We are all gas with a slightly denser particle distribution.

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My two favourite articles on libertarian experiments gone horribly wrong:

The Rise and Fall of the “Freest Little City in Texas”: How a Libertarian Experiment in City Government Fell Apart Over Taxes, Debt, and Some Very Angry People

and

The Town That Went Feral: based upon A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz

Some choice quotes:

“This is one of the worst things I’ve ever done,” she said of being mayor. “I’ve never dealt with such angry people. I’m washing my hands of everything. … I’m going to travel. I’m going as far away from Von Ormy as I can.”

Nearly everyone in town has an opinion on who’s to blame. But it’s probably safe to say that the vision of the city’s founder, a libertarian lawyer whose family traces its roots in Von Ormy back six generations, has curdled into something that is part comedy, part tragedy.

…

When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in.

One woman, who prudently chose to remain anonymous save for the sobriquet “Doughnut Lady,” revealed to Hongoltz-Hetling that she had taken to welcoming bears on her property for regular feasts of grain topped with sugared doughnuts. If those same bears showed up on someone else’s lawn expecting similar treatment, that wasn’t her problem. The bears, for their part, were left to navigate the mixed messages sent by humans who alternately threw firecrackers and pastries at them. Such are the paradoxes of Freedom.

Both articles are well worth the read.

Dude, yeah. It’s so weird.

I refused circumcision for my son (25 years ago, US hospital), and had to remind the staff several times because it was just assumed it would be done. I stopped them 3 times during different shifts when they were about to take him from our room for the procedure.

Then when it came up in conversation when he was an infant, people would say to me ‘you should have done it’, because he would get infections (he never did), or he’d be bullied in gym showers (he never did to my knowledge), or whatever. My take was it should be his decision, not mine.

The pressure was really intense, though. It’s weird how interested people can be in someone else’s infant’s penis. We’ve never talked about it, but reading stories from other men, I assume he’s happy being uncut, and I’m glad I didn’t do it.

e: for anyone reading this days later, I did ask my son for his opinion prompted by this conversation, mostly because of responses I got elsewhere in this thread that made me question my decision:

Me: Hey man, so feel free not to answer this if it’s too personal, but I was having a debate about circumcision and another parent challenged me saying I’d made the wrong decision. So yes/no/I don’t want to talk about it cuz that’s weird, do you regret my decision?

Son: I don’t, and none of my partners have, either. I only get thumbs up and compliments. I hope that wasn’t too personal.

Me: Not at all. Thank you for giving me your and your partners’ review!

So yeah, it’s not just my assumptions. And no regrets.

a 31-year-old mother of two

Bonus chance of leaving two kids motherless, too. Party of family values.

Can confirm: I had a programming management position in the early 2000s, and once had a dev screaming at me with his nose less than two inches from my own after I called him out for egregious project delays (I was a programmer, too). I asked him if he’d like to take it outside, but he declined. Exactly the same energy I’ve had from others as a girl gamer.

I’ve never seen that behaviour towards men in a professional setting, but some of these immature boys seem to think it’s okay to act that way towards women.

And that’s why I gave up on multiplayer games years ago. I play to have fun, not to be the dartboard for these children’s unresolved mommy issues when I’m not even getting paid for it.

e: hey downvoters, how about you reply with why you took issue with my comment. I’m honestly curious about what I said that you didn’t like. Was it that you’re manchildren who can only challenge people you perceive as lesser than yourselves, and that’s only women and children, or was it that I called you out in the first place? Please, let me know where on this porcelain doll I hurt you.

The absolute least you can do is to tell me how my words injure you so. Downvoting with no comment is a bitch move.

Also because billionaires tend to be sociopaths since that kind of wealth hoarding isn’t really possible unless you have little empathy for others. Sociopaths love fascism because it lets them take what they want by force, ignore social norms, and enslave or genocide anyone who they deem an impediment.

So he’s either a bigot, which should disqualify him, or he’s got serious memory deficits, which should disqualify him. And this is the best (R) they have.

Thank you for subscribing to horse facts! 𐂃

Horses produce roughly 10 gallons of saliva per day!

When your future began to depend on what you were published in, and those publishers had to compete with corporate interests. Capitalism poisons nearly everything it touches, but especially academia.

“Reem’s has a deep commitment to uplifting social and racial justice in our communities,” the statement said. “This includes fostering an environment of safety for our staff and customers. In a time of increased gun violence — particularly impacting people of color, youth, and queer people — we believe that maintaining a strict policy of prohibiting guns in our restaurant keeps us safer.”

They don’t want guns on their property. It’s pretty simple. They have the right to restrict guns on their property.

Calling them ‘bigots’ and ‘discriminatory’ is disgusting, because those words mean hating people for inherent qualities that can’t be changed, like skin colour. You can leave your gun and uniform behind and poof you magically aren’t in the ‘discriminated’ group.

Black people can’t leave their skin in their car. See the difference? No? Then you might be a bigot.

e: anonymous downvoters, don’t be a pussy, reply please. That’s the whole point of this forum. Engage or gtfo.

The thing about unregulated capitalism is it will always fuck over society in favour of sociopaths. Unregulated capitalism rewards sociopaths because it focusses on profits above all else – shareholders get stupidly rich only if they don’t care about the damage done to workers and the public, sociopaths who don’t care about such damage can promise the highest profits, and that’s rewarded by a hyper-focus on the bottom line.

Unregulated capitalism rewards ruthless cost-cutting, treating people like robotic assets, slash-and-burn corporate policies, and a culture of near-slavery.

Adding new tech only makes inhumane policies easier to implement. It’s why people like Musk have more money than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes. When the goal is to maximise profits at all costs, of course the consumer will get fucked. That’s rather the point.

E: in short, prices will continue to increase as these people try to find the ceiling. Ps: there is no real ceiling.