human cost.

Abrahms 2006: in a dataset of 42 terrorist groups, terrorism was rarely successful (7%, 3/42) or partly successful (17%, 7/42); it is more successful against military targets than civilian and with limited goals than maximalist or other goals: mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.116…

Fortna 2015: relative to civil wars led by nonterrorist rebel groups, terrorist rebel groups were 15x less likely to achieve victory and 2x less likely to reach an agreement with the government: cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Read 4 tweets

Socialism Done Left

@SocDoneLeft

31 Aug

some studies about political persuasion:

my takeaway is that most forms of persuasion are effective.

please gimme more neat/strong studies or contrary studies if you know of them!

watching news changes beliefs

Martin & Yurukoglu 2017: data from channel number randomization suggests that Fox News shifts voting patterns rightward: Without Fox News, .46% fewer people would've voted Republican in 2000, 3.59% in 2004, and 6.35% in 2008:

long talks change beliefs

Broockman 2016: deep canvassing (a ~10 minute convo encouraging person to consider a trans person's perspective) increased tolerance of trans people and support for a gender nondiscrimination law; effects persisted after 3 months nytimes.com/2016/04/10/mag…

Read 7 tweets

Socialism Done Left

@SocDoneLeft

30 Aug

Hoping to put out a blogpost on the "point" of socialist theory soon, as a starting point for a theory series. I hold that all socialist theory writing attempts either to answers (some of) these questions or rejects (some of) these questions:

1: Justification: Why is socialism preferable to capitalism?
2: Transition: How do we get from capitalism to socialism?
3: Institutions: What social-political structures / relationships (or lack thereof) should organize economic, political, and social activity in socialism?

These are large topics, and I think they cover virtually all "socialist theory" writing. Does any theory you've read seem to fall outside these three?

Read 4 tweets

Share this page!

Socialism Done Left

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @SocDoneLeft

Socialism Done Left

Socialism Done Left

Socialism Done Left

Socialism Done Left

Socialism Done Left

Socialism Done Left

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?