fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
No bio...
User ID: 3415
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
I think it's pretty clear they reduce overdoses and the waste of paramedic/hospital resources.
It's also incredibly clear that alone they do nothing to actually fix anything. They're a Band-Aid for symptom management as we treat the underlying issue. Problem is, we don't bother to treat any of the underlying issues.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
Safe injection sites
They reduce overdoses and time wasted by paramedics/hospitals treating the same 100 people over and over again.
They clearly don't make less people use drugs.
Their biggest issue imo, is that the Venn diagram of people who implement SIS and people who also implement the more draconian measures for the un-savable drug addicts are two different circles. And then the awful addicts are left to ruin it for everyone.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
Ahhh
That's an interesting concept. Any good examples? Why do you think the model of "the customer is a rational economic agent who buys the best things for themselves" has fallen apart recently? What changed in the marketing world to allow companies to leverage marketing to make up for sub-par products?
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
I'm not saying he isn't a socialist.
I'm saying "Socialism at the federal level mostly means endlessly , whereas socialism at the state + local level mostly means ."
Is not a very accurate way to describe socialism.
To add a similar thought, "bloating the elder care apparatus" is pretty much a bi-partisan issue in the West.
Going further, "bribing connected nonprofits and unions to provide various crappy services that don't really work" is very true for liberals, and so is the opposite "bribing connected companies to provide various crappy services that don't really work" for the conservative side.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
Brandon Johnson in Chicago
I've been meaning to read up on him. Sounds like he's a total fucking disaster.
My general vibe is Chicago has been on a pretty good hot streak of terrible mayors.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
He's at least said for the grocery stores that if they don't work they don't work, and he'll walk away
They won't work, so we'll see if he actually walks away
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
"socialism" = "liberal policies I dislike, the more I dislike them, the more socialist they are"
"Far right" = "conservative groups I dislike, the more I dislike them, the more far right they are"
"Neoliberalism" = "things about capitalism I dislike, the more I dislike them, the more neoliberal they are"
Western political discourse is stupid and getting stupider, because we are becoming stupider
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
Socialism at the federal level mostly means endlessly bloating the elder care apparatus, whereas socialism at the state + local level mostly means bribing connected nonprofits and unions to provide various crappy services that don't really work.
Neither of these things have anything to do with the ownership of the means of production.
I feel like we've fallen into the trap of using "socialism" as a shorthand for "stupid liberal policy I hate" in the same way the "far right" now means "conservative people with ideas I really dislike"
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
I agree with you regarding your critiques of socialism, but
The problem with socialisms are two - people are selfish and tragedy of the commons.
This describes a huge % of issues the capitalist West is currently failing to deal with too
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
Which problems are you referring to here?
Because the big NYC ones are:
Housing, which is entirely the fault of local voters using government to prevent more building. I blame the voters for this, not the politicians responding to their voters (selfish) wishes.
Public safety, voters hate all functional solutions to drugs/homeless because they feel "gross" (bleeding heart libtards hate enforcement, delusional rightoids hate proven solutions like SIS, no one wants to pay for more rehab centers).
Traffic/transit efficacy. See the huge backlash to congestion pricing, despite it being an economically sound and obviously beneficial policy. Also note that absolutely no one wants to give the MTA money despite it falling apart all the time (because preventative maintenance is expensive and boring). Admittedly it does seem like the MTA admin is a bit of a shitshow, so I guess we can blame government for that one. Although I've worked for large oligopolistic corporations and their admin was also an inefficient shitshow.
More broadly, in every western nation absolutely every citizen wants more gibs, and absolutely none of them want to pay more taxes to fund the gibs. So they mortgage the future instead.
I find it hard to blame government for all of this, as any politician who actually tried to take action to fix any of this would immediately lose their next election.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
I mean vs Ukranian civilians relative to population size for both countries.
So per 1,000 people in each country, there ~30 Gazan civilian deaths per capita for each Ukranian civilian death.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
maybe the whole project should never have been attempted in the first place
Episode #1052 of "the British Empire setting up geopolitical nightmares for the world in 100 years"
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
There is something so grim about driving by a bar just off a highway with a parking lot full of cars.
Also grim in that no one even bats an eye at the implications
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
no one is seriously accusing them of being genocidal.
Ukraine's population is 20x the size of the population of Gaza, but the civilian death toll in Ukraine is 3x lower.
So on a per capita basis, Gazan's are dying at a per capita rate of ~42x higher. My incredibly rough math has 1 civilian death per 3,158 Ukrainian citizens (using 2022 population) versus 1 death per 74 Gazans.
Couple of orders of magnitude there.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
I'm so torn on gambling. I'm generally staunchly in the "let people do things" camp, and I dislike regulating things that will immediately create uncontrollable black markets because the demand is very strong.
But holy shit gambling is a fucking disaster for our society. The explosion of sports betting has made me firmly convinced of this.
Crypto at least is harder to get into and plausibility useful. Same with prediction markets
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
sell already cold beer for off premises consumption, because people use it to drink and drive
Do you think that the coldness of beer is a large determinant for whether or not people drink and drive?
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
While your nuanced take is true, this is a funny video
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
Yeah the Iranians are a disaster shit show.
Much like the Russians pre-2022, I thought they were much more sophisticated than they actually were. Then things started exploding and they turned out to be yet another paper tiger.
Praying we get the same twist with China, very worried we will not
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
1mo ago
I did some googling and actually much less than I would have expected. Common L for clickbait media. Good to know though, kinetic deaths feel slightly less gruesome.
I guess I'll amend my sentence above to "and then you look and Gazan civilians are being killed at close to a 30:1 ratio, with no clear end in sight and a guarantee that once the newest generation of traumatized kids grows up, this will happen all over again".
Yes and we should institutionalize them forever
More options
Context Copy link