orcrist

@orcrist@lemm.ee

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What good thing just happened in your life?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  First time today … meaning after that more times today?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it offensive for me as a man to dress as a male version of a female fictional character for Halloween?'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I feel there’s a potential suicide joke here, but it would probably end up in bad taste.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it offensive for me as a man to dress as a male version of a female fictional character for Halloween?'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a question for you that needs answering first. Offensive to whom?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it okay to take drugs to make yourself a better person? Does it make a difference if "better" is mental or if it's physical?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you answered your own question. If taking drugs actually makes you a better person, of course it’s OK. That’s true for both physical and mental considerations.

  But look, you put everything into one definition. What is “better”, who decides, and how do they decide? If you don’t have anywhere to go, you probably won’t get there. Or maybe you will get there but you won’t realize it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the argument for making poor/working class folks shoulder the burden of taxes?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you need to take a step back and stop talking about income tax. Instead, talk about wealth distribution overall. What about businesses? What about corporations? What about passive income? What about savings that’s passed to children? What about inheritance tax? What about tax fraud and tax evasion? And I meant to separate those explicitly, because there are many weak points in the tax code that allow for companies to take advantage of the ability to send money overseas, for example.

  If all you’re doing is adjusting the standard deduction or the base exemption or the top threshold for social security payments, you’re ignoring the gigantic high-dollar figures that are happening with the billionaires and the largest corporations in the world. And if you ignore them, then there’s no way you can fix the corruption that’s plaguing modern society.

  Of course I think you were trying to keep your focus narrow, which is a reasonable thing to do, but it’s also worth noting in at least one comment that the big picture involves much more important questions about how we should allow wealth to be redistributed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the argument for making poor/working class folks shoulder the burden of taxes?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You didn’t tell us what you meant by “shoulder the burden”. Maybe you should have, or at least if you did it would allow more focused answers.

  Some people that I have spoken with are fans of a flat tax. They think that income tax should be 10% on everyone, no matter what. They think that is fair.

  In order to maintain that belief in fairness, they also need to magically forget about: the ultra rich, passive income, capital gains, the existence of businesses that have a different tax code, and the fact that they probably actually endorse various tax breaks.

  On a side note, I think one of the underlying causes of people being willing to try to forget all of these obvious facts of life is the gut assumption that big banks and ultra rich people who are running scams or finding loopholes are doing so in a very complicated way, so there’s no chance we could figure out what’s happening and stop it. But what forensic accountants point out from time to time is that many of the scams and loopholes are new variations on old tricks. We can understand how they work, but it takes effort, because the names change and the money moves in slightly different ways.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We are at the Wolfenstein stage of capital.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Devil’s advocate counter: You think the pigs give one hoot about the cost? Of course they don’t.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hypothetical: Can a person "citizen's arrest" themself? And if so, how (and why) would that even work?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The specific rules vary by state. Where do you live, what are you going to do, and can you stream it for us?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sympathy for their PTSD⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Many US citizens do, though. Some Americans are happy to see Muslims die, and other Americans are happy to see Muslims and Jews kill each other.

  We don’t know the exact numbers, but Trump is running on a platform of overt racism, so a rough estimate might be in the tens of millions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sympathy for their PTSD⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The violence in that region predates both Iraq wars. Israel has no need to copy the U.S. here. It’s important to remember that the situation is multiple generations of on-again-off-again violence, except now the scale is way up on the killings.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sympathy for their PTSD⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If the army starts shooting its own soldiers, it’s not going to exist for very long. You can read very obscure stories about occasional killings during the Vietnam War, but those are almost always things that happened in the jungle when nobody would ever find out.

  If they try that kinda thing in Israel today, it’s not going to be a secret, and all of the other infantry and their family are going to wonder who is next, which in turn would massively reduce support for the Israeli military.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sympathy for their PTSD⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My interpretation of this is that some mid-level staffers at CNN pushed the story knowing exactly what was in it. Their bosses wouldn’t let them do obvious things, so they got a little subtle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it normal to feel tired of technological progress?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Your feelings are of course valid, that’s how you feel, and it’s a perfectly normal thing. On the one hand technology keeps changing, but on the other hand people are trying to drum up money by selling promises of new technology as if it were snake oil.

  All of the talk you hear about AI, it’s 95% nonsense. Of course we can see some new cool toys, and we should be happy that we have new cool toys, but it’s not like something totally magical has happened in the last 2 years, and it’s not like something totally magical is going to happen in the next two years.

  With all that in mind, you just got to take a break from the news, whenever you feel like it, and try to be open-minded about what the future will bring. A couple of decades from now is certainly going to be different from a couple of decades ago, and although that can be scary at times, remember that the same thing was true for our parents and their parents and their parents.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you do a squat right after putting on your thong or string so it sits correctly between your buttocks?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Why wear a thong for your workout? … Err, what kind of training are you up to, anyway? :-o

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If Biden wanted to could he have people kill Trump since he is in office and SCOTUS said it was ok?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If it’s an official act, yes. It’s not hard to tell a story where it becomes an official act. I I think he could still be impeached FWIW.

  Because of Trump’s unhinged tactics, we know that top military leaders and (presumably) TLA bigwigs have discussed what they would do in situations like this. What you’re describing is very close to a coup d’etat, and in a situation where they get ordered to perform such an action, do they do it? What was framed as a question of SCOTUS rulings becomes, in reality, the question, “Am I willing to throw this entire democracy away on this President’s absurd orders?” Every high-up in government knows this… They signed up to serve the people, not a dictator.

  Of course we have no idea how each person would act, but my point is that pure legality is only one challenge Biden would have to overcome if he wanted to do such a (horrible) thing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US couple blocked from suing Uber after crash say daughter agreed to Uber Eats terms⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Your argument falls flat, because even interpreted in the best possible light, it only points out that the plaintiff’s lawyer was sleazy, just like Disney’s lawyers are. As if that somehow justifies the behavior.

  But everyone already knows that liability is this weird area, where many of the lawyers appear kind of slimy, but even if they are, the outcome matters because the plaintiffs are normal people. That’s not news. And if in fact Disney didn’t have liability because their only connection was land ownership, as you claimed, of course the judge would have checked them from the case. There would have been no need for gamesmanship. There would have been no need to throw their reputation in the toilet. All of which is to say, if we interpret the facts generously to you and Disney, they still look terrible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do all languages share the same intonation for questions?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Your second question has a general answer. Most languages use tones, which means tones change in the course of a sentence. If the tone changes for all sentences, then it also changes for questions. I know that’s not what you were trying to ask, but that’s the answer to the question you did ask.

  If you need a way to indicate that something is a question, you could do what English does… You could use question words at the beginning of the sentence. You could change word order. You could add extra words… Which is to say, you’re not dependent on intonation, though you could use it if you want to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Effort require Effort⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  After the pandemic I think a lot of teachers changed our lines. The reality is that people have a lot of reasons to be late or absent. It’s the people who are chronically late who have issues, not because the tardy count is important, but because they didn’t learn the material that was covered when they weren’t in class.

  All of which is to say, it doesn’t matter if you have a good excuse or a bad excuse. It matters if you’re learning what you’re supposed to learn.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Effort require Effort⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  How much effort does it take to pay your staff more? Almost none. You don’t even actually have to do anything except tell your accountant to raise their pay.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does the media print rags to riches stories?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think other people covered the main points, but when I haven’t seen mentioned yet here is the fact that, for the news to catch your attention, it has to be something exceptional. That shouldn’t be true, but many publishers believe it. They compete to have what’s new or different or exciting.

  I blame this mostly on the big media companies, and also partly on consumers who believe that consuming news is a passive activity when in reality it’s an active choice. They could go find online websites and create their own RSS feed, for example, and then they wouldn’t be stuck listening to drivel. But it does take some work and some awareness.

  For example, and I don’t want to go into details about specific political parties, think about all of the polls about the election. Those are mostly meaningless. We’ll find out exactly what public opinion is on Election Day. It’s not that you couldn’t have a poll, but if you’re posting new polling data every day it’s because you’re desperate to cover up for the fact that you don’t have anything new to say.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come LED Light Bulbs only last for about 2-3 Years?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Stop buying the cheap ones. :-)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Please make sure to check the expiration date on your toilet paper⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  When the mice eat it, you gotta change the roll out for a new one. That’s my policy. Also, the cardboard hurts; don’t use it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨That explains it.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know what culture you live in, but I think your description of what’s embraced by modern culture is at odds with what we see on TV, on Netflix, on YouTube, in magazines, in books, talked about by people everyday.

  What is it specifically that you wish you could find that’s not available, that you feel ought to be appropriate but isn’t, somehow? I’m struggling to figure this one out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do social workers get upset when you don't want their help?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Clearly the nomadic lifestyle does not work for everyone. Many people try it for a couple of months or a couple of years and then make a change. If you’re enjoying it, great, and if you enjoy it for years or decades to come, great, but don’t pretend that everyone does. And this is important because social workers cannot predict your future. They can only play the odds and make reasonable preparations for possible future badness.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do social workers get upset when you don't want their help?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Can you explain what you felt was harsh?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Never ask⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Finding out people’s salaries is a good thing. It’s how you prevent your bosses from screwing everyone over. Of course that information might be sensitive so don’t go around inquiring willy nilly, but it’s definitely a topic that you can and should sometimes visit.

  (I know this is a s*** post so it’s all good but some people don’t realize the value in discussing salaries, and they think it’s something that has to be super secret when that only hurts you, the employee.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alabama is farming out incarcerated people to work at hundreds of companies⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re seeing how the game is played. It’s easy to set the system up where refusing to work makes your life significantly worse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alabama is farming out incarcerated people to work at hundreds of companies⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Easily. Less whips, more guns.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alabama is farming out incarcerated people to work at hundreds of companies⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There are many ways to gain your “compliance”. Prisons must provide basic meals by law, but they can undercut the necessary calories and vitamins, so that if you’re not buying food from the prison shop, you’re likely to get sick (and eventually die). They can make your work status a factor in whether to grant you parole. They can transfer unwilling folk to the more dangerous units or prisons… So many easy options to gain compliance, if you don’t care about human rights.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The US federal loophole that allows food companies to decide what's safe for you to eat⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You say loophole, I say feature, potato potato.