Reality Is An Inherent Problem
I paraphrase, but not by much:
It started, since you ask, with chappie being annoyed by the existence of a cruise ship. Says he,
Readers will note that the word wasted is doing some heavy lifting there. That the building of said cruise ship paid the wages of thousands of people, in several cities, for years, and that the crewing and maintenance of said ship pays the wages of thousands more, and that the thousands of passengers aboard it at any given time will be spending large sums of money in any number of tourist destinations, making lives better across the globe, seems to have escaped our indignant chappie’s attention.
But still, he has “he/they” pronouns in his bio. So some markers of status are totally okay, apparently. Chappie tells us that he’s a “Black communicator,” whose podcast “paints a multi-faceted picture of the Black, brown, and Native American experience through story-telling.”
Lifted from the comments, which you’re reading, of course.
Update:
In the comments, EmC quotes this,
And adds,
Or an owner of slaves, perhaps. Some arrangement in which he, Our Obvious Better, doesn’t have to do things that others find of value. Something non-reciprocal.
It’s certainly a mindset that’s quite telling. For instance, this came to mind:
So, for some, the very idea that a grown-up person should pay their debts – or keep their word, or honour their promises – is something to be “defeated.”
Or, adulthood is such a drag.
Update 2:
It’s curious how often such complaints boil down to, “Other people, less fabulous people, should labour for free, for my benefit, until I say otherwise.” Which, it has to be said, is an odd construal of righteousness.
We’ve been here before, of course. As when an unhappy young madam realised, belatedly and with some annoyance, that bills have to be paid, and livings have to be earned. A seemingly overlooked detail that prompted much umbrage and baffled indignation, on grounds that cars and food and houses are things “which we should just be able to have.”
As I said in reply,
Children who, as adults, may then make TikTok videos of themselves bemoaning the fact that they aren’t simply being given a free house, and free food, and a free car, and free petrol for the free car. Children who, as adults, may then seem genuinely bewildered by the prospect of being responsible for the feeding and clothing of any children that they, in turn, might have.
Another thing occurs to me. If pretty much everything you need, or want, should just somehow be there anyway, on an indefinite basis, via some oddly unarticulated rearrangement of the universe, then it’s not obvious how gratitude might fit into such a mindset.
Answers on a postcard, please.
So the socialist wants to be an aristocrat?
The ratio tho
Or an owner of slaves, perhaps. Some arrangement in which he, Our Obvious Better, doesn’t have to do things that others find of value.
Not entirely unrelated:
It’s certainly a mindset that’s quite telling, inadvertently, and often impervious to argument. For instance:
Apparently, the very idea that a grown-up person should pay their debts – or keep their word, or honour their promises – is something to be “defeated.”
Or, adulthood is such a drag.
[ Post updated. ]
That.
As someone noted a while ago, in reply to much the same lamentation:
Or, “Reality should be arranged in such a way that I don’t have to lift a finger, or pay for anything, or do any of those smelly adult things. I should just be fabulous at someone else’s expense.”
and:
You can almost hear the battle cry of the entitled hood rat, “I am a queen!” (or king).
They don’t exactly say that they are themselves scientists, only “communicators”, or even that they have real degrees in real sciences, but I have known some who were just as clueless about life.
EDIT: See this Sierra Club article about him and Allison.
It typically boils down to, “Other people, less fabulous people, should labour for free, for my benefit.”
Which is an odd construal of righteousness.
We’ve been here before, of course:
In the months since, I still haven’t resolved that one.
[ Post updated again. ]
Commies should be parachuted onto remote desert islands to live their dream of a worker’s paradise.
Allison Jones and I (Alexi Grousis)…
To connect with people who looked like him? Ignoring for a moment the utter inanity that one can only connect with People of Pantone Color Matching, one has to wonder as a zookeeper in New Orleans whether he has ever been to New Orleans.
Commies should be parachuted onto remote desert islands to live their dream of a worker’s paradise.
Speaking of which, Bluto is never around when you need him.
That. And yet it’s mouthed as a credential, a basis for applause.
“And that after all this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins,
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as water will wet us, as surely as fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!”
Unlike almost all other animals, animals in a zoo also don’t have to work to eat. The guy is a zookeeper. I think he is missing some connections here.
That is how socialism always turns out–as we all know and as socialists know but won’t publicly admit.
In the examples above, there’s quite a bit of evasion and rather sly euphemism. A lot of Not Following Through On The Thought. To a degree that suggests practice, or at least motivation.
And so, we get an extensive list of desired things that should apparently be “free,” or just there. By some oddly unspecified means. And which, in the real world, generally means that some other sucker will be forced to pick up your tab, over and over again, in perpetuity. The houses and cars and fuel, and the care and clothing of your own children. Oh, and the food, “which we should just be able to have.“
There’s something to be said for giving socialists a taste of real socialism. Gulag?
Heh.
[ Applies moisturiser. ]
Oh, and that thing that never happens has happened again.
It’s like a contest to see which can be the most vile – the child rapist or the ‘trans activists’.
I’m guessing we aren’t supposed to notice the not insignificant overlap of the two groups.
Seen in the responses:
I live in a condo with about 70 adults and it’s hard to get even 4 people to volunteer for condo board jobs that are far from dirty.
Would it be unfair to label ‘trans activists’ ‘uncaught child rapists’?
Yes, socialism can work because people will volunteer to do the hard and dirty jobs.
Slight correction.
I’m not implying that people are lazy: Most of these people are working, some have children, others are caring for elderly parents. Many of the elderly ones just don’t have the energy. Others worry that they don’t have the knowledge and skills to make good decisions. My attempt at a solution is to find ways to make it easier to be a board member–collecting the information they need for easy reference, documenting things that need to be done to reduce the learning curve, and so on. The result, I hope, will be to greatly reduce the fear factor for prospective volunteers.
“So the socialist wants to be an aristocrat?”
Pst314
I also have experience with volunteer-run organizations. It sums up to: the healthy functioning of such groups depends entirely on the free labor of a few dedicated, interested members. When they tire, or age out, the group flounders, then fails.
Sometimes the founding members are reluctant to cede control to capable newcomers. Mostly the newcomers have no clear idea of how much slog labor is needed. And sometimes the group is hijacked by members with a grossly different agenda.
19th Century Marxist: Seize the means of production!
21st Century Marxist: Assume the means of production!
Funny how things don’t change:
Judas Iscariot: “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?”
Progressive: “Why was the budget for this cruise ship not redirected to the poor?”
Don’t be Judas.
Of course, the building, operation and maintenance of that ship provides jobs for literally thousands of people.
Socialism/communism is a cargo cult.
Somewhat related:
Being so pious, our Guardian columnist goes on to wish misery upon people about whom she knows nothing at all, beyond the fact they have a nice house with an indoor swimming pool. She can’t wait for these people, these strangers, to be made “not so happy.”
Re the above:
Note, too, that Ms Hanson’s posturing starts with her own sourness and spite, her own bad personality, onto which an unconvincing, inaccurate, and wildly misleading argument is precariously balanced.
And Guardian readers applaud her.
“Chappie tells us that he’s a “Black communicator,”
But who is it he thinks he’s communicating with? It’s not us, and I very much doubt it’s his fellow Black community either, too busy making a living to listen to this effete child…
You do have a professional community management person I hope. Some of that effort should be offloaded onto (likely) her.
Sounds like she has some serious chips on her shoulder.
And Ms Hanson’s readers were so in tune with her sourness and presumption, they got quite competitive – trying to out-do each other with claims of how much they “abhor the rich,” and “detest” them, and telling us that anyone they deem too wealthy should be “hammered” for being “parasitical,” because wealth can only ever come from “exploitation,” apparently.
“Rich people are shits,” we’re told, and so the well-off should have their earnings “redistributed” – “aggressively” – to ease the fever dreams of Guardian readers, who care so very much, you see. One Guardian reader insisted “we need compassion and kindness to our planet and its beautiful creatures” and therefore – therefore – people deemed too well-off (by some unspecified measure) are “selfish morons” who will have to be dealt with by – wait for it – “revolution.”
As rational, factual statements, these outpourings leave something to be desired. But as expressions of an emotional attitude, a psychology, they communicate quite effectively.
Yes, although they haven’t been doing a very good job and we’re interviewing another one. A vital service.
Yeah, but what’s his face can’t take credit for that now can he?
Calls to mind a situation a few years ago, in which some neighbours decided to form a ladies’ gardening club. A handful of retired and middle-aged women doing a spot of recreational gardening sounds pretty genteel, you might think. But within two hours of starting, literally two hours, the rancour was peaking in the red, people had stopped speaking with each other, and the actual gardener, a man of some experience, was threatening to quit.
Juggling egos is not an insignificant skill.
Or maybe a religion…
“Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”
Fries!
See this Sierra Club article about him and Allison.
This stuff gets through the editorial process as racially progressive, and what it consists of is people saying unashamedly that interacting with other races makes them uncomfortable, introduces friction and misunderstanding, makes them long for single racial spaces where things are implicitly understood and there’s no need to walk on eggshells. And then being hypervigilant about whites maybe sometimes having some of the same feelings. If you were to take it on principle, it would be as confusing as a vegetarian conference where most of the speakers brag about looking forward to their steak dinner.
Also: Figuring out how to divvy up the tasks to suit the skills and comfort levels of the volunteers. And to make it known that this will be done so as to not overburden nervous potential volunteers.
Indeed. It’s hardly universal, but it manifests disturbingly often. I have found that little things which get a reciprocal response from random whites and Asians and Hispanics (such as a smile or nod when passing on the sidewalk) get a blank look or even sometimes a frozen face from blacks. Reaching out helpfully (“did you notice that your rear tires are dangerously underinflated?”) is likely to get no words in response just that blank or cold look. Things are much better in the suburbs but in the city I have learned that it is prudent to maintain neutral body language and not interact even with eye contact.
Is there any paranoia more damaging than black paranoia?
In summation, “I am forever fabulous, forever brilliant, forever flawless, forever incapable of error, and forever unhappy, because you people suck!!”
And which, in the real world, generally means that some other sucker will be forced to pick up your tab, over and over again, in perpetuity.
And that right there is why communism/socialism never works. The only society that can function in that way is a capitalist society; where there are people who create an excess which today’s state steals and gives to others. In a socialist society, there is no excess to distribute.
It’s an ideology that lives by the lowest common denominator. And, it’s that way by design. What do these idiots think Marx meant when he said “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Communism even more than capitalism requires people to work. No ticky, no laundry. There is so little incentive to work that the communist state usually resorts to some form of slavery, forcing people to work and if they don’t, they don’t get fed. The fifth chapter of Lenin’s The State and Revolution is a good read. Not have to pay your debts? Ha ha ha, in a socialist state nobody would “lend” you anything to begin with.
These idiots don’t even know or understand their own ideology, which is why they’re constantly stuck in the “destroy the old order” stage of revolution.
Who knew this was an option?
Heh. That can be tricky. Did it once on a board where the developer saddled us with an expensive and useless company. Scam was going on there and was my first actual encounter in grownup world with the vile games lawyers play. Secondly was when I was about to depart from that same board many years later. There had been some churn in the CMA world with companies buying out others and shifting associates on us who didn’t work out. The last board I was on it was apparent that the not-quite-doddering clueless manager that we had was getting things terribly mixed up, giving us bad advice, etc. Whenever I worked with her directly she did a good job but she was juggling too many different communities. Far too much flex for someone even in their 40’s IMNSHO. She was late-50’s going on mid-60’s, iykwim. Keep a close eye on how many other communities that agency handles, how many agents, how many communities each agent handles, what the norms are for your area (condo associations can be a good bit different from regular HOAs), get recommendations if you can, references at worst. I say keep an eye on it because they can completely, honestly, truthfully tell you one thing but the story can change and you may not find out.
Elon Musk denies this.
Overworked property managers is a very common problem.
We checked with several properties that the new company is managing and got positive feedback, so we are hopeful.
We intend to try to minimize future problems by staying involved, doing the things that we can comfortably do so that the property managers don’t get overwhelmed doing the things we really need them to do. Plus we anticipate getting past all the projects that should have been done years ago, which will slow down the workload.
Silly socialists tend to think of just compensation in terms of hours worked and the degree of physical strenuousness of the work. They tend to forget about such things as “putting up with bullshit”, which is one of the barriers to getting people to volunteer. “I’m not paid enough to deal with this shit” is a common workplace complaint, whether it be annoying coworkers or bosses or underlings or customers. No matter how annoyed I am by some sort of error or defect, I try to remember that the person I’m talking to is not the cause of the problem and even if he is the cause he didn’t intend to screw up.
Elon Musk denies this.
He denied giving it to the general, he didn’t deny it was an option…
How can I know that you posted it as a joke when there are others on the internet expressing outrage?
How can I know that you posted it as a joke…
An actual option…
Speaking of cargo cults…Anyone with knowledge of Detroit who can fill me in on this story? People from Detroit…people who no longer live in Detroit…are telling me that this is real and…happening.
Image does not load. Try removing the decorations from the URL.
But this seems to be what the image is about.
As for “feeds 2000 households for free”, what does “feeds” mean? It cannot mean “supplies all their nutritional needs. Nor is it really free when you account for the value of donated labor and equipment. However, I do recall that my mother’s and grandmother’s backyard gardens were a significant source of fresh vegetables.
EDIT: Their gardens were maybe 200 square feet.
As our gracious host is fond of saying, “for free” is doing a lot of work in that description.
Also 3 acres -> food for 2,000 households … run that by your friendly neighborhood farmer and enjoy the laughter. I mean, sure, reductively, if everyone gets one item a month from the garden, then it may technically be “contributing” to food for 2,000 households, but you can’t meaninfully feed 2,000 – 8,000 people (how big is a household?) from 3 acres. Not even with bugs and soy.
I’ll say it again, these are people whose parents never made them make their own beds in the morning … no household chores, either.
These “activist” and “socially conscious” organizations tend to be congenital liars–less honest than Joe Isuzu.
Still, it will be good if the end result is lots of people cultivating their own backyard gardens.
Anyone with knowledge of Detroit who can fill me in on this story?
Not from Detriot but 2 acres of midwest modern farm corn would produce about 8 tons of corn, so 2 acres of “organic” junk like kale and lettuce isn’t going to feed 2000 people, at least not much for not very long.
Anyone with knowledge of Detroit who can fill me in on this story?
It’s tended by the hand maidens when they’re not busy birthing.
“It feeds 2,000 households” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Was in Detroit last weekend, didn’t see a lot of vegetable gardens.
Which seems insane: If you’re poor, and unemployed, a garden is a great way to save money on groceries.
On the other hand, I can imagine that pilferage might discourage such efforts, as “the hood” can be a low-trust environment and it doesn’t take many thefts to negate the effort of planting and tending.
… it doesn’t take many thefts to negate the effort of planting and tending.
That, and I imagine the soil of reclaimed lots is better than the CHAZ idiots trying to grow stuff on top of cardboard, but not by much. I also imagine it less contaminated per pound than Pripyat, but add in “organic” fertilizer and I think the putative health benefits not as advertised.
Through googling and stuff, and Google Earth, I was able to find this specific plot. I think the concept, as far as that goes, is real but the “free” aspect really irks me. As I said on the post where I found it…which btw was in a touristy FB group called…wait for it…Lauderdale By The Sea Happenings:
Other articles I found (admittedly I gave up rather quickly to keep my eyes from rolling out of my head) were rather vague about exactly who was paying for it. References to NGO sounding organizations and such.
Not a great indicator – when are there not others on the internet expressing outrage?
It may be real, it may be happening, but now the powers that be are getting involved don’t expect it to continue.
Interesting concept of public order.
Through googling and stuff, and Google Earth, I was able to find this specific plot.
It all looks a little potemkinish to me. The plot is as neatly manicured as the Gardens of Versailles. I have a vegetable garden, there are communal vegetable gardens nearby and they don’t look like that. But lots of good feelz for everyone. And a good reason to form and staff NGOs with multiple six and seven figure jobs for the politically connected. I’m sure they call themselves “community activists” just like Obama did.
The most efficient calories per acre crop is rice. An acre will feed 19 people a for a year. Although I’m not sure you’d last a year on just rice…. This urban farm could maybe support half a dozen families for a year, with a considerable amount of hard work required.
Re: the black zookeeper, it occurs to me that his position is not really about socialism. He simply envies the animals he takes care of. His ambition in life is no more than to be securely caged, fed and occasionally mucked out. Oh yes, and not have to talk to white people.
Downthread, @serena_patrick says: “All the things that would never happen have happened, and people still haven’t reconsidered their allegiance to this batshittery.”
Know why?
They know it’s happening and they’re ok with it.
In other news, a white pill:
A cartoon from 40 years ago is still pertinent.
A handful of retired and middle-aged women doing a spot of recreational gardening sounds pretty genteel, you might think
Have I taught you people nothing?
Heh. It was quite extraordinary. I only caught the aftermath, from a distance, but the gardener, who I sometimes chat with, is an easy-going chap, not easily flustered or provoked, and yet he was outraged by their behaviour and threatening to quit. While the ladies were relaying messages to each other via third parties.
Fairer sex, my arse.
Brats don’t do gratitude.
Well, it does, I think, speak to the psychology in play. Habitual indulgence of the kind being demanded doesn’t usually result in anything approaching appreciation. In the same way that chronically spoiled children aren’t generally known for their gratitude. More typically, the consequent expectation is of more of the same, but demanded more loudly.
[ Post updated yet again. ]
Does he think cruise ships are built by people who don’t get paid?
Well, quite. I suspect chappie was too busy ostentatiously disapproving, and being righteously socialist, to think it through. And I see from the linked X thread that attempts by commenters to impart some rudimentary economic knowledge aren’t going terribly well. He remains impervious, peevish, and smug.
[ Added: ]
Actually, the subsequent dynamic is quite interesting. Multiple attempts are made by commenters to highlight chappie’s errors, the obvious gaps in his knowledge, some with relevant data; but so far as I can see, none of this has been taken onboard. None whatsoever. His response is either instantly dismissive, or wildly evasive, or downright hostile, often for no discernible reason. He seems to think that those correcting him on points of fact are by definition bad people.
Again, impervious.
Speaking of socialists and their grasp of reality.
All those middle-aged ladies were sexually abused as children?
Let me stop you there.
From further down the 2013 link:
The Christmas spirit. Freeze the elderly for the Greater Good.
The Greater Good now being paying the heating bills for MPs second homes presumably.
The Agonies of the Left series is an opportunity to see the mindset it depicts as not just wrong, reliably wrong, but also quite… weird.
I mean, finding yourself here,
Or here,
Isn’t just the result of a mistake. It takes motivation.
[ Added: ]
Which, I suppose, is why chappie, in the post above, refuses to engage with any of the factual corrections in his replies, beyond calling people names. He doesn’t seem to care about whether his position is illogical, unrealistic, or factually inaccurate. He seems to care much more about his socialist attitude.
On the contrary: The faceless nature of the internet (no facial expressions, no tone of voice) makes it advisable to use the “/sarcasm” tag when misunderstanding might otherwise be possible.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn would recognize this moral inversion.
from the link:
Must one make it all about race to motivate urban blacks?
Also:
It hadn’t occurred to me, but city water bills might be a problem for urban farming.
That crap is now appearing in my social media–idiocy from liberals I have known for years who think of themselves as smart and wise and educated. That “feed 2,000 households” cracks me up. Not to mention the “for free” part.
and
There was nothing “free” about their gardens. They required plenty of labor: tilling, planting, weeding, pest control, etc. (And that’s without counting the compost pile in another corner of the yard.) By the time we kids were old enough to help significantly, Grandma was old enough to badly need that help. And Mom was busy enough with a home and kids plus a part-time job while we were at school.
Comparison of note
Always respect the media.
Hope the ignorance is feigned, suspect it’s real.
What struck me wasn’t so much the NBC journalist’s relentless, ham-fisting fishing, which we’ve come to expect, but the man’s evident incompetence.
And yet they wonder, seemingly in earnest, why they are disliked.
[ Begins collecting possible links for Friday Ephemera ]