sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
Suddenly I cannot remember the color of your eyes
Or the things we said as we stood together for the last time
User ID: 636
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3hr ago
Why do we need a conspiracy here? Hasn't there been algae in this pool all the time?
“The nanobubbler technology has successfully destroyed the algae bloom that has plagued every pool reopening since 1922—most infamously the Obama-era pool reopening, which resulted in massive algae clumps taking over the pool’s surface following years of construction that cost taxpayers millions upon millions, only for the pool to become broken and disgusting days later,” a spokesperson said.
Also, I assume the national mall is covered in security cameras. Surely they would have caught someone dumping bags of fertilizer in there if that was what happened?
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
6hr ago
Does the US enforce jurisdiction over citizen tax evaders?
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
15hr ago
The German Tourist doesn’t pay US taxes.
They pay sales taxes, of course. Oh, you mean income taxes? Well, 40% of American households pay $0 in income tax.
The undocumented migrant isn’t paying taxes on their savings account in Mexico.
Maybe, but they are in fact required to do so, and I don't think your view would change if they did (or if they didn't have a savings account).
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
15hr ago
The Ptolemids seem like the closest parallel. They managed about 300 years before the Romans knocked them over and IIRC kept it, ah, in the family, so to speak.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
1d ago
Is London such a shithole that you run the risk of being robbed during a craigslist meet?
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
2d ago
I'm not so post-modern to think everyone's idea of a good time has equal value.
TIL de gustibus non disputandum est is a postmodern sentiment.
Nevertheless it remains narcissistic to view his refusal to hang out with you through the lens of how it affects you.
Of course not. I will happily take them up on their offer of a quiet cocktail another night. If he asked me to game with him some night, or do a quick DnD campaign I would even though it's not my highest preference for an evening.
In all likelihood, he will never ask you to do this, though.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
2d ago
So if I’m in Mexico, what’s the “coolest” experience I can have on a given day with very little extra effort?
I knew a guy like this. He basically viewed doing "quirky" and "interesting" stuff like this as a way to present an interesting facade so that he'd have stuff to talk about with other people. Kind of like the guys who buy a Rolex as a "conversation starter". He was (and, I assume, still is) a total schmuck.
Anyway, point is that not everyone shares your view of what a good time is, and it's narcissistic to view this as some kind of personal sleight.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
I would strongly encourage you to read this post about how Australia's laws unintentionally drove one of our posters to attempting suicide. This stuff has real consequences.
I'm sorry this happened to him but the guy sounds like a real piece of work and if I found out my buddy wrote and collected books about kids raping each other I'd never talk to him again and I surely would make sure he's never left alone with any kids. This stuff is totally fucked up and I'm pretty sure the vast, vast majority would agree with me on this whereas most people don't care about GTA.
Whether or not this requires criminal penalties is debatable, but not everything that is unacceptable should be illegal.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
DnD didn't make people satanists, nor did Doom. Grand Theft Auto did not product a wave of, well, grand theft auto. Porn is blamed for lots of nasty new sexual behaviours - mostly choking - but the direct evidential link seems weak and not in the direction that is given (it's a girl-desired thing not a guy-desired thing).
Perhaps it's my viewpoint from 2026, but, none of these seem as shocking or disgusting as sexualized depictions of children. It seems obviously false that there is no media you can consume habitually that has an effect on your behavior or beliefs. Ultimately that boils down to an argument against the existence of culture.
you think 10% of Japan and many, many teenage boys who like goth loli should be literally locked in a mental home.
Japan seems like a profoundly ill society, so I'm pretty comfortable biting that bullet.
In practice, many people privately consider these arguments hackneyed and their force has been dropping through the last century
Indeed, but most people still see consuming this stuff as disgusting and at the very least indicating people who shouldn't be alone with children, even if they don't think it should be literally illegal.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
That's an argument against production, not consumption. In any case, it's easy enough to come up with harms from consumption of fictionalized sexualized children (see other responses in this thread).
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
It's pretty normal to ban distribution or possession to prevent production - look at ivory.
I'm not familiar with countries that ban possession of ivory, although its sale is often illegal.
There's also cases of goods whose possession is legal but production and distribution is not (for example, Portuguese drug policy).
Interest in the Benin Bronzes declined considerably as it became known that they were essentially made by the worst slavers in Africa
I mean, surely people always knew that those people were slavers? It's not exactly a secret what they were up to.
The bronzes are very prominently displayed in the British Museum and Nigeria apparently wants them back. They seem fairly popular though not at an all time high of popularity. Of course, the Benin bronzes were only indirectly enabled by slaving, so it's not really the same as your other examples.
consumption of actual torture porn or gore stuff is both rare and heavily frowned upon even when that doesn't affect production.
Indeed, but the consumption of fictional sexualized depiction of minors is heavily frowned upon by the general public even though it's been normalized in certain toaster fucker parts of the internet.
Neither argument applies to fiction, though.
Sure, but there's other arguments that apply to fiction. Such as:
-
People who produce or consume fictional disgusting material may have something wrong with them and belong in an institution rather than among a community of like minded people
-
People who produce or consume fictional disgusting material may eventually move on to producing or consuming real disgusting material
Etc.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
That's an argument for banning production, not distribution or possession.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
So, you are presumably okay with people possessing and distributing actual CSAM?
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
Specifically, college educated womens' voting patterns (in the U.S.) vs. those of non-college educated women.
Surely you are smart enough to realize that these groups are not the same but for the college degree, or, to put it simply, that correlation does not imply causation?
I encourage you to see what Caplan writes on this in The Case Against Education. You can even feed the EPUB into your favorite LLM if you don't want to read it.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
College is in my view a large part of the problem.
It's a nice thesis. It has the disadvantage of conflicting with empirical evidence, though.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
3d ago
That's where they get turned into lefties.
Probably not (see The Case Against Education). They were already lefties to begin with. Alexa, play the George Orwell quote.
It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
4d ago
now that trans people are everywhere (thanks to anti-trans activists)
Surely this can't be serious? I've worked with numerous people who went down the autistic adult male to trans woman pipeline. I doubt I would have known even a single person like this thirty years ago. Are we really to believe that this was all due to anti trans activists?
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
5d ago
There's a brief reference to the demons having horns, but they also apparently have horned helmets which is a little strange:
Therewith stood up Lord Juss, and with him the Lord Goldry Bluszco, that went in all his war gear, his horned helm of gold
Of course, none of these special features play any role in the story, even in the wrestling match where you would expect horns would play a role. It's all very uneven.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
5d ago
it just doesn't do to approach it with 21th century fantasy literature expectations.
Ah, but Tolkien is firmly 20th century fantasy literature. I think even Conan the Barbarian does better with naming conventions, though perhaps largely thanks to cribbing from actual cultures.
Nevertheless I will persist.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
5d ago
Finished The End of Eternity. Strong ending, I think, though I would have preferred it if
Now on The Worm Ouroboros, by the man who called Tolkien a soy. I'm bewildered by the swiftly abandoned framing device, the variety of kingdoms named Impland, Demonland, Goblinland, etc all peopled by ordinary men, and the general lack of cohesion in naming conventions among things that should have some common origin. Maybe Tolkien made good naming table stakes for fantasy? it's holding my attention despite that, and the 17th century prose is very convincing.
But the King would not hear him, but said, “Methinks it is for loyal subjects to seek greatness in the greatness of their King, nor desire to shine of their own brightness. As for this Demon, when thou sayest that I have overcome him thou speakest a gross and impudent lie. In this bout I did but measure myself with him. But thereby know I of a surety that when I put forth my might he will not be able to withstand me; and all ye shall shortly behold how, as one shattereth a stalk of angelica, I will break and shatter the limbs of this Goldry Bluszco. As for thee, false friend, subtle fox, unfaithful servant, this long time am I grown weary of thee slinking up and down my palace devising darkly things I know not: thou, that art nought akin to Witchland, but an outlander, a Goblin exile, a serpent warmed in my bosom to my hurt. But these things shall have an end. When I have put down this Goldry Bluszco, then shall I have leisure to put down thee also.” And Gro bowed in sorrow of heart before the anger of the King, and held his peace.
sarker
hantavirus landfill tour guide
6d ago
They are already not tolerated - stalkers are explicitly violating international law.
The phosphate levels are elevated compared to what? To ordinary water, or to this pool that's had algae issues for apparently a hundred years?
You don't have to posit a novel explanation when the phenomenon in question is not novel.
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