California Becomes First State To Join WHO Disease Network After US Exit (thehill.com) 188
California became the first U.S. state to join the World Health Organization's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), one day after the U.S. formally exited the WHO. The Hill reports: This announcement comes just one day after the U.S.'s withdrawal from the WHO became official after nearly 80 years of membership, having been a founding member of the organization. "The Trump administration's withdrawal from WHO is a reckless decision that will hurt all Californians and Americans," [California Governor Gavin Newsom] said in a statement. "California will not bear witness to the chaos this decision will bring. We will continue to foster partnerships across the globe and remain at the forefront of public health preparedness, including through our membership as the only state in WHO's Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network."
Good (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why don't the 49 other states just leave D.C. and join the Republic of California?
Re: Good (Score:2)
Or join the kingdom of Canada.
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We want to build a wall so that people stop dying of thirst and exhaustion trying to make the trek through the back country. We want to build a wall so that human traffickers no longer take advantage of people trying to make a better life for themselves by crossing the border packed tight in a tractor trailer.
Na, you're full of shit.
I wish you weren't, but it has been made abundantly clear that you are in no way turned off by cruel violence.
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Re: Good (Score:5, Insightful)
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The problem is how you define sexual assault. To get to the 1 in 5 figure, you have to expand the definition to include things like any sexually suggestive language directed at an individual. That's not what most people think sexual assault is. Further, by this definition, a similar percentage of men have also been sexually assaulted. Even if we include things like pinching bum/ass as sexual assault, plenty of women will do that to men. So yes, you can legitimately say the 1 in 5 figure is a lie, depending
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2) Ya, I'm pretty much against human trafficking. Pointing out that trafficking happens over the border isn't something I'm arguing, so your assertion that I don't care is stupid.
3) I want to congratulate you on your observation that we have borders, laws, and immigration. Also- use the fucking Oxford Comma. It's the only way.
4) Me saying that people who support immigration crackdowns don't give a fuck about human
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Illegal immigration breeds human trafficking, molestation and rape.
This is a stupid claim to make.
Being born in the South does too, yet we haven't cracked down on all of you daughter fuckers, yet.
Half of women and children get assaulted on their journey here.
Complete fabrication. Sourced from Trump's bullshit. The final, ac
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Half the women trafficked over the border get raped but you don't care about the victims of your sick lawless agenda.
To be clear, do you mean by coyotes, or do you mean by US border patrol. Apparently a 2022 study found that about 0.05% of border patrol agents were being arrested every year, which is significantly higher than the general population. Of course, that doesn't really demonstrate the scope of the problem because the typical charges are far, far worse than the average arrest. There is also a pervasive culture of sexual misconduct and sexual violence alongside just plain old violence.
Re: Good (Score:2)
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The difference between anecdote and data is a clip board.
I hope you meant that as a joke! If not, it's wrong in so many different ways.
The difference between data and anecdotes is that data is sampled from a probability distribution. By looking at the samples, you can learn about the distribution they're drawn from. That lets you make predictions about future observations drawn from the same distribution.
Anecdotes are chosen individually. They don't reflect any probability distribution. They don't let you predict future observations.
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If conservatives actually wanted to end illegal immigration they'd be engaging in immigration reform; changing the rules and laws that got us to this problem point. That's never been what Trump has advocated for though, it's all spectacle to create the illusion of solving the problem while they get to keep their wedge issue and keep our subclass of noncitizen workers to enrich their wealthy donors.
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How about enforcing the existing laws? This is exactly what the previous administration refused to do -- in fact, their policies ran counter to existing law. Enforcing immigration law is one of the platforms the GOP ran on in 2024, and its what they're doing now. They've fucked up bigly in a few instances, to be sure, but they're actually doing what they said they would.
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How about enforcing the existing laws?
Biden deported just as many people as Trump did in his first term, this conservative narrative that the Democrats are solely responsible for our current problems is ridiculous when this is a problem that has been growing unaddressed for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations. What needs to happen is tightening things up on the employer end by making e-verify mandatory and fixing its weaknesses as well as going after those breaking the law by knowingly hiring illegal aliens. This would
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>How about enforcing the existing laws?
Yeah, about that. What the current administration is doing is just about the worst, most inefficient, most disruptive way to do that. If they were ACTUALLY interested in enforcing the laws, they would be going after the illegal EMPLOYERs. Fine the hell out of them and make examples. There should be headlines every week of Company XYZ getting raided, the CEO being handcuffed and perpwalked. The jobs will dry up and there will no longer be any incentives for the
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If conservatives actually wanted to end illegal immigration they'd be engaging in immigration reform; changing the rules and laws that got us to this problem point. That's never been what Trump has advocated for though, it's all spectacle to create the illusion of solving the problem while they get to keep their wedge issue and keep our subclass of noncitizen workers to enrich their wealthy donors.
This,
There are two basic ways of stymieing irregular immigration effectively and the US really doesn't want to do either.
1. Legalise it. Admit you actually want a cheap labour class of non-citizens, make it easier for them to get a visa, work, pay taxes if they earn enough, you can track them and turf them out if they break laws and despite that you'll never run short of volunteers even if you only accept them from pre-approved countries or have quotas (well, especially if you have quotas). This is al
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Indeed.
Re: Good (Score:4, Interesting)
And a reminder, it took guns to get the British to get the message, and it may take the same for these countries.
It might, but keep in mind it won't necessarily work. Britain had a relatively liberal culture: it tolerated self-government, dissent and challenge to authority to a certain extent and that enabled the American Revolution movement to start coordinating and grow.
It's not a given that the American Revolution would have worked as well against a more ruthless and authoritarian regime cracking down hard against it early and fast. Brutal crackdowns might have prevented establishing the kind of coordination that was crucial to lead to a successful revolution.
Basically, it's true that it's important that the people take up arms in some situations if they want change, but depending on the situation and whom they are facing it doesn't mean they are going to win.
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The important arms are drones now.
That's why they have regulated them so hard.
There may not be a national gun registry, but there is a national drone registry.
(OK, it's an operator registry, but that's hair splitting.)
Try to revolt with guns and it'll be ranks vs cover all over again.
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> How about they make something of their shithole countries
Do you think it would help if the USA stopped interfering in their elections or reduced the illicit movement of weapons south?
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> Sadly, no.
Why not?
There's a lot of other things the US could change too. But even if it was just reducing illicit trade and election interference, wouldn't a bit of change help at least a bit?
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They have a history of dictatorships. Sure- we have absolutely supported some of them. Kept some of them in power, even. But they exist outside of our interference as well.
All of the Bolivarian Republics transitioned directly from colonial rule to dictatorship.
I don't want to justify or forgive US meddling in South American states- but to claim that how fucked up South America is, is the fault of the
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I don't want to justify or forgive US meddling in South American states- but to claim that how fucked up South America is, is the fault of the US is patently absurd.
It's not entirely the fault of the US, but it's pretty clear that the US did significantly contribute to the situation [wikipedia.org].
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US involvement in the suppression of left-wing rebels in right-wing dictatorships definitely had a very strong influence on a decade of South America's history of dictatorships going back to the 1800s.
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But you are not answering my question. Do you think that if the US reduced the flow from their country of political influence and illegal arms trade that that would help at least a bit the people of south America, and if not why not.
> The US simply cannot be blamed for how fucked up South America is
I'm not talking of blame. I didn't mention it and find it's often a way to avoid, for example, progress in conflict resolution.
> All of the Bolivarian Republics transitioned directly from colonial rule to d
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But you are not answering my question. Do you think that if the US reduced the flow from their country of political influence and illegal arms trade that that would help at least a bit the people of south America, and if not why not.
I did answer your question. Though you've added clarification that would change my answer.
With "at least a bit", then sure. ok.
The US is not responsible for the current crop of left-wing dictatorships there, though.
I'm not talking of blame. I didn't mention it and find it's often a way to avoid, for example, progress in conflict resolution.
Fair- that was me reading into your words. If it was inappropriate- then I'll cop to that.
Supposing that was true, it could just as well be an example of the extend of damage some kinds of colonial rule can have on society.
Maybe.
They were dictatorships before colonial rule, too. (Absolute rule by divine Kings)
I think more accurately, the transition from the US to a democratic republic was the unusual outcome.
Hell, it took
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An amendment probably could, though.
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
Those moving are running from taxes, but with them, they bring their idea of social justice.
TX will be blue soon enough.
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Ladies and gentlemen (yep, just ladies and gentlemen), I present to you... the democrat party on display.
lol- the Democrats and I stand apart, cuck.
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You keep saying "cuck".
Call em as I see em.
Are you a furry?
No, but furries are pretty fun to watch during their convention downtown.
Do you identify as some sort of chicken-like bird with a speech impediment?
Do furries actually identify as the thing they dress as? Wild- you know more about them than I do.
Actually, my reasoning is simple.
Someone who holds their breath so steadfastly while fellating a party line can only be contemplating for some kind of terrible emasculation they're suffering at home.
California is a lot of fucking things, but the idea that they have nothing to show [stanford.edu] for thieir policies is hilariously
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Really do need to quit typing responses while reading something else.
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Srsly? I thought all the furry conventions disbanded after they kept getting banned from hotel banquet halls for creating a mess (rumor is that if you can imagine it, it has probably happened that way) and/or the guests were disturbed by the crinklers.
Well, to be fair, I haven't worked downtown since pre-pandemic times... I'm WfH + a local satellite office now... but I can definitely imagine they've been banned from..... everything, lol. They're uhhh, an interesting lot.
I've only ever seen IRL furries in person at defcon, but they only put on their fursuits after dark. There's only so much autism that a place of business can handle unless there's a great deal of money involved, i.e. defcon.
They had a convention here in Seattle yearly, and so for a few days a year, there were like crowds of them walking down 5th Avenue past my work.
I've never actually communicated with any of them, but on the street at least, they seemed to keep to themselves.
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Lots to unpack in that report. Here's a small part that I find curious:
"Crime rates and renewable energy production are similar in the two states despite very different policies."
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Interesting. CA is #13 lowest in State & Local taxes at 9.7%. Texas is #42 at 12.5%.
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I've heard of a fat Nazi who got rich on California's subsidies, but decided he should not pay taxes, so he chose a disease-ridden shit hole to escape to.
Name names, or it didn't happen.
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You're replying to the wrong person, ask the GP about names.
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed. Willfully not being part of an early warning system is about the most extremely bad decision you can make.
Well, it is clear why they made the decision to leave: They create cohesion among their followers by pushing extreme lies, like anti-vaxx. Creating cohesion through gross lies comes with the advantage that typically no other group will compete and all the uneducated and mentally defectives that believe this crap flock to you. Obviously, it comes with the disadvantage that your decisions must be guided by that lie. Hence this must be somewhat balanced. As most of the world is actually vaccinated, the anti-vaxx lie is somewhat sustainable. But look at the measles outbreaks. And measles can maim and kill, even though people seem to generally have forgotten that.
Hence, long-term, such cult-like groups always collapse because their crisis-management does not work, but short-term they can concentrate a lot of power in the hands of people entirely bereft of any morality.
Wow, that's a big one! Almost looks like a... (Score:2)
Re: Wow, that's a big one! Almost looks like a... (Score:5, Informative)
The smart people took the shots. The pure blooded got sick or dead.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]
Just facts.
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they lied to you.
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Re: Wow, that's a big one! Almost looks like a... (Score:5, Interesting)
Its a recurring theme actually.
Antivaxers have had a real weird tendency to be very agressive about it, so a lot of folks got their shots and kept their mouths shut to avoid the harassment and bullying from the daft uncles and idiot son youtube-believers.
Ask any doc, they got a *tonne* of these quiet vaxxer "Dont tell my husband" type requests.
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It's sad that at your age, you've still not matured.
Lucky for the planet that COVID was a weak virus; most people lived and immunity may fade quickly but it doesn't completely fade. Despite that, old people who are immune will continue to die of it forever - just like the flu which dates back to the previous pandemic of the last century (FYI, they found the genetic linkage in the descendant virus.)
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We're not talking about you, your left hand and the voices in your head here, pal.
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Are there vaccines you would take?
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You should spend all your money in the casino. Literally every winner I know won in the casino. Why are you still poor, go to the casino right now and put it all on red.
Welcome to the world of survivorship bias. The problem with people who have survivorship bias is that they are usually dumb.
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Careful! (Score:2)
They should be careful! Soon they have not only ICE and National Guard in the country, but a carrier - or two - in front of their coast!
states rights! (Score:5, Insightful)
so what happens when the federalies get pisssy that california decided to join WHO on its own? will the “states rights” zealots defend this? my guess is no, they won’t. i wonder why.
Re:states rights! (Score:5, Informative)
The GOP only cares about 'states rights' when they're out of power in the federal government. But, when they're in power, they trample over state's rights more than any Democrat. Fucking hypocrites.
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It happens nearly every week sometimes within hours. Trump enjoys making people eat his shit to show their fealty. You need a specific example on this right now? The characteristic has been proven 1000s of times; so you go ahead and bet against something so predictable.
irony (Score:2)
Join NATO (Score:2)
Can a State join NATO?
The United Nations?
I recall that California has trade agreements.
To what extent can a State step in where the Federal Government has withdrawn?
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As the constitution says, anything not specifically in there resides in the states or the people. One could get into Republican positions of states needing more power except Republicans lack any integrity and honor, they stand for nothing! Hypocrisy is now a virtual for them. If you don't agree, then something is wrong with you; but unfortunately you have a Dunning Krugar problem; therefore, little can be said to educate you :-(
"The Republican philosophy might be summarized thus: To hell with principle; wh
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"
Clause 1 Proscribed Powers
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
"
I'm not seeing anything about trade agreements.
The mind boggles (Score:2)
People inflicting pain, suffering and death (via sickness) on themselves and actually being proud of it. Incredible. The powers of delusion are really staggering.
Well, I guess California just got a possibly survival-critical advantage.
From the outside (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't live in the USA, so I'm watching the shitshow there from somewhat afar.
I do think non-USA countries are going to have to start demanding proof of vaccination from travelers arriving from the USA. What with the vaccine "recommendations" barfed out of the stupid pieholes of this administration, the USA is going to be the new polio and measles epicenter.
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I don't live in the USA, so I'm watching the shitshow there from somewhat afar.
I do think non-USA countries are going to have to start demanding proof of vaccination from travelers arriving from the USA. What with the vaccine "recommendations" barfed out of the stupid pieholes of this administration, the USA is going to be the new polio and measles epicenter.
Most already do if you're migrating. The UK certainly does... although as an Australian they more or less took my word for it although it would have been trivial to get my Medicare records.
The US is still suffering a high number of COVID infections and deaths, over half of which are in the US... this doesn't worry most other countries as we got most of our population vaccinated so we achieved herd immunity. So even if Billy-Bob Infectious manages to cross the pond, he's still not much more of a danger to
and... (Score:2)
And, how much is this now going to cost me?
Ironic (Score:2)
Coming from the guy who told people to stay home during covid while he went out to eat. You're a special kind of stupid to follow that kind of leader.
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Is this in-group signalling BS such a habit that you even have to do it online? What is your specific criticism of the comment?
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Costly signaling has always existed online. Fuck, that's where people went to do it when they couldn't get it out of their system offline.
The difference these days, is it's expected in all facets of life now.
My only real problem with their statement is the fucking ALTERNATING caps. It's OBNOXIOUS.
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I take your point, but I want to mention that this is the opposite of costly signalling. It's like taking a dump then calling that a costly contribution to the municipal sewage system.
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You are idioting hard. There are few things more stupid things than willfully not being part of an early warning network.
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An objective early warning network? I'd fully agree.
Paying the lion's share to "trust an early warning network that has shown it is entirely subject to control by a clearly inimical power" is indeed one of those 'more stupid things'.
They spent the covid years literally covering for China, parroting and promoting their theories and actively shilling propaganda.
(Along with the Biden admin, but I would concede that the US gov't was complicit in the game to cover their own investment in gain-of-function resear
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He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.
Actually Xi backed down after a series of protests against the Covid lockdown.
No single person or even a large group of people can control a country of 1.4 billion without a lot of support from the people.
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We really need a "-1, hallucination" moderation. This is a stellar example of a "contribution" that needs this.
Re:Pepperidge Farm remembers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Pepperidge Farm remembers... (Score:4, Insightful)
Vaccine choice to employment? That’s fucking hilarious. That happened in states with “at will” employment laws. Meaning you could be fired for any reason. Republicans loved that until it suddenly affected them.
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You seem to be strongly mentally defective, as evidenced by you not even understanding basic terminology like "Authoritarianism". Seek help, this cannot be good for you.
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Some people are incapable of abstaining from pushing their political views into anything. Happens especially when their views are irrational and all they have is repetition as mechanism to "convince" people.
But this is actually a tech story. It is about pandemic management and that is a tech/science question. That this got politicized is only due to a larger group of mentally defective people that are not conversant with what a "fact" is and that think their beliefs define reality. The dynamics of pandemics
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Fox is by far the highest rated cable news channel. Would they not be mainstream by definition?
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You know that thing where you imagine that the democrats are failing a purity test because they accept the same AIPAC money the republicans do...?
They're both shit. One is just more shit than the other.
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Separation of powers between states and the federal government is beneficial and correlated.
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I do not think I've ever seen a single person consistently maintain a position on the supremacy of States' Rights vs. Federal Supremacy.
California wants States' Rights when some asshole like Trump is swinging a Federal Government sized dick at them, but they're also first in line to claim Federal Supremacy when the Federal Government is controlled by someone that supports their policy positions.
Swinging State
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California wants States' Rights when some asshole like Trump is swinging a Federal Government sized dick at them
These are best interpreted as people stating their preference (ie, some people have a preference for racism and express that preference by talking about states rights). Usually they haven't made a logical argument, they're just stating their preference.
In practice the division of power between states and federal takes some legal knowledge to understand. To understand how it should be (as opposed to how it is now) requires some rather deep analysis, based on economics, human rights, efficiency, philosophy,
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Which is of course the card that every damn person pulls.
This isn't an attempt at whataboutism, it's just that the Constitution flatly fucking sucks at delineating wtf States' Rights are after the Civil War.
Immigration is perhaps the most cogent example I can think of.
Immigration enforcement is quite obviously a Federal Prerogative.
When the administration is anti-imm
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Well, damn, that's a cynical description. Not wrong, though, but the pols and pundits will continue beating each other over the heads with the constitution, on this subject and others.
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Meh. People like to claim states' rights when it suits them, and assert the supremacy clause when it doesn't. But statutory interpretation always wins.
Precisely my point :)
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On the contrary, Ayn Rand can't even imagine a working economy in her fiction, let alone creating ideas that work in the real world.
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I still find it hilarious that Ayn Rand was very much willing to not require of herself what she required of others. A completely failed person.
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You're referring to her taking advantage of social services, right? I don't think that's indicative of her values. Her values would be found in whether she votes for those social services to exist. But as long as they do, I wouldn't expect her to deprive herself. "Be the change you want to see in the world" is a nice motivational phrase, but it's not rational. A rational person would first change the world, and second, live in it. (I don't think people should be purely rational, but I don't knock them for i
Re:This is Predictable (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, healthcare is some woke bullshit. Fuck trying to prevent disease, let them die. More for me.