We’re In Hell is a fantastic channel with excellent, well researched content. Easily in my top 3 these days, along with PlasticPills and SomeMoreNews.

Thank you!

Care to analyze any of the statements that have been called out? Or maybe copy/screenshot any of the comments discrediting them if you have the time?

I’m not trying to be an asshole, here, but everything beyond the first sentence or two in your comment is just character assassination (ad hominem). Obviously the guy’s credentials are not in law, but that doesn’t automatically invalidate his analysis since we’ve got no concept of who he’s able to consult with behind the scenes.

I don’t have a BlueSky account, so I can’t check the comments for myself, only see the root posts.

Kenshi

Lucky for you the linked article explains the acronym!

Wait, you’re not one of those people who only reads headlines, are you?

Of course it’s not a good reason, but it’s also not the main complaint. That’s a disingenuous argument.

The problem is that the locations that offer IDs become political footballs.

Imagine that you change the law to require a certain type of ID in order to vote (even though you already have a social security card, it doesn’t count for voting purposes), and that said ID cannot be acquired via mail.

Imagine, then, that the place you go to get the necessary ID is closed down, or intentionally understaffed via defunding/budget cuts. Hours reduced to 10am-4pm Monday through Friday, perhaps, when most people work. The next nearest location may be hours away. It may not be accessible via public transit. It then becomes incredibly burdensome for someone with limited time, transportation, or income to get the necessary ID. Now you’re able to control access to the IDs in lower income areas by shuttering or defunding locations.

This isn’t just a theoretical situation. This occurs.

Now, I think you’ll find that most people are onboard with requiring ID to vote, provided that the barriers to getting the ID do not have a chilling effect on low-income voters.

But that’s not the way things tend to go.

Present a plan that expands access to the ID printing services and watch the resistance to these sorts of policies disappear. Or better yet, mail one to every eligible taxpayer the first time they file a tax return. It’s not particularly difficult.

You’re not being a jerk, you’re being pedantic.

Ignorant is absolutely the better word, and I should have used it.

I think, however, that people are far more capable of gaining intelligence than we give them credit for. I don’t believe that IQ is assigned at birth, and it’s been shown that the entire idea of IQ testing is extremely flawed.

There are people born with learning disabilities, of course, but that’s a whole other conversation.

As much as I love these quotes, I think it’s important to qualify them:

Everyone is born stupid, but people can be educated. If we want an educated populace, we must put in the work to create functional systems of education, and celebrate intelligence as a society. It’ll be hard work, and there are plenty of people out there who would prefer to see the masses remain stupid.

“The way Americans regard sports heroes versus intellectuals speaks volumes” An article by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov

Sorry to be a bummer, but that’s the truth.

I hope you do read it! It’s not the most brilliant prose ever written, but it’s a nice bit of techno-optimism (once you get through the first half) that really impacted me, and my beliefs about what the future could be, when I first read it a couple of decades ago.

Marshall Brain’s “Manna” fits this bill, in my opinion. You can read the whole novella on his website, but I don’t know how long it’ll be available, as Marshall killed himself last November.

Rest In Peace, Marshall.

At first glance, from the thumbnail… I thought it was Christine Weston Chandler.

What a twist that would have been.

It becomes wrong immediately, but wrong is not a binary state.

“Once a cop is responsible for 1 murder he may as well continue to kill because 1 murder is the same as 30,000 murders.”

Plenty of the east coast is high CoL. Not as much as in the west, but plenty.

Why?

1 person being held with no due process is as bad as 30000.

Please explain this one to me, because I’m not understanding your math.

"To understand revolutionary suicide it is first necessary to have an idea of reactionary suicide, for the two are very different. Reactionary suicide: the reaction of a man who takes his own life in response to social conditions that overwhelm him and condemn him to helplessness.”

“I do not think that life will change for the better without an assault on the Establishment, which goes on exploiting the wretched of the earth. This belief lies at the heart of the concept of revolutionary suicide. Thus it is better to oppose the forces that would drive me to self-murder than to endure them. Although I risk the likelihood of death, there is at least the possibility, if not the probability, of changing intolerable conditions.”

“But before we die, how shall we live? I say with hope and dignity; and if premature death is the result, that death has a meaning reactionary suicide can never have. It is the price of self-respect.”

– Dr. Huey P. Newton

There’s a growing body of research from behavioral neuroscience which indicate that power and privilege have a deleterious effect on the brain. People with high-socioeconomic status often:

• Have reduced empathy and compassion.

• Have a diminished ability to see from someone else’s perspective.

• Are more impulsive.

• Have a dangerously high tolerance for risk.

  When you don’t need other people to survive, they become irrelevant to you. When you’re in charge, you can behave very badly and people will still be polite and respectful toward you. Instead of reciprocity, it’s a formalized double standard. When you have status, you’re given excessive credibility, and rarely hear the very ordinary push-back from others most of us are accustomed to, instead you receive flattery and praise and your ideas are taken seriously by default.

  Some sources:

Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years

(Abstract) or (Full Text)

Does power corrupt? An fMRI study on the effect of power and social value orientation on inequity aversion.

(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)

Social Class and the Motivational Relevance of Other Human Beings: Evidence From Visual Attention

(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)

The Psychology of Entrenched Privilege: High Socioeconomic Status Individuals From Affluent Backgrounds Are Uniquely High in Entitlement

(Abstract) or (PDF Full Text)

I tend to think that information should be free, generally, so I would probably be fine with “OpenAI the non-profit” taking copyrighted data under fair-use, but I don’t extend that thinking to “OpenAI the for-profit company”.

Any word on Beepy V2? Migicovsky’s been pretty quiet on that lately.