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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: December 18th, 2023

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  • “Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said

    When we met him last week on our way to the line.

    Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,

    And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

    “He’s a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack

    As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.


    But he did for them both by his plan of attack.









  • I doubt it. There’s a good chance that we will see copycat killers. That’s a well known phenomenon, but it is not a change in society.

    High-profile events can catalyze changes. Violence has been committed. A person died. That creates a sense of urgency. Americans have discovered that there is a broad consensus that something ought to be done about health care. We’ll see.

    But I do not see any appetite for a societal change. Americans look at individuals, not at systemic factors. The USA has, by far, the highest incarceration rate in the world. It costs the taxpayer a lot of money to feed and house all those people, not to mention that the rest of society misses out on all the productive labor they could do. The US likes to punish individuals for perceived wrong-doing, but it does not look at systemic factors.

    US society now wants more bad guy CEOs punished. That’s not a change and it will not lead to a change. People aren’t even thinking about how the law could be changed to punish these bad guys, or what they personally could do alone or by collective action. They are waiting for heroes.

    Americans want V (for Vendetta) to save them while they watch the show. Many think that Elon Musk is Ironman. That’s part of the malaise.

    People want individuals to take care of things and so individuals need the power to do so. Well, billionaires are people who have been given the power to take care of business (excuse the pun). And if they don’t do it right, it’s because they are greedy or have some other individual flaw.






  • I don’t think it has much to do with ethics in the usual sense. It’s all about tribal allegiance. Facebook and the like are the enemy. Anything that seems to bother the enemy is cheered. There is no thought that laws apply generally. It reminds me of that old internet meme about conservatism. There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

    I think you could make a serious argument that the CEO killing was self-defense. But it’s not going to really change anything. Maybe the successor is less ruthless but they will be making decisions in the same social context; facing the same incentives and disincentives.