daguerrean
6mo ago
Recently there has been some discussion in the media about fare evasion, and I thought in light of @WhiningCoil's comment on low trust societies it might be of interest to you all.
Over the past five years the fare evasion rate on New York City's bus lines has risen from 20% to 50%. while there has also been a similar (but less dramatic) rise among subway customers.
Recently the MTA commissioned a study to investigate the psychology of fare evaders and The New York Post has picked this up and mocked the project.. The study broke down different "personas" of fare evaders like a software product manager might. The NYP felt that this was inane as the obvious conclusion was that scofflaws were simply motivated by a lack of enforcement:
The pricy research – which comes as the authority is crying poverty and pushing for a detested congestion pricing plan — is being blasted by critics as a huge waste that will only tell them what anyone with common sense already knows about scofflaws....If we are going to hire a behavioral consultant, it will be to help change the behavior of a criminal justice system that has determined that fare evasion should have no consequences
I enjoyed this article by Manhattan Contrarian that criticizes the New York Post for completely ignoring race when discussing this issue, and pretending that lack of enforcement is the source of our woes.
But even the Post, in both its editorial and news pieces, is not willing to talk honestly about the association of race and fare-beating. Neither their news article nor editorial says a word about the race of the fare beaters. The subject is too sensitive even for them. But the problem is that until we can have an honest discussion about the association of race and fare-beating, it is almost impossible to address the issue.
I'll note as an amusing aside, that even the conservative Post uses an image of a White teenager for their illustration of a common fare evader.
However, I have to disagree with Francis Menton of The Manhattan Contrarian here when he writes the following:
To enable such a program to begin and to move forward, it is necessary for the issue of refusal to pay fares by race to enter the public consciousness. Someone first must collect systematic data and report it and point out what is actually going on. If it is too sensitive to report by race per se, then how about reporting by zip code? And then the newspapers and TV stations and podcasts and websites would need to pick up the story and make something out of it.
The racial makeup of fare evaders is perfectly well known of course and actually quite openly acknowledged so long as it is being done by the right sorts of organizations for the right ends.
I also wonder why the Post refuses to ask why draconian fare enforcement measures are only now needed? Somehow the MTA functioned perfectly fine with its easily-avoidable turnstyles decades ago. To relate it back to WhiningCoil's comment, I can only say "I think the bottom line, is this is just what a low trust society looks like."
daguerrean
6mo ago
I often feel like people get the system they deserve. That the system is a product of the people, and trying to change a system’s rules on its own can only have marginal effect. We have a low trust, somewhat dysfunctional society and so any form of healthcare is going to be similarly dysfunctional.
Nerdy discussions of voting systems like ranked choice vs FPTP always trigger this feeling in me, like the voting system doesn’t matter at all. Maine implemented ranked choice and it’s not really going to improve Maine, Maine was only able to do it because it’s the whitest state in the country and as a result extremely non-polarized.
receiving a classified briefing
The classified briefing could just be "we have no idea what these sightings are." It could be classified even if it is mass hysteria for any number of reasons. Perhaps the briefing reveals something about our radar/intelligence capabilities. Perhaps the military has no idea what these things are and on the off-chance they really are drones from Russia/China/Aliens they don't want to reveal how little we actually know about them. The government routinely investigates a bunch of stupid shit, Stargate Project?
Edit: In effect, I think the likelihood of a classified briefing is essentially equal whether this is real or mass hysteria. To me all it reveals is that there is 1) enough public outcry to demand congress investigate it and 2) this investigation to some extent entails consulting our military intelligence capabilities.
daguerrean
6mo ago
Most likely mass hysteria. Are there any compelling videos that aren't obviously traditional aircraft flying in normal ways/astronomical bodies/hobbyist or commercial drones doing normal hobbyist or commercial drone things?
Zoey is another classic transgender name. It reminds me of an old Simpsons joke about gay names
daguerrean
6mo ago
I suppose we'll never know, but I wonder if in sum the "Eating the pets" thing helped or hurt Trump. My inclination is that it was brilliant subversion of the whole "debunking" culture, weaponizing it against unwitting Democrats, very possibly knowingly by Vance. You tell a salacious story that is intentionally in part false, knowing that it will be simply irresistible to Deboonkers who will only aid you in spreading the story which has a kernel of truth that ultimately helps you. At the end of the day, even if they didn't eat the cats, I think the idea that some random NGO can dump 20,000 Haitians on your small middle-America town is extremely disturbing and ultimately the debunkers only helped spread this fact.
daguerrean
6mo ago
The ideal solution to this would be to simply reform social sciences departments and make them open to honest inquiry again, rather than destroying them altogether.
I guess this is a question for anyone on The Motte familiar with such things. What is the current state of university reform? Are any universities in the western world simultaneously non-woke and somewhat respected? BYU maybe? I know there are various micro "based" colleges like New Saint Andrews but my impression is these are tremendously expensive for a completely disrespected degree. Are there even any of these types that aren't explicitly religious?
daguerrean
6mo ago
less aware liberals might listen to him
I think this is the essence of it, Jesse Singal offers a plausible alternative vision for Democrats' future. Especially given the UK recently banning puberty blockers for minors, AOC removing pronouns from her twitter bio, Trump's tremendously successful 'they/them' ad and the general handwringing about the direction and electoral viability of the Democratic party, I think there is a real sense that hardline ideological transgenderism is very much "on the table" for debate and may no longer have the aura of untouchability it once did.
Unlike Matt Walsh, Jesse Singal speaks to moderate Democrats in their language with their etiquette and with solid Blue Tribe Elite bonafides. He went to Princeton, he's jewish, he lives in Brooklyn, he's written for The Atlantic, he cites scientific studies, he uses the preferred pronouns of transgender individuals and is unfailingly polite. He is threatening because he (or rather his position) could theoretically win over the Democratic party. Even if Republicans win an election and pass some hypothetical anti-trans law, in the minds of trannies at least they would still have one of the two major teams fighting for them, and it would only be so long before the Democrats eventually win one. However if the Democrats abandon them then all hope is truly lost, no major player will be on their side and childhood transgenderism risks being consigned to the dustbin of memoryholed progressive ideas like eugenics or lobotomies.
daguerrean
6mo ago
Bob Ross was the greatest visual artist of the 20th century
This is just indefensible snobbery.
daguerrean
6mo ago
Just because I saw it posted today. Here is the Babylon Bee mocking Nancy Pelosi for being an alcoholic.
daguerrean
6mo ago
it was widely understood that the whole purpose of art and the mark of a truly "great" artist was to construct a complex idea or emotion and be able to communicate it to as wide an audience as possible.
Of course I am not an art critic, theorist or philosopher but I hate this idea of the art necessarily having a purpose. I see it all the time on reddit, variations like "the purpose of art is to [challenge your beliefs/critique society/promote justice/make you think]". However when I think of some of the most regarded artistic masterpieces of the past oftentimes I can discern no higher ideal in them than "this is beautiful" Did this perhaps have some more legible "message" originally? Perhaps, but today there is almost nothing left and it is beloved solely for its beauty. Of course with effort any sufficiently intelligent person can spin out from that various "purposes", for example the all-powerful leftist idea that all art is political and any art that appears apolitical is really just a resounding endorsement of the status-quo in every way, it goes without saying I think this is BS.
The whole idea of a "purpose" being essential in art strikes me as an English-classism. Where we would learn the 5 paragraph "hamburger" style essay and we were instructed to have our entire essay based on a single-sentence thesis about the "message" of the book. I see this high school style approach echoed in Banksy type shit, things that are extremely popular on /r/pics and can generally be summarized with a single-sentence social message like "war is bad" or "capitalism is destroying the environment"
daguerrean
6mo ago
I dislike the entire debate bro culture and have done my best to avoid it. It seems related to a lot of very unhealthy things, namely parasocial relationships worshipping streamers/ecelebs and ideology as fashion trend. I have no particular reason to dislike him more than Nick Fuentes. I hope this isn't taken as rude because I'm genuinely curious, do you enjoy watching these people?
daguerrean
6mo ago
Not sure what's up with the bizarre censorship of God to make it look like a swear word.
daguerrean
6mo ago
We had a brief discussion on this bizarre phenomenon of trannies seeming to be unusually hypermasculine in their interests, hobbies and modes of thinking. It is a strange thing we never really reached a conclusion on. I liked this comment from @Folamh3 on it
daguerrean
6mo ago
This is anti-incel discrimination.
daguerrean
6mo ago
Coulter’s Law never fails. Their quote was amusing
It is understood he is an Irish citizen who had lived here for many years but was not born in Ireland.
daguerrean
6mo ago
I'm not trying to speak for 100Proof by replying, just my opinion here.
- Moral systems exist in part to guide people to optimal choices as people are often poor judges of what makes themselves and others happiest.
- It is possible to morally wrong yourself (as the primary victim). This is wrong like it would be a moral wrong to allow yourself to weigh 600 pounds.
daguerrean
6mo ago
One of the most common insults I saw thrown at Kamala this election was that she was a drunk and fit the "wine aunt" stereotype. Obviously certain stereotypes of alcoholics code one way or the other, but the insult of "drunk" seems pretty universal.
daguerrean
6mo ago
Is there something bad or wrong about the fact she could marry a normal guy?
Of course there is. In essence she would be cheating the social contract. She would be tricking some poor sap into bailing her out of the socially agreed upon consequences of her actions. It benefits everyone to enforce harsh social penalties on promiscuous women and this would be undermining that valuable rule.
daguerrean
6mo ago
No one here subs to onlyfans
Actually true. This is why the Cathedral and PMC would do anything to shut us down. This is the last refuge of Western Men that Refuse to be Broken.
Edit: Also a good idea for a question for my Motte user survey
daguerrean
6mo ago
Are Christians morally obligated to forgive someone if God has forgiven them? Like, let's say this woman appears to convert to Christianity and repent meaningfully and by all appearances it seems 100% genuine. Am I supposed to treat her like she's a completely fresh, clean bowl of cheerios? Would it be wrong of me to refuse to marry/date her because of her past?
I have noticed this pattern as well and I'm going to apply it to two further areas to explain social phenomena of interest.
Religion. In the past Christianity was one of these "broadly necessary" $[skill]s. To get on in life, form social connections, get jobs and generally be regarded as a trustworthy, upstanding member of society it was necessary to be seen at church every week and be vaguely conversant in Christian concepts, terminology and so forth. I think of it kind of like a general education requirement at University, everybody has to take a math class to graduate. As a result a number of "math classes for humanities majors" arise to fulfill demand from students that hate math but are obligated to take math courses, things like "Mathematics of Shakespearean Sonnets" that sort of thing. If the university were to drop the requirement a lot of the attendance at these classes would crater overnight.
I see a similar phenomenon with religion. In essence our society dropped the "general education requirement" of Christianity, and we discovered that many Christian denominations more or less only existed to fulfill the requirement for people that really were not religion enthusiasts and would drop out given the choice. To bring it back to your point above, now the only people attending church (at least those below a certain age) are those that are essentially the Christianity hobbyists or enthusiasts who do it for the sheer love of the thing and are therefore attracted to more 'intense' denominations like Pentecostalism while the more moderate and boring Protestant denominations like Anglicans die off. We have the phenomenon you described here:
a large portion of the population has mostly abandoned it, while those who remained devoted to maintaining $[skill] became much more proficient.
Another example of the phenomenon I've noticed would be what I've observed with General Trivia Knowledge. Every other week I play trivia games with my coworkers who are all decently well educated people, but many of them 5 years younger than me or so. I'm continuously been surprised by how little general knowledge they have despite being quite intelligent. I mean general trivia knowledge like "What is the Hindenburg Disaster?" "Can you recognize the major European languages when written?" "What was Watergate?" "Who wrote the Canterbury Tales?" "Who said the line 'Dr. Livingston I presume?' and why?", things of that nature.
Of course there are many reasons for this, but I've come to attribute a lot of this to youtube and the internet giving people too much control over what they watch. I feel like I learned a lot of the random trivia I know I learned when flipping through random TV channels as a kid and watching something on PBS or the History Channel or an old movie (often with a historical subject like Lawrence of Arabia or Zulu) on TCM with my dad. Now people have much more freedom to become enthusiasts on any subject they choose. If they want to watch League of Legends content, there is enough of that on YT/Twitch/etc to keep them occupied for their entire lives without ever needing to branch out from sheer boredom and lack of alternatives.
My coworkers are intelligent but their knowledge is silo'd and inaccessible, all spent on some random hobby that I will never talk to them about while the cultural common ground of references, trivia and anecdotes has been completely destroyed and it honestly makes them seem completely retarded when we are doing trivia.
daguerrean
6mo ago
I'm currently dating a women who's family is the typical Fishtown resident Murray describes (She herself is a lovely girl). Her family behaves poorly. Her sisters constantly engage in borderline prostitution. They have no work.
Just some life advice, this is a very bad idea.
daguerrean
6mo ago
I wouldn't mind hearing more about gender dynamics in India, particularly as it relates to your personal experiences if you have anything more to share. It's admittedly pretty amusing to scroll through the twitter of 6FeetChadAryan and see beta vs. chad dynamics, gynocracy and boomers mentioned in between references to Hindu mythology like this. I'm curious about the references to Dowry Act. Are dowries still common, even in urban areas among upwardly mobile/educated people like the engineer in question?
Because I'm a retarded autist with only one special interest I have to weigh in with relevant evidence. When daguerrreotypes became popular in the 1840s they were vastly more accessible in the USA than in any other country on Earth including their home of France. In the USA you routinely see occupational portraits of people of every social class and profession, carpenters, lamplighters, sailors, farriers, mill-girls, coopers, teamsters etc. In France and the UK (with every other country being negligible) you only see the upper classes, military officers and the like, you never see occupationals of random working class people. It is clear to me that already by 1840 the USA was VASTLY wealthier than every other country on Earth, at least when it came to the wealth of average people and even the lowest like night watchmen or lamplighters in the USA had more real purchasing power than most lawyers or doctors in France or Germany. Note, this only applies to the North in the USA, the South basically had daguerreotype production patterns that were closer to Continental Europe.
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