Their plan is that we’ll earn money doing the jobs robots won’t or are too expensive to do. Giving them handjobs at breakfast, or fighting lions with a knife on PPV. Whatever we can do to give them a moment’s respite from the gray boredom of incomparable wealth, privilege, and pointlessness.

Billionaires.

I don’t embark on such journeys, tbh. I’m more of a day by day/ path of least resistance person. But fucking good on people who do that shit. I’m proud of you. Best I can do is make rash decisions and see them through. Some of them work out really well. Some don’t.

“Can I phone a fascist?”

Likely just to crypto, which will lead to more money for the grifters. Follow the money.

Everyone capable of feeling bad about it is. Unfortunately we are 3 1/2 years away from a new administration. And we don’t know that the election even then will be free and fair.

Your suggestion would have us choose an arbitrary measure of achievement to say who is allowed full participation in a society. That seems extremely fraught, to say the least. Why is education any better than amount of land owned? Or tax paid? Or holiness? Or age/experience?

From a certain perspective, each of those groups has a more vested interest in successful governance than other groups. And each has an agenda to promote their own interests.

You think education is important because presumably you are educated. I’m not, in the traditional sense. Everything I know is self-taught through reading and hard work. And I work in a field where almost every single person I encounter is better educated than me, down to the interns. And I am more capable than 90% of them.

Education alone doesn’t make one more capable of clear reasoning or logical thinking and its lack is no preclusion. It’s just another arbitrary distinction. You are suggesting a meritocracy based on education rather than wealth or status, but it’s still a meritocracy with all the flaws that entails.

Sometimes, I feel like you do. It’s hard to see so many stupid people harming society for stupid reasons. But then I remind myself they need representation, too. They are part of society. And importantly they think they are the smart ones and I’m the stupid one, and judging based on intelligence depends greatly on who is doing the judging. You and I might not both make the cut depending on what knowledge is valued, how it’s measured, and where the line is drawn.

The problem is more how money is unevenly allocated and swings outcomes. A democracy that can be bought isn’t really a democracy at all.

Some on the left are only left to enjoy the sense of smug superiority. Not that there aren’t idealists or folks with niche passions like that, but they are out there. Just as surely as there are minorities (or at least folks cosplaying as minorities) who attack allies as not being good enough to drive a wedge between minorities and their allies.

I’d be considering going full Lorena Bobbitt.

I’ve been to the Caribbean a few times and loved every trip. Just went to the Dominican Republic for the first time this year and it was amazing. Grand Cayman had the most beautiful water I’ve ever seen. The Bahamas are wonderful. Aruba is on my list of places I want to go.

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico was a fun place to visit although the ocean swimming isn’t great there. I loved the Xenote we visited.

But the place I most want to go back to Thailand. The north country is beautiful, and the people are lovely. My first trip was really heavy on the temples, but each one has a unique character. Doissetep was incredibly scenic, we saw the palace temple where we got blessed by a monk, and the white temple (Wat Rong Khun) was incredible. We saw several other temples but they kinda blended together. We also made merit by feeding the monks and saw the water festival. I’m not a spiritual person but it really made me feel connected to humanity.

Bangkok was really cool, but I only saw it for a few days and that was enough of the big city. The floating market was really cool, and the food was amazing. I want to go back and visit Phuket. I got to see a less touristy side of the country because my uncle married a Thai woman. It’s not overstating it to say it was a life-changing experience. I want to take my kids and I hope they find it as meaningful as I did.

I’ve never really connected with a country like I did with Thailand. It was also my only tour group. My wife, who I married later, prefers all inclusive resorts where you barely experience the culture. I won’t deny I really enjoy them, but wish I could talk her into a tour group some day.

You’re disagreeing with my unserious suggestion? I just… okay. No. Micropenises aren’t a solution. I just don’t think there is one.

If you want to disagree with that, let’s hear it. I have 15 and 13 year old daughters. Anyone can buy a $400 computer, install Linux, install AI, and undress people all day long. There is no legal restraint capable of stopping that, only punishing it.

Shut down model distribution and it’ll move to torrent. Put the kids in the legal system and they are going to face lifelong consequences for 12-year-old assholery. (To be fair, victims often face long repercussions for being targeted, but that’s not imposed by the state which demands a higher standard.) Hold parents accountable and it will disproportionately impact families who spend more hours working and can’t supervise their kids 24/7.

So I’m short on answers, but open to discussion.

It’s obviously not a serious suggestion, but the reality is the tools are out there and Pandora’s box can’t be put back on the shelf. Kids can’t be held accountable in a meaningful way. This is just an issue we are going to face basically forever now.

There is a window of time during which most kids are little sociopaths and you can’t appeal to any better nature. They have the means and often no internal or external restraint. And so mutually assured destruction is my tongue in cheek answer.

The only defense is to train AI to draw guys with micropenises. As long as kids being kids is a defense for this shit (and to be fair, kids are pretty fucking stupid and need the freedom to grow out of that) rule makers have no power here. At least insofar as the AI to do this can be run locally on a potato.

I saw someone on Bluesky admonishing people for using “moron” because it was once a real medical term applied to people who were judged to be too stupid to reproduce and were hence sterilized, thus its a problematic term. You can’t hand me a word with such connotations and then say “but you can’t use it.”

Fuck me, I thought it was just another word for stupid and there is so much idiocy in the world today that I need every word I can get, but it’s so stupid you aren’t allowed to reproduce? Fuck yes!

Now I can call someone a moron, and educate them about exactly how fucking idiotic they are, and let them know they are a prescriptive Darwin Award winner.

Also, cocksucker is a perfectly cromulent term. Hit people with the insults that hurt them. They are supposed to be offensive. I want to offend. Not that I don’t have some lines I won’t cross, but cocksucker definitely isn’t one. Folks can get in line behind my wife to be insulted by that language, and they’ll be waiting a while.

Ukrainian interests are US interests in this case.

Bet: 1337, 1138, 6969

I’m not judging any individual, I said a solo male vacation to Thailand is a flag. Which is the whole point of the post, so what are you even saying here? I hope when I check you are admonishing everyone else who responded…

Oh look at that… not just that but you are a top level commenter judging people. Hmmm.

Oh I know. I’ve been there, twenty years ago. It’s a wonderful place and I hope to take my kids there some day.

But the reputation isn’t for no reason. It’s at the top of my list for problematic places for single men to travel alone to, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an awesome place to go or even that all single men traveling solo are there for bad intent.

I would highly encourage people to go there. The more non-sex tourism they get, the better for everyone, I think.

This was with Roberts-Sinto 35 years ago. I’m sure a lot has changed.