pigeonburger
1mo ago
If we have decades of it being legal, will weed culture disappear?
With less than a decade of it being legal in Canada, yes, I believe so to some extent. It took some time because of the "exhuberant release" of legalization lasted a little while, but I rarely smell it in public anymore. In the first year of so, stoners would just smoke anywhere, including places that explicitly disallowed cigarettes, but now I rarely smell it in public. Once in a while you see some guy who thinks he's being super stealthy at a show/event with his THC vape, but you also see that with nicotine vapes.
Of course, I never claimed there was such a thing, or that it was relevant to my argument that there is only a single level of healthcare.
Is your point that since caviar is expensive, poor people should starve? Or that you don't want caviar to become cheap because then poor people could eat it and somehow that makes you lose? Because otherwise I don't see how it relates to mine.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
It took 7 years, but it's finally starting to feel normal again here since legalisation. I think it helps that it was the whole country at once, so there was no effect of attracting all the stoners to one area, but I rarely smell weed anymore in the streets or parks, it no longer feels transgressive to just be able to smoke weed so people seem to know to keep it to themselves now. As for the commercialization, I guess the government taking care of the sales has the benefit of the stores looking nice and neat, rather than like head shops.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
Healthcare price is not just a fixed amount that has to be paid, it's reactive to policy and social factors, to policies influencing supply and demand of healthcare, to the legal environment around it, to the general health of the population, to the hygenic habits of the population, to socioeconomical factors, to genetics, to economies of scale, etc...
I think everyone, left and right, would be satisfied with the outcome of "healthcare is very available and almost everyone can afford it with the few remaining edge cases unable to pay being either taken care of by the government or by charity".
Whether you get there by single payer or not is a huge part of the question, but it's not a zero sum game.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
Broadly speaking, "you can get healthcare if you work/pay for it." already is the selfish position
I would formulate it more like "I want good healthcare to be available and affordable to everyone". Seems unselfish, and a rather universal proposition. I don't think it's altruism necessarily, people want to live in a place where they don't have to be driven in armored cars from gated enclave to gated enclave through a wasteland filled with roving gangs of dying sick panhandlers. Seeing only healthy people around me has value not because I'm altruistic, but cause it's more pleasant than the alternative, and for that I'm willing to compromise on maybe the speed or the cost of my care.
And Im not sure in what sense you think people dont have access to jobs, unless its an immigration thing.
I think they do too in the west, broadly speaking, but it's something that good or bad policy can influence (by running employers out of town, for instance), and that a vast majority would probably agree they want everyone to have.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
You're absolutely right! *slaps forehead*
pigeonburger
1mo ago
The meaning is altered in that a very salient objection can be raised that these things should not be given to those who don't work for them. But that's not different groups' interest competing, it's still mistake theory. It hits a crucial mistake people believe others are making; everyone should be in a nice part of town, but how many ressources should be allocated to helping people who don't help themselves (and their community), even if just to keep all parts of town nice? At what point does those ressources create incentives for freeloading and ruin that part of town?
The interests of the person who wants a cheap employee or servant and the person trying to get an entry level job are not the same. The interests of the person who wants government housing in a nice part of town, and the person who already owns a house in the nice part of town are not the same. Many people also have bad ideas about how to get where they're trying to go.
I agree with you in general, but I need to nuance on this point. At that specific level of politics, their interests are perhaps not the same, but in the grand scheme of things, I think a critical mass, regardless of social class, race, gender differences, would agree to make some compromises in the optimal assignment of resources for them or the groups they associate with to live in a country where everyone can have decent access to jobs, reasonable housing, education, healthcare, etc... What objection would anyone have to everywhere being the nice part of town? So when you zoom out to that level, I think it is truly mistake theory. And that really is I think the distinction between high trust and low trust societies. Mutual trust in strangers is really a self sustaining miracle; when enough people believe that this critical mass exists, then it does. When not enough people do, when you stop believing that the other guy is willing to make compromises in your favor so that we can all live in a nice place, then suddenly you must start strategically defecting on the arrangement to make sure you and your family are not the ones to be dumped on constantly.
Hence why western remote work expats living like kings in gated enclaves in poor countries is a relatively new and marginal phenomenon; because maximizing your own resources when you're surrounded by violence and poverty still sucks, and it takes a special kind of sociopath to just shut themselves off to all of it around them. And why high class, high education people in dysfunctional countries still often want to move to functional countries when they have the opportunity, even if it means their education is not going to recognized and they will be relegated to unskilled work. While you have more stuff, maybe some servants, being rich in a low trust society is not as fulfilling as being average in a high trust society.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
And no the left did not completely dominate the media landscape back then.
They wrote the movies, tv shows, books, music and ran the schools. Has there ever been a time in a millenial's life where popular Western media depicted someone who thinks there should be less immigrants in his Western country in a positive light?
pigeonburger
1mo ago
I've always had a sense that "stop illegal immigration" is the bailey while "stop all immigration" is the motte.
The left has been kept in control of the culture so long they've torched and salted the immigration motte so hard that for the longest time even just very moderate positions like "reduce immigration" made right wingers sound racist to even their own side. The bailey is all that was left, because of its almost tautological nature (you can't really formulate many good arguments against the government stopping the immigration that the government decided wasn't allowed to legally happen).
Now the right are timidly coming out of the bailey, seeing the invading army mostly gone with only a skeleton garrison and cardboard cutouts in their place. And they're seeing some sprouts in the motte, give them time.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
I don't know where he picks up that the conservatives think the women are blameless. I think the reason the laws tend to target doctors rather than pregnant women is that the latter are in a situation where they are unlikely to be receptive to the disincentive of punishment, as they would usually percieve being forced to carry to term as an event on the same scale as the end of their current life, as enslavement to a burden they didn't want, etc... As such if you want the laws to actually dissuade the act, targetting the doctors seem like a more efficient path. The doctor has less to gain and more to lose.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
Maybe, but on the other hand it might give the next agencies in line some time to prepare their resistance. It's quite clear that this is not and was never going to be a cooperative effort, the agencies involved, at the levels below the president selected heads, were going to fight tooth and nail. In that context, keeping ambiguity as to who is going to be "attacked" has value.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
I don't know about the US, but the toughest stores here are dollar stores. I don't think I've ever seen one die.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
no-het-would-stick-their-dick-in-a-dude
I mean, I'm 0% aroused by the idea of having sex with men, but it's also not the thing you would have to pay me most to do either. I can easily imagine there are some guys who don't like it, but also don't mind it, and would be fine with doing it as just another job.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
I imagine it also includes straight men who work as gay porn stars.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
Only if you make eye contact
The closest recent example I can think of is that FEMA worker who was fired for giving instructions not to go to Trump supporting houses during hurricane Helene disaster relief. It's not exactly the same though, because what that person did was in an official capacity I think? Though being charitable maybe it was really said in jest.
Also, it was not done in a vacuum with the Democrats in full control, it was done after the election, when it was made abundantly clear a large part of the american electorate had beef with the administration, so making a few public sacrifices probably seemed wise. So it's not the same as the Republicans handing over scalps of their own when they have a trifecta, the SC and >50% public approval (at least for the WH).
pigeonburger
1mo ago
Seems like a great way for the Federal to take over control of something they were not meant to be in control of.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
I was reacting mostly to
Everyone pushing defect ends poorly. Beyond utility, there is virtue.
Pushing defect is sometimes the wiser choice, especially when ones decisions impact dependants. The self-satisfaction one can feel by acting with maximum empathy is easily counterweighed by having lacked the wisdom to protect those who rely on our decisions. Which, in democratic societies, is theoretically the entire country.
pigeonburger
1mo ago
Wisdom is a virtue though, one that would often consider taking harsh actions in order to achieve a a better future to be worth the cost.
Small weapon, small weapon and small shield and big weapon all appeal to me.
Small weapon alone is cool in the same way, for instance, John Wick killing 100 guys in a night club with one pistol is cool. It's a marker of extreme competence that the wielder doesn't feel like he needs to fill his hands to reliably get the job done.
Small weapon and small shield allows flexibility, I like it in video games, my first instinct when I start playing a Souls game or a game like it is to go mace and shield. I do hate the sword and shield in Monster Hunter though, but that's probably because Monster Hunter weapons are not necessarily about what the physical weapon instinctively indicate their gameplay would be like.
Big weapon is cool to me only provided the weapon is a spear/polearm. Giant stupid swords (I mean FFVII here, not historical two handed swords) is strictly for cringe edgelording. That said, in MH I main either horn or hammer, so apparently I can get over impractically large weapons.
Two small weapons is for cringe edgelording as well.
pigeonburger
2mo ago
Rep. Mast brings up what USAID is accused of doing over that interview. I'll isolate the main claims.
Half a million dollars to expand atheism in Nepal, $50,000 to do, let's see, a transgender opera in Colombia. $47,000 to do an LGBTQ trans comic book in Peru. $20,000 a pop to do drag shows in Ecuador.
and
Samantha Powers, she had a worthy goal, although it was a stupid goal, she said she was hoping to get the amount of foreign aid, U.S. aid dollars that go to actual aid, up to 30 cents on the dollar, from 10 cents on the dollar.
and
but there's probably more dollars that go towards state dinners around the DC beltway than what actually goes into rice and beans abroad.
and
And let's talk about the real facts on the ground. The Trump administration comes in, or representatives like myself that do oversight, the agencies will literally not tell us what they are writing grants for, literally. Or they will lie about it, or they will tell the new political appointees under the Trump administration, I'm just not going to tell you that. Those are real things that have happened.
As for evidence, I don't know what you expect; it's just people telling us what they see from looking at the organisation. For what it's worth I don't see anyone seriously disputing the claims of the Trump Administration and Republican Party that a lot of the money is mismanaged or sent to causes that don't figure in the mental image the average american has when they think "humanitarian aid", they mostly gesture at the portion that does go to real humanitarian efforts and complain that it's not necessary to cut the aid that is actually used for the intended purpose.
I would be very surprised if that was not because they're convinced that a review without a complete freeze would be ineffectual in stopping the grift.
pigeonburger
2mo ago
A really bad one, for anyone who tries to eat my bunny.
pigeonburger
2mo ago
That's why I'll be the guy going through the apocalypse with my bunny. Anyone who'll see me will think "If this guy hasn't resorted to eating the bunny yet, he's got his shit locked down tight and isn't someone to fuck with".
The bluff is worth skipping one paella.
Oh, okay, yeah that makes more sense.
I don't think anyone would need to stop at considering the specific goal achieved; the healthcare that the absolutely poorest westerners can get by showing up to a hospital today, even americans, is orders of magnitude better than that which kings and emperors could get only a few centuries ago. We all want to see that trend continuing, and it will continue to be a treadmill, one on which I hope everyone agrees on the direction, even if they disagree on speed, technique, etc...
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