Noticing that many people are too self-centered to consider how their actions affect others around them in a shared system is hardly schizoid.

Am I the only one who frequently notices inconsiderate assholes (probably compensating for something small of theirs) who seem to deliberately and unnecessarily hesitate at intersections, with the express goal of making anyone behind them miss the light? I mean when you can see a mile or two down the road and the intersection is obviously clear, this really makes no sense and cannot be excused by a notion of caution.

Which is complicated by the idiot pacers who think my blind spot is the COOLEST hangout they've ever experienced. Generally people in this area seem to have difficulty understanding why "passing lane" and "acceleration lane" have their respective names.

If I didn't use the word "enlightened", it was not an accidental omission. Effectively putting words in my mouth by adding connotations I was careful to omit, and then complaining about the presence of the connotations you just added, well, that really doesn't benefit anyone. It does, however, represent the general decline of Slashdot because far too many people are either doing that, or disclaiming claims that were never made in an attempt to prevent someone else from doing that. Look deeply at the situation and you will find within yourself a subconscious (you see and understand that word "subconscious", right?) need to display your cleverness and to appear "right" in the eyes of others, i.e. what is commonly called insecurity. It leads to all sorts of absurd behavior like this.

The point (that you had to work to miss) was: in a supposedly representative republic that supposedly carries out the will of The People, extremely unpopular laws were impossible (and downright dangerous) to enforce. It's no coincidence the population at that time had far fewer opiates in the form of entertainment, sports, and becoming obese. Now contrast that with, for example, the modern ongoing prohibition of marijuana that most people do not support.

"Stop searching for non-existant problems" would constitute an "alternative". It was for this very purpose that I said "alternatives or constructive solutions" and not merely "constructive solutions" alone.

Reading comprehension on this site continues to decline. I predict that eventually, follow-up posts made for the sole purpose of correcting faulty reading comprehension will reach 50%, and at that point Slashdot will become as useful as unmoderated Usenet discussion and Dice Holdings will tank.

I appreciate sarcasm myself.

How typical. They like the extremely broad power that comes with operating in loco parentes but they don't want the responsibility.

But if they focus on teaching and instilling knowledge, how will they brainwash and social-engineer the next generation into fearing everything and loving Big Brother?

Sadly there is no precedent in America of holding cops accountable.

If he shot and killed an unarmed man, he *might* receive two weeks of paid vacation. Err, I mean administrative leave.

You remember how we've heard for years and years that our schools need more money? Well, they got it and they continue to get it. Do you know where that money went? Not to hire teachers and buy textbooks and computers ... no. For the most part, it went to hire more administrative staff.

Much of schooling is a jobs project as illustrated by Jon Taylor Gatto. You now have lots of administrators who feel a need to justify the existence of their jobs. So, of course idiotic policies (especially "zero tolerance") will be deemed necessary. Like most problems society has, It was a predictable outcome.

It potentially teaches one very important life lesson: those with power and authority are never to be trusted. But that requires a little thought and reflection that sadly only a few are likely to perform by this time this particular meat-grinder is through with them.

If you think about it, you realize that this problem is too widespread and too systematic, too uniform to be the result of a few isolated bad actors. It's intentional and it's planned. The goal is, if you teach (by repeated, reinforced example) children from a young age that they have no rights and authority is absolute, they will grow into adults who expect other authorities in government to be the same way.

Oh if you want a fascinating exercise, go look up precisely why schools use bells. It's a tactic that is called psychological warfare in any other context. At the time that it was set up, Dewey and others were quite open about its purpose. Who needs a smoky back-room conspiracy when you can have selling points?

The Japanese have a great deal of conformity of behavior, expressed by lots of social protocols and expectations. More than one American has gone there and learned that small gestures that seemed insignificant at the time were major faux pas. Of course anyone who visits a culture without learning about it first is leaving themselves open to such mishaps...

The Americans have a great deal of conformity of ideas and philosophies, expressed by trends, political forces and a completely homogeneous media. These are mostly failed philosophies in which fundamental assumptions are not questioned. They are designed only to produce never-ending circular debate to give the appearance of legitimacy and public involvement in major decisions.

What most Americans call "individuality" still requires a large group, an audience, to which it can be conspicuously shown off. It seldom involves anything less superficial than mannerisms or styles of dress or tastes in music. It seldom involves concerns less mundane than "what is everybody else doing?"

I would say that the Japanese notion of conformity is much less dangerous but that particular meaning is far from universal. I'm not the typical insecure "you must be a moron" Slashdotter, so I will ask instead of assuming: is what you wrote intended to encourage conformity for its own sake, or do you simply believe that a bit more would be a social improvement (or some other possibility that did not occur to me)?

As a tangent, I believe this kind of emotional immaturity, lack of desire for real meaning and preoccupation with the opinions of others (i.e. widespread childishness) is why the US federal government is so out-of-control. The power-hungry see that and say "these are not people who will realize the implications of what I am doing, and certainly aren't going to put any effort into stopping it, not as long as they're fat and entertained". It's a green light. Read about the Whiskey Rebellion and ask yourself if you think the people involved were more concerned with singers and actors than with what their government was doing.

I find that most debunkers and detractors operate out of some kind of emotional offense. They seem to think having strong feelings about a thing excuses them from learning the facts about that thing. What you hear from them is not an accurate representation of reality, but a caricature that has been drawn from a process of demonization that occurs in their minds.

I make no exaggeration when I say: how so many people can do this while congratulating themselves for a job well done is one of the great unsolved problems of civilization. Detractors who attack something while offering no alternatives or constructive solutions have zero credibility until proven otherwise, even if so many soft-minded people continue to believe them.

That's not a problem with their capacity to deal with "cybercrime" (which is merely old-fashioned fraud, with a computer).

That's a much more fundamental problem with their ability to coerce confessions. If you let any police force do that, just so they can maintain an illusion of competency and effectiveness, you will have these problems. It has worked out that way every single time it has been tried. Japanese police in particular are known for worrying about their appearance first, and the facts second, though this hardly makes them unique among cops.

The US has its own version of this, but it's not implemented directly by the police. It's implemented by the prosecutors. Someone commits a crime, and you don't want to bother with all the time and effort of a proper trial. So you invent an excuse to charge them with something very much more serious, twisting legal language as much as necessary, to scare the hell out of them. Then from the "kindness" of your heart, you let them plead guilty to a far lesser charge that actually does represent the crime they committed. There it is -- you just coerced a confession. This takes much less time than fair trials do, allowing you to take on many more cases in a given timeframe, allowing you to look like a highly effective and desirable prosecutor to the masses of people who never look deeply into anything.

Anytime this kind of intimidation is used on people whose guilt has not (yet?) been established, it will be abused.

(Emphasis added). That's the basis of egotism, also known as childishness.

When it operates in politics, you wind up with imbecilic laws like Prohibition and the current War on Drugs. The basis is, "*I* don't want to do that, therefore no one else should ever be allowed to do that either!"

Does anyone else remember this site years ago, back when occurrences of it on Slashdot were relatively rare events?

*I* don't personally use that many. In fact I have never needed anything close to 100.

I'm also not automatically hostile to someone who says they do. They have their reasons, and no number of tabs they use on their own equipment is going to infringe on the way I personally want to use my own browser.

So I just don't see a problem here. With a guy who says he uses so many tabs, that is. The flimsy excuse for hostility, on the other hand ... it's a means by which you are shaming yourself. The prevalence of this attitude is destroying Slashdot much faster than the Beta redesign. When so many users engage in this, it tends to repel those who want to converse like adults. Remember that the userbase and the discussions are what actually bring you to this site. Anyone can get a copy of the Slashcode and get some cheap Web hosting.