Fierce, Gitaxian Librarian

However!

I do not go around being a jerk about this, for precisely the reason this post was made:

No one should have to suffer just to have a reason to improve their life.

It's a lot, for books aimed at eleven year olds who want to read about kids turning into fun animals.

On the podcast, the two (American) hosts happened to get onto the topic of the post-9/11 Iraq War and their reactions to it. They were both children at the time and as such could not be expected to have particularly nuanced views of US military policy. The person who hadn't read Animorphs was unsurprised by the declaration of war; that's what you did. Someone attacks America, America goes to war. That's how a country protects itself, through military revenge. The Animorphs fan, about the same age, had been devastated and against the war from the start. War was a Big Deal and, while sometimes unavoidable, should be a last resort; a lot of people were going to die, and a lot more were going to get hurt, and no matter how the war shook out it was still going to be horrible. They attributed this perspective, of course, to the series that had taught them about the horrors endemic to war in an engaging way at such a young age -- to Animorphs.

this is something I had to learn the hard way. doctors often dress up their words all pretty so you can’t sue them. I, for a long time, mistook this as genuine kindness. It’s not. It’s just being professional. even if they didn’t call you a slur or anything that doesn’t mean they weren’t ignoring your needs.

and for all of yall that are still figuring it out or aren't getting the support you deserve:

someone sitting at home alone, an active alcoholic, squandering your charity, drinking all day is better situation than a street homeless alcoholic. someone using drugs in your charity house is better than them doing the same w no shelter

most of you would not like most street homeless people, I definitely don’t and didn’t when I was street homeless. for every one person who uses unconditional shelter to turn themselves around, someone else will do jack shit and very slowly, if ever, work through the issues that made them homeless, will maybe never be able to live independently. still better than street homelessness, still worth doing. ultimately either you believe that shelter should be universal or you don’t

Crime is a social construct. We could eliminate all crime right now, simply by making everything legal. And cops don't stop crime (typically). They don't protect people (typically). They show up, after the fact, and put people into the prison system, where, if found guilty (or coerced into taking a plea bargain, even if innocent), they can be legally enslaved (in the US, at least).

Predicting crimes is hard, generally, even with the modern panopticon in consideration. That's why criminal justice, instead of trying to physically preclude crime, leverages long-term personal consequences. Such a tactic obviously doesn't work perfectly; many people may consider the risk still worth it, or just don't consider the long-term in the first place. But it's a third barrier to some specific crimes most people agree are typically bad (murder and rape, mainly), reinforcing the existing social and psychological barriers. There's also the calculus that keeping people who are guilty of particularly heinous acts separate from civil society prevents them from committing more of those same acts... except against each other, I guess. But then it doesn't strongly affect anyone else, so the calculus still works.

There are crimes on some books that defy these purposes, and exist as either extensions of more coherent crimes into contexts that make much less sense, or means of social control. "Digital piracy" is a good example of the former, "hate speech" is a good example of the latter. And this sort of belief makes some sense when considering victimless crimes such as these. But consider...

Rape and murder. What's the fucking answer for those?

Also, you eliminate a lot of 'crime' by eliminating unjust hierarchies.

Also, you eliminate a lot of 'crime' by having a society where everyone's needs are met,

Also, studies show that punitive justice systems don't work.

Also, cops don't stop murders or arrest rapist, in the vast majority of cases.

"Also, you eliminate a lot of 'crime' by having a society where everyone's needs are met" Not "a lot", just some. Shoplifting food isn't a particularly large slice of the pie...

Also, studies show that 99% of statements prefaced with "studies show" are bullshit.

"Also, cops don't stop murders" Neither do hugs and kisses. Again, the idea is that long-term personal consequences will preclude a lot of people from committing particularly heinous acts. It doesn't work perfectly, because many people just don't care about long-term consequences, if they consider them at all.

"arrest rapist[s]" This is sometimes true (see: the grooming gangs scandal in the UK), but any appearances to this effect are mostly an illusion of statistics being portrayed in a dishonest manner.

"Whatever the answer is, it isn't what we have now."

But I don’t want to make lynching legal. Sorry about that.

The leftism leaving people’s bodies, again.