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fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2d ago
Yeah the brief rash of van/car attacks into city crowds concerned me a lot. I usually have a pretty rational assessment of gun crime/terrorism (I'm not involved in the drug trade, so my likelihood of being shot is very low, and terrorism is in general so rare it's not worth stressing over especially as I'm not American).
But the van attacks were genuinely scary to me. Canada may not have much gun violence, but we have a LOT of cars. And random acts of sidewalk violence with a car was all of a sudden a quite plausible threat in my life. I stopped wearing headphones when walking around as a result of this, which while I am no longer worried about getting van'd, I still do as the additional situational awareness is never a bad thing.
That's also what got me thinking about terrorism optimization, even the van attack guy in Toronto could have probably increased his kill count by a factor of 10x if he did it down Bay Street at 8:45am, versus somewhere way out of the core of Toronto where he actually did it.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
2d ago
I wish we put this much effort into teaching everyone other equally important lessons.
Just curious, do you have any specific lessons in mind here? The idea is at least intriguing.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2d ago
Or sitting in a single location with 0 latitude to move a foot in either direction
Dogs are famously not creatures that love to sit still
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2d ago
which are often chained for the purpose
I actually think this is significantly more humane. I am not very bothered by dogs being confined to a given area, but not even being able to shift around if sore, bored, or simply wanting a change is fucked up.
We turn hospital patients who can't move because they get bed sores, etc. A chained up dog can still get up, stretch its legs and move a bit, and settle into a new, more comfortable posture or location.
cjet79
2d ago
This is what was so concerning about Islamic terror attacks in the early 2000's. It was a group of people willing to think rationally about killing and causing a bunch of damage. They used box cutters and a few flying lessons to kill thousands of people in a day and cause massive damage in New York City.
I do remember people trying to war game potential avenues for future terrorist attacks where there might be low hanging fruit. It quickly got depressing. The Western world mostly functions and operates on the assumption that everyone is not trying to cause massive damage and death to those around them. The water supply, electric grids, transportation infrastructure, etc are all vulnerable to determined saboteurs. Massive crowds of people in unsecured areas are common in every city every day. Explosives materials are monitored, but anyone can walk up to a gas station and buy a fire accelerant with cash.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2d ago
I think if you're spanking your kids, you are actually obligated to do it in the most effective way possible that you are capable of, and to spank them "lazily" without adherence to optimal learning/ teaching is an abject failure as a parent and leader
Just make America enough of a soccer country to start having real soccer ultras/hooligans (from what I've seen, the American ones seem to be considered quite larpy)
For our domestic national league you are more likely to get punched by "ultras" for not being suitably anti-racist than be punched by a racist. The Hispanic population could probably lay the foundation for a proper hooligan culture, but I don't think it'd be tolerated. Soccer is not the working class sport of choice in the US and the fandom for professional soccer came of age after the suits figured out how to fully commodify sports. Riots and fist fights are considered bad for business here unless you're from Philadelphia.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2d ago
I'm a dog owner, and I'm not deranged, I think I'm pretty pragmatic.
There is nothing wrong with using a shock collar.
Tentative agree if you are a wise owner who understands classical conditioning and basic dog psychology. I don't think most dog owners meet this bar.
I have a friend who lives in a rural area with a dog who loves going for long walks to kill rabbits/see his dog "girlfriend" in the farm 3 kilometers over. They have a shock collar that activates if he leaves the property, which I think is great because it reduces his risk of getting killed by a car, but means he doesn't need to be literally tied to the house (which was the prior solution).
I have an uncle who uses the shock collar as a shortcut to actually training his dog by zapping it when it pisses him off, but he does 0 training to teach it what he actually wants. I dislike this greatly.
to perform as an actor contributing to his streams
Refusing to let it move from a single location for any reason for hours on end is deranged, both as a job period for any living being, but especially a dog. They're restless creatures with a ton of energy.
My dog spends most of his time sleeping these days (he's 5), I tried pretty hard with him to get him to sleep beside me when I work at my desk. Seemed like a win/win, because I could interact with him when I needed a break instead of go on my phone, and he'd get way more attention then if he was on the couch in a different room. But it didn't work because he seems to really love changing his sleeping location every few hours, going for a drink, etc. He sleeps most of the day, but every time I leave my office he's in a different location than when I last left it. Most dogs I've interacted with share this behavior.
If Hassan did a good job at training, he'd create a strong positive association with lying in that bed behind him. But I image even if he did (what I've heard about him and the fact he's using a shock collar makes me doubt this), I bet it would still want to stretch its legs, get water, whatever. It's a fucking dog, they like to move, we like to move too ideally (see: how shit desk jobs are for your physical health) we just have an easier time overriding that impulse, to our detriment.
I'm all for dogs having jobs, many breeds need them (every border collie I see in Toronto is autistically fixated on fetch as a replacement for herding, it's sad). But "sit here for hours and never move from this exact spot" is antithetical to their nature, and the 10,000 years of jobs they've done for us thus far.
Rosencrantz2
2d ago
Yes, I think this is a fair criticism of the left. I don't think it's terribly surprising the left would recoil from a position that seems to excuse companies profiting by employing illegal immigrants, but punishes being an illegal migrant. It seems a bit downpunchy, and to constitute an acknowledgement that government policy is to deliberately cause people to want to come to the US, and then deliberately punish them when they do. However I think the left should be working to find a policy package that resolves these tensions in a way that it is more thoughtful than the right-wing version.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Turnspit dogs did not love what they do, and even at the time this was noted as a bad spot for a dog to be in. If someone used a turnspit dog today I would think less of them for not using an electric motor.
non-destructively taking a shortcut across someone else's field is one of the textbook examples of malum prohibitum and the law in most places reflects this.
The catch is that a single person taking a shortcut may "cause no damage" but if a lot of people all take the same shortcut, all that "no damage" can add up to damage. We're not in a situation where there's just one illegal immigrant, analogous to allowing one trespass.
The single-time, single-person trespass also doesn't include an analogy to the illegal consuming social services or anything like that.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
2d ago
I'm tired of hearing about Elon Musk and Jensen Huang. America went to the moon and back before we opened the immigration floodgates
LOL, perhaps you'd like to hear about Werner von Braun instead? America went to the moon largely due to the efforts of 'liberated' Nazi engineers in building the rockets. And one of the planners of US spaceflight and the namer of the Apollo program, as well as the chair of the Saturn Vehicle Evaluation Committee? Wait for it, you're going to love this... Abe Silverstein. So, like the ICBM, the lunar program was a product of a partnership between Nazis and Jews.
Robert Goddard, at least, was a "heritage American" so it wasn't entirely an immigrant endeavor.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
It’s not peer pressure, man. It’s pressure from elders. Men in these communities who become productive and law abiding citizens promptly leave- in the case of dirt poor white and Hispanic communities often through travel jobs. The only male role models available to young adolescents are losers(deadbeats) and assholes(criminals). They follow lives of crime to be like, and get the approval of, the assholes- because who wants to be a loser?
Jiro
2d ago
What would they say, in your view?
They'd have no principled basis for it at all.
Actually saying "but they have to be evil" would be one step towards allowing their opponents to do assassinations as well, since "he isn't evil" is a much weaker argument than "it's wrong to assassinate".
hydroacetylene
2d ago
The Nazis did not advocate for non-state violence; their atrocities were carried out by state backed military/paramilitary forces.
professorgerm
found a needlessly pedantic hill to die on
2d ago
it's not this or that column from over a decade ago, it's the way that Klein in general, in his politics and more importantly in his whole affect, symbolises a type of holier-than-thou policy wonk who calmly explains why you're wrong about everything, why your values suck, and why it all needs to be bulldozed.
That's the point- that old column is a particularly concentrated and surprisingly open synecdoche for everything else about him. If someone doesn't understand why the right doesn't like Klein, they could go listen to 30 hours of his podcast... or they can just read the one article that displays most of his worst traits.
No, the column isn't the reason; it's a handy- ha ha- Voxsplainer.
The_Nybbler
If you win the rat race you're still a rat. But you're also still a winner.
2d ago
Arbitrary and capricious enforcement of paperwork offenses (and illegal immigration is a paperwork offence)
Illegal immigration is not a "paperwork offense", except in the case of those illegal immigrants who could have cured or avoided it by doing the right paperwork. Most of them, no matter what paperwork they would have filed, would not have been lawfully admitted to the US.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Way too dangerous in a country with more guns than people.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Might I suggest that rational planning is not the best model for what these people are thinking?
professorgerm
found a needlessly pedantic hill to die on
2d ago
Too gay but also not gay enough.
That's not entirely a joke but I think the current issue is some post-Kirk comments that weren't entirely mealymouthed and immediately walked back. Could be wrong though.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Americans genuinely expect their preschoolers to actually believe, yes. Keeping up the illusion with older kids is going out of style but it still happens.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Ah, yes, the parents that give coal for questioning Santa.
hydroacetylene
2d ago
Elementary school.
Skeletor
2d ago
For what it's worth I put that one in because I have heard others talking about it. Personally I cannot remember ever believing that Santa was real, but neither can I remember ever being edgy about it.
When I was a very young kid I was disappointed that I wasn't allowed to ambush him and obtain evidence, like he was a cryptid. I was at the "sure I'll assume good faith, but" stage of developing skepticism. Good times.
If you're not a good trainer you shouldn't use a shock collar because you're inflicting pain without the corresponding training utility.
And you could be a good dog trainer if you just googled it, so you're essentially inflicting pain on something you have a duty of care to because you are lazy or stupid, which is why everyone is mad.
I use "you" to refer to Hassan/a hypothetical dog owner, not you personally.
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