3 ms·

The author leads by claiming that San Francisco has made it "illegal not to compost your food scraps" (completely false) and condones people doing meth at playg

The author leads by claiming that San Francisco has made it "illegal not to compost your food scraps" (completely false) and condones people doing meth at playgrounds (also completely false, though it would be nice if SF police were more responsive and helpful), then he starts apologizing for rape and demanding that sex workers and anyone possessing a hypodermic needle be charged with crimes, because if they aren't it "verges on criminal negligence" (without any apparent consideration of why such failed laws were changed). After that preface he gets to his main point, a weird fantasy ramble of a cultural-ethnic-origin "explanation" of how this is supposed to have come about, something about Puritans representing state control and Scots-Irish representing individual freedom or something (while apparently ignoring the groups who actually settled in California). I gave up at that point. The author is apparently living in a weird Newsmax/Infowars (?) media bubble combined with occasional off-topic nonfiction books and doesn't seem capable of critically evaluating information before mashing it together and hyperbolically passing it to readers.

fragmede 2y ago
> San Francisco forces people to compost their food scraps (completely false) In place since 2009, > The San Francisco Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance (No. 100-09) is a local municipal ordinance requiring all persons located in San Francisco to separate their recyclables, compostables and landfilled trash and to participate in recycling and composting programs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mandatory_Recycling_and_Composting_Ordinance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mandatory_Recycl...
- jacobolus 2y ago
  This requires that residents have access to regularly collected trash, recycling, and compost bins, which they are encouraged to use by means of making larger sizes of compost/recycle bins cheaper than larger sizes of landfill trash bins. Grocery stores, restaurants, and events are also required to provide separate bins for patrons to use, and employers are required to provide sufficient ashtrays for cigarette butts. (The main opposition to this policy comes from owners of large multi-unit properties who were annoyed because they didn't want to make space for the bins or pay for collection.) There is no enforcement of people using the bins fastidiously, and people constantly dump their food scraps and recycling into their ordinary trash bins. (Not to mention plenty of dumping of incorrect stuff into the other bins, which is also not ordinarily enforced against.) If a resident throws all of their food scraps into the trash bin, nobody is going to do anything about it. In theory if someone starts dumping car batteries in the compost or something the city can come fine them. Characterizing this policy as making it "illegal not to compost your food scraps" is at best a significant exaggeration which is grossly misleading to readers. (As an aside: I would personally recommend people compost their food scraps, either on their own property or using a collected bin: dumping organic material in a landfill creates a lot of methane, landfill space is not unlimited, the resulting compost is a useful by-product, and separating most food scraps from general garbage is easy.)
  - musicale 2y ago
    > Characterizing this policy as making it "illegal not to compost your food scraps" is at best a significant exaggeration "Required by municipal ordinance to participate in composting programs" would be a positive way to state it.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - eurleif 2y ago
    The ordinance states: "All persons in San Francisco must source separate their refuse into recyclables, compostables, and trash, and place each type of refuse in a separate container designated for disposal of that type of refuse. No person may mix recyclables, compostables or trash, or deposit refuse of one type in a collection container designated for another type of refuse, except as otherwise provided in this Chapter." When the law requires you to behave a certain way, and you don't, you're doing something illegal; that's what "illegal" means. It's entirely irrelevant whether or not you get away with it, and your conflation of illegality with (your perception of) enforcement is what's grossly misleading.
    - jacobolus 2y ago
      When put side by side with the comment about meth at playgrounds (note: definitely illegal, though again, police in SF are generally fairly unresponsive), it is clear that your reach of a pedantic defense is not how the author intends readers to interpret this passage. The implication is that SF is a dystopian nightmare where some woke enforcement squad is coming to arrest you for putting your banana peels in the garbage while applauding the drug addicts threatening your children. The whole thing is a hyperbolic rhetorical flourish intended to provoke a knee-jerk fear/anger response among an audience previously primed by right-wing media but entirely personally unfamiliar with San Franciso, not a careful discussion of the benefits and harms or even the ideological underpinnings of various local ordinances. Leading with "culture war" nonsense likely to provoke pointless arguments like this one is why this article is a poor fit for HN which people would be better served by skipping.
fallingknife 2y ago
> and condones people doing meth at playgrounds (also completely false Only false in that it omits that fentanyl is also condoned, or that it's not just playgrounds, but all public places.

fragmede 2y ago

> San Francisco forces people to compost their food scraps (completely false) In place since 2009, > The San Francisco Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance (No. 100-09) is a local municipal ordinance requiring all persons located in San Francisco to separate their recyclables, compostables and landfilled trash and to participate in recycling and composting programs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mandatory_Recycling_and_Composting_Ordinance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mandatory_Recycl...

jacobolus 2y ago
This requires that residents have access to regularly collected trash, recycling, and compost bins, which they are encouraged to use by means of making larger sizes of compost/recycle bins cheaper than larger sizes of landfill trash bins. Grocery stores, restaurants, and events are also required to provide separate bins for patrons to use, and employers are required to provide sufficient ashtrays for cigarette butts. (The main opposition to this policy comes from owners of large multi-unit properties who were annoyed because they didn't want to make space for the bins or pay for collection.) There is no enforcement of people using the bins fastidiously, and people constantly dump their food scraps and recycling into their ordinary trash bins. (Not to mention plenty of dumping of incorrect stuff into the other bins, which is also not ordinarily enforced against.) If a resident throws all of their food scraps into the trash bin, nobody is going to do anything about it. In theory if someone starts dumping car batteries in the compost or something the city can come fine them. Characterizing this policy as making it "illegal not to compost your food scraps" is at best a significant exaggeration which is grossly misleading to readers. (As an aside: I would personally recommend people compost their food scraps, either on their own property or using a collected bin: dumping organic material in a landfill creates a lot of methane, landfill space is not unlimited, the resulting compost is a useful by-product, and separating most food scraps from general garbage is easy.)
- musicale 2y ago
  > Characterizing this policy as making it "illegal not to compost your food scraps" is at best a significant exaggeration "Required by municipal ordinance to participate in composting programs" would be a positive way to state it.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- eurleif 2y ago
  The ordinance states: "All persons in San Francisco must source separate their refuse into recyclables, compostables, and trash, and place each type of refuse in a separate container designated for disposal of that type of refuse. No person may mix recyclables, compostables or trash, or deposit refuse of one type in a collection container designated for another type of refuse, except as otherwise provided in this Chapter." When the law requires you to behave a certain way, and you don't, you're doing something illegal; that's what "illegal" means. It's entirely irrelevant whether or not you get away with it, and your conflation of illegality with (your perception of) enforcement is what's grossly misleading.
  - jacobolus 2y ago
    When put side by side with the comment about meth at playgrounds (note: definitely illegal, though again, police in SF are generally fairly unresponsive), it is clear that your reach of a pedantic defense is not how the author intends readers to interpret this passage. The implication is that SF is a dystopian nightmare where some woke enforcement squad is coming to arrest you for putting your banana peels in the garbage while applauding the drug addicts threatening your children. The whole thing is a hyperbolic rhetorical flourish intended to provoke a knee-jerk fear/anger response among an audience previously primed by right-wing media but entirely personally unfamiliar with San Franciso, not a careful discussion of the benefits and harms or even the ideological underpinnings of various local ordinances. Leading with "culture war" nonsense likely to provoke pointless arguments like this one is why this article is a poor fit for HN which people would be better served by skipping.

fallingknife 2y ago

> and condones people doing meth at playgrounds (also completely false Only false in that it omits that fentanyl is also condoned, or that it's not just playgrounds, but all public places.