4 ms·

Please no more "geniuses." This cult of personality celebrity idol worship is toxic. The U in UBI stands for "universal" -- you don't need to be a genius to app

Please no more "geniuses." This cult of personality celebrity idol worship is toxic. The U in UBI stands for "universal" -- you don't need to be a genius to apply. UBI is great for enabling everyone to advance to their ultimate potential by alleviating financial constraints. (It may also lead to laziness as people no longer need to advance to survive.) Hopefully the net benefit outweighs any negative consequences.

zozbot234 4y ago
> Please no more "geniuses." This cult of personality celebrity idol worship is toxic. Agreed. Just look at Trump, his I.Q. is one of the highest and yet his presidency has been among the worst in American history.
- buzzin__ 4y ago
  Was his IQ high because he was a stable genius, and had a good you know what?
- pif 4y ago
  Trump is not the problem: he is a symptom. The millions of idiots that voted for him, twice, are the problem.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  If you remove everything he said and a pandemic which his opponent stopped him from instantly responding to in promoting disease. Was it so bad really? No new wars for one thing.
  - zozbot234 4y ago
    > If you remove everything he said Now that's asking for a lot. But maybe you're right, it's way better to have a president who doesn't say much of anything.
  - thelock85 4y ago
    Amazing how a sitting president can have an opponent 3.75 years before the next cycle, unless you mean Pelosi and Schumer similar to how Obama had McConnell. Of course Trump had a lot of opposition within various levels of government but that’s also not a new phenomenon, just one he played up by constantly talking about it as a means to working through it. Arguably if he’d just shut up, he’d have given up his biggest political strength and more co-opted by the corporate deep state. And then there is the massive PPP wealth transfer he oversaw, both to criminals (not necessarily his fault, just his responsibility) and via the US Treasury (definitely on him). But these things are also nothing new compared to other recent POTUSes except for the most powerful playing constant victim.
seanw444 4y ago
Yeah, I'm against UBI, but this is even worse than that. Sending taxpayer money to arbitrarily-defined "geniuses" is the epitome of inequality.
- starkd 4y ago
  Especially if any metric is deemed a source of "systemic inequality".
  - SQueeeeeL 4y ago
    Damn, it's almost like the world is deeply complex and interconnected, and being literally so poor you can't afford electricity and books will inevitably pollute any "unbiased metric", you try to create.
- theGnuMe 4y ago
  We already do that via grants anyway.
- mc32 4y ago
  Why not use what we have already used like future service for scholarships (underwriting an education for limited commitment in the future)? As I mention elsewhere, of course it eliminates people wo just want to play around or students who don't know what they want. But it's be an option for serious geniuses who want to cultivate their intellect but maybe don't have an alternative route.
nsxwolf 4y ago
The geniuses bombed the entire planet for generations with their COVID response ideas. I shudder when I hear them talk about "dimming the sun" next. Could use a little less "genius" for awhile.
wyre 4y ago
>It may also lead to laziness as people no longer need to advance to survive I don’t think this is a good argument against UBI when so much of our labor force is engaged in meaningless work, or what late anthropologist David Graeber called “Bullshit Jobs”. [1] I can imagine it could make some people be perceived as lazy because they now have the freedom to do anything else besides push papers 40 hours a week and that paradigm shift could induce depression because so many people lose themselves while surviving capitalism. That said, there is already a pandemic of depression (4.7% of American adults)[2] that is likely highly correlated to the mentioned phenomena. As the corpus of mental health literature increases, it becomes more and more apparent laziness and depression are not moral failings, but societal failings emerging from the Capitalist-Protestant work ethic [conjecture]. UBI won’t change human nature’s drive to improve material conditions. It will allow many people the ability to pursue meaningful enterprise and self-actualization. For those without the drive to participate in the rat race, I would congratulate their enlightenment instead of accusing them of laziness. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs [2]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/depression.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/depression.htm

zozbot234 4y ago

> Please no more "geniuses." This cult of personality celebrity idol worship is toxic. Agreed. Just look at Trump, his I.Q. is one of the highest and yet his presidency has been among the worst in American history.

buzzin__ 4y ago
Was his IQ high because he was a stable genius, and had a good you know what?
pif 4y ago
Trump is not the problem: he is a symptom. The millions of idiots that voted for him, twice, are the problem.
Ekaros 4y ago
If you remove everything he said and a pandemic which his opponent stopped him from instantly responding to in promoting disease. Was it so bad really? No new wars for one thing.
- zozbot234 4y ago
  > If you remove everything he said Now that's asking for a lot. But maybe you're right, it's way better to have a president who doesn't say much of anything.
- thelock85 4y ago
  Amazing how a sitting president can have an opponent 3.75 years before the next cycle, unless you mean Pelosi and Schumer similar to how Obama had McConnell. Of course Trump had a lot of opposition within various levels of government but that’s also not a new phenomenon, just one he played up by constantly talking about it as a means to working through it. Arguably if he’d just shut up, he’d have given up his biggest political strength and more co-opted by the corporate deep state. And then there is the massive PPP wealth transfer he oversaw, both to criminals (not necessarily his fault, just his responsibility) and via the US Treasury (definitely on him). But these things are also nothing new compared to other recent POTUSes except for the most powerful playing constant victim.

seanw444 4y ago

Yeah, I'm against UBI, but this is even worse than that. Sending taxpayer money to arbitrarily-defined "geniuses" is the epitome of inequality.

starkd 4y ago
Especially if any metric is deemed a source of "systemic inequality".
- SQueeeeeL 4y ago
  Damn, it's almost like the world is deeply complex and interconnected, and being literally so poor you can't afford electricity and books will inevitably pollute any "unbiased metric", you try to create.
theGnuMe 4y ago
We already do that via grants anyway.
mc32 4y ago
Why not use what we have already used like future service for scholarships (underwriting an education for limited commitment in the future)? As I mention elsewhere, of course it eliminates people wo just want to play around or students who don't know what they want. But it's be an option for serious geniuses who want to cultivate their intellect but maybe don't have an alternative route.

nsxwolf 4y ago

The geniuses bombed the entire planet for generations with their COVID response ideas. I shudder when I hear them talk about "dimming the sun" next. Could use a little less "genius" for awhile.

wyre 4y ago

>It may also lead to laziness as people no longer need to advance to survive I don’t think this is a good argument against UBI when so much of our labor force is engaged in meaningless work, or what late anthropologist David Graeber called “Bullshit Jobs”. [1] I can imagine it could make some people be perceived as lazy because they now have the freedom to do anything else besides push papers 40 hours a week and that paradigm shift could induce depression because so many people lose themselves while surviving capitalism. That said, there is already a pandemic of depression (4.7% of American adults)[2] that is likely highly correlated to the mentioned phenomena. As the corpus of mental health literature increases, it becomes more and more apparent laziness and depression are not moral failings, but societal failings emerging from the Capitalist-Protestant work ethic [conjecture]. UBI won’t change human nature’s drive to improve material conditions. It will allow many people the ability to pursue meaningful enterprise and self-actualization. For those without the drive to participate in the rat race, I would congratulate their enlightenment instead of accusing them of laziness. [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs [2]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/depression.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/depression.htm