Goronmon (u/Goronmon)

Goronmon commented on How does the US use water? construction-physics.com/... · Posted by u/juliangamble

bob1029 · 8 days ago

> Water in the US is generally both widely available and inexpensive: my monthly water bill is roughly 5% of the cost of my monthly electricity bill, and the service is far more reliable.

In my experience with municipal utility districts, the reliability of the water supply is typically not much better than the local power grid. The sewage lift stations seem to have the highest quality generator arrangements.

Goronmon · 7 days ago

Water in the US is generally both widely available and inexpensive: my monthly water bill is roughly 5% of the cost of my monthly electricity bill, and the service is far more reliable.

Is this the norm for most places in the US?

Where I live our water/sewer bill averages out to a little over $100 a month.

Goronmon commented on Trump Orders National Guard to Washington and Takeover of Capital’s Police nytimes.com/live/2025/08/... · Posted by u/Tadpole9181

burkaman · 18 days ago

If you don't trust the stats, then again, how would you know what effect the National Guard has? I can give you my subjective assessment as a DC resident, which is that crime is pretty low and it's a great place to live, but that isn't very useful to anyone who doesn't know me personally.

If you don't trust the stats then the Guard is being sent in for no reason and there will be no way to determine what impact they have. That is a terrible situation for everyone.

> It’s nice to be data driven but that isn’t really possible in our low trust society.

I don't think these concepts (interpersonal trust vs. accuracy of government statistics) are very related. For example China has one of the highest levels of interpersonal trust in the world (https://ourworldindata.org/trust), but notoriously unreliable government statistics.

Goronmon · 18 days ago

That is a terrible situation for everyone.

It's not terrible for everyone. It's great for people who control the National Guard as well as has the ability to control what people are told about their impact.

Goronmon commented on Itch.io seeks payment processors who work with with adult material rockpapershotgun.com/itch... · Posted by u/jfyi

jfyi · 24 days ago

I agree with you. I think you read that wrong.

The processor lied about Mastercard's involvement. It's par for the course in my experience that processors always try to offload blame on someone else. Then Mastercard saying explicitly that the decision wasn't made at their level.

I imagine you have had the same week of yelling at the wall on this issue I have.

Goronmon · 24 days ago

Then Mastercard saying explicitly that the decision wasn't made at their level.

You put much more trust in these companies than I do.

Goronmon commented on Itch.io seeks payment processors who work with with adult material rockpapershotgun.com/itch... · Posted by u/jfyi

dragontamer · 24 days ago

As I suspected, the problem seems to be Stripe and Paypal as this information comes out.

I kinda feel bad for the call centers and the legion of Reddit/Twitter users who were mislead by a few random meme protest .gif files. But I already learned my lesson back during the Reddit Boston Marathon bullshit: the crowds are stupid. Don't trust the hype, don't trust Reddit Posts that cite other Reddit posts that cite a tweet. Wait for real info.

That being said: Visa and MasterCard have been dicks in the past and somewhat deserve attention. I'm just a bit sad that this particular case is turning out to be more of a Stripe/Paypal issue instead as it means a lot of energy has been misdirected.

-------

I've still got my Discover card so that if the real call for action ever comes, I'm ready to move off Visa/Mastercard. But people need to seriously fact check their work before hyping an internet brigade next time.

Goronmon · 24 days ago

As I suspected, the problem seems to be Stripe and Paypal as this information comes out.

I'm not convinced that VISA and Mastercard are totally hands off about content and that Stripe and Paypal are going against their wishes to enforce content restrictions completely on their own.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1mf7uei/steam_update...

Goronmon commented on Corporation for Public Broadcasting ceasing operations cpb.org/pressroom/Corpora... · Posted by u/coloneltcb

unnamed76ri · a month ago

I’ll listen to snippets of right wing talk radio but it generally doesn’t take long before the exaggeration (Glenn Beck) or Trump idol worship (Clay Travis) get annoying.

I like hearing perspectives on stories that I won’t hear elsewhere but in general, I don’t need very much political news in my life. I’m happier spending my time on audio books and podcasts.

I’m not sure I’ve ever engaged with NPR beyond seeing conservatives mock some of their silliest propaganda headlines in the past few years.

Goronmon · a month ago

I’ll listen to snippets of right wing talk radio but it generally doesn’t take long before the exaggeration (Glenn Beck) or Trump idol worship (Clay Travis) get annoying.

I remember being in the gym and catching some coverage of Fox News on Trumps trade war and potential deals. I believe the quote from one of the people talking was something like:

"We don't know the specifics about what's in this deal but we do know that this is a huge win for American businesses and the American people."

Goronmon commented on Hawley and Democrats vote to advance congressional stock trading ban cbsnews.com/news/hawley-d... · Posted by u/hhs

card_zero · a month ago

Pay peas, get monks? Anyway the idea of preventing corruption by bribing them officially is weird. It means they aren't any more morally upstanding, and would still do corrupt activities in their minds, we just hope that when they're well paid they won't make the effort. On the basis that they're immoral and lazy, so it balances out.

Goronmon · a month ago

Anyway the idea of preventing corruption by bribing them officially is weird.

Labeling the act of someone getting paid to do a job as "bribery" is even more weird. While I certainly wouldn't do by current job if I was paid minimum wage, I don't know if I would say I'm being "bribed" by my employer to stick around. Even if it does appear to align with your new definition.

Goronmon commented on VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in ft.com/content/356674b0-9... · Posted by u/mmarian

thinkingtoilet · a month ago

Having a law saying children shouldn't view pornography isn't abuse. It's common sense. Just like saying a 12 year old can't legally buy weed. Is that a slippery slope? Should 12 year olds be able to buy weed? If not, why is that not a slippery slope and this is?

What needs to be kept in check is the scope. Let's say they try to age restrict sites that are subversive, but not obscene. That's what I'm talking about.

Goronmon · a month ago

Having a law saying children shouldn't view pornography isn't abuse.

"Children shouldn't view pornography" is fine as an overall goal. A law that suggest the content providers track the faces and passport details of all users is a ridiculous way to fail to prevent that however.

It is however a great way to have an readily accessible log of exactly which citizens are viewing content the government finds questionable.

Goronmon commented on VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in ft.com/content/356674b0-9... · Posted by u/mmarian

thinkingtoilet · a month ago

We require people to verify their age in person to access pornography, it doesn't seem like that far a stretch to require it online. You can't even by a ticket to an R-rated movie without age verification. That seems reasonable to me. I see I'm in the minority here. I understand the slippery slope argument but if we succumb to that then nothing could be done anywhere ever. I understand this could be abused, but it's up to us to make sure it isn't. I think that's why people don't like it, it requires diligence and effort to keep things sane. Much easier to just allow children to view content they absolutely shouldn't then be politically active and make sure our laws are sensible and our representatives are held accountable.

Goronmon · a month ago

I understand this could be abused, but it's up to us to make sure it isn't

Exactly, by protesting and fighting laws like this.

What exactly do you want people to "make sure of" with the law in place? If someone is concerned about this law, what specific action should they be taking in the name of "diligence"?

Goronmon commented on Against the censorship of adult content by payment processors soatok.blog/2025/07/24/ag... · Posted by u/SlackingOff123

coldpie · a month ago

> Is it controversial that companies aren't allowed to refuse service based on gender or race (in the US at least)?

Those are legal categories known as "protected classes," and yeah, it was and is pretty controversial[1]. I think you'd have a hard time getting purchasers of porn games declared a protected class.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 ; further reading, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_group

Goronmon · a month ago

Actually, it's not really controversial anymore [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964

Goronmon commented on Against the censorship of adult content by payment processors soatok.blog/2025/07/24/ag... · Posted by u/SlackingOff123

coldpie · a month ago

> THIS. Why is this PoV even controversial?

Because it is stating that the government should control private behavior, which bumps into free speech and freedom of association issues. That gets pretty controversial.

There are other solutions to the stated problem:

> Given their market dominance, they should absolutely not have any right to refuse service.

The fix is to address the precondition in that statement: their market dominance. If a single entity is so powerful that it can control entire markets, then the problem is not what it does with that power, but that it has that power in the first place.

The solution to this problem is enforcing our existing anti-trust laws, not passing new laws to compel private behavior. We should not have only one or two entities that control this entire market. That's a sign of a broken market, and that's what must be addressed.

Goronmon · a month ago

That gets pretty controversial.

Is this issue always controversial?

Is it controversial that companies aren't allowed to refuse service based on gender or race (in the US at least)?