domain:noahpinion.blog
iprayiam3
19hr ago
Re: the not allowed to give out a cup of water, it’s likely related to some general ups and downs in their loitering policy drama over the past several years.
I don’t recall the ins and outs and may be getting timing wrong but basically around George Floyd, there was a lot of bad optics around not letting people loiter or use the bathroom without being paying customers. This was seen as racism and bad. But meanwhile there were a lot of people taking advantage of such open doors policies, and basically loitering junkies we’re driving away customers.
Not giving out free water is perfectly reasonable way to discourage freeloading loiterers who might disrupt the appeal of the space for paying customers.
If you let that policy happen via discretion you risk the cancel mob highlighting perceived inequity, and wage workers don’t want to get plastered on the internet for that shit.
Blanket ban is much safer for the establishment as well as the workers to have blanket policies like this.
15 years ago I worked at a fast food restaurant right next to a college bar and we had similar policy because otherwise drink college kids who spent no money filled up the place and interfered with the business
Onanette
19hr ago
When I told her I wasn't necessarily interested in ordering anything, but was very much interested in her thoughts on the 'strike' et al she gave me a stare that made a cow look intelligent.
So not to be rude but how did you appear to her? Perhaps she noticed something off about you as you did her, for example, an indicator of undersocialization or "I'm not a journalist". Were I this woman I'd think "why is random man here to talk about corporate politics (which I have nothing to do with) instead of being normal and purchasing drink?" This is one of many possibilities.
This reminds me of time I was confronted in the supermarket by a 4chan user. I simply commented they were out of vinegar and after pleasantries he goes on tirade about COVID, government manufacturing diseases, how gay people incubated AIDs and have many STDs, all while I give polite white person smile trying to avoid his company. He does not get hint (parallel) owing to undersocialization, which I assume from unkempt greasiness and ideological blinders, continuing even as we enter checkout line. Onlookers onlook in horror while I amusedly wait for bags to be checked, as I know the man from /pol/'s type and they do not.
I feel for the barista in this way, but perhaps I'm not privy to particulars of situation and assume too much. Still, consider me your barista.
TIRM
19hr ago
I'm late to the party but for the sake of completion: Varg is Varg Vikernes. The notorious serial arsonist, convicted murderer, white supremacist, black metal musician and sometimes Twitter shitposter. Also made his own white supremacist pen and paper fantasy RPG. He's a theater kid gone mad.
Your OP was bad, pointless, and seemed like nothing more than an opportunity to dunk on an outgroup.
You then piled on with
This entire conversation is satanic.
Bro you are just a communist, in my humble opinion.
In response to someone engaging with you reasonably and civilly.
It's been six months since your last ban, but every time you pop up in the queue, it's for shitty exchanges like this. You just don't learn and you're obnoxious.
Another two week ban.
ETA: Escalated to 30 days for using report tool to throw insults.
ETA2: Toddler threw a tantrum. Permaban.
SSCReader
19hr ago
I'm a neo-liberal capitalist with a twist actually. And it was very nice of you with the gas station worker, bit that illustrates my point. You built a relationship with her over time then she could ask you for a favor.
You can't speedrun the relationship.
Danish Miss Teen America (?) takes your order sure. Try asking a French waiter a stupid question though. Norms are different in different places at different time for different people. You have to learn to navigate the ones in front of you. Not the ones you wish there were.
roystgnr
19hr ago
Consider https://youtube.com/@mathmajor for undergrad-level (and math major focus, as it says on the tin) math. I've really only dug into two series there so far, but for the topic I'm already familiar with I'm not noticing any mistakes or omissions, and for the topic I'm only half-familiar with the exposition is clear enough that I'm improving.
That Starbucks employee may have been a rude, incompetent blob. I wasn't there, and the nuances of the interaction get lost. Perhaps there is some element missing in your relating of the conversation that neither I nor others have grasped. It doesn't matter that much.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
19hr ago
I never thought I'd be someone who could converse in Japanese. I actually think at least in the US Spanish would have a great deal of utility in just dealing with people, but then the positives you list regarding the Chinese school may not be part of the Spanish-school package.
kky
20hr ago
What kind of woman does that? Would you consider her in your league? In the college league?
Besides, this was advice for reproducing, not dating. Dating advice is a different kettle of fish.
VinoVeritas
20hr ago
I feel heard. So, thank you. Without obsequiousness that's just a genuine sigh of relief.
Are we talking about the same thing? I was uncouth, ungallant, imperious by imposing myself on that poor, unsuspecting Starbucks employee. I might as well have taken my shirt off and started swinging it around like 'Call me George, George of the jungle'.
But I'm not as exasperated with people or the Motte (although, gosh, I do feel like this used to be the place to get the news) as I am with the reality that the whole exchange was so...whatever it was. Gosh. Now I do feel bad for being so anthropologically autistic even if she wouldn't give me a cup of water
kky
20hr ago
If you have a woman who you’re dating who is a good candidate, learning to trust her goes a long way, and trusting yourself the rest. “Learning to trust” is not an abstract journey of the soul. Select things to trust her, and yourself, on, and see how they go when things get hairy. Stressful situations are effective here!
Buyer beware: I’m not recommending a good time, here.
dr_analog
razorboy
20hr ago
Oh I just don't believe in language transfer skills.
They all seem useless in terms of utility. Chinese maybe slightly less so because China is at least an ascending global superpower with billions of speakers.
kky
20hr ago
Baby boom was in a sense a last gasp. Huge wealth changes the equation. But it was the specific experiences of the baby boom that sparked feminism; when second-wave feminists deride the life of the housewife, they are and can only be specifically talking about the baby boom housewife. Daughters saw what life was like for their mothers, and they wanted out. You can’t declare feminism as a premise; feminism was, like any social movement, a reaction to prevailing conditions. Those conditions were, first, the Victorian era and second, the baby boom.
The advice is distilled from my own life and my successful friends and coworkers, who are by and large married and with or currently having children. It’s not advice on how to get laid, or how to attract women initially (I have opinions but consider it besides the point), but how to convert a relationship into a companionable and loving marriage with children, which is what I consider valuable. Take it or leave it, I guess.
IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
20hr ago
If this is true you have a golden business opportunity starting a matchmaking business for overworked SF nerds with more money than sense. But my experience talking to people who do this kind of thing is that even those kinds of women have become unreasonably picky.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
20hr ago
Why would Japanese or Spanish be useless?
Bro you are just a communist, in my humble opinion. There is nothing to do here. When you go to McDonald's in Denmark Ms Teen America takes your order with a smile and a wink. When I went to Starbucks to ask 'hey, how do you feel about this recent news' you give me interminable wordwall and the wage-slave gives me blank face
Edit: To illustrate my point there is a 'strung out old gal' working the counter at a gas station down the street from the Starbucks in question that I frequent. We're genuinely actual friends. She had my number. The other day her power went out and I went over to deliver a shitty old freezer box I had sitting around in my garage. That's neighbors.
kky
20hr ago
I’m interested in your view on how the quality of men and women has gone down, and as a treat, why. If I were to give a description, I’d say that the lowered quality was literally that they weren’t interested in making things work, rather than separate elements. That sort of intentional, serious attitude towards life is basically what you want out of a partner as table stakes, right? That they’ll have the hard fights with you and want to get through them instead of taking them out on you, that they’ll commit materially sooner rather than later, that they’ll stick with you if things aren’t breezy. Obviously material concerns matter too, but people (in my circle, maybe unrepresentative) make plenty if they’re even slightly dedicated. What’s your take?
Quantumfreakonomics
20hr ago
It's their position that Article 3 and the Judiciary Act of 1789 do not give courts the power to issue nationwide injunctions
From a strict textualist point of view I think this is defensible. The judicial power extends only to “cases and controversies”. There is an implication that any action which contradicts binding judicial precedent is illegal, but technically this is only an implication. The judicial branch doesn’t have authority over an action until it becomes the subject of a case or controversy, i.e. when a specific plaintiff sues over a specific action.
Practically, this creates some hurdles and perverse incentives, so I doubt the court will go for it.
This is interesting. It's well-written in the sense that it flows and sticks the landing, even though I agree with almost everyone who has commented that your behavior (and subsequent dismissal of this woman) were oddly tone-deaf to the way polite society works. And slightly, to my archaic worldview, ungallant. But that point has been made repeatedly--to the point where you invoked Satan no less--so I'll change tack.
In Japan I generally avoid Starbucks because I don't enjoy their simple black coffee, and I am not interested in all the milkshake-type drinks which are considerably more popular, as well as time-consuming to make. Thus I have found myself waiting in line for up to 15 minutes just to have hot beverage poured from urn to cup because the three people in front of me ordered the dessert drinks. Also, although I haven't been to a US convenience store in years, here at least the Family Mart coffee machine grinds the beans as you're standing there, and that's like a minute wait tops. This is a tedious preface to my point that, at least here, Starbucks workers are efficient, on-task, and professional--which is to say very good at customer-facing friendliness. Also often young and pretty (the males and the females). Yet I cannot imagine how I could ask your question without creating a shit storm of awkwardness. Unfortunately awkwardness is routinely expected from foreigners (in a society built around avoiding awkwardness) so anyone brave and reckless enough to interact with a foreigner would probably be unfazed. This wouldn't be a good thing, as they'd probably be equally unfazed if I suddenly took off my shirt in the shop and began applying deodorant to my armpits. "Foreigners, what can you expect?" etc. So I am probably routinely viewed, despite my best efforts, as a relatively tame chimpanzee by many. And chimps can suddenly lose it, as we know.
Your posts sometimes seem exasperated--with people, with the Motte. Because of this (in addition to your username) I have assumed you are drinking booze while posting. But maybe it's something else. General misanthropy? I'm not trying intentionally to be satanic.
IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
20hr ago
I can't think of any apps that have tried this kind of verification
Oh there are some with that kind of verification, but they're usually for rich people.
IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
20hr ago
I don't understand why people are so keen to forget that Korea and Vietnam were both very much in the atomic age. I can understand people in the 50s thinking nukes would be the end of war, but we're surely free of such illusions? At best they're the end of world wars. Maybe.
Being generous you could place the end of mandatory military service and the West's choice to rely on professionals in the 60s, which is less than a century ago and did not result in an end of conscription laws being on the books. If it reverted it wouldn't be the first time something like that happens.
I wouldn't exactly take it for gospel that you'll never be handed a rifle, not when you can lawfully be handed one right now on a whim of "national security".
Corvos
20hr ago
Oh, yes. I meant the propensity for idle chat / relationship-forming, and the baseline emotional response to customers.
Corvos
20hr ago
One thing to note is that in WW2 people were ultimately forbidden to volunteer (in the British Army, anyway). Relying on patriotism creates big bulges of recruits that are hard to process at the start of the war, after important event etc.
Conscription works much better for any serious war because it allows you to stagger your intake, make sure the impact of losses is spread through the country, and get a wider variety of applicants.
I should update and add all the suggested revisions.
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