Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
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User ID: 314
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
Just Bader Meinhoff.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
And specific products you'd recommend?
But one is viewed as a threat to society, whereas the other is a victim. The crack-dealing superpredator was born wicked, while the opiate-addicted had wickedness thrust upon them by their opiate-happy doctors and the globalists.
There is a story that white families tell themselves about how their loved one was tricked into getting addicted by unscrupulous doctors, and that's why they went into a destructive spiral. Fetterman actually is running an ad implicitly accusing Oz of doing that in the PA Senate race. And that story seems to be mostly false. As you say, it's not an explosion of prescriptions causing the crisis. And there is a story that black families tell themselves, about how their family members were tricked into getting hooked on crack by the CIA or the government or the media or music, and that's why they went on their destructive spiral.
There is another point often raised, about how we assign harsher punishments for crack than for cocaine, and this has classist and racist implications. But there is a meaningful difference there that comes from the actual class difference. A trust fund brat who develops a coke habit might take five years to snort their inheritance up their nose. A lower-working class guy who starts doing crack might be missing rent next month. Middle and upper classes have more slack to endure the externalities of a severe drug addiction. They have a longer lead time and more offramps before they get to the point of committing property crimes against strangers.
And more importantly for this comparison, they have stronger, richer personal networks to prey on. From what I've seen in person, a heavy pill addiction can easily run $100 a day, at roughly a dollar per mg. That rate of capital outflow will ruin a family. It's a cliche. "They both have good jobs, how are they having money problems?" The answer is that one of them has a drug problem. And when they run out of personal slack, they take advantage of family members, lie and steal and cheat and defraud. The lower-class crackhead turning predator looks like a string of robberies and break-ins and muggings. The pillhead looks like "Aunt Debbie says to watch out for cousin Phil. Apparently he stole a ton of money from Uncle Sheldon, yeah, drugs."
No one really wants to tell Aunt Debbie and Uncle Sheldon that their son Phil is a miserable piece of shit. It's easier, kinder, less awkward, to blame the big evil pharma companies.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
My theory is pretty rusty, but I’d think you could have a space where two sets of parallel lines don’t have symmetrical angles. Maybe one pair right angles, one pair not?
What do you mean by "a space"? I'm in an ambivalent state where I can't tell if you're missing an obvious point, or talking theory at a level I'm entirely missing. Leaning towards the latter.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
I am pleased to hear you're doing well.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
Very interesting essay.
If I can put on my Objectivist hat for a moment, I think the "leveling" effect he discusses is a major part of the trap. An exemplary hunter will probably accrue social power just by the obvious fact of providing more meat. In a zero-sum social game, this is a threat to the less successful hunters. Gossip, mockery, and reputational attacks are much easier than becoming an exemplary hunter, but they'll reduce the rewards and power of the exemplary, which helps keep society trapped in stagnation.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
How does civil fraud work in a case like this? Is there a bank or insurance company filing the case? Is the AG alleging that Trump defrauded her, or the NY government? My limited experience with fraud involved either the government pressing charges over fraud to themselves, or me having to do an annoying amount of work and court appearances to follow-up. I'm assuming things change drastically when the stakes get this big, but how?
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
So if you're saying the opposite came to pass, clearly there are two different worlds happening,
AIUI, the migrants were given cots in meeting room in a church for 1-2 evenings, then escorted off the island by the national guard to a military dormitory. At no point did any one of the compassionate, rich progressives offer to put someone up in a hotel room, much less let a family use an empty beach house for the weekend.
But what exact actions are you referring to when you say this:
The aid given and compassion shown was more or less the absolute bare minimum needed to calmly make the poor brown people go away ASAP. Conversely, we've seen much more effort put into flattering themselves in the media, and launching furious legal and PR attacks back at DeSantis for making them look bad. When, remember, there are probably 5 figures worth of residents who could have each put the entire group up in a resort hotel for a week for pocket change.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
So Massachusetts isn't willing to help refugees? Because they're not legal migrants? It's a novel form of fraud, tricking someone into receiving a valuable service for free with no strings attached or expectations. And it's fraud because MA lawyers and politicians are hilarious hypocrites about illegal immigrants to Texas vs illegal immigrants to MA?
Fun fact, "Defrauding someone to travel somewhere" appears to be a newly coined phrase. Google has no record of it ever appearing anywhere on the internet before.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
Oh no! So help the people you've lured through 4000 miles of death traps and cartels to work through the process and qualify! Again, it is insanely rich logic to throw a hissy fit over a single plane load of refugees who don't meet a strict set of requirements when they're illegal immigrants falsely claiming asylum as cover for economic migration in the first place. The sheer audacity to try that line! Should we start charging the NGOs and immigration lawyers who are coaching people on what to say on asylum applications with human trafficking, too?
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
arbitrarily seized and transported by agents of the state?Offered a free plane ticket to a rich sanctuary city.
Your phrasing here is histrionic to the point of derangement.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
Massachusetts Refugee Resettlement Program
One of the qualifiers is "Asylees".
An asylee is a person who meets the definition of refugee and is already present in the United States or is seeking admission at a port of entry.
So, were they falsely applying for asylum, or do they count?
"They used all direct quotes from our official government resources, but put it together into their own pamphlet so we'll pretend I just proved they lied" is some absolutely amazing logic. Here, try this one:
Another qualifier is "victims of human trafficking", which means that even if DeSantis criminally trafficked them, that makes them such victims, which post-facto justifies the claims!
Seriously, just take the L on this one.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
I will lodge the prediction that this will prove to be a self-own. The optics here are already horrendous. 53 migrants dead in the back of a truck is a statistic, 50 getting a free vacation to Martha's Vineyard is a human rights violation. Whose rights? Why, the right of rich, progressive Sanctuary Citizens to not have to look at poor brown people, of course.
And now they're keeping this disaster in the news for months to come with the prospect of bilking thousands of billable hours from leftist billionaires and money laundered NGOs to engage in blatant lawfare over a free plane ticket to a sanctuary city, after refusing to pay for a single hotel room for a single migrant? The "Democrats want illegals to have more rights than you, and then charge you for making them look at a poor person" ads practically write themselves. This is "Umbridge as a comic book villain" territory.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
I wonder how the parallel would go. Make a profile with pics of some hot woman with huge breasts, and a profile all about how she lost her kids for vile neglect, and loves cutting off cocks of her dates.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
Those migrants made their 4K mile trek on the promise of steady work in Texas or California, not a full-size snickers.
Right, and who is making that promise? If people were met at the border with a wall, and told to go back home, very quickly no one would be risking a 4000 mile death trek. If you are encouraging people to make the trek, you deserve some blame for people making the trek. If you didn't know the trek was dangerous, you deserve scorn for being ignorant about your own policies.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
The Biden administration has been doing exactly this for years.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
I think there’s a bailey of “the world is pretty much meritocratic nowadays and any attempt to correct disparities is an unjust overreaction”.
I don't think this line works because the age effect is a meritocratic difference. The kid who is 8 months older than their peer isn't the beneficiary of unfair favoritism, or subtle preference effects. They actually are bigger, stronger. They actually have had more time to develop their coordination. Their brain actually is more developed, and was for the entire process of schooling.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
What, exactly, would you have considered the appropriate response?
Pool some of the massive amount of wealth available. Put them up in hotels for a week. Give them (and the MA authorities) an actual chance to figure out a real plan for them moving forward.
Honestly, I can even imagine a version of that article that didn't offend me so much. But the actual article reeked of poverty/suffering porn and self-satisfied fart-huffing over what is objectively extremely minor amounts of aid.
So "Republican governors" can organize a plan to ship them cross-country. And red states can pay tax dollars for the travel. And DeSantis can bluster and make political hay and otherwise ensure that it gets massive news coverage...and you're blaming the residents?
I'm obviously talking about the incredibly dangerous hike of 4000 perilous miles, not the last thousand traversed in a commercial, first world airplane. I am positing that people who support lax (or non-existent) border security bear some moral responsibility for the suffering endured, and the 2/3s who died along the way. Every "In this house" sign is a marginal incentive for people to risk their lives.
The calculus changes if your roommate calls your friends, coworkers, and pastor and hints that you're going to lose your shit. Might you feel a little...constrained? A little incentivized to prove him wrong in front of your social circles?
I would probably let him stay for more than 44 hours, in that case. And the calculus changes yet again if I've been openly championing "Unhoused Persons Rights", and supporting my city accepting homeless people from other areas. If the best I could do to "prove him wrong" was a single night before I had the homeless guy escorted out by the police, while I wailed for the reporters about how deeply I was moved by the experience, I would fully expect to be slammed for being a huge hypocrite.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
What exactly would the crime be? And why wouldn't it apply to every NGO, congressional staffer and lawyer doing similar things to get people to and over the border in the first place?
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
'They enriched us.' Migrants' 44-hour visit leaves indelible mark on Martha's Vineyard
I encourage people to read the article before reading my impressions.
Incidentally, this article made me really wish for the Bare Links Repository back.
There is so much about this article that is just amazing to me. I don't know how to describe it. Maybe "witlessly mask off"?
First, I want to note the tic where every time the author notes an age, he specifies that the migrant in question looks younger. It's just so artlessly manipulative.
Second, the people patting themselves on the back for the casual, mild, one-off generosity. Wow, a Martha's Vineyard homeowner reached into his wallet and gave a migrant a $100 bill. Then there's the guy who spent $100 on candy for the kids, which is extra Wholesome 100 because he lives in his car because the rent is too damn high. It's like Ray Sanchez crammed an entire scathing allegory about life and housing in the blue zones into a sentence and didn't even notice.
Third, I'd really like to see the argument for how offering people a plane ride to a rich resort town is a human rights violation.
But the thing that really gets me is the detailed, yet uselessly vague, descriptions of the incredible dangers the migrants had to overcome to get to the US. Murderous mud and murderous cartels, and floods and cliffs. Coming from Venezuela, it's 2,684 miles by plane. Map software can't even calculate a route by land, I'm guessing it's something more like 4,000 miles, going through at least seven other countries. The article quotes the migrants clearly describing themselves as economic migrants, but repeatedly calls them asylum seekers. No one seems to notice that these people trekked, apparently on foot, halfway across the hemisphere, losing something like 2/3rds of their number to the assorted lethal dangers for exactly the storied rewards they want these people to get, quoting the article, "access to services including legal, health care, food, hygiene kits, and crisis counseling" along with housing.
The MV people celebrating themselves in this article seem to bear a large portion of moral blame for creating the exact incentive for people to take these risks and find themselves in these situations. Imagine if some billionaire was offering people a large sum of money to take their children and hike across a deadly desert. I think there would be mass outcry at how incredibly fucked up that was. And the few people who reached the other end are instead greeted with a king size Snickers bar and a crisp Benjamin to fuck off. Do you want people dying to get to you or not?! How many dead kids is worth a few hours of cultural enrichment?
I'm at a loss for how to categorize this, but it all just strikes me as appalling. This is the most cruelly champagne socialist shit I've ever read, and it's being presenting as flattery by CNN!
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
Journalists think of their audience like a grandmother who doesn’t trust that the grandkids will understand that the flying monkeys and Wicked Witch are the villains. They have absolutely zero respect for your ability to understand anything, so they have to dumb it down into the simplest good/bad dichotomy and drill it into your idiot head by rote repetition.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
11% of the country, which is 37 million people, were living below poverty in 2020
Key qualifier there being "on paper", which often involves income off the books to maintain access to transfer programs. That also glosses over what poverty means in America - a place to live, often a car, amenities like AC and modern appliances, a new-ish smart phone and far too many calories. Poverty in an objective, global sense is non-existent outside extreme addiction and/or mental illness.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
I love the swamp. So freaking dangerous at first. The first time I found it was a disaster. Got caught in a little bay on a sand bar between a pack of skeletons and a troll, died and lost the boat, too. Then I came in much more carefully, slipped gently in, and the first mob I encountered was a 2 star draugur archer. That was a spicy corpse run. All that to explore a Chile-shaped swamp that did not have a single crypt.
Second run through, co-op with my son, I went nuts and built walking platforms in the sky through the entire swamp we cleared.
Third run through, going as slow and carefully as I want, I have just been using to hoe to flatten it all out. Just got back with my first karve full of iron, and have not died once so far.
Iconochasm
All post-temple whore technology is gay.
3yr ago
Abbott has been asking for help for years, and instead he gets furors over false allegations of horsemen whipping Haitians.
Order a long string of fairy lights and swallow them to put the light inside you.
More seriously, just eat like you just had a devastating romantic breakup for a week and you'll be fine.
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