Coronavirus (COVID-19) is too exciting for adults to discuss (CLOSED)

[heisman]

Well, it's interesting since you generally seems to be a small government guy. Believe it or not, I actually am too despite it not showing much on this thread. But at a very fundamental level my view is that the main reason why government is necessary is to protect the general population from assholes (e.g., brigands, con men, rapists, foreign invaders, corporate sociopaths, etc.) and that if you have a strong culture that discourages assholishness, government can be smaller and less forceful. Here, business. media, demagogues/con men, the political parties and many elected officials, and the parasite economy that feeds off of the intersection of business and interest groups and government have developed a co-dependency that needs to dumb down the average person and promote assholishness to justify mission creep and increasing concentrations of power. Institutions that are supposed to check each other instead divide and conquer the general population through fear and disgust triggers and then collaborate to divvy up the spoils among themselves.

Anyway, if TLDR, the point is just that if you want small government you probably want to discourage assholishness.

Except the government has all the assholes.

 

[Jagdaddy]

Except the government has all the assholes.

No it doesn't. It has its share. maybe more than its share, but they're everywhere. The great fiction is that "the government" (thousands of governments actually) is some separate thing that's composed of something other than a bunch of lousy, fairly bad, average, fairly good, and terrific human beings, just like any other human organization of any size.

 

[ShowMeBuck]

Well, it's interesting since you generally seems to be a small government guy. Believe it or not, I actually am too despite it not showing much on this thread. But at a very fundamental level my view is that the main reason why government is necessary is to protect the general population from assholes (e.g., brigands, con men, rapists, foreign invaders, corporate sociopaths, etc.) and that if you have a strong culture that discourages assholishness, government can be smaller and less forceful. Here, business. media, demagogues/con men, the political parties and many elected officials, and the parasite economy that feeds off of the intersection of business and interest groups and government have developed a co-dependency that needs to dumb down the average person and promote assholishness to justify mission creep and increasing concentrations of power. Institutions that are supposed to check each other instead divide and conquer the general population through fear and disgust triggers and then collaborate to divvy up the spoils among themselves.

Anyway, if TLDR, the point is just that if you want small government you probably want to discourage assholishness.

Dude, seriously, that’s one of the best posts ever. Nice work.

 

[1926Buckeyes]

No it doesn't. It has its share. maybe more than its share, but they're everywhere. The great fiction is that "the government" (thousands of governments actually) is some separate thing that's composed of something other than a bunch of lousy, fairly bad, average, fairly good, and terrific human beings, just like any other human organization of any size.

Exactly. I worked for Comcast. Makes me laugh when people say the government has some majority of assholes and incompetents compared to any other large organization. Corporate bureaucracy is implied to be somehow better or different than government bureaucracy and it's not. In fact it's worse due to you not having much of a voice at bigger places.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Well, it's interesting since you generally seems to be a small government guy. Believe it or not, I actually am too despite it not showing much on this thread. But at a very fundamental level my view is that the main reason why government is necessary is to protect the general population from assholes (e.g., brigands, con men, rapists, foreign invaders, corporate sociopaths, etc.) and that if you have a strong culture that discourages assholishness, government can be smaller and less forceful. Here, business. media, demagogues/con men, the political parties and many elected officials, and the parasite economy that feeds off of the intersection of business and interest groups and government have developed a co-dependency that needs to dumb down the average person and promote assholishness to justify mission creep and increasing concentrations of power. Institutions that are supposed to check each other instead divide and conquer the general population through fear and disgust triggers and then collaborate to divvy up the spoils among themselves.

Anyway, if TLDR, the point is just that if you want small government you probably want to discourage assholishness.

Humans are imperfect by their nature so wishing for less assholishness is nice but not all that likely.

Giving power over your life to one group of imperfect humans to keep you safe from another group of imperfect humans doesn't make me feel all that much better. It's how mob extortion rackets work or governments grab more power in a crisis.

Given the choice between two evils I'll take the lesser, which is, our gang (the people) having the power to limit the other gang (the government(s)) so that they can provide basic, necessary services and nothing more.

 

[Jagdaddy]

Humans are imperfect by their nature so wishing for less assholishness is nice but not all that likely.

Giving power over your life to one group of imperfect humans to keep you safe from another group of imperfect humans doesn't make me feel all that much better. It's how mob extortion rackets work or governments grab more power in a crisis.

Given the choice between two evils I'll take the lesser, which is, our gang (the people) having the power to limit the other gang (the government(s)) so that they can provide basic, necessary services and nothing more.

Right, but group A of "the people" demands more "protection" (and gives up more power) when group B of the "people" acts more assholish. That's the co-dependency: E.g., without race-baiting, sex-baiting ... bullies, there are far fewer social justice warriors and with far fewer social justice warriors there are far fewer non-bullies (I believe that most people just want ot be left out of the political squabbling) willing to support bullies. And yes, you can reduce, albeit not eliminate assholishness, with stuff like good parenting, not celebrating it (see, e.g., 4chan), etc. Consider Canada "soorry" vs. the U.S. for just one example.

 

[heisman]

No it doesn't. It has its share. maybe more than its share, but they're everywhere. The great fiction is that "the government" (thousands of governments actually) is some separate thing that's composed of something other than a bunch of lousy, fairly bad, average, fairly good, and terrific human beings, just like any other human organization of any size.

Come to Illinois. They are all in jail or belong there. Not a decent human among them.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Right, but group A of "the people" demands more "protection" (and gives up more power) when group B of the "people" acts more assholish. That's the co-dependency: E.g., without race-baiting, sex-baiting ... bullies, there are far fewer social justice warriors and with far fewer social justice warriors there are far fewer non-bullies (I believe that most people just want ot be left out of the political squabbling) willing to support bullies. And yes, you can reduce, albeit not eliminate assholishness, with stuff like good parenting, not celebrating it (see, e.g., 4chan), etc. Consider Canada "soorry" vs. the U.S. for just one example.

OR you develop coping mechanisms to deal with the assholishness yourself (individualism) and don't go running for mama/giving up freedoms for "safety" every time you get triggered.

Not saying that better behavior wouldn't be a good thing but someone will always try to take power through fear or intimidation.

 

[ScriptOhio]

 

[Thump]

All this thread is missing is Sweet BBQ.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Agreed. And if a few barbershops don't make it, the other ones will pickup that business and need to hire new barbers. The demand is inelastic for a lot of these services -- there will be a reconfiguration and it will take time and suffering for some, but it will bounce back sooner rather than later.

More than barbershops would continue to be affected if this assclown had his way:

Obamacare Architect Suggests No Religious Services, Dinner In Restaurants For 12-18 Months

Speaking on MSNBC, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the architect of Obamacare, stated that until a vaccine for the coronavirus is ready, with most estimates ranging from 12-18 months, people in the United States should eschew “conferences, concerts, sporting events, religious services, dinner in a restaurant.” Emanuel posited that all the “economic pain” such measures would cause must be worth it, arguing, “The truth is we have no choice.”

You think the economic pain would be worth it because your well-to-do ass won't losing your home to foreclosure due to being unemployed.

He continued, “Realistically, COVID-19 will be here for the next 18 months or more. We will not be able to return to normalcy until we find a vaccine or effective medications. I know that’s dreadful news to hear. How are people supposed to find work if this goes on in some form for a year and a half? Is all that economic pain worth trying to stop COVID-19? The truth is we have no choice.”

If you don't think we'll have effective treatments within the next few months, you're dumber than you look. As for people finding work, they already had work until the local, state, and federal governments put the entire country into pseudo-lockdown.

 

[OHSportsFan]

 

[AKAK]

Right, but group A of "the people" demands more "protection" (and gives up more power) when group B of the "people" acts more assholish. That's the co-dependency: E.g., without race-baiting, sex-baiting ... bullies, there are far fewer social justice warriors and with far fewer social justice warriors there are far fewer non-bullies (I believe that most people just want ot be left out of the political squabbling) willing to support bullies. And yes, you can reduce, albeit not eliminate assholishness, with stuff like good parenting, not celebrating it (see, e.g., 4chan), etc. Consider Canada "soorry" vs. the U.S. for just one example.

1. Canada is a failed terror state, they are not at all sorry. I don't know how many times I have to say this

2. Please consider the idea that asshole codependency isn't necessarily proportionate to the number of assholes. It only requires the idea that its proportionate, and some assholes are windmills being called assholes while some other asshole tilts at it. For money. Thus artificially increasing the assholes.

 

[sparcboxbuck]

No it doesn't. It has its share. maybe more than its share, but they're everywhere. The great fiction is that "the government" (thousands of governments actually) is some separate thing that's composed of something other than a bunch of lousy, fairly bad, average, fairly good, and terrific human beings, just like any other human organization of any size.

The difference is that in those other orgs, we haven’t put them in a place where, to your point, is to minimize the assholishness of others. If one of the jobs of the government is to minimize assholishness, those who are assholes in government should get the guillotine in the city center.

 

[muffler dragon]

20% pay cut May-Aug
Good times