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   asbestos (asbestos@toot.community)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jan-2024 15:49:13 JST asbestos

   Wife was just watching something about some Florida douchebros playing it off like they were tech douchebros and scamming everyone with a series of bullshit crypto schemes. I have two thoughts
   First 99% of the people investing were greedy bastards hoping to make a quick buck without actually doing anything of value. So fuck them.
   Second. Every time dickheads like this scam tens of millions of dollars they spend it on the worst bullshit imaginable.

   • Embed this notice
     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Saturday, 13-Jan-2024 15:49:12 JST cy

     in reply to
     It's the same reason I worry about casinos, even if gamblers are fucking idiots who deserve everything they lose. (They aren't.) It's the same reason I worry about exhorbitant fines for speeding tickets, even though people were driving recklessly, and charging you $500 for skipping on bus fare, even though it's genuinely unfair when you do. Whether the loser deserves it doesn't matter, because the real threat to all of us is the winner.
     
     What's being done with all those fines, and gambling losses, and greedy crypto bastards? You don't know, because your attention was skillfully redirected to think only of the ones losing the money, not the ones gaining it. It's the raison d'être for what I call the "guilt industry," people making money off of punishing the guilty, and oh what things they think of to make us feel guilty.
     
     I mean yeah, the news media waves their arms to get your attention and points at the golden toilet seats or whatever, but these people are also spending it on investments, on political lobbying, on philanthropic conquests of our social services, and on... ...private equity...
     
   • Embed this notice
     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 04:41:43 JST cy

     in reply to
     Right, but who's getting the money, and what are they doing with it?
     
   • Embed this notice
     asbestos (asbestos@toot.community)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 04:41:45 JST asbestos

     in reply to

     • cy

     @cy
     Gambling is an addiction for some.
     The $500 speeding ticket unfairly punishes based on income

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     cy (cy@fedicy.us.to)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 05:31:18 JST cy

     in reply to
     That's what I mean. That "different issue" is what's important. We're getting misdirected away from it, when they make us focus on how terrible gamblers are, or how vulnerable gamblers are, or how poor people can't afford to pay the fines, but never focusing on the beneficiaries of these things.
     
     I couldn't care less whether someone deserves punishment or not. I want to know more about who's getting power as a consequence!
     
   • Embed this notice
     asbestos (asbestos@toot.community)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jan-2024 05:31:19 JST asbestos

     in reply to

     • cy

     @cy
     Not the people who need or deserve it.
     But that's a different issue