Doesn’t Matter Who Wins the K Race; We’re All the Same

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I think this describes where I lose some of your argument. "Conservatives" have been replaced with populists. We have a few populist parties running right now. Bernie, Warren, and Trump are all attracting different varieties of populists. I don't think conservatives are in a state of reaction right now. They might have been in the past. Now I think they're in a state of near extinction.



When conservatives gained power in the past they struggled because they realized that they weren't really conservatives. They wanted to spend money just like liberals, only in different ways. They realized they weren't really conservative at all.



He's a populist.



Correct.



Populists masquerading as conservatives are animated by grievance. Conservatives are, as I said, near extinct.

Call it whatever you want, Conservatives, Republicans, Populists. They're assholes. These are all people who take pleasure in being assholes. It's not just about owning the libs, it's about screwing over people color, putting women in their place, using kids for personal gain or just generally being assholes.

Call an ass an ass.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Call it whatever you want, Conservatives, Republicans, Populists. They're assholes. These are all people who take pleasure in being assholes. It's not just about owning the libs, it's about screwing over people color, putting women in their place, using kids for personal gain or just generally being assholes.

Call an ass an ass.

That's emoting, I understand, but to characterize those groups as assholes who just like doing bad things to people isn't really fair.

A lot of people in those groups simply don't care about what progressives care about. You can't call someone an asshole for having different interests and not paying attention to yours. And I don't think you can call Libertarians, who are basically saying nothing more than "leave me the fuck alone" assholes. They don't wish you any harm. They just don't give a fuck about the things progressives do. Or anything, really.

But as to the people who simply wish to control others under a right wing agenda, yes, those people are assholes. In fact, that word might not be enough. If you wish to compel another person to live the way you want him to live knowing it's anathema to him, you're the lowest form of humanity in existence. You deserve to be violently reproached in your efforts. I'd exile your ass if I were in charge.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

That's emoting, I understand, but to characterize those groups as assholes who just like doing bad things to people isn't really fair.

A lot of people in those groups simply don't care about what progressives care about. You can't call someone an asshole for having different interests and not paying attention to yours. And I don't think you can call Libertarians, who are basically saying nothing more than "leave me the fuck alone" assholes. They don't wish you any harm. They just don't give a fuck about the things progressives do. Or anything, really.

But as to the people who simply wish to control others under a right wing agenda, yes, those people are assholes. In fact, that word might not be enough. If you wish to compel another person to live the way you want him to live knowing it's anathema to him, you're the lowest form of humanity in existence. You deserve to be violently reproached in your efforts. I'd exile your ass if I were in charge.

Look at each issue out there:

Building a wall. Rational policy? No. what motivates it? Assholes.
Putting kids in tents and cages. Rational policy? No. What motivates it? Assholes.
Trade. Rational policy? No, totally moronic. What motivates it? Assholes.
Police. Again, do they have a rational policy? No. And you get the gist.

On any issue, ask yourself "What would an Asshole do?" and your answer will be the Republican conservative agenda.

There are all kinds of names for this type of reaction to the world. I'm related to a lot of these people. Their approach to life is quite bitter and their view of the world very bleak. They have taken over the Republican party, the conservative movement, and every other trapping of the right in America.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Double post. Deleted.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Look at each issue out there:

Building a wall. Rational policy? No. what motivates it? Assholes.
Putting kids in tents and cages. Rational policy? No. What motivates it? Assholes.
Trade. Rational policy? No, totally moronic. What motivates it? Assholes.
Police. Again, do they have a rational policy? No. And you get the gist.

On any issue, ask yourself "What would an Asshole do?" and your answer will be the Republican conservative agenda.

There are all kinds of names for this type of reaction to the world. I'm related to a lot of these people. Their approach to life is quite bitter and their view of the world very bleak. They have taken over the Republican party, the conservative movement, and every other trapping of the right in America.

The wall is a moronic policy.
Putting kids in cages is definitely asshole policy.
Trade war is a dumb policy, but there are argument for disciplining China.
Police state shit is 100% asshole.

But these aren't the only policies of conservatives.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The wall is a moronic policy.
Putting kids in cages is definitely asshole policy.
Trade war is a dumb policy, but there are argument for disciplining China.
Police state shit is 100% asshole.

But these aren't the only policies of conservatives.

Well, keep going. Find something conservatives get excited about today that isn't about being an asshole. Go ahead, show me I'm wrong and that these folks aren't just assholes, plain and simple.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Well, keep going. Find something conservatives get excited about today that isn't about being an asshole. Go ahead, show me I'm wrong and that these folks aren't just assholes, plain and simple.

Rolling back federal regs and limiting, via conservative judges, application of laws that create too much red tape. That's a mouthful, so I'll explain.

I had to cover HR for a 1900 person organization a few years back. You'd think this would be easy -- that the HR head would call in the rare occasion of a legal claim. Well, that was almost every claim. That fucking department annoyed the living shit out of me and everyone around it and in it. Lawyers came out of the woodwork every time anyone was terminated. It was whack a mole. Once a day, some fucking call, some complaint, some assertion of some right violated. The drag on resources was simply amazing. Few of the cases resulted in payouts, but the cost in hours expended where we could have been dealing with other matters was staggering. In the millions, easily.

Why? Because between labor and employment law, we've created so much fucking red tape that even the simplest grievance or complaint, the weakest EEOC filing, has to be addressed and this takes so much time. Add in workman's comp (because a lot of these folks who want to cash out work numerous angles at once) and you have the most fucking confusing mess of conflicting laws imaginable.

I consult for a few companies on how to handle problem employees. Some lazy pill eater's request for accommodations, and his comp claim, costs the company several thousand dollars by the time its done. I have to spend hours on the phone counseling on how to best paper the file.

It's fucking nuts. These laws work like an attractive nuisance, giving the laziest people in the workforce a way to get "on the dole." And it hurts the people with real claims. Because the companies say, "Fuck it. Fight them all."

And that's just HR shit. Tax, OSHA, environmental regs on disposal of med waste... It's a road to hell paved with good intentions. All it does is make money for us, the worst human beings in the economy. If there's any silver lining to the rule of law losing respect under Trump, it's that maybe, if we're lucky, people will start disregarding the approximately 10,000 laws on the books that have no business being there.

Where's the party that will advocate the following:

"Our first response to any problem shall never, under any circumstance, be, 'Let's pass a law.'"

I'd vote for that party regardless of the rest of its plank.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Rolling back federal regs and limiting, via conservative judges, application of laws that create too much red tape. That's a mouthful, so I'll explain.

I had to cover HR for a 1900 person organization a few years back. You'd think this would be easy -- that the HR head would call in the rare occasion of a legal claim. Well, that was almost every claim. That fucking department annoyed the living shit out of me and everyone around it and in it. Lawyers came out of the woodwork every time anyone was terminated. It was whack a mole. Once a day, some fucking call, some complaint, some assertion of some right violated. The drag on resources was simply amazing. Few of the cases resulted in payouts, but the cost in hours expended where we could have been dealing with other matters was staggering. In the millions, easily.

Why? Because between labor and employment law, we've created so much fucking red tape that even the simplest grievance or complaint, the weakest EEOC filing, has to be addressed and this takes so much time. Add in workman's comp (because a lot of these folks who want to cash out work numerous angles at once) and you have the most fucking confusing mess of conflicting laws imaginable.

I consult for a few companies on how to handle problem employees. Some lazy pill eater's request for accommodations, and his comp claim, costs the company several thousand dollars by the time its done. I have to spend hours on the phone counseling on how to best paper the file.

It's fucking nuts. These laws work like an attractive nuisance, giving the laziest people in the workforce a way to get "on the dole." And it hurts the people with real claims. Because the companies say, "Fuck it. Fight them all."

And that's just HR shit. Tax, OSHA, environmental regs on disposal of med waste... It's a road to hell paved with good intentions. All it does is make money for us, the worst human beings in the economy. If there's any silver lining to the rule of law losing respect under Trump, it's that maybe, if we're lucky, people will start disregarding the approximately 10,000 laws on the books that have no business being there.

Where's the party that will advocate the following:

"Our first response to any problem shall never, under any circumstance, be, 'Let's pass a law.'"

I'd vote for that party regardless of the rest of its plank.

On the other hand, I help, via my employment group, a lot of tech companies deal with employment issues. There is some overhead, but frankly the market in that area is to treat employees a lot better than law requires, and the main place I see the laws actually bite is not so much in termination and severance as in discrimination and harassment. And companies get away with amazing levels of discrimination and harassment.

To me, the question is how to write effective laws rather than ineffective ones.

But I'd posit conservative policy toward the workplace (pay 'em shit and give 'em no protections, and bust every union) fits the bill of "assaholic" pretty completely. Indeed, the kinds of business that do the legal minimum (Wallmart, I'm looking at you) generally deserve the hassles they get, I just wish all those laws were more effective in keeping them from being assholes.

Have you seen "Superstore"? A light TV comedy that's actually pretty good at spoofing some of this stuff.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

environmental regs on disposal of med waste...

Think about that one. Really. You're worried about people having to take care with biohazards?

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

You can't call someone an asshole for having different interests and not paying attention to yours.

I know this is your brand and all, but you absolutely can. We’re living in an era where Godwin’s law has been suspended, so I’ll go right to the extreme: if you aren’t paying attention and/or don’t care about Nazis, you’re an asshole.

This is also true farther from the extreme.