Frondo

63 ms·

601.
by Frondo 8y ago
What? Really? I can think of no better thing for humanity as a species to aspire to than this. "Do your best, help out the world, and your needs will be taken care of." As a goal for structuring society, if that isn't in yo
602.
by Frondo 8y ago
Given that the least-healthy food is the most heavily subsidized in America, yes, the wealthy have orchestrated a world in which the poor choose junk food. Some "free market" there. As for having a budget and sticking to it, no o
603.
by Frondo 8y ago
"either you are for freedom, or you are for collective coercion." This is a false dichotomy, and the happiest nations on earth have a mix of market regulation and individual freedom. And, that's an odd dig at life in Soviet R
604.
by Frondo 8y ago
I think the sequence of events you're proposing is implausible, on the order of likelihood of a zombie apocalypse or the apes rising up to overthrow mankind. "If we decide that billionaires represent a policy failure that has allo
605.
by Frondo 8y ago
Property rights beyond "what you can defend is yours" are a purely human invention; there's nothing innate to the world that says that the property rights regime that exists now is the right one. There are other ways you coul
606.
by Frondo 8y ago
You'd think the clue in the name would give them an idea...
607.
by Frondo 8y ago
You know, this, and you see this in the way the super-rich politicians elected to represent most of the country act. "We want to grow the pie, rather than redistribute anything, so everyone can live the American dream" -- when in
608.
by Frondo 8y ago
Of course the car companies are all in on an improvement to their devices that would sell more of them; what I really want, though, is far more buses on the road (big ones on the arterials, van-sized ones on the side streets) and a much lar
609.
by Frondo 8y ago
Do we know how ICE asked for these records? Because, from everything else I've ever seen about law enforcement making such requests, there's nothing nice about it, and there's everything coercive about it. And it's a sc
610.
by Frondo 8y ago
Throw the ballot out. People mis-fill ballots now. People will always mis-fill ballots. The column of numbers thing seems extremely intuitive and wouldn't baffle a significant number of American voters; certainly it wouldn't le
611.
by Frondo 8y ago
I see no such claims that they have any desire to own and control everyone's data, and I don't see how personal jibes like that are advancing any dialogue here.
612.
by Frondo 8y ago
Certainly, it's possible one can be accused of anything, with or without any basis in reality. I don't believe the risk of being accused of inappropriate behavior is anywhere near what you seem to, and accordingly have spent many,
613.
by Frondo 8y ago
I think the risk of this is widely exaggerated. I have had many, many long and interesting conversations with women colleagues, and there's never been any risk of anything being misinterpreted, because I: * don't joke about how I
614.
by Frondo 8y ago
False accusations, as you are suggesting in "a woman has just claim without any proof and the guy is just ruined," are exceedingly rare. For rape, the best estimates are 2% to 10% percent of accusations are false, according to thi
615.
by Frondo 8y ago
I had my gallbladder removed in a emergency surgery over a decade ago. It happened on a Wednesday night. I had excruciating pain, enough to nearly black out -- and a friend took me to an emergency room, where they did an ekg, ultrasound, p
616.
by Frondo 8y ago
Yes, and I'm of the position that there is no such thing as an inalienable right; that that too is a human invention and that that too is entirely up to people to defend. I also think this is a defensible position, hence my request to
617.
by Frondo 8y ago
The US has a number of explicitly anti-democratic institutions (the electoral college, the senate) that almost certainly wouldn't be devised if you were starting fresh. I mean, can you imagine proposing tomorrow, "in rural parts o
618.
by Frondo 8y ago
Wow! That's pretty interesting. Do you happen to remember the names of any? And maybe there isn't anything universal to societies that's considered as "right". Sort of opposite -- things forbidden -- I've hea
619.
by Frondo 8y ago
I'm not actually trying to distinguish at all -- the OP spoke of rights stemming from nature, and, as you said, any you'd describe as such are basically theological in nature. The thought experiment I'd run is, just like the
620.
by Frondo 8y ago
I don't mean this in a trollish way, but can you show me a "rights" molecule? Or explain what it would mean for rights to exist outside of a society?
621.
by Frondo 8y ago
It shouldn't be; Henry Darger wrote tens of thousands of pages of material he didn't think anyone would ever read. "In the realms of the Unreal," for the curious.
622.
by Frondo 8y ago
Oh, I meant the poly folks proselytize :-) Just that the sex workers I know don't avoid talking about their work; they just treat it as work, as any of us do. What region are you in? I'm talking about my experiences in both the
623.
by Frondo 8y ago
Maybe it's a generational thing, but in my circles (40 and under), no one conflates cannabis use with illegal drug abuse -- the latter implies something like heroin addiction. Maybe it's also a generational thing, but at parties I
624.
by Frondo 8y ago
> "Junkies are a blight on civilization" Junkies are human beings with a problem. So are cancer patients. So are veterans with PTSD. It's our job to remember they're people and need help, not cast them out further.
625.
by Frondo 8y ago
I don't think this is actually true. Looking at the top 20 metropolitan statistical areas in the US, you're already at nearly half the population of the US. And I know from the experience of having ridden commuter rail in most of
626.
by Frondo 8y ago
> "what gives someone the right to dictate to their neighbors what they can and can't do with their own property?" Because any livable set of laws recognizes that externalities are a thing and need to be addressed. I, as a
627.
by Frondo 8y ago
I would like to know of one ultra-wealthy individual who ended up possessing nothing and was made homeless; I don't intend this to be callous but while committing suicide is a tragedy but it does't mean some rich person was going
628.
by Frondo 8y ago
Just a note: it's illegal to fire someone for trying to organize a union. Not that it doesn't happen, but you often hear about how those people get their jobs reinstated, etc.
629.
by Frondo 8y ago
> basically never did anything for me Who can say what workers' conditions were like before the union existed? Without knowing the industry, it's hard to say that they did nothing for you, but knowing capitalists and owners in
630.
by Frondo 8y ago
> All I know from friends/family is all a union does is put another group of people over you to tell you what to do This is an unfair characterization of what unions are. They're not a second set of bosses; they're democr

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