farmaway (u/farmaway)

farmaway commented on Missouri House Republicans vote to defund libraries heartlandsignal.com/2023/... · Posted by u/herbertl

BitwiseFool · 3 years ago

My rule of thumb is that if something sounds completely evil and it exactly conforms to a political stereotype, there must be more to the story.

The article itself is somewhat thin on the details. Would anyone who knows more about the situation be able to give some nuance? I have a feeling this is brinkmanship at play.

farmaway · 3 years ago

I'm an American who leans politically center-right. Here's my opinionated perspective on this issue.

In recent years, public libraries across the US and UK have hosted a number of Drag Queen Story Hours. These are events where men dressed as sexual parodies of women read books to young children. Sometimes the men dance provocatively for the kids, or wear revealing outfits, or have kids climb all over them:

https://alphanews.org/drag-queen-flashes-crotch-to-children-...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VA72t7o24I

https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Drag...

Several performers and sponsors of these events have turned out to be sex offenders:

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/houston-public-libra...

https://reduxx.info/drag-queen-charged-with-25-counts-of-fel...

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/second-drag-queen-story-ho...

Across the pond, the founder of Drag Queen Story Hour UK has tweeted "love has no age" and openly associates with pedophiles:

https://thepostmillennial.com/founder-of-uk-drag-queen-story...

At the same time, "child-friendly" and "all-ages" drag shows have popped up at gay bars and clubs across the US. These are often much more sexually provocative than shows hosted in libraries:

https://reduxx.info/children-tipped-drag-queens-during-perfo...

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1543662744616013825

https://twitter.com/TaylerUSA/status/1538733481492094977

Far-left militia armed with AR-15s have shown up at some all-ages shows to "protect" them from protestors. The armed militants in these photos are self-identified anti-fascists:

https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2022/08/30/drag-brunch-ro...

These events have become the focus intense polarization. Republicans say they're sexual performances designed to desensitize kids to advances from adults. Democrats say they're expressions of LGBT pride.

There is a growing conservative backlash to "all-ages" or "family-friendly" drag events generally and Drag Queen Story Hour in particular. Many parents are uncomfortable with the sexual displays aimed at children. Some women see drag as sexual blackface. This backlash is framed by Democrats as opposition to drag shows in general, which generally speaking is untrue. It is the targeting of young children that aggravates conservatives.

Librarians host these events in taxpayer-funded venues. The elected government of the state of Missouri seeks to limit this practice.

farmaway commented on Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco sfgate.com/bayarea/articl... · Posted by u/rdl

dmode · 3 years ago

This is sad news, but as much as I am a critic of SF’s policies around homelessness and drugs, it is not a dangerous city that someone will get murdered. SF has one of the lowest homicide rates of big cities. For some perspective, Oakland has half the population of SF and almost 3x the murder rate

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pictures/murder-map-deadliest-u-...

farmaway · 3 years ago

>as much as I am a critic of SF’s policies around homelessness and drugs, it is not a dangerous city that someone will get murdered.

If you read the article, you'll find that SF is a dangerous city in which someone was just senselessly murdered.

farmaway commented on Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco sfgate.com/bayarea/articl... · Posted by u/rdl

mangosteenjuice · 3 years ago

I believe it was flagged because the deceased's family does not want the name publicly known.

farmaway · 3 years ago

That is interesting speculation. In any case, the victim's name is now a matter of public record:

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/fatal-stabbing-bob...

farmaway commented on Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco sfgate.com/bayarea/articl... · Posted by u/rdl

happytoexplain · 3 years ago

I didn't flag it, but if you read the comments here, there is confusion about whether it's even him (apparently the identity was only even mentioned in a now-deleted comment on the article), and there's also the usual amount of posts about SF that are just using the topic as an excuse to express partisan anger. Both are reasonable reasons to flag. If you jump to conspiratorial sarcasm so quickly, that contributes to the problem.

farmaway · 3 years ago

It's not a conspiracy theory. It's a dynamic I've seen in play out on the front page before, on many occasions, in real-time.

farmaway commented on Sam Altman wants to convince billions to scan eyes to prove they aren’t bots finance.yahoo.com/news/op... · Posted by u/vitabenes

weego · 3 years ago

I watched a snippet of him on Les Fridmans podcast. Now, granted Fridman has kind of outed himself as a complete hack more recently.

Watching those two wring their hands over whether GPT is 'conscious' cemented my opinion that this is all just choreographed pantomime and a white tech-upper class quasi cult.

Anything inflating his ideas into personal space is just a land-grab now.

farmaway · 3 years ago

>a white tech-upper class quasi cult.

>Sam Altman and Lex Fridman

This thing with white Gentiles and Jews reminds of tennis pros from Scotland. They're described in the English press as Scottish when they lose and British when they win. Likewise, if a member of the tribe does something bad in America it's on whiteness and white supremacy, but if they do something great we suddenly remember that they're Jewish. A conspicuous pattern, and not one that I think is good for relations in the long run.

farmaway commented on Cargo theft, led by food and beverage, is surging across the U.S. cnbc.com/2023/03/25/cargo... · Posted by u/cwwc

magicalist · 3 years ago

> San Francisco decriminalized thefts under a dollar value of $950. This is direct, object-level proof of the original point in question.

Even a cursory search will inform you this is false, so let's not swing around accusations of acting in bad faith. Shoplifting under $950 is a misdemeanor and still punishable by jail time.

The argument that the only way to stop shoplifting is to have tougher sentences is the kind of galaxy brain take that gave us five decades and counting of the War on Drugs.

And as I noted in another comment, there was no evidence of this rash of shoplifting these stories so breathlessly repeated, and Walgreens themselves now admit it

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shopli...

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Is-shoplifting-forcin...

farmaway · 3 years ago

>Even a cursory search will inform you this is false

I did a cursory search and instantly substantiated the WSJ's claim:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-san-francisco-sho...

>In an interview with NBC News last week, Scott suggested that California's Proposition 47, which voters passed in 2014 and lowered criminal sentences for certain nonviolent crimes like shoplifting and check forgery, is being exploited by those who want to commit theft. The initiative set a threshold of $950 for shoplifting to be considered a misdemeanor, which doesn't prompt law enforcement to make an arrest, rather than a felony, which could incur harsh penalties like jail time.

Just give up the semantic games already. Walgreens is closing many of their stores in SF due to crime. Your last link pulls the trick of acknowledging objective reality in the first paragraph, then inventing fanfiction to handwave it away for the rest of the article:

>One of the stores set to close, on Ocean Avenue, had only seven reported shoplifting incidents this year and a total of 23 since 2018, the data showed. While not all shoplifting incidents are reported to police, the five stores slated to close had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.

Store owners aren't reporting thefts of under $950 to the police because the DA and police told them they won't do anything about it, which is the point I have proven that you keep trying to dodge.

farmaway commented on Cigna saves millions by having its doctors reject claims without reading them propublica.org/article/ci... · Posted by u/metadat

davidw · 3 years ago

> If voting could change anything it’d be illegal.

The absolute best way to ensure that nothing changes is to get cynical and try and demotivate anyone else from trying.

farmaway · 3 years ago

Maybe you're both right.