Scott Alexander reviews and responds to reader comments on various topics from his March Links post, providing additional context and clarifications. Longer summary

Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to comments on his March Links post. Topics include privateering, hurricane data reliability, Harvard's budget accounting, Bernie Sanders' campaign, police reform studies, and political psychology research. He highlights expert opinions, clarifies misunderstandings, and adds context to various points raised in the original post. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander compares the cost of the GOP tax bill to other expensive projects, reflecting on how society scrutinizes different types of costly proposals. Longer summary

Scott Alexander reflects on the GOP tax bill, comparing its cost to other expensive projects and programs. He expresses concern that people, including himself, tend to scrutinize well-intentioned but expensive ideas more than clearly bad ideas with little benefit. Scott suggests there might be a 'toxoplasma effect' where debatable issues get more attention than obviously problematic ones. He concludes by stating he might support Bernie Sanders in the next election, despite his libertarian leanings, because he believes we have 'antibodies to socialism' that allow proper scrutiny, unlike other potentially harmful policies. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander debunks the idea that Trump's supporters are disproportionately white, revealing that Bernie Sanders actually has much whiter support, and uses this to challenge common narratives about race and politics. Longer summary

Scott Alexander analyzes the media narrative that Donald Trump's supporters are disproportionately white, showing it to be unsupported by polling data. He then reveals that Bernie Sanders, not Trump, has a much higher ratio of white to non-white support within his party. Scott uses this to illustrate two points: 1) 'white' in political discussions often means the 'Red Tribe' rather than literal race, and 2) low minority representation in a group doesn't necessarily indicate racism. He suggests that Sanders' lack of minority support might be due to him being seen as a 'weird intellectual signaling-laden countercultural movement', similar to other groups with low minority representation like atheists or BDSM enthusiasts. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander analyzes the unexpected success of political outsiders like Trump and Corbyn, attributing it to growing ideological polarization and anti-establishment sentiment. Longer summary

Scott Alexander explores the rise of outsider political figures like Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, attributing their unexpected success to a growing trend of ideological polarization and distrust of the establishment. He argues that as the political spectrum widens, traditional politicians struggle to balance appealing to their base while remaining electable, creating an opening for candidates who signal their opposition to the establishment. The post compares Trump's and Corbyn's seemingly opposite yet similar rises to power, and suggests this trend might explain other political surprises like Bernie Sanders' popularity and Obama's 2008 victory over Hillary Clinton. Shorter summary

The post criticizes unnecessary college degree requirements in various professions and proposes an alternative to Bernie Sanders' free college tuition plan. Longer summary

This post critiques the current higher education system, particularly in the United States, by drawing parallels with a fictional tulip subsidy scenario. The author argues that requiring college degrees for many jobs is unnecessary, expensive, and harmful to society. He uses examples from medicine, teaching, and other professions to illustrate how degree requirements often don't correlate with job performance or outcomes. The post then criticizes Bernie Sanders' proposal for free college tuition, suggesting it would perpetuate a broken system. Instead, the author proposes making 'college degree' a protected characteristic in hiring practices to combat degree inflation. Shorter summary