The insurance mafia just conceded the obvious – that sssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety systems are dangerous – and then faulted people for disabling them.
A PSA created by the Liberty Mutual “family” – listen to it here – says that many drivers are “not embracing” technologies such as Lane Keep Assist, Automated Emergency Braking – and so on – “due to their distracting sounds and lights.”
Italics added.
We truly live beyond the looking glass.
In the same mouthful, the soy boy consiglierie of the “family” who did the voice-over for the PSA admits that it is “distracting” – and distractions are unsafe – but bemoans the fact that drivers are taking steps to turn off these distractions.
It takes a moment to recover from that.
But such cognitive disconnection is an inevitable consequence, I suppose, of the general enstupidation that has leached from the corner of the proverbial basement to flood the whole joint.
The mafia’s PSA begins with the usual eructation about “saving lives” but refrains from mentioning the lives taken – and threatened with taking. It is of a piece with the hosannahs offered up in praise of air bags – which sometimes take lives – but which we’re not permitted to avoid, even though it is our lives that are being toyed with.
But the ribeye steak that’s underneath all this fat is something the PSA mentions but probably shouldn’t have.
It is that one-third of millennials are “not embracing” – are disabling – the sssssssssssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaafety technologies being force-fed to them. This absolutely staggers the soy boy narrator; his psychic pain is almost louder than the inspidly strumming guitar in the background.
That guitar-strumming has become the backtrack of almost all PSAs and commercials; I supposed it is meant to trigger thoughts of happy sing-alongs.
But – as my friend Pat Buchanan once said – sursum corda. Literally, lift up your hearts. Raise your spirits. This is good news. It is news that runs counter to all odds and expectations. It is a thrown rod in the engine of the inevitable… or rather, what we have been gaslit and browbeaten to accept as inevitable. 
But maybe not.
The generation reared to hate cars – or at least, to “embrace” sssssssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaafety culture is giving it the heave-ho.
The significance of this cannot be overstated.
It’s one thing for the people who achieved adulthood – and their driver’s licenses – before the rise of Safety Culture to reject its dogmas. We who grew up not “buckling up” resent being ordered to do so by armed goons (who are usually not themselves buckled up) and champed at the bit to get our driver’s licenses because we saw cars as our freedom ticket.
Which they were. At 15 and change the pre-Millennial was free to go without his parents – and with his friends. It is no surprise, accordingly, that the pre-Millennial generations loved cars and couldn’t wait to begin driving them.
But the Millennials were caged in cars. Literally strapped into sssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety seats, as required by law for them. The first generation to grow up this way. Which was probably a deliberately contrived conditioning exercise, to habituate them to helplessness and to imbue in them a dislike of cars or at least, indifference to them.
Minimally, the growing-up-strapped-in should have fostered a paranoid sense of the threat presented by getting anywhere near a car, let along behind the wheel of one.
To a great degree, this has worked. An unprecedented percentage (about a third) of Millennials in the 16-25 age bracket do not even have a driver’s license. Rewind to say 1983 or so and the percentage of people in the same age bracket who didn’t have a driver’s license was probably single digits – and the majority of them unlicensed due to some physical problem or some external problem, such as control-freak parents who forbade it.
But all hope is not lost if a third of today’s 16-25 year olds are rebelling against the doctrines – and strictures – of the Safety Cult. That they are doing so in spite of everything the Safety Cult has done over the past quarter-century to do to driving what Carrie Nation and her legion of Termagants did to having a cold one just after the turn of the last century is nothing short of miraculous.
There is an excellent book that accounts for this against-the-odds resurrection of the probably native desire – the native instinct – that normal human beings have to be independent adults free of hectoring and parenting by other adults. It is called The Fourth Turning, by Neil Howe and William Strauss (see here).
The gist of the book is that cultures – nations – go through life stages, just as individual human beings do. There is birth and youth – the flowering of vitality and initiative; the urge to grow and achieve. Then, middle-age and complacency, followed by torpor, indifference . . . and, inevitably, death.
But the cycle repeats. Birth and youth return, like green grass in the spring.
Howe and Strauss go further. Their thesis is that revolt and rebellion is a response to the torpidity and degeneracy (the word is not used here in the sexual sense) of the suffocating but weakening grip of the liver-spotted hand of the past.
Maybe, just maybe, the Safety Cult has finally run its course. All bad things do come to an end, eventually.
Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of that unfolding!
. . .
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Not pre-embracing so as to preempt the tech of radar pinging highwaymen sometimes fills the rearview with distracting lights & the ears with distracting sounds. (Lotta’ $ to be seized in counterproduction, er…production o’ public•spittle safety.) So, some attention is diverted away from the skillset of driving, or riding, & toward locating those ‘safety systems’ before they locate you. Is this unsafe? Continuum•depends on the driverider. But it is an “extra” that reduces the deployable net, reduces the error margin, & would be better not to be, even as some of the smallest hamlets make most of “their” shaking spears parasitic livings thereby. Worried for my safety, cop(ulator) asked me once what I thought’d happen if I hit a tree “at that speed.” “Same thing that’d happen if I hit a tree at the posted speed,” I said. I think that was part of the time I had to take the SR-22 asshiv for a few years.
“We”’s live for — & in — the looking glass mirror, of other looking glass mirrors. That social proof reflection has always been most of the mostly hall o’ mirrors that is humanimal house — “divided against itself” — not just a corner of the basement. Nothing new at all in mutually assured narcissusness destruction. Lincoln suicide doors: hinged from the back, mystical union preceded the states of independence, saith the honest Abe(ettor)s & aiders of their handlers:: rotc guy gets fragged, belushi bluto guy gets fragged…does the direction of the frag add anything but misdirection? Measure velocity. Measure location. But not both. The illogical cosmological constant o’ we – snafu – remains: “fragged.”
Everybody, all individuals – which *is* everybody, there is no us, or we, or they, or them in the common slip-sliding away vernacular as used & leaned upon – is\are solo, alone. It is only fear & loathing in Las Cowardice that cogdis defer-insists otherwise.
Pascal was no gambler, or wealth manager – but prolly woulda’ been a more cowbell nobel dumbbell principal at LTCM if he’d been around ^^here it is hundreds o’ years later & his “bet” is still TBTF, after all — but he was right about one thing: all of wo\mankind’s troubles result from the inability to sit quietly in a room, or in a car, or anywhere, alone.
“We” is dissociation…via association. And the ocean’s just a desert with the perfect disguise above.
So the mafia says nada about the hindmost taken by the devil w_rshipping (Vanna, can I buy an “a”?) of their details? More of the same: emphasis on the fictional “we” & shortshrift to the actual I(sland)’s. Quantity theories Gresham’ing out quality. Cue BeeGee’s Stayin’ Alive. The form of life beats out the function of living. Fear & loathing aplenty, Gonzo’s not many. Suicide’s illegal, but those doors – weicide — as reified in institutionally deified “nationstates” is above reproach: gods work in mysterious ways toward purposes opaque to mortal humanimal. Cuz that beast is schizoid. & not many have beautiful enough minds to hold those two, or more, thoughts simultaneously whilst getting on with the it of I.
So there ain’t no “millenials.” That’s just another we, they, them. Young\er “turks.“ Young\er “jews.” Young\er hitler utes. All gangs, younger & older, lead to Northfield, MN – destined destination of choicest choice chopped, & other cuts, of meat. The wild bunch? Not even. The wiled bunch. All rosey rome road apples & golden delicious brick roads – & by any other name too – “leads” to the same place & smells just as bad.
But there is, always has been, millennialism eructing from we, they, them quantity theorizing o’ value that objectively ain’t &\but subjectively cain’t abel to touch this hammertime hammerheaded sharkbait raison detre – the original & still the Milgram-est 3rd rail. Dr. Jekyll, meet Mr. Hyde.
Put a handful of Jekylls on an island off Georgia & watch ‘em Hyde the whole world. For awhile. Until that death knell stanza goes shrapnel.
Tiptoe tiny tim, cuz them tulip bulbs gonna’ “evolve” into bouncing betty’s. The bulb giveth & the bulb taketh away. Cue You Can’t always Get What Ya’ Want, along with bulbless Nick, in The Big Chill.
Cuz the tulip bulb bouncing betty queue o’ individuals scared to preferring•death than themselves encircles the world. “I”’m in _______ tribe, so gimme’ some bribe…some life quantity…some thick, juicy matrix steak. Inevitable is that engine, & it’s reciprocating in kind rod(ham-clinton et al)s, too.
The insignificance of this cannot be overrevved, & so, of course, is constantly overrevved.
Cole Trickle had to get outta’ that car & off that track, so he blew the engine, & coverstoried the track with hot oily bits & pieces. That was self-preservation. But also a metaphor for what only seems like self-preservation, but is in fact the opposite.
There ain’t no self in we’s – cuz simon social proof sez sovereign immunity & the herd heard that grapevine ditty & never could get it outta’ head after – let alone out ahead of it. That sleight of hand device “gets rid of” selves until those can really be got rid of. “We” is holding womb2, until jojo can getback, getback, getback to where s\he once belonged: the tomb o’ nonexistence.
Pogo the pouched one looks into the membraneous mirror &, dyslexic, reads “bogo.” Free! yay! T*is*STAAFL! & words, vibrating gaseousness, not actions & the deeds to those actual, as opposed symbolic, properties, magically “enables” denial of the enemy is we, us, ours, them, they, the other. Punk one get one…“until” one is punked & gotten in turn. Put those apocalypto four horsemen lettermen into the four corners of the three letter (FSA) force of humanimal nature house o’ mirrors symbol that ouroborus symbiotes “live” in: ∞
The dx is what it is. There ain’t no rx. But there are tunes. & what’s flyin’ cubes of assimilated squares next to music of the spheres?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxcfKp2KFE
Well, I got an excellent recommendation for a car from the author, so I don’t want to be too hard on him. Yes, I appreciate the libertarian idea that it should be up to us to determine whether we want to wear a seat belt because, after all, if we crash and die, that’s on us. I agree.
What I don’t understand is the constant outpouring of hate on the car insurance industry. First of all, Liberty Mutual is a mutual insurance company. All that means is that a bunch of people got together, started sharing the risk of house fires and car accidents, and now there is an actual company that is in charge of all of that. There are no profits being made — any “profits” end up going back to the policy holder. No big stock holders are getting rich off of Liberty Mutual clients.
But, you may say, why do I need to buy insurance at all? Why can’t I just drive around without it? I haven’t had an accident in ages. Why is it required? Huh? Why?
Well, the simple answer is that, in most states, insurance ISN’T required. If you don’t want to buy insurance, don’t. What is required is financial responsibility. In Virginia, for example (where I think Eric is), you can get a bond in lieu of car insurance. Just about any bonding agent will give you a $50,000 bond for about $1000-1500 (depending on credit) and it’ll be good for several years worth of you-don’t-have-to-buy-car-insurance paradise. Of course, if you get into an accident, you’ll have to pony up your own money to pay for the damages to the other vehicle. But, your bond holder will put you on a payment plan. Don’t worry about that.
At any rate, the latest studies show that lane departure warnings do prevent accidents. And, if the study was wrong, Liberty Mutual would almost certainly figure it out and stop offering their discount for Lane Departure Warning devices… wouldn’t they?
Elize, I don’t think that anyone here has a problem with anyone making a profit. The problem with insurance companies is the lobbying they have done to impose mandatory insurance on us; to mandate all of the “safety” features; to collude with government to impose upon us a “point system” which raises premiums, etc. ad-infinitum.
All states now require mandatory liability insurance, or the posting of a bond (which ends up costing as much- especially for us good accident free, ticket-free drivers) or proof of property valued at much more than the limits of their required insurance- so it really all amounts to the same things: Presumed guilt for something you have not done. (I am not opposed to liability insurance; I am opposed to making it mandatory, because when it is mandatory it costs much more. Either way, I would carry it).
And as for the “studies”. You know, studies show that one is 27 times more likely to die on a motorcycle than while driving a car. Do you think that motorcycles should be illegal? How about we all assess our own risks and tolerance for those risks under our own particular circumstances, and act accordingly?
Studies in the past have shown that eggs and butter and salt are detrimental to one’s health. Ooooppss! New studies show just the opposite! Studies are almost always purely anecdotal and biased, and can be made to say anything, whether for ulterior motives or just due to flawed procedures/understanding.
Just as I don’t want a “majority” of voters determining how I live or how the fruit of my labor is disposed of, neither do I want some “study” ruling my life- and that is what Libertarianism is all about: Self-rule. I’m pretty good at it, ’cause I’m the world’s foremost expert on my own opinion. Whether someone is good at it or not, or right or wrong, doesn’t even matter; what matters is we live our lives as we see fit- and as long as we don’t harm anyone else doing so, there shouldn’t be a problem.
You should be free to buy a car padded in foam if you so desire; and others should be free to drive an eggshell if that is the risk they are willing to accept (and without forcing you nor I to pay when they get smushed!)
You said: All states now require mandatory liability insurance, or the posting of a bond (which ends up costing as much- especially for us good accident free, ticket-free drivers) or proof of property valued at much more than the limits of their required insurance- so it really all amounts to the same things: Presumed guilt for something you have not done. (I am not opposed to liability insurance; I am opposed to making it mandatory, because when it is mandatory it costs much more. Either way, I would carry it).
I say: That’s not true. New Hampshire permits you to drive with no auto insurance. So, if you are so bent out of shape over insurance, move to New Hampshire. Second, requiring insurance has nothing to do with guilty until proven innocent. Guilt has nothing to do with it — it’s about liability not guilt. Big difference.
You said: You know, studies show that one is 27 times more likely to die on a motorcycle than while driving a car. Do you think that motorcycles should be illegal?
I said: You are completely off topic. I never said anything should or shouldn’t be illegal. What you are trying to argue is that life insurance companies are horrible entities because they charge more for life insurance for people who ride motorcycles.
You said: Studies in the past have shown that eggs and butter and salt are detrimental to one’s health. Ooooppss! New studies show just the opposite! Studies are almost always purely anecdotal and biased, and can be made to say anything, whether for ulterior motives or just due to flawed procedures/understanding.
I say: You are off base again. Yes, 80 percent of non-randomized studies are later convincingly refuted. All that really means is, don’t trust non-randomized studies. The reason that studies conclude one thing when the reality is another is well known. You can easily read “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False” and have a much more nuanced and accurate understanding of what studies can and cannot do.
Eliza,
It is not about “liability.” It is about potential liability; you’re not stupid – obviously – so I assume you grok the difference?
I keep trying to explain it, at any rate.
One mo’ time:
The logic that I must carry liability insurance to drive a car because I might cause harm works just as well on guns, dogs, sticks… hell, even cats. My cats might sink their fangs into someone’s ankle… and what then? It is certainly possible, yes? So – according to your logic – I must be forced to carry liability insurance on my cats (and guns and power tools and the sticks in the yard… for openers). Absurd?
How?
The “might” is the same in all cases. A hypothetical.
To be clear: I don’t hate insurance companies. I hate insurance companies that use the law to force me to do “business” with them.
Been seeing headlines about new pre-crime legislation. Each one of those last three words belong in quote cages…but the scientologists continue to roam free.
Here’s my unscientological ‘gone clear’: I don’t hate the market. Just the opposite, in fact. I do utterly disrespect, am contemptuous of, color of law posing as market.
No harm, no foul. But even more important, no fouling of harm – which serves only to increase harms; i.e., metastasis. Consequences “unintended” can be used once. After that, it ain’t coincidental or unintended. There’s cash in them thar colored by law cows.
True, & should be obvious: deadbeats & garden variety criminal harms & costs are a drop in the ocean of all the institutionalized, color of law, fix is in, sovereign immune crime. And where “society” is armed, & polite – got the drop on it — that deadbeat drop is reduced to molecules.
But “move” is true, correct. Not necessarily to NH. But because “we” is the jungle. And it puts kudzu & Amazonia rainforest to snail’s pace shame. If you don’t, can’t, won’t move from high density or proximal high density spots, it will overtake & overgrow you.
OM is color of law. Blue Man is market optional…like insurance ain’t.
“Well, the simple answer is that, in most states, insurance ISN’T required. If you don’t want to buy insurance, don’t. What is required is financial responsibility. In Virginia, for example (where I think Eric is), you can get a bond in lieu of car insurance. Just about any bonding agent will give you a $50,000 bond for about $1000-1500 (depending on credit) and it’ll be good for several years worth of you-don’t-have-to-buy-car-insurance paradise. Of course, if you get into an accident, you’ll have to pony up your own money to pay for the damages to the other vehicle. But, your bond holder will put you on a payment plan. Don’t worry about that.”
Of course that “bond” won’t be based on mandatory insurance rates. That bonding agent will “give” you the same stick up the ass the insurance companies give now that it’s mandatory. Mandatory, it’s just another word for saying increasing the money you are forced to spend.
Hi Eliza!
The thing I object to in re insurance is being forced to give over money for harms I have not caused on the argument that I might cause them. I have the same objection to the “bond” you describe. I am compelled to hand over money without having caused harm first. This is a very important point – unless you believe it’s ok to punish people pre-emptively.
And if you do – in this case – then why not others, too?
For example, the identical argument used to justify forcing people to buy car insurance (or buy a “bond”) could just as logically be used to force people to buy insurance or pay a “bond” in order to be allowed to own a gun – or a dog or a stick, for that matter.
My position on this is simple: Hold people accountable for the harms they cause. But if they have not caused harms, then you have no moral right to harm them.
And yes, forcing people to hand over money – that is to say, threatening them with violence if they refuse this order – is the very definition of harming them. You are stealing their property – and threatening their physical person. Without the victim having harmed you in any way.
I understand that many people are appalled by the idea of “letting people get away” with (as they see it) “putting others at risk.” But do you see how this line of reasoning scales? It is practically without limit. Which is one of the reasons why we have unlimited government.
I’d much rather assume the risk of being hit by a deadbeat – which is trivial in the scheme of things – than the certainty of government on my back (and in my pocket).
You are looking at it all wrong. Insurance is not punishment nor is carrying a bond punishment. Yes, I am well aware of the complications involved by having government (of any kind) mandating that you do something that you don’t want to do. My solution is simple: move to New Hampshire. This state doesn’t require that you wear a seat belt as you drive and it doesn’t require car insurance. Feel free to “Life Free Or Die” but, if you do not do so, then you are basically saying that you’d rather stay in the state you are in (Virginia, I think) along with all the inconveniences such as having insurance and wearing a seat belt.
Let’s imagine that you are a car guy with great expertise and that I have tons of money and need that expertise. I ask you to do something car related and plunk down a big wad of cash on your desk. You agree. Then, I tell you that I want you to be bonded and insured. Is this punishment? No, it’s not.
I also understand that bonds are not free. This is very true. Few people will willingly loan you tens of thousands of dollars at no cost.
Hi Eliza,
If I am forced tp hand over money, then it is a punishment. If I am forced to hand over money without having caused harm first, it is tyranny.
Please explain how I am not deprived of my property (money) and thus punished on the basis of assertions that this is justified based on harms I might cause. I italicize this to emphasize the point. I have not caused any harm yet – and may never – yet I am obliged (under duress) to pay for “coverage” I don’t desire to pay for… and which I maintain no one has the right to make me pay for. The only thing someone else has a right to make me pay for is compensation for harms I have caused.
It’s a very simple moral argument that you either agree with or do not. If you do not, then I cannot see how you could disagree with mandatory insurance to own a gun, or a dog or a stick – as previously mentioned. Harm might be caused by any of those, too.
It is exactly the same principle.
And the “bond” is the same thing as mandated insurance. It is an extorted payment extracted from an unwilling victim to pay for hypothetical rather than actual harms. Note that there is no refund for not having caused harms.
As regards your second argument: It makes no sense to me. Your scenario is voluntary; I am under no duress to do business with you. I am free to not do business with you.
No one is free to not pay the mafia – unless, of course, they wish to surrender their right to travel by car.
Move to New Hampshire? Fine, bu beside the point as regards the immorality of insurance at gunpoint.
If anyone had ever done any research as to “insurance”, they’d find it was created by banks. It’s just their “other arm” to take even more money. We went along fine my entire adult life buying whatever sort of insurance(vehicular)we needed or wanted but immediately following “mandatory” insurance, it began to increase in rate.
We went from 4 pickups, an El Camino and a car to 2 pickups plus the other two vehicles and had to drop comprehensive on both pickups. Now tell me again mandatory insurance isn’t just another way to ripoff the public. You poor deluded “Latour”.
Amen, Eight… I’ve been trying to “hip” Eliza… hoping I get through to her!
I am forced to hand over about $1,000 annually to “cover” all my vehicles – and that is “cheap” compared with what most people are forced to pay. But even so, let’s do some quick math.
Over five years, that’s $5k out the window. Not small change for me or most people. I could literally live on that $5k for five months – in effect, a five month vacation stolen from me. Or, put another way, a couple of months of my labor – at the least – that was stolen from me.
I haven’t harmed anyone. Not even a paint chip.
So where’s my refund?
To quote cris rock, “should be called in case shit”
If shit don’t happen, you should get a refund!
The insurance-free New Hampshire is only partially right. If you cause an accident and you don’t have insurance, even if you make the other party whole out of your own pocket, the state requires you to have a special insurance for three years.
Interesting, though, that this insurance is for you, no matter what car you’re driving. Which is preferable to me because in most states, you’ve gotta insure all cars you own, even if you can only drive one at a time.
There is another facet to this safety “warning” mania stuff. As they have long known in aircraft control systems, too much safety buzz, bells and whistles can do several bad things. One is confuse you as Eric notes. “What is going on?” is a thought that distracts you from taking action. Often not obvious. Then there is the “crying wolf” problem when there is no wolf. You start disregarding those bells.
Second is that like “self driving” Teslas, some people who are already lazy and easily (or always) distracted, start assuming that they don’t need to pay attention. Big Brother will let you know if you are about the hit that tanker truck up ahead… So there is a Darwinian effect. Perhaps there is a cold blooded argument in favor of culling the herd that way, but few want it to happen to their family or friends. You need to PAY ATTENTION when you drive. Period. If you don’t, sooner or later bad things will happen to you.
the only new vehicle I ever purchased was for my wife when we had our first child. The wrangler was not big enough so I bought a 06 Jeep commander. Exiting the cloverleaf off I-75 the jeep started dragging a brake.
My wife had mentioned strange things happening when she was driving also. I later found out the jeep had a stability control that was braking! I found some modules under the center seats and disconnected them all. The annoyance went away. I later bought a Challenger but it has a switch to turn it off or I would also unplug the module.
Amen, John!
All my life, I have warred with control freakism – especially as it manifests in new cars. I’ll be damned if I ever accept being “parented” by a car…
A trend that is currently crushing American business, governance, manufacture, you-name-it, is that things are more trustworthy than people. This will be our carefully measured and controlled highway to ruination – run safely into Hell at a reasonable rate, with doo-dad assisted handbasket navigational systems.
My car, a Ford Taurus 1992 has and is my prime transportation vehicle to and from work. It has a second engine, a second transmission – major maintenance items which cost in the few thousands. It is maintained in a reasonably average way. It has yet to be in an accident meriting body work.
It is controlled by an amazing and continuously updated navigational and operational system, which is ME. I have not plowed it into any stationary object or mashed a ped. Boasting about such accomplishments seems vain. But I have put four hundred grand, baby, on the odometer, and get going when I turn the key. The AutoMafia would be most disappointed in my hubris. You gotta have safety equipment, you know? Cause what happens when you screw up driving?
My MVA record for airbag deployment or car-disabling crashes is, well, zero. I have been driving for over 45 years. Although a human being, f*cking up on the road is avoidable. I do so out of anxiety; MVA’s suck.
Some day the AutoMafia will collapse. Someone will again build the Model A of the century – the Kalashnikov of automobiles, that is made of parts that someone can replace with a hard day’s labor, and is readily available.
A huge amount of our privately-operated aircraft is shockingly old, over 40 years old or so. People who own a plane wish only to touch the ground when they WANT to touch the ground. They do this by repairing and replacing stuff. Look at the new airplane market, usually attracting hucksters and nitwits with too much money. They buy a plane, and frequently get HAPI quickly thereafter. (HAPI=High angle punch in.) But the new planes are much safer than the old ones, go figure.
Someday we will return to the state of being where stupidity provides its own punishment. I’m sad for the losers.
Well-said, Steve!
Thank you for the excellent reasoned and excellently written post!
Amen. Eventually mommy and daddy, the gubmint, or whatever won’t be around to save the day. The problem is, these people are like zombies… not very impressive individually, but there sure are a lot of them. They can get very loud. Worse, they vote. Incapable of fending for themselves, they become enablers of every petty tyrant promising safety and free stuff. Up until several years ago, this process of plunder and regimentation had been “orderly”, but the crazy in their eyes is showing signs of coming unglued.
Hi Lane Splitter!
I can only “amen” all you’ve written. The good news – such as it is – is that (per the article) not all Millennials are zombies/Soy Boys/SJW Neo Red Guards. I know several – including several regulars here (that’s you, Brazos and ShotgunChuck!) so there is hope.
I keep in mind the milieu these kids grew up in; and I never forget that plenty of my generation (GenX) are just as bad as the not-yet-graybearded Soy Boys of today.
Assuming they have enough testosterone to actually grow a beard, I mean.
I hope to get Blackie going again this winter and spend my last day enjoying it. It ain’t nothing special. Electric door locks and windurs, cruise control and a/c. That’s everything I want in a vehicle. It’s comfortable, handles well, will haul a huge amount of weight while dragging a big trailer and there’s not a damn thing on it I can’t fix.
Not only that, it’s THE best looking(and aerodynamic)pickup ever made in my opinion. Nothing garish and very little that isn’t Steel, you know that premium metal that will tolerate a huge amount of abuse.
It’s quiet and smooth (with the a/c or fan going you can’t hear the engine) and with the ABS disconnected will stop like a 6500 lb F1 car. No electronic controls on anything. Want 4WD Low? Just clutch it, and stick it in there with a LEVER. More room than inside since any bodystyle since. PoLeez can track it if they can get across the stuff it will get across. It has the best backup system I’ve known in my life…..me. It had big mirrors and with a little help from me, additional spot mirrors. It doesn’t have blind spots other than myself.
It gets 18mpg, what the newest pickups are just now getting…..when they are running correctly. It has about half the power of the new diesels which is fine since I’m don’t race.
It has a back seat that will comfortably hold 4 or Cholley Jack and a couple or three people and that depends on the way he feels about them. He’s a great judge of any person’s motives. He can sort the bad ones right off and he’s always “armed”.
If it’s just he and me, he loves the front seat and console and is often asleep halfway down the driveway. I only lock the doors when stopped and out of it for his protection from the govt. and evil people.
And it has a pretty good sound system but it’s easy to change it to whatever you want as opposed to the Z 71 that won’t run if you remove the sound system. I don’t care how old it is since it has that thick glass and big frame and great a/c. And I can reach stuff in the bed and not need steps to get into the cab.
Our generation is pretty bad. Apathetic is the word used to describe most Xers. I faced that first hand as someone on the front lines of the movement to get rid of the 55 mph speed limit. Most people my age (early to late 20’s) yawned when we were pushing to get rid of the speed limits. Many of the NMA members were older guys and a few of us were in the 20’s to 30’s age bracket back in the mid 80s through mid 90s. Most people looked at us like were were crazy to suggest that the 55 mph speed limit needed to go. The same generation also was apathetic towards what Bill Clinton was doing with NAFTA and the WTO. If anything, millenials are more politically active. I don’t like what many stand for, but there is a smaller plurality of them that are hard core libertarians at heart
Buying my first 18 wheeler in 73 the 55 mph speed limit served to ruin independent trucking following close to the OPEC lie. That 55 mph speed limit did damage to trucking that its never recovered from. In 1975, 75% of independent truckers folded. The next year, 75% of those left folded. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective but you had to be alive and trying to make a living to notice good didn’t drop a cent, in fact, they increased.
Yeah. Inflation was high during the 1970s. The only reason that the Ford Administration was able to claim credit for lowering inflation was that the economy was in a severe recession from late 73 through 1975, but inflation was still above 5.5% regardless. I’m not surprised that the 55 mph limit destroyed independent trucking. Independents rely on being able to make time as a competitive advantage. When I saw the CDL come about in the late 1980s, I felt bad for truckers. That was another crack at the remaining independents. The 55 mph speed limit did incalculable damage to motoring and trucking both. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that that scourge never returns to our highways
Agree 110%. But they already exist in current form in a relatively newcomer called a Roxor, made by Mahindra, and Indian Comp. No-frill diesel 4×4. They do not pass our current DOT over-regulated standards so Mahindra is blurring the lines and selling them as side-by-sides, like the massively successful Polaris’s, Yamaha’s, etc….
The great part is that in most rural states, you can legally drive these on DOT roads with restrictions, because these free’er states have allowed it.
I would love to do an experiment. Get one of these in a suburban/urban area, put farm plates on it (like a tractor), and drive it around to see what happens. My best guess is, nothing, to 90% of cops, but there’s always that 10% who could make it an issue. I bet that some are doing it now.
A friend of mine in a new car picked me up from the airport. I noticed all the bells and blinks, I had no idea what they were about and asked. She said she doesn’t notice them anymore and had learned to tune them out. So much for “keeping us safe” with All Their Helpful Gadgets.
The Marxists hate freedom and free enterprise. They want to eliminate all energy that is not part of the fake renewable variety. Thus, we have as the center point fake global warming and CO2 pollution being caused by man. This is the baseline where all this control freak activism is stimulated and put into practice. The socialists want you living in a city packed into a concrete cell in a concrete building with nothing but the daily propaganda channel to entertain you. You never leave the city and you get around in an EV because you only have to drive a few miles to the work cooperative or to find the toilet paper and bread lines. This is their idea of utopia for you while they live lavish lifestyles outside of your city zone.
It’s nice to see that someone is revolting against this tyranny no matter what the generation. Technology has turned the auto into a jail on wheels and the cell phone has become a similar jail we have become totally attached to and it is a prime spying tool for Big Tech and eventually the data runs over to the government. And next, we will have 5G, another surveillance system that will creep deeper into your daily activities (heaven forbid they are anti-government) and soon forced microchip implants into the body as well as mandated inoculations filled with chemical poisons so that the medical system will survive with an endless stream of patients. Then they want you to believe that they are making the world safer so that you will live longer only to force you to become a victim to its political social systems (make you disappear if you don’t comply) and medical management system. It’s all tied together. Control for profit.
My father always told me not to get too worked up over these things you cannot change … the pendulum will always swing the other way at some point …
Society always corrects it’s mistakes at some point !
Now that Commiefornia has sued their own power company into bankruptcy, is it any wonder the power companies shut down the grid during storms and wildfires? How will all the “greenies” escape any of the litany of natural disasters with their unpowered EVs? Thankfully the commercial transportation industry has not fallen for the lies of an “All EV” future, at least not yet. When engineers build a bridge that collapses due to the failure of a single component, it is known as “lack of redundancy” and is a guaranteed fatal flaw. The “all EV” future is the same flawed logic, and should be considered stupid, if not downright criminally negligent. No ethical engineer would design anything, be it a bridge, a building, a highway, a farm, a military battle plan even, without redundancy. Morons that trust a system without options is like the EV fanboy telling you how he has every “charging stop” planned and mapped out for his 500 mile road trip. Who needs a race to Florida to prove IC wins the race of endurance, when just driving the width of Virginia at its base would take 48 hours (or more) in an EV, and only 4-5 hours in a standard car or minivan? You would be surprised to know how many people actually commute 500+ miles, by automobile, twice a week to work at a job location that actually pays significantly more than enough to make it worth the drive. The energy-to-weight/space of gasoline and diesel fuel is still so ridiculously vast compared to EV batteries, even with the “lower energy efficiency” of an IC engine vs. an electric motor. The railroads, a billion-dollar-profit industry, has virtually all but abandoned electric locomotives that require an outside power source, now why would that be? Surely the instant acceleration and lower maintenance costs should make all the diesel-electric locomotives obsolete by now, yes? NO, actually they didn’t, and the railroads are the country’s best example of the economy of scale, and with their billions in profits, can’t justify maintaining an all-electric transportation system. They tried for roughly 75 years, though, so why do people continue to ignore the facts about shit that does NOT work, like all-electric transportation, and communism? Lokk at videos of the Russian urban infrastructure today, with its crumbling roadways, and tram-powerlines strung everywhere. Their transportation system is still chaos by comparison to ours due to 80+ years of government fuckery that, after decades of non-communism, is still a shambles! The EV is just post-modern communist transport, all dressed up to go to Las Vegas, and go home broke!
Splendid! Well said.
Apparently, wind-turbines have a maximum cut-off windspeed of 55 MPH. Lisa Haven explains a possible reason for shutting down the grid.
https://www.brighteon.com/51102c3e-47b3-48f1-9241-e6a155dad3ed
When us millennials rebel against “progress”, then you know it’s bad. Just like “saaaafety” and “mobility”, these “assists” are deliberately being shoved down our throats to render us all useless, geriatric children. I mean, how much longer until our homes are required to have “assists”? Imagine turning the heat up on a cold winter morning and then the oversensitive smoke/fire alarm summons the fire department because you had it turned up “too high”; then being penalized for the false alarm that you had no control over.
I’m hoping that the shit hits the fan so hard this time that it actually breaks the damn thing. lol
Amen, Bluegrey!
This aging Gen X’er has your back!
I just drove a Lexus ES 350 (service loaner) and the steering wheel would occasionally vibrate. Turns out it was the lane departure system letting me know I was changing lanes without signaling (yes yes I know but there wasn’t anyone around). For a moment I thought the city had cut warning grooves into the pavement..
Of course, the system was basically worthless because the street department doesn’t have the money or inclination to repaint the lines when needed. So it only annoyed me about half the time it should have.
I think there was a menu option to disable it. Which would likely need changing every time you put it in Drive, much like the auto-stop-start system. But if it were my car, I’d just unplug the vibrator from the steering column. Assuming it’s a separate unit – it’s possible it’s built into the steering rack boost motor & not disable-able.
Hi Chip,
Yup – the systems (all of them) are set up to “trigger” when you change lanes without signaling; it’s another manifestation of cloying schoolmarmism. There is no reason – other than mindless obedience to mindless rules – to signal a lane change when there’s no other vehicle in the orbit of your car. In fact, to signal in that case is the very definition of mindlessness.
But that’s just the point. They – the corporate-government nexus – is using technology to punish and eventually eliminate the use of individual judgment in favor of . . . mindless obedience.
Something it had that I actually appreciated, was the ultrasonic parking sensors. Because Lexus insists on putting that huge grille [0] on their vehicles (and BMW seems to be following their lead) you can’t know where the front of it is until you’ve driven it for several months and learned where the corners are. So tall curbs, other cars in front of you, and in my case, parking decks, could potentially result in a couple thousand in repairs if you don’t stop in time.
I doubt we’ll ever see a return of chrome-plated steel bumpers but there is something to be said about being able to just bolt a new one on for pretty low cost compared to buying a modern plastic bumper and painting it to match.
[0] Which looks good on the cars, but on the SUVs I get a “Maximum Overdrive” vibe from them.
My 300 and my wife’s grand cherokee have this lane keep feature, but one thing I like about FCA right now, which Eric has mentioned, is that when you turn them off, they stay off permanently. Yes.
I suppose that thing would go nuts on dirt roads with no lines ?????
Anyway, our car had that “steering wheel shaker” feature until I disabled it by having the inner tie rod ends replaced – LOL
The anti-boomer vitriol I often find on dissident-right, libertarian, or WN sites has always annoyed me. So, I hesitated to post the following link which pokes fun at the millenials, But the song is catchy and humorous, and it seems the talented guys singing it are themselves miillenials. May I suggest beforehand that this jest does not apply to those millenials who honor us with their presence among Eric’s commentariat,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=177&v=hLpE1Pa8vvI
Spelling correction: millennial
I need to start using my reading glasses.
Excellent! Well put together video. A millennial with talent? There’s hope after all.
I like that carseat theory. It really makes sense. Automobiles are like being arrested and getting a ride in a police cruiser for kids.
Age 16-25 is not millennials by the way, that she bracket is almost entirely Generation Z.
– A millennial
“But the Millennials were caged in cars.”
Rats love driving tiny cars, even when they don’t get treats
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/these-rats-learned-to-drive-tiny-cars-for-science/
I can safely say, no pun intended, that most of my circle (Gen X) loathe all the safety systems in cars. In fact, I can say most people loathe them in general. I work at a Honda store, and most of the people ask “how do I turn all of it off (collision mitigation, auto on/off) etc.” If these systems were stand alone options, hardly anyone would want them. These systems are iffy at best in terms of what they’re “marketed” to do, to be quite honest. No one wants to be the beta testers on these expensive systems, but yet we are.
We were the last generation to enjoy cars without them. Do you think that a group of us could figure out how to turn them off? I know that car makers are largely lazy, using the same architecture and whatnot across their model lines. So, once you figure out how one works, they all work the same way… I think.
Scary thing too, Swamp, et al [By-the-way, did DJT clean you out yet? 🙂 🙂 🙂 ] is that the people who come to rely on the safety systems soon lose the diligence to do things manually- like looking over their shoulder in the blind spots, etc. -then, when the system fails (especially unexpectedly, the first time)…..BOOM!
In that scenario, the “safety system” will *cause* an accident.
Are we safe yet?
Hi Mrmister!
My 50 on this: It’s being deliberately made part of the standard equipment suite in almost all cars not because there is market demand for it but because the powers-that-be want to get people used to automated driving tech; and there is a synergistic effect: The tech is so annoying it makes people want to give up driving….
Ha. I peeled out with wet tires from a car wash in my new 13 silverado with onstar and a phone call from GM piped in asking if I was okay and needed assistance. Told the lady to F-off and ended the call. Found and pulled the fuse for the thing the next day. The whole module cant be removed as some other failsafe is programmed in to prevent you from doing so. So the next best thing is disabling power to it. I know for certain in the newer GM models since then there are 10 times as much spyware garbage locked in to your car. I read on GM authority not long ago when the new corvette was released that they would in no way be tuneable as GM has some new integrated software package for tracking and ease of access through your phone that is being test run in the vette and later the rest of their vehicles
Hi Brazos!
I’ll raise you… I was driving a new ATS a while back; took it up Bent Mountain – which drives like it sounds. Some good fishtailing fun up the esses. Well, I’m mid-corner when some frau’s voice erupts into my space “Do I need assistance,” this voice inquires? I laid on the expletives as she had completely screwed up my line.
No wonder GM hates me!
Crap! My ’05 Trailblazer has that shit, too! Thankfully, no “frau” (lol) came over the speakers…yet.
eric, This is the car they should build….just for fun and gearheads.
https://youtu.be/qPgI3FV-jqo
Agree Eric. My ’14 gm trucks stability control was too good. It wouldn’t let the truck get 1″ sideways. I was amazed at how it was so accurate. You could turn it off, but it took like 15 seconds to hold a button, and then reset to on every start. No fun at all.
And why I’m a new FCA fan. Their stability let’s you get the car a little sideways before it tries to rein it in. Maybe cause it’s ‘not as good?’, but I like it. Unfortunately, for this system, it also resets every start.
Check out this U Tube vid on disabling onStar by an antenna disconnect …did pulling the fuse throw off errors or screw up bluetooth?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAbTy_jFcbc
PS: found a channel called VortexRadar that you might like as well, considering your post….
A couple decades ago my cousin was working as a GM tech. I asked about disabling Onstar. He laughed and said “Unplug the antenna”.
Thankfully my old 2000 Z 71 doesn’t have it.
Back in the day, in the 60’s when more and more automatic features came into being everyone joked about a car having everything but an electric buttwipe.
I’m surprised that’s not an option now.
8,
They could clone E-loon and put one in the frunk of every Tesla……then at least they’d all come with a butt-wipe!
Nunz, you didn’t have to say that……oooooooooo.
Don’t you have to take the cloth off the roof to unplug it?
I have a 2001 GM truck and it has the first gen onstar. I was chasing a rogue power draw when the truck was off, draining the battery after 24hrs off. One of the things I tried was pulling the onstar fuse and I didn’t get any codes. I also pulled a few others and my problem was solved. Don’t know if it was the onstar system or not. But at least now it’s off forever.
So you have no problems with anything else? Seems like pulling fuses willy/nilly wouldn’t be the best answer.
BTW, I think I saw this problem get fixed on SouthMainAuto youtube video.
While on the phone to Toyota the other day to complain about the intermittent failures of the forward looking camera tied to the saaaafety systems on my 2018 Camry, the manufacturer’s rep seemed really put out that I knew the replacement cost of the camera, $1200.
“Where did you get that number?”
“Google. One of your dealers’ web sites in the parts department”
The rep didn’t dispute the number, but she seemed upset that I knew the price. She also wasn’t pleased that I considered the systems to be useless and turned them off as much as possible.
I’m starting to believe that after 25 years and four vehicles at our house, the Camry will be the last Toyota we buy.
Hi Roscoe,
The only new car I have test driven lately that would tempt me to buy it is the Mustang Bullitt. And the reason for that being it’s basically a five year old car and so does not have most of the saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety crap. And what there is can be disabled. But it’s still a $40k car – and while the performance it delivers is astounding, I could get the same or comparable out of my ’76 Trans-Am for about a fourth the money… and no ssssssssssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety crap at all!
The last Ford I owned which was made at Flat Rock, a 93 Probe, was a fun vehicle at first but turned into a rattle trap over time. I’ve heard the same thing from fellow Probe victims and owners of other Mazda and Ford products built at that plant — MX6, 626, Fusion and last gen Cougar.
The interior fit issues combined with the extremely rapid deterioration of the exterior trim pieces and a $1000 idle bypass valve replacement made the trade an easy decision with only 70,000 miles on the odometer. I’d be really wary of another Flat Rock car.
The ’89 MX6 GT went almost 200K and my ’12 Mustang GT seems to be alright thus far.
$1000 for an idle air valve? Seems like a rip off. Just take it off and clean it with throttle body cleaner. It’s a couple of bolts usually mounted to the throttle body.
I think that the election of Donald Trump was the beginning of the end of peak woke-ness. I think we are seeing the pendulum swing back to some semblance of normalcy, simply because the Left’s world view just completely spits in the face of people’s natural instincts toward things like populism and nationalism, and because the sheer hypocrisy of the Left is too obvious to ignore.
I don’t agree. I voted for Trump and will in 2020, but it seems as if his election has awakened the communist party in the United States which is taken residence in the Democrats. Anyone who is a Democrat these days and plans to vote that way is a communist in my opinion. There is simply no justifiable reason to vote for any Democrat at any time given how they have carried themselves in the last three years. I simply cannot believe that Trump has been so bad as to give 40 seats back to the Democrats. It’s simply mind boggling. That party and those people are vermin.
Amen, Swamp!
This is part of the reason why I also vote OM in 2016 and will again next year. He has a sussed out the roaches; made them show themselves. This includes Republicans like McSame and Mittens and JEB!
Trump is many things, many of them not laudable. But he may be the only thing that prevents this country from going Venezuela… at least for another four or five years.
That’s worth voting for, sez me.
The reason the “Politicians” (both sides) don’t like Donald is because he is not part of the “Club”. He is a business man. He wasn’t a Mayor, Governor, Senator or Congressman. He sits in the Big Chair because the people wanted him to. I think the people overlook the warts because they didn’t/don’t want the Same Old, Same old…
Then stop calling him OM. His name is Donald. You might actually like to sit down and have a beer with him. Unlike the other creatures in the swamp. 😉
Hi Bob,
I think I would, actually! I use Orange Man to annoy the other side. Their reaction to him is so (literally) hysterical that the mere mention of the Orange Man drives them to spittle-spewing fury!
Bob, the censor. Are there any other words we should stop saying. Just say so and I’ll do it and you’ll know it when hell freezes over.
One could suspect that this is their battle of the bulge- the last great marshalling of resources and effort attempting to win what they know they’ve lost. The insane Russiagate and now Ukrainegate impeachment, Obastardcare, floods of third world savages thrust onto our streets and welfare rolls, laws and rules and regs, and tons of enforcers everywhere. The PC worship of true degenerates and truly evil things is another symptom.
These are not the acts of sane and civilized people.
It is all unsustainable, and that which cannot be sustained, will not.
They communists were mostly thrown out of Russia, and changed back to the imperial/despotism traditional in China, and exists only in small third world places, and the US and much of Europe.
They are in a panic because they know their ideology is false and evil, and that they have peaked. But also beware the thrashings of the mortally wounded beast as it will still destroy many lives before it goes back under its’ rock.
“Wat je zegt ben jezelf, met je kop door de helft” – Dutch saying
Roughly translates to “What you accuse others of you’re guilty of yourself.”
Russians? Maybe, but only because the Clintons’ boy Yeltsin was booted out in democratic elections because the US economic hitmen were taking over. And it’s pretty well known outside of the United States that Ukraine was a CIA/State Department operation. (just do a little reading on Victoria Noonan).
Republican election fraud? Come on, really? Everyone knows the Democrats are the ones who inspired the saying “Vote early and often!”
“Sullied the office?” Oh yea, because Bill getting a BJ and then destroying the poor girl’s reputation is right there next to George Washington as for reputable behavior in the Oval Office (yea, I know GW was never in the Oval Office).
We all knew what Trump was about before the nomination. We all knew he was a regular on Howard Stern (don’t google “Howard Stern Sybian” at work…). We all knew he was pals with Vince McMahon. We all remembered his Twitter war with Rosie O’Donnell. We also know he’s full of shit, but who in Washington isn’t? He’s the Troll in Chief.
That’s why he was elected. Because people in Hollywood still don’t see that video game revenue is 10X what they make with their tepid linear TV shows and movies. Because Detroit is only around because of the F-150 and Ram 1500, and the fact that they can still be modded and “fixed.” Because people are tired of being told that their belief in a higher power is wrong, while Islam and the Chinese communists get a pass on atrocities that make the holocaust look like natural selection. And that we’re told that a woman has the right to kill a “mistake of passion” but a purely defensive weapon needs to be confiscated “just in case.”
The “mainstream” is no longer. They’re just a circular kabuki theatre, playing to each other and congratulating themselves for their importance. No one votes anymore, no one watches the news, we’ve all moved on. Politics is just another form of American Idol, watch the season unfold and call 800-you-suck to choose your winner! But even American Idol’s ratings are terrible compared to the old days of the big three networks.
Oh yea, and because Hillary thought she had it in the bag and America loves a good underdog story…
Hillary’s entire strategy was “my opponent is deplorable and I’m a woman”. Not really a winning strategy.
Hey Chuck,
I our insane race, sex and identity obsessed culture, it almost worked. Pretty scary.
Jeremy
Sadly, true. That’s actually something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and not just “the woman card” either. I believe the key to understanding the true destructiveness of Barack Obama’s presidency and legacy is wrapped up in homosexuality and the coercive homosexual agenda.
Yes, I know, most libertarians think there’s nothing wrong with homosexuality as long as they keep it to themselves; that’s one of the reasons I can’t call myself a true libertarian. But just think about it… before Obama, homosexual marriage (often euphemistically referred to as “civil union”) was a backburner issue – one that people on both sides felt strongly about, but a backburner issue all the same. It was perfectly OK for democrats to disagree on this issue (recall that the Defense of Marriage Act was signed into law by Bill Clinton!), and republicans were basically guaranteed to be against it, even if only because you could not be for it and still get the republican base to vote for you. But then along comes Barack Obama and “evolves his position”, and suddenly homosexual marriage and homosexuality in general have achieved Sacred Cow status, and anyone not in 100% lock-step with fringe leftist orthodoxy on the issue is a horrible backwards hateful troglodyte homophobic non-affirming evil haterpig who should die painfully. In fact, we’re now completely beyond homosexuality to the lunacy of 120 genders, which obviously isn’t science denial, somehow. This is in addition to the way his constant divisive rhetoric set race relations back 40 years or more, accelerated the war between police and non-police, normalized violence and destruction as methods of political participation, and turned women into screeching, frothing political pawns with nearly unlimited power to arbitrarily punish anyone who interacts with them in any way or even acknowledges their existence. To put it plainly, Obama, during his time in office, empowered the most insane fringe of the extreme left to become and define the mainstream, and now those of us with some sense are forced to swim upstream against the mess he left behind.
That’s why presidents are important, even from a libertarian perspective. It’s not just that the Machine has slipped its leash in myriad highly abuseable ways, it’s that the president, simply by virtue of the gravitas attached to his office, has the potential to set the tone of public discourse for years to come. A theoretically “good” president can’t do much except filter out bad ideas, but a bad one can screw up the entire country for years or decades.
That all started with AIDS in the 1980s. Kids in their 20s were dying and their parents didn’t know they were gay. Suddenly this guy shows up in the hospital claiming to be his lover/husband and the parents, already shocked that their son is on his deathbed, and now that too? And even on a simpler basis, during the Clinton administration the tax reforms created the “marriage penalty,” which put married couples filing jointly into a higher tax bracket than if they file separately. So what? Sounds like a way to pay less taxes than stupid people. But because they had to “fix” the penalty that made a two tiered system that somehow discriminated against gay couples because they couldn’t file jointly.
I’m not in favor of gay marriage, but then again I’m not in favor of legal protection for married people either. However we don’t live in that world, and marriage serves as a shorthand contract between two people. But it’s a very poorly written contract, with a lot of assumptions and very little spelled out ahead of time. And one could argue that any marriage certificate was signed in duress, or at least with both parties not acting in a rational way. If we’re not going to stone gay people, we have to find a way to give them the same legal status as married couples. Or eliminate the privileged status of spouses. As a libertarian I think any opportunity to eliminate Uncle’s control is preferable (even when it goes against my own self-interest), but obviously that’s a minority view.
Hi RK,
As a Libertarian, it seems self-evident to me that consenting adults have the right to commit to one another, to live together as man and wife (or whatever) but that the state has no legitimate business conferring privileges or restrictions based on private relationships, whether heterosexual or homosexual. In both cases, however, the people involved surely have the same right to commingle assets, assign proxy power to their spouse, to bequeath property and so on.
To the extent that any disputes arise regarding these things – i.e., the disposition of assets in the event the marriage fails – then some way of adjudicating/mediating the claims, etc., is desirable.
But it’s none of the government’s rightful business decreeing what “marriage” is – and who may get married – nor to grant people privileges and so on because they are (or are not) married, according to whatever arbitrary standard the government decrees.
eric, marriage has nothing to do with govt. and that’s the problem since govt. taxes hell out of “marriage”. Marriage….by govt. is a relatively new thing.
Marriage was always a religious thing but then govt. and busybodies such as preachers(who never get enough money)began to see it more and more as a govt. thing and so comes along laws not “allowing” you to get married if you have a venereal disease and if they can prove it, if you’re too close to being kin.
I’m not keen on marrying my sister or first cousin but it should be the bidness of nobody except the religious practice you condone or nothing at all. Cultures of every sort have figured out the drawbacks of marrying your sibling, with no taxes or forms or anything else that controls it.
Hi Jeremy have you watched any of the democratic debates? Where are these ‘sensible liberals’ you talk so fondly of? Did you see Warren lovingly speak to a poor transgender child as if we was martin luther king Jr? I was lucky in a sense my dad was old school confederate conservative but unfortunately fell for all the christian zionist bullshit which I managed to get him to question later. Anyway youre in the same boat I am partner. If you dont agree with everything these leftist antifa lunatics believe like the ‘climate crisis’ and 62 genders you are a nazi! And deserve to get punched. You aint escaping buddy. At all.
You just dont realize the threat and the tools and intolerance they will use for anyone who disagrees. So yes pet your gay friend on the head and make sure you tell the mob about him when they come for you. In their eyes we’re both hitler.
Mark,
I don’t watch political debates. Anyone who seeks political office, especially the presidency, is almost certainly a sociopath who will exploit anything to gain power. As for sensible liberals, Brendan O’Neill, though I disagree with his views on the importance of Democracy, seems pretty sensible to me. He rejects the climate cult and the transgender cult. He recently sparked a twitter shitstorm by arguing that Greta is being abused and exploited by horrible people for their own ends. Also, my parents qualify. I don’t speak fondly of liberals or conservatives as such. Of course, I speak fondly of my parents, who just happen to be liberal.
As for your broader point that we are in the same boat, there’s truth to that. When I claim that transgenderism is a mental disorder, but homosexuality is not, I’m not winning any brownie points. But, I consider you (note, when I say you, it is shorthand for the ideas you espouse, not you personally), and your counterparts on the lunatic left, to be a big part of that problem. Leftist activists have been very successful in convincing people that anyone who espouses libertarian or conservative views, in the manner that I do, is just a false, friendly face for the monster lurking beneath. You put flesh and bones on that monster.
As for my gay friend, he’s my nephew. He is a brilliant, thoughtful and kind man. He is not pursuing a secret, homosexual agenda.
Jeremy
I think there’s a little more to it than that. True marriage is promoted in civilized societies because it is the most effective way to promote civility – on a voluntary basis, even. A healthy, well-functioning family provides a stabilizing influence, an incentive to work and produce, and a safe environment to train up children in the way they should go. In family, there is strength and stability, both from day to day and from decade to decade.
Which, of course, is why the Woke Left, the brain trusts working behind the scenes, and so on up the chain to Satan himself, have always wanted to destroy it. The forces of evil want to destroy families, cut loose the anchor they provide, so they can remake people and nations in their own twisted image without any effective resistance.
Hence, the homosexual agenda. An apparently-much-older commenter on another site has said, and I believe him, that there was always something vaguely coercive about the whole thing, like you could just sort of tell, from the very beginning, that they’d never be satisfied just with not having to worry about the vice squad. And, well, here we are in 2019, and documents listing plain old acceptance of homosexuality, sans active celebration, as a form of homophobia are practically ancient history at this point.
Eightsouthman is correct that marriage-by-government is a relatively new concept in the timeline of civilization. Christian governments would often consider adultery and fornication to be crimes (especially when committed by an officer of the law, thanks to this crazy idea we used to have that such people should be held to higher, not lower, standards than the rest of us), but to the best of my knowledge marriage was still a matter of the church – a covenant between a man, a woman, and God.
There is also the fact that in the olden days, when our language, morals, and society in general were less corrupted, the idea of homosexual “marriage” would not have occurred to anyone, even the relatively few homosexuals. Even today, based on what I’ve read, most homosexuals don’t actually care about marriage; it’s just a very small but very loud minority with an insatiable desire to force their ideology on the rest of us and on Christians especially.
Faggots don’t procreate, so in order to maintain their ranks and those who will support them, the proselytize and convert, especially among children- this is why so many of them become pooblik skool teachers.
And thus society has gone from being repulsed by buggery (as all normal people should be), to classifying US as “bigots” now for being repulsed by it, and for not embracing the perverts.
The same modus operandi will be used to “normalize” bestiality and pedophilia- “They were born that way”, “Whatever turns you on” etc.
Hey Nunz,
“Why do you believe that someone who rejects people whose behavior they deem repulsive, harmful, destructive, or immoral is somehow something to be condemned?”
C’mon Nunz, You’re smarter than that. Jason, and I, didn’t say anything like that. I don’t criticize Mark because he rejects people he finds repulsive (I couldn’t care less about that), I criticize Mark, and others, because he makes bat shit crazy comments like this,
“gays are foot soldiers in promoting degeneracy / societal breakdown / war on families and pedophilia by our marxist elites. nothing more nothing less”,
that vilify entire groups based on his own ignorance. And, unlike with you, I’m not at all convinced that Mark has any commitment to the NAP. I suspect that, if he achieved a more favorable political situation, he wouldn’t object if homosexuality were declared a capital crime. Of course, I do not know this but he has never written anything about the principle of non-aggression nor made anything but blanket condemnations of entire groups.
Also, as I have pointed out repeatedly, the unhinged, over the top rhetoric of Mark and others, is a necessary component of the insanity theater promoted by GovCo. Right wing lunacy increases left wing lunacy and so on. Meanwhile, the Marxist elites Mark mentions sit back and laugh and marvel at how easy it is to get the lunatics to play their part.
Jeremy
Hi Chuck,
If the State had never been involved in marriage, as they shouldn’t be, and weren’t until quite recently, this would never have become an issue. The gay marriage issue was born, not as a way to promote the homosexual agenda, but because the State granted legal and tax advantages to married straight couples that were not available to gays, except through marriage, which was illegal. That is why they pushed for marriage.
Likewise, conservatives invited the State into marriage, which was insane. So Chuck, step back a bit and you’ll find that the State is the ultimate cause of what you decry today. That’s why libertarianism matters. Once the State becomes involved in anything, natural, voluntary solutions cannot happen. State involvement really does create a zero sum game where disparate groups are fighting over an artificially limited pool of “rights”.
The only solution to this is the libertarian one, get the State entirely out of all of these cultural issues and you’ll find that once the State neither recognizes nor privileges marriage, most gays will become entirely uninterested.
Outside of a few lunatics, there is no monolithic gay agenda movement threatening traditional culture. This is a politically created culture war and the only reason average gays support the lunatics is that they wanted to gain the same State created advantage as straights.
You blame Obama for this, sorry not true. Politics is downstream of culture. Politicians, especially good (not in the moral sense) ones care only about pleasing enough people to maintain power. Gay marriage would have happened under any president, if Republican maybe delayed for one term only.
Conservatives, by demanding that the State be involved in marriage, and protect it, actually got the gay marriage thing really rolling. Once again, if the State had never been involved, this would never have been a problem. I doubt that any gay person would have even thought about it were it not for the privilege and cultural legitimacy created by State recognition and regulation of marriage.
Cheers,
Jeremy
jeremy gays are foot soldiers in promoting degeneracy / societal breakdown / war on families and pedophilia by our marxist elites. nothing more nothing less.
Hi Mark,
As a Libertarian, I think I’m obliged to leave people be, even if their conduct – as such – isn’t something I approve of. As far as homosexuality goes: I don’t believe it’s my place to interfere with consenting adults. Whether it’s two men sleeping together or two men who like to pretend they’re Napoleon and Marshall Ney. So long as it’s understood that I’m under no obligation to participate – or genuflect. Or pay.
I actually like difference – eccentricity. Just so long as it’s not enforced.
Ah, more bigotry from one of the usual sources.
Of course you are wrong yet again. The vast majority of gays just want to live their lives without jackasses making inane, slanderous accusations against them. The crazies that get all the attention are a small minority.
Hi Jason,
Yup. A very good and old friend of mine is gay. It’s a non-issue for me. He doesn’t proselytize or try to convert me. He is just… my friend.
Sure Flinders. Would you let one babysit your kid?
Hi Eric irs amazing to me that guys like you and -of course- Flinders dont recognize the deeply destructive nature of the homosexual agenda being promoted and shoved down all of our throats and being taught to our kids. It goes hand in hand with the mental illness of the transgender movement. If you dont recognize the threat how can you fight it? A kid in texas – 7 years old – was recently told to go through gender reassignment by a wack jury and his deranged mother. texas! I’ll ask you would you prefer a straight white female to babysit your kid or a 45 year old man with a beard in a dress named becky?
Hi Mark,
I think we agree, actually. I recognize that there is a radical homosexual fringe – and agree it is dangerous. But it is of a piece with radical feminism and radical race-based identity politics. It does not mean everyone who is gay – or female or black – is a member of the foregoing or shares its agenda.
This is important to remember. Just as I don’t like being collectivized and held responsible for what others who happen to share my general demographic might do, I also avoid collectivizing others.
And: No, I would not have a “45 year old man with a beard in a dress named becky” watch my kid. But my friend who happens to be gay? No qualms at all. I’ve known him for 23 years. I trust him as much as I trust my straight friends of the same vintage.
Why wouldn’t I?
Hey Jason,
I can’t help but notice that you use the word “bigot” a lot- the favorite word of the SJW-liberal-snowflakes…..
Why do you believe that someone who rejects people whose behavior they deem repulsive, harmful, destructive, or immoral is somehow something to be condemned?
Do you think that taking it up the ass somehow makes one immune to one of the fundamental rights of self-ownership; the right to discriminate for any reason one so chooses to?
And if you think that perverts don’t proselytize, think again. They may not do it personally to you (although many do)- they DO do it through politics and infiltration- and here we are- seeing everyu politician now pandering to them; and public schools, the foster care system, The BOYscouts, etc. etc. heavily infused with them.
Since they can not procreate, there is no reason for them to engage in long-term/life-long monogamous relationships. It is not uncommon for a homo to have over 500 bend-over buddies, as their deathstyle is just the pursuit of endless temporary pleasure and gratification- with any pretense of ‘marriage’ just being a novelty, spawned by the politics of tax breaks and as an attempt to normalize and fit into society at-large.
Mark,
I’m guessing you don’t spend much time around actual gay people, most of whom don’t give a shit about this crap and don’t have any agenda except living their own lives and not bothering people. Of course there are some lunatics that are as you describe, as there are radical feminists, Marxists, Eco-lunatics, etc…
These fringe lunatics wield disproportionate power and seem to represent a monolithic bloc, but they do not. Coercive government, especially democracy, thrives in conflict. Opportunistic Democrats hype the lunatic fringe on the left, not out of conviction, but to push the insane narrative that racism, sexism, homophobia, etc… are worse than ever. This fake narrative scares the crap out of easily manipulated folks and they get votes. Republicans do the same in reverse.
As usual, you are part of the problem. The stuff your write is almost like a script of right wing lunacy that radical leftists came up with in the hopes that fools like you would spew it forth. Thus granting legitimacy to the insane idea that you represent a significant movement and threat. That claim is as ludicrous as your deranged babble about the homosexual agenda.
I believe that the trans issue is different, as politics has become so unhinged that now, to be a leftist in good standing, one has to pretend that the delusions of mentally unstable people are real. The DSM once classified homosexuality as a mental disorder, that is wrong. They are now backing away from call transgenderism a mental disorder, that is also wrong. Being trans means that one is in irreconcilable conflict with oneself, a pretty good working definition of a mental disorder. Being gay is just an expressed preference for a certain type of sexual intimacy, no conflict necessary.
As for babysitting, if I had kids, I wouldn’t let you near them, though I’d welcome it if my gay nephew took the job.
Jeremy
eric, same for me. One of my oldest friends to boot. Would I let him babysit my child, were I to have one? Certainly, and feel better about it than just about anyone since he’s intelligent and knows what to do in an emergency.
He also likes kids and they like him. I can’t think of a better baby sitter…..plus he’s armed, something you would get with a clueless little 15 year old girl who knows just about nothing about everything. Plus he’s a damned good cook who uses organic ingredients.
Hey guys a clip for your viewing enjoyment. Dont get too excited now! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5v-4up_MGo
Mark,
Yes, that stuff is sick. You, whether you realize it or not, help to promote it.
Jeremy
Oh jeez Jeremy hows that? I bet your gay friend would love it
Because Mark,
You are a walking, talking, fire-breathing caricature of the right wing monster that leftist hate groups, like the SPLC, use to scare the shit out of otherwise somewhat sensible liberals; convincing them to give money to them and other leftist activist groups. But, most of these liberals don’t really know that much about the radical agendas being supported with their money. If it’s ever an issue, they’re told that it’s either supporting progressive causes or letting the right wing lunatics create a fascist State in America. Because they fear you guys much more than what they consider, falsely, to be excessive, but well intentioned activism at the leftist extreme, they will ignore their reservations and go with the left wing lunatics.
I’ve seen this first hand when taking care of my parents before my dad died. My dad is the smartest person I’ve ever known. He was world renowned in his field and considered himself to be a liberal. But, like many liberals (and conservatives) he didn’t know much about politics because he had better, more important things to do. Thus, he supported the proper liberal causes and didn’t think much about the underlying agendas.
I noticed that he had a copy of the SPLC year in hate, or whatever they call it. I asked him what he knew about the SPLC and he said “I think they’re a civil rights group that provides legal defense to victims of hate crimes and exposes hate groups”. I said, “no they’re actually a fund raising scam masquerading as a civil rights organization, that manufactures a mostly fake list of hate groups, to scare well meaning liberals like you into giving them money. And, they spend almost nothing providing legal services to poor victims of “hate” crimes”. This, of course, shocked him and he was highly skeptical. But, I pulled up the old Harper’s article (it works best to use sources your “opponent” is inclined to believe, as a first salvo) that exposed the scam about 20 years ago, then more recent info that showed they had only become worse. My dad, being intellectually rigorous and honest, did more research then cut all funding to SPLC and encouraged his friends to do likewise.
I also convinced him to cut all funding to climate activist groups. I had a harder time with this until I discovered an amazing lecture by Freeman Dyson called, “The Five Heresies”. During one discussion I asked my Dad if he would be interested to know that Freeman Dyson agreed with me. I knew this would be compelling because my Dad has enormous respect for Dyson and knew it is preposterous to claim that he is a paid for mouthpiece of the oil industry. He was pretty convinced after I showed him the section of the speech dealing with climate. He did a little more research and then cut all funding.
You see Mark, outside of your group, you not only have no credibility, you have anti credibility. You, or more correctly the ideas you espouse, help give credence to the insane idea that America is on the verge of being taken over by Neo Nazis. This supports the destructive “us vs them” narrative that the elites use to sow conflict. That is how you help to promote the loathsome ideas pushed by the elite.
Jeremy
Jeremy,
I have a lot of experience with “aryan warriors” like our Marky.
The good news is that Mark doesn’t count for anything. He is a member of a tiny, powerless minority composed primarily of low-information cowards and weaklings looking to blame others for their own failings.
These guys offer “proofs” for their addled belief system that make the flat-earthers look positively rational in comparison. (“Proofs”, as you have noted, which taken to their logical conclusion make the Jews look like a superior, Master Race.) In point of fact, there is no “proof” offered by the aryan warriors that cannot be trivially disproved. The “points” they try to make are not worthy of serious discussion, only derision.
As you say, their ravings actually have the exact opposite of their intended effect. People who don’t understand just how impotent these guys are get freaked out by them. The internet makes them look like they have much more of a presence than they actually do.
I just laugh at people like Mark. All they are good for is entertainment. Sometimes I feel kind of bad though, like I’m pulling wings off of flies. Really people like Mark are to be pitied.
Jeremy, exactly. Marriage via the state means that you and your best buddy can get married and get that insurance provided by one to both, get the tax breaks and be able to take others money via govt. It’s always the same old thing.
I’ve had many gay and lesbian acquaintances over the years. Some were genuinely good people and not of the militant variety. I can’t say the same for the rest of them….
My mentor in dogs is gay and despises what he calls “radical gay trash”. It’s a big problem in the sport of dogs because there are an awful lot of militant gay judges that put up mediocre specimens simply because the dog’s handler (or owner) is gay. Where do you think that handler will be after the day is over?!?
One handler left his clients’ Poodles in his hot van while he was getting buggered at a motel. Several died of heat exhaustion. It just goes to show you their priorities aren’t straight (pun intended). Now they have the Grindr app.
Morning, Handler!
As a humanist as well as a Libertarian (I think they’re roughly synonymous) I try to always bear in mind that individuals shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions of others. This is a tough thing to do given that there is often a degree of truth to many generalities. Heck, I am wrestling with the fear I have of women/commitment to any of them (the fear being the result of the failure of my marriage) even though, intellectually, I know that (for the sake of discussion) this woman I met recently is a unique individual who is entitled to an open mind (on my part) at the very least.
It’s not fair to me – or to her – to collectivize her on account of my prior experiences with other women.
It’s a risky business, of course.
But I think it’s a risk worth taking as well as one we have an obligation to assume. I recall times in my life when people who didn’t know me from Adam gave me the benefit of the doubt, took a chance – exposed themselves to the possibility I might not be As Advertised. I remember that kindness – and how grateful I was for it.
And thus, do my best to act accordingly.
I’ve noticed a lot of women who leave their children in the car to die while having sex or just shopping.
Regardless of sexual persuasion, you can’t rid the world of idiots.
Hola, Ericberto! 🙂
Joo got it, mang!
To give others the benefit of the doubt until and if they do something to cross the line of neutrality into negative territory,; that and the NAP, were THE defining principles of the civilized world.
In conjunction, they were known better as The Golden Rule.
The amount of greatness we had as a culture when such civility was widely embraced and practiced, was a time of the pinnacle of human achievement.
Now that the majority have abandoned those principles….look how far we have fallen in just the space of a few decades!
Government always seems to be the antithesis of those principles too. Pretty much the job of all government agents is to presume your guilt; presume that we are all scum, and treat us as such, as much as they can get away with. They will even tempt you/entrap you into degenerate behavior, just to try and prove their own superiority.
That’s why I despise thick libertarians, Nunz. They end up scrapping the NAP for their social justice agenda.
It’s a given. Ain’t possible to hold this one responsible for that one’s actions. (& if taken all the way to trailheadwaters, ain’t possible to file deeds in courthouses for property credits atall…even tho proceeding ‘as if’ is necessary.)
When it “is” possible, whatcha’ got there is non compos mentis failure to c’municate, commune with all growed up reality. & not unoften a Strother Martin short wo\man complex role.
That that “can you hear me now” deafness procreates faster than rats & propagates confidence wo\man perpetual motion masquerades has much if not everything to do with all the “female” preying mantis action betwixt & amongst the sexes. And that action spools up & down, bleeds into, everything “else” too. Better to laugh your head off than have it chewed off, says I.
Adding stacks of dimensionality to the chessboard: it’s a given that what’s been given, the rules of order, the parliamentary procedure, the words & grammar, the maps & models, all of it, is the same as what’s given when you walk into a casino to “try your luck.” *Really* tanstaafl.
The fix from without is in cuz the prefix from within is projected.
And since “I” has been steeped in the tannins of rich Corinthian leather age & trompe l’oeil seeing is believing convinced of its puniness, all the world’s stage Strothers opt for the “substantial” Cordoba bench seat. Cuz a deep bench proves something: the fraud of force projection substance.
Meanwhile I ain’t seen a Cordoba in 20 years. & I bet even Jay Leno didn’t bother to collect one.
So the more important part of the interview, the read, is what’s this that & the other person’s stance relative to, relationship with, viral load titers of, “the givens”? The real ones communicated in actions, not the spokes in the wordwheels. Cuz that’ll have everything to do with that person’s relationship to 3rd party you.
O’ course, one’s own vis a vis “the givens” must be the starting point. But think on how many don’t start at the start. That ol’ false premise mantis. Bugoutbag bugsex ensues.
You know where the old “rule of thumb” came from, what it, at least superficially, referred to. But what it refers to fundamentally is the compulsive need to do what Dr. Milgram says to do, & to be absolved of personal responsibility by virtue of prostration before “given” authority.
“The fool generalizes the particular; the nerd particularizes the general; some do both; and the wise does neither”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb
But even Taleb has a very soft spot for time. The older it is, whatever it is, the better. But old social proof shouldn’t be confused with old Macallan. Screwtop Ripple in the 7-11 parking lot just ain’t the same thing as finely crafted & aged single malt before a cracklin’ rosey fire, somewhere in the mountains.
But&so why all the slips betwixt cup & lip? It’s right there before your very eyes. Social proof “proves” with the clearly antisocial “or else.” It’s “our” way, or it’s the highway, on a rail, covered in tar & feathers. Or worse. That’s the humanimal Trojan gifthorse. Schizoaffective ineffectiveness, with a pretty little Ox Bow on top.
Saw a poll a few days ago, in which it concluded that 70% of the youngest segment of voters (I think it was 18-25 year-olds) support socialism/communism, and will be voting for it’s advocates in 2020! I guess it shouldn’t be surprising, since nothing but socialism is constantly propagated in the pooblik skools and in every sphere of mass media, from TV and movies to “music”.
We’re screwed. Idiots vote for their own impoverishment and destruction. (Not that there’s much of a choice- as the alternative is just a somewhat toned-down and slower version of the same).
Hi Nunzy,
The Millennials – many of them – don’t know any better; as you say – they’ve been immersed in socialism/communism (just called by other names) all their lives. They’ve also inherited a world nothing like our world (when we were kids). They face daunting debt/staggering living costs and – for most of them – diminished opportunity. We complain about being mulcted; they have nothing to mulct. No wonder they’re both resentful and (many times) uninterested in working hard. I have some empathy for them as I can remember what it was like for me coming up. Affordable rents – in the DC area. I paid for my undergrad degree working night shift at UPS. No debt upon graduation. No obligation to buy “health insurance” at age 22 – when I needed it like a fish needs a bicycle. At that time – late 1980s/early 1990s – there was still an abundance of very affordable everyday driver cars built back in the ’60s and ’70s still available as plain old used cars (not “classics”). I bought a ’74 Beetle for $700 – and drove it for several years.
All of that is gone – or much less accessible.
And… compared with silent generation and boomer types, our rents were high. You often hear stories of people paying their $75 month mortgage for houses bought in the 1960s. Of course, by the 1990s they were paid off. Thing is, real estate has been climbing faster than any sector of the economy except for college loans, which are practically a requirement these days for any job more than a Star bucks barista. Used car prices started escalating after 2009 or so when cars for clunkers came into effect. In addition, todays cars are making 10 year old cars look good. There are none left.
Hi Swamp,
Yeah, but I think it’s objectively worse. For example, I bought my first house for $159k circa 1997; this was near Dulles Airport, so viable to commute into DC to work. That same house – literally, my old house – sold recently for almost $600k. Mind, the house was built in the early ’70s, sat on a small (1/4 acre) was just 1,600 sq. ft and not very well-built.
But nonetheless, in the mid-’90s, a young guy not long out of college could afford to buy a house in the DC ‘burbs on the modest salary of a reporter at The Washington Times.
Yeah, we largely agree. $159 k was a lot of money in 1997. I would have recoiled at that. I couldn’t afford that on the salary I was making back then. I bet you’re glad you got out when you did. Prices are climbing everywhere. Even in good old rural areas. A lot of places in Texas are now unaffordable.
swamp, the hill country is being re-settle by people from other states where the salary is much higher than Texas and the people who’ve had property for decades are now being forced out by taxes.
Eight. I see the same thing. It’s insane. The land of small government hasn’t bothered to cap property taxes to 3% a year like Florida has. I don’t think that property should be taxed at all, but if it is, it should be based on age and square feet, not on “value.”
swamp, it’s not a mistake or oversight on their part. They are greedy and don’t care one whit about the people who settled the area and made it what it is. Bureaucracy as it’s finest/worst. The next property owners will have the money to not only buy that property but pay the taxes too. It’s a win/win for the scum that work at the courthouse.
I started my adult life with more than $50,000 debt. Worked up to 3 jobs to try to pay rent while in school. Ultimately couldn’t pay for it and couldn’t finish my degree. I’ve worked job after job, always seeking something better, or recovering from lay-offs. I’ll never get ahead. My monthly expenses of the very basic necessities, rent, utilities, food, car, often exceed my earning power. There is no way out. I only hope my stress induced heart attack comes soon. If I were more courageous (not a millennial trait) I’d take myself out.
Don’t feel alone friend. Many of us started out that way- with a judgement for bastard tax which can easily exceed your paycheck. The statists of course call it “chile support”. Ive had to do everything the hard way all my life- but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m better than those who had it easy.
We can thank the Federal Reserve and Corpgov for the destruction of our money. Today OM is running over trillion dollar deficits funded mostly by the FRB. 70 billion per month of (Not) QE (called printing) and more billions in the overnight REPO market. Inflation is running 10-12pct. if you knows your maffs and are above average in cognitive skills. Course its all conspiracy theory and according to Corpgov inflation is a paltry 1-2pct.
I had always wished that we had had a fiscally conservative president in my lifetime. Pretty obviousw now that we’ll never have one.
I can do better than that! Even back in the 1980s you could still buy a house in Aspen for $200K. Today you can’t even get a studio condo for under a million. Oh sure that house was probably built around a mining shack from the 1880s, but it was available.
Most of the inflation in houses is because houses went from something you lived in to something you “invested” in. And Realtors® figured out that they had to mark up the house by 20% to justify their commission, so they’d better or else we might decide we don’t need them anymore.
Glad you caught on Nunz. And contrary to what the sheeple think, there’s little(or has been all my life)in voting Dem or Rep. Two sides of the same coin.
You can buy a 3 bedroom house (with full basement and garage) on an acre lot in the town where I grew up for ~$100,000. But who the hell wants to live there? No jobs, high taxes, rotten infrastructure. Lots of potential but few takers aside from rent seekers who won’t do anything without a grant or government backing. Growth industry is health care but only because everyone in town is over 70.
Sounds just like my home town, Sharon, PA. When I was just a lad, the Westinghouse plant, Sharon Steel, and a few smaller manufacturing concerns made the area prosperous. Now it is a depressed region, relying mostly on the health care industry.
Btw, the local power company had Ready Kilowatt as its public face. Any relation to you?
No, I’m a cable guy, but I have a ton of respect for power workers. As I once told a friend who retired from the local energy coop, “You guys bring civilization, we destroy it.”
I grew up in Johnstown, got to witness the destruction of Bethlehem Steel and the city. My parents are still there, along with everyone else’s, but just about everyone left for greener pastures years ago.
Funny thing is I see the hubris that killed The Steel happening in the management of the (monopoly) company I work for today. They have no idea what real competition is like, and are watching as Netflix and other streaming services take our customers while we do almost nothing to keep them. Oh we do have some tepid alternatives, but it’s not better and won’t be.
RK, it’s Willy Wiredhand in my parts. Not only do I have nothing negative to say about those guys who do field work, I commend them and support them in ever way.
I’ve seen too many of them permanently injured and killed just working for too low a wage. When we have a power outage I call and let them know and rarely have they not already known. I just do it to help them know where the outage extends to.
They always say they’ll call me back and I say don’t bother, I’ll know when the power is on and you have a job to do communicating with the field. My hat is continually off to these people. I’ve done some of the work in a construction type of way and that’s plenty dangerous. It’s nothing compared to tornadoes and driving sleet, rain, snow and all those other forms of precipitation that can get you killed by themselves.
Amen to all of that, Eric!
Those poor kids just don’t know any better, ’cause the current arrangement is what they’ve been born into, and thus they’ve never known anything different. Even the influences of past generations is no longer a factor (like it was to us), as their parents and grandparents are Boomers and Xers….and I can tell you (I guess I’m kinda right on the cusp between the two- 1962) that my generation dropped the ball! So many of my generation are the persnickety safety-cultist government-loving dicks who could not well menage their own lives; and who have spawned even worse kids and grandkids.
When I was yoiung, my grandparents and other elderly folks would speak of how they immigrated; their independence; how they made out just fine during the Depression, etc. They’d criticize the modern things they didn’t like, and didn’t jump on every bandwagon that came along; but rather, practiced tried and true things that worked well, and passed on wisdom to their progeny.
Today? Pffffttt! “Grandpa” will tell you about how high he got at Woodstock, as he texts on his phone and supports Bernie Sanders, ’cause “Obama goan pay all muh bills!”.
That is one of the reasons I love the novel This Perfect Day by Ira Levin…. The main character in the Orwellian society awakens due to what he remembers his grandfather telling him at a yoiung age; and as he plods through young adulthood as they try and force him into the mold they cast for him, he sees exactly what his grandfather meant about freedom and choice…and thus starts his journey to evade the system.
Old folks no longer seem to be wise; and those who are, were wise enough not to have kids in a world where they realized that their kids wouldn’t be free.
Today’s old folks are more like this (short):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZwKXYjqCPY
That is so true, Nunz. My great-grandmother (Lost Generation) told my uncle never to get married because modern women will steal your money.
roflmao,,,, If you paid almost a half a million dollars in your life for insurance would you consider that “free” when you decide to collect? Paying 15% of income for SS and Medicare. Personally I paid and didn’t mind because it was helping people that really could not help themselves. Not the fake disabled. And no, I am not a raging liberal.
Before you say SS isn’t insurance consider what FICA means. Federal INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS Act. Amazing the morons conflate SS with welfare, food stamps, SS disability for non disabled (fat) or other “freebies”. The two times I was in the local SS office 90% were under the age of 35.
It isn’t the fault of the elderly that the government robbed the fund to spend on wars and tools of war and still is. Of course few are concerned over that. That pays dividends.
That’s not the way it works, Ken.
The Soc. Sec. tax one pays today goes to pay for the benefits of those who are currently receiving them. It’s a Ponzi scheme with a promise: “You pay to support someone today, we tax your children and strangers when you’re old, and you collect from that”.
They thus make you feel entitled to the fruit of other’s labor, because you paid the tax which was impose3d on you without choice, and therefore feel that that gives you a legitimate claim to the require that others pay for you when it’s “your turn to collect”.
It’s no different than welfare- because you’ve paid taxes for that too. In fact, the Supreme Court has even ruled that SS IS a welfare program, and the decision is even cited on the SSA website under “History of Social Security”.
I often use the example of a relative of mine, who worked from c. 1940-1980. Computing what he paid in Soc Sec taxes- being overgenerous and even calculating as if what he earned in his later years (Which was much more, obviously, than he earned in 1940), and at the 1980 rate (“…”), and then DOUBLING it, just to be extra fair……it comes out to around $20K that he paid in.
Meanwhile, he received “retirement benefits” for nearly 25 years; His then wife collected on his “account”; He had a daughter who has received SSI for over 40 years now; His first wife started collecting on his “account” after he died…and more…. When I had calculate3d this years ago (And the daughter and one wife are still alive, so the benefits are still racking up) I had come up with a conservative estimate of over $2Million in benefits paid out…for $20K paid in.
Where do you think that extra $1,980,000.00 came from?
Instead of taking care of our own parents while they live, if for some reason they need it after 7 decades of living in a prosperous first-world nation, we instead must pay all of our working lives for other people’s parents.
And yet why refuse what is proffered, since we were forced to participate in such a scheme, with no opt out? And yet to do so, requires the continuation of the Ponzi scheme.
The idea to set it up that way was pure evil genius! It is a self-perpetuating oppression that will never end until the whole system collapses. They out-did Carlo Ponzi himself! Mere humans could not have conceived of such a diabolical thing.
Now throw in a sub-replacement birth rate…
Hi Nunz, This is one thing I never get in the west. Its even worse in Europe where people just dont think they could survive without Gov. One of the things they always say is taxes and government are needed to take care of the elderly. And when I tell them why cant people just look after their own elderly, as they once did, and as in most parts of the world outside the west, people STILL do, and do so just fine.
You can’t be a good human resource to the corporate-government partnership that way. Looking after children, the elderly, etc themselves means less people working. Less taxes, less loans, less everything for those at the top of the pyramid. That’s why it can’t be done that way any more.
Nunz,,, Most today can barley survive on their meager wages. They cannot save a dime. What should we do with them at 65…. line them up and shoot them?
First off those paying in 1940s dollars which were worth far, far more than today’s FRN. You mention trying to be fair but you are probably using the inflation calculators from the same people that are saying there is no inflation.
Children taking care of their parents? It now cost $1000 to $1500 per month to cover a family,,, all due to government interference. How much do you suppose it would cost to add aged parents? And who could afford it when most today are living paycheck to paycheck? “That’s their problem” I assume you would respond.
Saving for retirement? Put a hundred dollars today in savings, how much do you think it would be worth 50 years from now? 7 to 1 says the Feds inflation calculator and you know they’re BSing. BIG TIME. That $100 would be lucky to purchase $1 at the rate they’re inflating. We have just passed 23 trillion in debt and it wasn’t Granny that caused it. I suggest you look at the Middle East.
When SS first started it did not include the many programs that now infest the system. There is so much fraud it’s sickening.
I notice you never brought up the theft of trillions of SS dollars in the Clinton years. I also note you don’t mention them used for military and military hardware.
I lived through the 60s, 70s 80s etc. All the way through we were told to save a certain amount of our earnings to supplement SS. Most, including me did exactly that.
Today now that we spent everything on wars and military we are broke. Reducing military, stopping wars is never mentioned but starving Granny seems to be the popular fix. The Empire must continue…
My question is,,, do you want these elderly people to starve and just die off since many don’t have children capable of taking care of them, since the savings they were told to do will no longer support them due to the daily destruction of the dollar by the Fed and Corpgov. They’re expendable?
Gott go…. Spending some more of that SS I don’t deserve. But for you, I’ll use my savings this trip.
Hi Ken,
“Most today can barley survive…”
I can’t survive without barley.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy,
“ I can’t survive without barley.”
Nor I without the addition of hops.
Tuanorea,
Nor a little yeast and lots of water.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy
That was a reading comprehension test.
You pass! 🙂
Thanks Ken,
I’m curious, which post?
Cheers,
Jeremy
Hi Ken,
Never mind, I see.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Government scams people. They misuse words all the time. See “Patriot Act”.
All private insurance has by contract obligations, terms, and in the case of some life insurance, even cash value. The government’s courts ruled that social security has none of these things. They ruled it is a welfare program that exists at the whim of congress. FICA is simply another payroll tax on wages and salaries.
That’s awesome that some young people are diabling that BS in modern automobiles. The millenials and Gen Z are an interesting bunch, a paradoxical lot. On one hand there are a good number of them who openly embrace communism, most all of them who don’t have any earthly idea of what it entails and a smaller group are extreme libertarians. The difference between us, Gen X and younger boomers, and them is that their views are even more strident and the group as a whole, is more equipped to fight than we were. Interesting. On our side, the internet has given rise to a group of paleo libertarians such as Katlin Bennett (the Ohio State Gun Girl), Millie Weaver, Alex Jones, etc as well as others like Mark Dice, who are willing to shake the bushes and let it fall. On the other side, we have George Soros funding his goon squad of Antifa and zombie degenerates. We will see how it all plays out. I hope I’m gone before the war breaks out, to be honest.
I always thought you were in your 80s, swamp.
In other words, they don’t fit into a nice neat demographic pigeonhole. That started in the 1980s with the desktop publishing and cable TV revolutions in media. Then in the 1990s it blew up with blogs and digital multitrack recording. Now they want to put that genie back in the bottle and get their power back. The best they can do is try to build collisions and pretend they’re all unified. The Republicans are still able to keep the old people voting together, but they’re dying off quickly. I don’t see a viable conservative strategy for anyone under 40, but they’re out there just looking for someone to draw them in. Of course the real answer is to end the “big two” party system, but that would take a lot of lawsuits, states exerting their rights and a Supreme Court that was truly independent. In other words, it ain’t gonna happen without the whole thing crashing.
Ugh! Should have proofed that! “In other words…” twice in the same post!