Markass
Not the worst
User ID: 3843
Markass
Not the worst
1d ago
How does the fact that Alex Jones got a default judgment by refusing to cooperate with the court factor into this? Most corporations would defend themselves pretty thoroughly that they don't ever end up with $1.4 billion judgments, because they aren't Alex Jones and understand they shouldn't piss off the one person deciding their fate.
Markass
Not the worst
1d ago
They function even better, they don't shut down when the government shuts down.
I do find it amusing how in the land where everything is private, especially healthcare, ATC is the one exception.
Markass
Not the worst
2d ago
I fear that you may have sampling bias with regards to crypto. You don't hear about the failed crypto thefts, only the successful ones. Successful theft of crypto requires some degree of intelligence and hard work, much like successful theft from bank. Not just anybody with Internet access can do it.
(I should be clear that by successful, I am also including getting away with it without being caught or facing significant punishment. I will grant that crypto theft in certain respects is easier than, for example, breaking into a bank, but unless you have perfect ironclad opsec you can't just steal money and get away with it.)
Markass
Not the worst
2d ago
1/ Another proof that crypto hadn't brought world peace and harmony as some more devoted fans promised, but crypto made crime cool again.
I disagree with both extremes. Crypto is just a tool, one that can be used for good or evil depending on the people who interact with it. The first bank robbery probably happened 15 minutes after the first bank opened. The first bank also brought immense benefits to society. Crypto is no different.
2/ Trust no one. If you want to make you crypto stash really secure, you need to make your own random number generator, this means using the gold standard of physics, radioactive decay. No randomer random events can be found in this universe.
You still have to trust that you or the code you run didn't mishandle the numbers or cause them to lose entropy somewhere. You still have to trust something, on some level. Trusting nothing is impossible. However, I do agree with the principle that you should trust the least amount of things possible. Generating your own numbers (if done correctly) may be such a solution if you suspect the built-in RNG is dodgy.
And using radioactive decay is excessive and unnecessary. The real problem is that they rolled their own crypto.
Markass
Not the worst
2d ago
Sometimes terrible employees do exist and they will obviously lose out to better alternatives. It's what happens.
I will not hire a bad employee in my department simply because I feel bad for them, and no one else will either.
Are you claiming that @birb_cromble's cousin is (or would be) a terrible employee, apropos of nothing besides the fact that he's sent out thirty job applications with no success?
Markass
Not the worst
4d ago
BLM did do one thing, they contributed to the rise of equipping police with bodycams, which is unquestionably a moral good. Naturally, they immediately reversed on this policy goal when bodycams revealed that most police were not in fact unjustifiably using deadly force against blacks, but that blacks routinely pull guns or knives on cops. So the one material change they achieved that they should be applauded for is something they don't want now and don't take credit for.
Oh, and BLM also bought a $6 million mansion. (Which, to be clear, enriches the leaders of the movement but does nothing for black people at large.)
Markass
Not the worst
4d ago
If they are literally drowning, that is a risk they took of their own accord and it is entirely their fault. No one's forcing them to do that, and we especially are not forcing them to, so it's not our problem.
Markass
Not the worst
4d ago
driving up costs for brokers and bulk carriers, but I think I speak for a lot of voters when I say "maybe that's a good thing".
Yes, because we don't need immigrants to work our jobs. We have no shortage of Americans willing to work. What we do have a shortage of are Americans who are willing to be underpaid, which is why companies love foreign labor so much. They are willing to be treated like slaves.
One wonders how one could advocate for workers' rights and treating employees fairly, and yet also support the importation of a workforce to be exploited by employers for the sole purpose of reducing costs.
Markass
Not the worst
4d ago
Trump could have pardoned everyone in J6 on his way out of office, and not done it after banking on winning 2024 (of which there was no guarantee) and doing it after taking office again, after those defendants suffered much monetary and jail time punishments. There are so many things Trump could be doing to fulfill his promise of financial access (under the misnomer of fighting against "debanking"). Etc. I agree with the other commenter when I say it's just incompetence.
Markass
Not the worst
6d ago
"Lots of variants" is an understatement. There is simply no standard specification of Markdown like, say, there is a specification of HTML or a specification of C.
Markass
Not the worst
7d ago
It should also be pointed out that while US driver licenses have mutual reciprocity with all 50 states, the same cannot be said for handgun carry permits. Another instance where gun rights are a privilege and driving privileges are a right.
Markass
Not the worst
7d ago
You already have the right to travel, you just don't have the right to any particular mode of travel.
Markass
Not the worst
7d ago
Well yes, we can't have 100% absolute rights everywhere because punching someone in the face (without good cause) violates their rights. But it's hard for me to see how me owning a gun inherently infringes on the rights of others. Meanwhile, I can own a car very easily despite it being just as capable of being used for mayhem and violence. Driving is a privilege that functions like a right and guns are a right that function like a privilege.
Markass
Not the worst
7d ago
I'm amused at how gun possession is supposedly a right, and yet with all the caveats laid out here, it seems more like a privilege in practice. Meanwhile, driving is supposedly a privilege, but I'd bet a million dollars I could get a NJ driver's license and own any car I wanted in NJ sooner than I could own any gun I wanted in NJ. Driving seems to be more of a right than guns are.
Markass
Not the worst
8d ago
OP's point is that if you answered this way then you win favor with the MAGA crowd but out yourself as a nutjob who believes in conspiracy theories to everyone else. So there is no way to answer "who won 2020?" without losing favor with someone.
Markass
Not the worst
9d ago
I think this particular restriction came about because of one bad actor known as UnrealSkybox who spams websites with CSAM and has a seemingly endless network of residential proxies to burn through to do it. The farms is pro-privacy and allows and encourages registration with regular VPNs.
Markass
Not the worst
9d ago
I think gender ideology in general is a "gotcha" question such that, no matter what you believe, you are forced to pick a side. Consider the choice of which pronouns to use to refer to a transgender individual, let's say a male-to-female.
- She: You subscribe to gender ideology and believe this person is a woman.
- He: You don't subscribe to gender ideology and believe this person is a man.
- They: You are trying to sit on the fence and placate both sides, but this is unlikely to work. In particular, progressives will notice if you keep saying "they" when a transgender person's preferred pronouns are she/her (after all, in progressive spaces displaying your preferred pronouns is normalized), and will correctly recognize you as a coward trying to play both sides, if not a person who doesn't subscribe to gender ideology.
- Some other pronoun: Same as above. If it's not the person's preferred pronouns, this is considered a transgression in the eyes of progressives.
- No pronouns: This is awkward but possible. However, people aren't stupid, and progressives will notice you doing this too and treat it as a transgression.
There is no choice you could make that means you are neither for nor against gender ideology, especially when progressives treat neutrality the same as being against. The difference between pronouns and the "what is a woman?" question is that the latter is used by conservatives to explicitly call out and expose the beliefs of the answerer, while pronouns are a way for progressives to hijack an existing social norm and turn it into an implicit belief test.
Markass
Not the worst
12d ago
There's always creeps in every place. The difference between Roblox and most places is that most places ban pedophiles when they're reported.
Markass
Not the worst
12d ago
The content isn't necessarily the problem, although some games may be cause for concern. The users are, and Roblox not only consistently fails to act on credible reports of pedophiles and child molesters, but also attacks anyone who tries to get creeps arrested or even publishes reports on the problem, e.g. burying Ruben Sim in frivolous litigation.
Markass
Not the worst
13d ago
I interpret OP to mean that little ghetto babies are a drain on government finances in the short term, as resources need to spent raising them, but they are not a drain in the long term, as they (theoretically) will be fully grown adults who can support themselves with minimal government assistance. I don't think OP missed any words.
Markass
Not the worst
14d ago
Climate activists often make incredibly misleading arguments they think will promote climate activism but once people find out they've been mislead it just sows distrust in the entire field.
You're right. The first thing that comes to my mind when talking about climate change -- and I'm surprised it's not more well known -- is the Extinction Clock website that compiles failed climate-related predictions, especially relating to catastrophe. (Unfortunately it appears to have been down for months now, so here's an archived version.)
To this day I see climate activists wondering why no one trusts them, and I must be going crazy because that website should be like a mirror to them, and if I were them I would go look in the mirror and see #1 Reason Why People Don't Trust You, Exhibit A. The one way they can have even a small hope of recovering trust in people is if they are willing to publicly admit that their predictions have been wrong and talk about the steps they are taking to ensure being wrong won't happen again. This is the only way, and there is no shortcut. Doubling down further on wrong predictions, and especially tying them to a moral failing on the part of the audience, only sows more distrust.
Markass
Not the worst
15d ago
Seriously, what is it with nerds and smelling bad? Why is it such a universal thing in any country where nerds are to be found? Do they just not notice?
Over a long period of time, you get used to your own smell and don't notice it unless it changes. These people's hygiene have been nonexistent for so long, the only recourse is for somebody to tell them they stink. Unfortunately, doing so is considered a rude gesture, so this never happens in polite society.
Markass
Not the worst
15d ago
Relevant: The Rush from Judgment
My issue is that you still seem to be conflating two issues: Default judgments, and the jury who decided his punishment. We can have conversations about both, but we should be clear that most of Jones' trouble came about because he was obstinate and refused to cooperate with the court, thus earning himself a default. We can't peer into alternate universes but I would bet good money that if Jones had taken the case seriously and cooperated instead, he would've had a higher chance of success and would not have gotten a billion dollar judgment. On the other hand, if a judge had decided his punishment instead, I don't think it would have been much better. What, do you think judges are immune to psychological anchors? Do you seriously think that the same judge who was pissed off enough at his conduct to give him a default judgment would have gone easier on him? I sincerely doubt it.
The point of a jury system is that your fate doesn't rest with one person, the idea being that it's harder to influence and bias multiple people than one. As another commenter pointed out, if you don't think this is true, you are always welcome to opt for a bench trial (at least in criminal cases). The Afroman trial is a good example, where the judge was clearly biased in favor of the plaintiffs, but the jury was the decider and they sided with Afroman (and with free speech).
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