Tits_Mcgruff
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User ID: 1181
Tits_Mcgruff
8mo ago
I was tempted to use this one as the example instead.
My point wasn’t that because tattoos and piercings are now common that they’re now good; my point was that they're now so common that they’re no longer a useful signal of if someone is a “ruffian,” I.e., a criminal, member of the underclass, or otherwise the type to get in bar fights (e.g., tattoos have long been associated with marines and sailors).
You now have to actually look at the tattoos to potentially get any useful information about the person with said tattoo. If they have prison tats that tells you different things than if they have a USMC globe and anchor which tells you different things than if they have generic normie tattoo art.
Being fat is different. No one wants to be fat for the most part (aside from maybe young women who put it on only in “all the right places” in subcultures into that look), and absolutely no one actually wants to be obese; anyone saying otherwise is coping. So when you see someone who is fat, you see someone who, for one reason or another, either can’t or doesn’t even try to manage their weight. That does give you some amount of information about them, but as more and more people get fat, the information is starting to go from “this is a person on the lowest end of the self-control spectrum” to “this person is not on the highest end of self-control”.
Tits_Mcgruff
8mo ago
“Like ruffians”? Piercings and non-facial tattoos aren’t that taboo anymore. Almost half of adults under 45 have at least one tattoo. It’s been over a decade since the “tatted-up barista with full sleeves” archetype became a thing. Workplace rules about covering up tattoos have also become far more relaxed in most industries. Sure, face tats are still pretty taboo outside of the traditional subcultures you'd find them (line cooks, construction, etc.), but the OP didn't specify face tats in particular.
Personally, I don’t have any tattoos, but that's because I’ve never felt the desire for any, not because I think I would be ostracised for violating a social norm. The worst I would have to endure is my parents giving me shit cause they think all tattoos look ugly.
Tits_Mcgruff
8mo ago
The issue with gang tats isn't that they have ink in their skin; it's that they are openly advertising that they are a member of a murderous gang. You're conflating the message with the medium. Do you not actually judge all people with tattoos in general? If you do, can you explain what you're judging them for/about? The same goes for piercings and swearing; what about these things leads you to make character judgments?
Tits_Mcgruff
8mo ago
and other things including things like tattoos, piercings, foul language and so forth
Are you judging them solely on aesthetics here? Or do you think these things actually give you meaningful insight about their character?
on the other, it's clear that there would be a lot of collateral damage
How so? A pager is mainly made of plastic and can’t hold all that much high explosive (especially if you’re not gutting the internals). It’s not even a 100% guarantee that such a device will kill the wearer, let alone anyone else near by.
I’ve seen several videos posted of these pagers blowing up while the wearer is beside other people, and in all of them, it seems only the wearer was harmed. Obviously this does not confirm that zero bystanders have been injured, but based on the size of the explosions in those videos, I don’t see how there’s going to be “a lot” of collateral damage.
Tits_Mcgruff
9mo ago
Off the top of my head there’s the 1951 Chinese annexation of Tibet, the various land grabs between Israel and its neighbours, the 1961 annexation of Goa by India, and the 1975 Indonesia annexation of East Timor. Depending how you frame it the Vietnam war ended either with North Vietnam annexing South Vietnam or the reunification of a single nation split by civil war.
There’s also been failed annexation attempts post ww2, like the 1950 North Korean invasion of South Korea and the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Tits_Mcgruff
9mo ago
A lot of your initial complaints seem to have more to do with implementation.
Here in Australia voting is compulsory. Well, showing up at a polling station and getting your name ticked off is compulsory; nothing is stopping you from submitting a spoilt ballot.
The Australian Electoral Commission has tried to design the system so that, aside from illness and misadventure, there is virtually no reason for someone to be unable to vote. Our elections are always held on Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with pre-polling stations opening a week in advance. Federal and state elections allow absentee voting, and postal voting is available as an option of last resort.
Tits_Mcgruff
9mo ago
But as far as I can tell it's not true that there are different licenses per state; there is a national "chainsaw ticket".
Each state has different training courses, as education and training is run at a state level. However, the states try to standardise around a national framework.
Also, from what I can tell, there is no chainsaw “license” in any state or territory. There are only training course requirements in some states for certain industries. For chainsaws there’s various training courses ranging from basic handling and maintenance, to cutting fallen trees, to felling limbs, to felling entire trees. But these are all separate courses that can be taken either individually or as part of a larger training course for a higher certification or diploma.
The main difference between a license and a certification requirement is that without a certification, you’re unable to be hired in the relevant field, while without a license, you’re not legally allowed to perform the relevant task at all.
For example without a first aid certificate you might not be allowed to be hired as a life guard at a swimming centre. But without a forklift license you’re never legally permitted to operate a forklift even if it’s privately owned and on private property.
Licensing requirements to operate a chainsaw vary from state to state. A NSW chainsaw license may not necessarily entitle the holder to operate a chainsaw in Victoria.
Not sure if this is a shitpost, but there’s no license required to operate a chainsaw. Some employers/industries require you pass a training course, but there’s no state or federal government licensing programs like there is for say, forklifts.
Tits_Mcgruff
9mo ago
Comparing the homicide rates of police and "average citizen" is flawed. The “average citizen” is not the same thing as the “average law-abiding citizen”. The cohort used to calculate the risk of death due to homicide for the "average citizen" includes violent criminals who make up the vast majority of homicide victims. This group is excluded from joining the police force creating a sampling bias that distorts the comparison you’re making.
Additionally, you're conflating the risk level after implementing mitigation strategies with the inherent danger of the job. Police engage in work with high-severity hazards of varying likelihood. They employ risk mitigation strategies that reduce the potential severity (e.g., wearing ballistic vests) and the potential likelihood (e.g., situational awareness training).
The effectiveness of these risk mitigation strategies likely contributes to the lower fatality rates among police officers, masking the inherent dangers of the job. So claiming police officers have a low risk of being killed, so they don't need to employ such strict mitigation techniques, is flawed. It's akin to arguing that because few firefighters die on the job nowadays, entering burning buildings isn't actually dangerous and firefighters overly cautious.
The comparison to commercial tree trimmers is also flawed, as the nature and unpredictability of threats faced by police officers are fundamentally different. Unlike tree trimmers, who face primarily environmental hazards, police officers confront unpredictable, potentially hostile human actors. This introduces a level of situational volatility and stress that is not comparable to most other professions, including high-risk manual labor jobs.
Tits_Mcgruff
10mo ago
The national guard is regularly deployed during large riots. The marine were deployed during the LA riots. Though that was prior to the Navy and Marine Corp being added to Posse Comitatus in 2021.
Where I’m from, most supermarket workers are a mix of 1st generation immigrants, highschoolers, and university students. Is this not the case where you live?
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