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Notes -
80+ dead and rising in Central Texas floods.
Kerr County is the Summer Camp capital of Texas. It's rugged hill country terrain and proximity to the Guadelupe River is perfect for exotic adventures outdoors, and it is close enough to major population centers to be convenient for parents to drop-off their children.
The downside is that low-lying cabins get completely wiped out in flood events. Camp Mystic for girls has double-digit casualties alone.
It is a common refrain to bemoan the fact that, "we don't let kids be kids anymore," and that may be true, but a big part of it is that we as a society simply don't consider the inherent risks acceptable anymore. I shudder to think about making 10-year-olds sit through a 30-minute site-specific emergency preparedness seminar, but that's where this is going, and given what's happened, I'm not entirely sure it would be a bad thing.
Redditors are blaming Orange Man for DOGE's cuts to NOAA and NWS which they claimed contributed to the loss of life. I'd be less skeptical if this didn't sound almost exactly like the claims that Orange Man's cuts to the CDC caused grandma to die of Covid. From what I can tell, the flood deaths were mainly due to (1) the county not having a [modern?] warning system, (2) the camp leader not erring on the side of caution to evacuate [to be fair, this was a 100 year flood], and (3) the flood happening in the middle of the night. Did I miss anything?
Also, please say a quick prayer for the families of the victims if you're the praying type.
Similar to how I've advised previously with x.com, I'd advise others to consider blacklisting reddit.com in their machine's hosts file. There is utility in refusing to allow the darkest thoughts of the most troubled people into your mind space.
Imagining Mother Earth opening up and swallowing the children of your enemies as some kind of quasi-divine retribution for opposing your preferred flavor of government spending is insane. It's good to remember that quipping about how the "finding out phase is beginning" in response to little children dying at a real dinner party would earn you some pretty thick stares regardless of how blue the company.
Not a bad suggestion, luckily for me I don't really read much Reddit outside of niche subreddits that are devoid of politics. Reddit takes are too boring to even hate-read. I've also been able to quit 4chan this year for the same reason, it's complete braindead noise now.
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