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Professional Wrestling: Fake The chances that Obama would sign a bill killing the ACA or the Democratic majority Senate would override his veto: Real
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Oct 31, 2013 23:25
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Monkey Fracas posted:So did I- it's easy to trick children/idiots. Thirding. I thought Stossel was incredibly clever when I was like 14. Some people grow up and some don't, I guess.
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Oct 31, 2013 23:36
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Sir Tonk posted:And, if you enjoy torturing yourself, here is an example of what you get with your $17.54. What kind of human being could listen to an entire audio book of this empty drivel?
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Oct 31, 2013 23:50
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I feel like the moment of awakening for most members of our generation was when we realized 20/20 wasn't actually news but sensationalist bullshit.
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Oct 31, 2013 23:50
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beatlegs posted:What kind of human being could listen to an entire audio book of this empty drivel? John McCain is The Beatles of trolling.
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Oct 31, 2013 23:54
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Does anyone remember a John Stossel 20/20 segment from the 90s where he went on a search for the most libertarian country in the world to make the case of how awesome it was, and he declared it to be Hong Kong? I don't why that sticks in my memory (if I'm, in fact, remembering it correctly. I'm not sure), but it makes me laugh every time I think about it.
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Oct 31, 2013 23:56
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Sir Tonk posted:Looks like someone else is getting in on the WOC money train. Y'know, most of these right-wing books -- by Palin, O'Reilly and whatnot -- I legitimately wonder how someone could write enough to fill the pages. On the Amazon page, they say a lot of it is Palin talking about how important Christmas and Christ and so on is to her and her family, which I guess could consume a lot of pages, but gently caress me you've got to be spreading this stuff thin.
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Nov 1, 2013 00:16
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Lycus posted:Does anyone remember a John Stossel 20/20 segment from the 90s where he went on a search for the most libertarian country in the world to make the case of how awesome it was, and he declared it to be Hong Kong? I don't why that sticks in my memory (if I'm, in fact, remembering it correctly. I'm not sure), but it makes me laugh every time I think about it. Not only do I remember it, but I remember watching it in a 400 level Economic Development course where it intended to be taken seriously for some reason. The one where he contasts it with India and its "crippling bureacracy", yeah?
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Nov 1, 2013 00:18
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That's what I meant by comparing him to Miller. Us older folk liked (liked may too strong) Stossel and Miller back in the day, but now they're both loving insane and all over FoxNews getting paid.
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Nov 1, 2013 00:23
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Kieselguhr Kid posted:Y'know, most of these right-wing books -- by Palin, O'Reilly and whatnot -- I legitimately wonder how someone could write enough to fill the pages. On the Amazon page, they say a lot of it is Palin talking about how important Christmas and Christ and so on is to her and her family, which I guess could consume a lot of pages, but gently caress me you've got to be spreading this stuff thin. It would be good to remember that about 76% or more of the book is going to be about random poo poo she makes up.
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Nov 1, 2013 00:41
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I'm now convinced that the modern day Conservative movement is simply an ingenious scheme to part rubes from their hard earned money - examples: SarahPAC, FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots, and the list goes on
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Nov 1, 2013 00:45
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Pixelboy posted:I'm now convinced that the modern day Conservative movement is simply an ingenious scheme to part rubes from their hard earned money - examples: SarahPAC, FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots, and the list goes on Don't forget end of the world survivalist scaremongering and overpriced gold coin ads.
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Nov 1, 2013 00:49
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Lycus posted:I'll always hate John Stossel for probably being the main reason why early-teenaged me considered myself a libertarian. I watched 20/20 and thought he was a smart guy, I fell for his crap. It's depressing how many people on here were libertarians / Republicans as kids. I know I can't be the only one who posts in D&D who, as a child / teenager, was capable of empathy.
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Nov 1, 2013 00:53
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Lycus posted:Does anyone remember a John Stossel 20/20 segment from the 90s where he went on a search for the most libertarian country in the world to make the case of how awesome it was, and he declared it to be Hong Kong? I don't why that sticks in my memory (if I'm, in fact, remembering it correctly. I'm not sure), but it makes me laugh every time I think about it. Kowloon Walled City was pretty libertarian...
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Nov 1, 2013 00:56
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Pixelboy posted:I'm now convinced that the modern day Conservative movement is simply an ingenious scheme to part rubes from their hard earned money - examples: SarahPAC, FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots, and the list goes on
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Nov 1, 2013 00:58
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Ha, I watched 20/20 as well and his segments always seemed to be interesting to teenage me, I find it hilarious that a lot of people here had similar experiences. I never followed up with Stossel, but I was listening to the Retronauts episode on History of Violence in Video Games. I think Jeremy Parish was like, "John Stossel is one of the biggest loving douchebags on the planet."
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Nov 1, 2013 01:05
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Walter posted:It's depressing how many people on here were libertarians / Republicans as kids. I know I can't be the only one who posts in D&D who, as a child / teenager, was capable of empathy. Well, that's why kids can't vote: they're dumb as hell. They aren't ready to provide nuanced, original analysis of the ethical and practical consequences of their positions.
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Nov 1, 2013 01:08
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Plexiwatt posted:Kowloon Walled City was pretty libertarian... The Libertarian dream: a vice den run by Triads.
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Nov 1, 2013 02:50
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Wikipedia posted:Stossel stated that he suffered from pain and buzzing in his ears eight weeks after the assault.[10] Stossel later claimed he was unaware of Schultz's apology and would pursue his action in court although commented he would be "less likely to sue" if the after-effects of his injury disappeared.[10] Stossel eventually filed a lawsuit against the World Wrestling Federation, and settled out of court for $425,000.[11] In his book, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity, Stossel writes that he has come to regret filing charges, having adopted the belief that lawsuits harm hundreds of innocent people.[11][12]  e: There are perfectly valid arguments to made about whether it should be easier or harder to recover on certain tort claims, and I am a big believer in restorative justice avenues that avoid the courtroom, but tying these arguments to a lawsuit arising out of an employee of a wealthy organization battering you and giving you health issues is dumb. pig slut lisa fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 03:31
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Lycus posted:Does anyone remember a John Stossel 20/20 segment from the 90s where he went on a search for the most libertarian country in the world to make the case of how awesome it was, and he declared it to be Hong Kong? I don't why that sticks in my memory (if I'm, in fact, remembering it correctly. I'm not sure), but it makes me laugh every time I think about it. I still hear that argument very often from libertarians, though lately Singapore seems to be replacing it as the wondrous testbed of free-market goodness. I think it was Estonia that also had its day in the sun back in 2007-8 when they liberalized the economy. Several of my friends sent me smug e-mails about how soon it would beat all western european countries in quality of life...and then the crisis happened and suddenly it dropped off the conversation.
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Nov 1, 2013 03:32
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If it makes you feel better I was the opposite of a libertarian as a kid, to the point of tears when I'd see homeless people on the side of the road. I can't imagine how hard it is to tell a weepy six year old why someone doesn't have a home to go home to, but points to my parents because they sure as hell tried.
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Nov 1, 2013 03:39
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And Stossel gave back the half a million dollars after he decided lawsuits were wrong, right?
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Nov 1, 2013 04:02
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Uh the free market decided. Why do you hate the invisible hand?
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Nov 1, 2013 04:08
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Kieselguhr Kid posted:Y'know, most of these right-wing books -- by Palin, O'Reilly and whatnot -- I legitimately wonder how someone could write enough to fill the pages. On the Amazon page, they say a lot of it is Palin talking about how important Christmas and Christ and so on is to her and her family, which I guess could consume a lot of pages, but gently caress me you've got to be spreading this stuff thin. I once worked under a former Republican politician who wanted to become a Glenn Beckian televangelist. He also "wrote" a shitload of books. And in doing so, he: -Cited Wikipedia articles. This is the only source besides the Bible that he cites, and there is no bibliography. -Never, ever used abridged quotes. Whenever he quoted a speech or letter, he copied and pasted the entire loving thing. -Huge margins. -Huge font size for "easy reading". Basically, it's a giant high school essay. A high school essay that would get an F from any teacher who gave a poo poo. And that's if he doesn't get slammed for plagiarism. Also, tonight I learned that black people dressing up as mimes or clowns is "whiteface", and no different than blackface (which is perfect acceptable and only liberals care about it). According to this guy: http://davidwebbshow.com/about/  
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Nov 1, 2013 04:34
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etalian posted:Don't forget end of the world survivalist scaremongering and overpriced gold coin ads. This stuff is goddamn hilarious. Discovery had a "world ending scenarios" show marathon today and they talked to a lot of preppers. At one point they had a training camp where they covered their hands in maple syrup and practiced shooting targets so they would "know what it's like to fire a gun when your hands are covered with blood." I poo poo you loving not. Then they had some random girl that looked like she was maybe 20 on and she just said something close to "it's really not that crazy to believe that a virus could turn people into flesh-eating monsters." No, seriously, that was all she said. I wasn't watching close enough to see what her credentials were but she was just standing in a field in a t-shirt or something, so she wasn't a medical professional or scientist or anything. It was hilarious except for the part where people spend their entire life savings building a fort for them to play survivalist make-believe in their backyard because they are mentally ill. It's like LARPers except somehow more sad because they're not aware they're playing pretend. Walter posted:It's depressing how many people on here were libertarians / Republicans as kids. I know I can't be the only one who posts in D&D who, as a child / teenager, was capable of empathy. It's less a lack of empathy and more an ignorance to reality and how the world works. Then when you become an adult and you're not longer behind that kid barrier, you get to make the decision to feel compassion for other human beings or pretend your blinders never came off and spend the rest of your life being a self-involved dipshit only out for you and your direct family.
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Nov 1, 2013 05:05
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Phone posted:Ha, I watched 20/20 as well and his segments always seemed to be interesting to teenage me, I find it hilarious that a lot of people here had similar experiences. That was actually one of our later guests. But yeah, we poked a little fun at Stossel -- admittedly a low-hanging fruit -- though the 20/20 segment we examined was a little cranky, but we agreed it was mostly sensible. That didn't stop people from complaining and leaving us passive-aggressive one-star reviews, though. Weirdly enough, Stossel painted himself as a sort of consumer advocate back then, but at some point he became a complete corporate shill. The last I heard of him before he moved to FOX News was some Bush-era propaganda about how ANYONE can make it in America, which he proved through the anecdotal evidence of some rags-to-riches stories. I find, in general, Libertarians are people whose politics and worldview have gone literally unchanged since childhood or high school. bobservo fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 05:21
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Joementum posted:Satan also runs the movie industry, according to Rick Santorum who has just founded a movie studio. Sir Tonk posted:That's what I meant by comparing him to Miller. Us older folk liked (liked may too strong) Stossel and Miller back in the day, but now they're both loving insane and all over FoxNews getting paid. Miller, incidentally, was named by a number of the SNL contemporaries in something I read as the guy who would crack them all up the most backstage. I have to believe that he's a genuinely entertaining guy on a personal level if you remove the 9/11 brain damage. Walter posted:It's depressing how many people on here were libertarians / Republicans as kids. I know I can't be the only one who posts in D&D who, as a child / teenager, was capable of empathy. Sephyr posted:I still hear that argument very often from libertarians, though lately Singapore seems to be replacing it as the wondrous testbed of free-market goodness.
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Nov 1, 2013 05:27
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ReindeerF posted:Yeah, I'm on this train. I mean Miller was doing straight comedy at the time and Stossel was, to a small kid, just some guy who did quirky sort of Just Asking Questions style reports at the end of 20/20 with lots of eyebrow raising and lilting voices. I was also on a flight from BKK-LAX with a friend once when we saw Dennis Miller getting on board. We got drunk and tried to call his seat phone (a decade ago almost). At LAX he ended up behind some mainland Chinese guy at the baggage claim who was jostling and pushing around like crazy, as per usual, and he basically broke down into an SNL style "What's this guy's deal!?" routine about the guy. It was vintage funny - and the last time I ever saw him be funny. To add to this, I think it was considerably less insane to be "libertarian" 10-20 years ago than it is now. I know people will disagree, but pre-Tea-Party, it seemed like the main reason most people called themselves libertarian was because they were vaguely conservative people who wanted legal pot or wanted to be a political gadfly on some other issue, like corporate welfare or whatever. The craziness, racism, etc., was all still out there, but it was much less a part of the popular zeitgeist and liking John Stossel didn't mean throwing your allegiance in with a bunch of whackos who were legitimately trying to destroy the government and the economy. These days by contrast . . . hoo boy. If you watch Stossel now, you're contributing to a network, Fox, that can legitimately be called a destabilizing force on our entire system of democracy. It's the difference between a healthy guy eating a candy bar and eating a candy bar when you're 2,000 pounds overweight. Back when, stuff like Stossel could be a relatively innocent indulgence -- "ok, well, that sounds like an interesting perspective" or whatever. Today, though, it's just encouraging a disease.
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Nov 1, 2013 11:35
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By the way, Cato is still listing Hong Kong as the freest nation (see page 8) with Singapore in the #2 spot, followed by New Zealand and Switzerland. Venezuela is the least free.
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Nov 1, 2013 11:45
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Joementum posted:By the way, Cato is still listing Hong Kong as the freest nation (see page 8) with Singapore in the #2 spot, followed by New Zealand and Switzerland. Venezuela is the least free. Ctrl-F, Somalia, no results.
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Nov 1, 2013 11:49
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I have a friend who in college was a typical college republican. I converted him to a libertarian, so much so he works for a huge libertarian think tank and library, flying all over the country to conferences. I became a socialist committee pinko shortly after college buy he did not convert with me sadly. It seems there are a ton of people who get their first paycheck, see the taxes taken out and "what is this bull poo poo? I republican now!" Where for me it was the opposite, I saw my first post college paycheck and was like "That's all they are taking?" Didn't seem like enough.
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Nov 1, 2013 12:43
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Joementum posted:By the way, Cato is still listing Hong Kong as the freest nation (see page 8) with Singapore in the #2 spot, followed by New Zealand and Switzerland. Venezuela is the least free. New Zealand? Isn't education mostly taxpayer-subsidized there? Also, Venezuela is less free than freaking Saudi Arabia? I have to see what sort of Calvinball metrics they use to justify their rankings. I think a quote from an old Michael Moore book encapsulates their mindset rather well: "We don't really have anything against authoritarian, harsh regimes, as long as they let us come in to make a buck."
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Nov 1, 2013 13:27
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Joementum posted:Satan also runs the movie industry, according to Rick Santorum who has just founded a movie studio. It's not a fictional creature like satan that makes the movie business evil; it's very real human greed. The same thing making political hacks and pious god-botherers like Santorum evil. Santorum posted:If you're low-income ... in many states you can qualify for Medicaid, you can qualify for food stamps, you can qualify for housing assistance, and that's not if you're in poverty. That's if you're above the poverty line. And so you have all of the children growing up in an environment where government is paying you, and then we wonder why do these kids feel they're entitled to so much? [...] Enjoy your dignity while we fail to do our job to help you and screw you over for our ultra-wealthy re-election campaign contributors, poors. Because Jesus. Speaking of movies - The republican party seems less a political party and more a casting call for the role of the anti-christ in an end times fiction thriller. Spacedad fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 13:34
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Spacedad posted:Santorum bullshit  The home of suffering.
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Nov 1, 2013 15:11
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mr. mephistopheles posted:
To be fair, I'd prefer grinding poverty to living in that house.
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Nov 1, 2013 15:15
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For real, can you imagine how long it would take to mow that yard? He's probably running for office again, for Pete's sake, he can't have illegals do it.
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Nov 1, 2013 15:56
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etalian posted:Don't forget end of the world survivalist scaremongering and Overpriced silver ads. You can get the brand new silver polar bear coin if you call right now! Gold? That poo poo is soooooo 2012! poor nose fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 16:10
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Character built by hardship, while real, is vastly overrated and never teased out to the logical conclusion: That the person saying it to you most of the time has had next to zero actual hardship...so where the gently caress did their character come from? If this character is such an important thing why the gently caress is it that a bunch of rich fucks who grew up in embarrassing riches lecturing me?
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Nov 1, 2013 18:28
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Also apparently they've never met anyone who has had lots of hardships and is in fact a bitter, probably violent, rear end in a top hat.
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Nov 1, 2013 18:31
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Gozinbulx posted:Also apparently they've never met anyone who has had lots of hardships and is in fact a bitter, probably violent, rear end in a top hat. Or perpetually homeless due to a particular "hardship". It's a major failing of our country that we don't recognize this awful stuff as just a silver lining to something that absolutely no one wants, not a grand experience we wish upon everyone but ourselves. 1 person emerging from drug addiction and homelessness shouldn't condemn the other 1000 who haven't or don't but that's the lesson America seems to learn when they see it. Somewhat related, I listened to the audio from the latest episode of Real Time and Maher and his panel got into it over his insistence that Muslims are some unique and terrible evil and they all came sooooooo close to finally saying what he needs to hear (which can be correlated to how the poor are viewed in America): He started to go off about how targeted killings are something that happen in Pakistan but not in America. It sounded like Michael Moore and another guest started to explain to him that the difference isn't their religion or their particular brand of radicalism, it's WHERE THEY loving LIVE. If we all of a sudden found ourselves in a country that was as hard to police as theirs, and in exactly the same dire straits infrastructure-wise, I wouldn't think twice to bet that we'd have roaming bands of assholes imposing their worldview by way of the gun. They do it because there's not enough power out there to stop them from doing whatever the gently caress they want. You're telling me you think Sherrif Joe Arpaio wouldn't go far beyond what he already tries if he had carte blanche in Arizona? Or that there aren't any true believers of Abortion=Murder out there who aren't discouraged from doing anything drastic because they live in a stable society? The poor are in the same situation. 90% of the things they're assailed for by Rightous Americans are symptoms of being poor, rather than some character flaw. Intel&Sebastian fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 18:38
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