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Upzone Suburbia:
Boy Scouts practice "Leave No Trace"
1) In wilderness, spread out so nature can recover ASAP.
2) At campsites, centralize impact and leave the rest pristine.
Suburbia is just #1 camping but also cutting down the trees!!!
Rural=good
Upzoned=good
Sprawl=bad
SignalToNoiseRatio retweeted
“He jailed socialists, so he wasn’t a socialist.”
This is the argument every single person in my replies thinks is a mic drop. It’s actually the weakest one available, and it collapses in five seconds.
Lenin banned the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries. Both were socialist parties. By your logic, Lenin wasn’t a socialist.
Stalin shot Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and sent an ice axe through Trotsky’s skull. All of them were founding fathers of the Bolshevik revolution. By your logic, Stalin wasn’t a socialist.
Mao purged Liu Shaoqi, the President of the People’s Republic, and let him die in a cell. Pol Pot murdered his own cadres by the thousands. Robespierre sent Danton to the guillotine, then got the guillotine himself.
There’s a reason Vergniaud said the Revolution, like Saturn, devours its own children. Purging rival socialists isn’t evidence against collectivism. It’s one of its most reliable signatures.
Why? Because when the state decides everything, there can only be one plan. Two factions with two plans for the same economy can’t coexist. One has to disappear. In a free society, disagreements get settled by markets and elections. In a planned society, they get settled by the secret police. Hitler crushing the SPD and the KPD, then murdering Röhm and Strasser in his own party, is exactly what you’d predict from a regime competing for the same thing: total control of the economy and of society.
And that’s the real question. Not “what did he call himself” and not “who did he arrest”. The question is: who runs the economy? Under the Nazis, independent unions were abolished and replaced by a state labor front. Prices and wages were frozen by decree. Investment was directed by a Four-Year Plan. Private property existed on paper, as long as owners did exactly what the state told them to do.
Hayek saw this in real time. He dedicated The Road to Serfdom “To the socialists of all parties” precisely because he understood that the planners of the left and the planners of the right were the same species. Collectivism isn’t a color on the political spectrum. It’s the belief that a central authority can and should direct the economy. Once you accept that, the purges, the camps and the one-party state aren’t accidents. They’re the operating manual.
So no, “he jailed communists” doesn’t refute anything. Communists jailed communists for seventy years.
Read Hayek. Then come back.
This probably hits hard if you failed history in high school.
Hitler was a far-Right fascist whose party was named the National Socialist German Workers' Party to attract working-class voters.
Then he banned the Social Democratic and Communist parties, and sent socialists and communists to concentration camps.
SignalToNoiseRatio retweeted
It's been months that I keep saying Hitler was far left. Every time, thousands of clowns show up in my replies to give me history lessons.
So I made a video to answer all these low IQ takes at once.
Topic closed. Next.
Same experience for me.
I did 700+ miles last weekend and paid $86 at superchargers.
Every session was 15 to 25 minutes except for the single time I decided to go for 100% battery... which happened while I was sitting in a restaurant eating dinner, anyway!
Nothingburgers.
I know the gas people are going to push back but...
I just did my first long road trip with the Tesla and I gotta say, I don't think it takes any more time to charge than to get gas. Hear me out on this.
If I were getting gas, firstly I'd have to wait for a pump half the time. Then actually pump the gas before J could go in and use the restroom, get a snack etc.
With charging I don't have to stand there and wait for it to get full, I just plug in and go in. It's usually done charging or close to it after I pee and get a drink or something.
I'm just saying, in real life, it really does not take longer because you do other stuff. Idk anyone that's not running into pee when they stop for gas. $TSLA
I tell every Humanities and Lib Arts students this same thing:
"It's a hell of a lot easier to live life as a barista *without* $40,000 of student debt than it is to be a batista *with* $40,000 of student loan debt.
We should never have let Deborah get into this situation.
I’m not apologetic about this: minimum wage should be enough to enjoy your life.
I studied a liberal arts course and owe $40,000 in student loans.
I applied for jobs but didn’t get a single offer, despite graduating with a good bachelor’s degree.
I decided to work in a coffee shop until I can find a good job, or I risk getting deported.
But apparently, $3,000 per month, tips included, can barely cover your rent and utilities in a city people call the best in the world. 🤦♀️
So you’re telling me my life is just work, pay bills, and sleep?
I can’t go to concerts, hang out with my friends, or travel?
And meanwhile, people are becoming trillionaires?
This is not okay.
This is why I bought mine.
I stopped considering all other vehicles about a year ago and if I ever buy a non-FSD vehicle again, it will probably be a specialty product like motorhome, tractor or snowmobile.
Now do microwave ovens...
I've lived in China 🇨🇳 for nearly fifteen years, and I've reached a rather disturbing conclusion.
I'm not entirely sure I could survive twenty-four hours here without my mobile phone.
Not because I'm addicted to social media. Because China has made the smartphone an almost indispensable part of everyday life.
Take shopping. I hardly ever carry cash. I pay for practically everything using WeChat or Alipay. Supermarkets. Coffee shops. Restaurants. Even the little old lady selling vegetables beside the road has a QR code.
Want a taxi? Open DiDi. Want to order food? Open Meituan. Need to find somewhere? Open a map. Can't understand what somebody is saying? Open a translation app.
Even getting into my university involves technology. The gates use facial recognition, although fortunately my ageing face still seems to be recognisable.
Then there's the train. I can book a ticket on my phone, choose my seat and travel across China without ever needing a paper ticket.
It's extraordinary. And wonderfully convenient.
Until you start thinking about what happens when the phone stops working.
Imagine you're out shopping. Your battery is almost dead. You want to get home, but you can't book a DiDi. You want to buy something to eat, but you can't pay. You can't even telephone your wife to come and rescue you.
Of course, cash still works in China. Shops are supposed to accept it. But that isn't much consolation when you haven't brought any.
I actually have a wallet containing two 100 RMB notes. Emergency money. The trouble is that the wallet usually lives in a drawer beside my bed.
Very useful in an emergency. Provided the emergency happens in my bedroom.
And here's the strange thing. When I first arrived in China in 2011, I managed perfectly well without all these apps. I carried cash, hailed taxis in the street and occasionally got hopelessly lost.
Fifteen years later, China has made almost everything easier.
But I sometimes wonder whether we've exchanged a little independence for all that convenience.
So here's a question for people living in China, and perhaps elsewhere too.
Could you manage twenty-four hours of ordinary life without your smartphone?
And I don't mean sitting at home watching television. I mean going out, shopping, travelling, eating and getting home again.
I'm beginning to think I should try it.
Although perhaps I'll take my wallet.
I really wish this was a misquote but it's not.
Boomer NIMBYs literally expend the bulk of their political ammunition making life more difficult and expensive for future generations, but whine and cry when anyone from those generations tries to fix those things.
Peak hypocrisy.
Replying to @BayAreaNewLibs
"If we lower your quality of life, that's okay, you'll find ways to cope!"
If there was a finite point at which sufficient taxes had been paid, then every parcel of land where the sewer and water were installed more than 50 years ago would tax exempt because prior owners paid it.
Absolutely useless approach to addressing the issue.
Replying to @EssexFal
I agree on the issue of group think. However, the genuine argument about property taxes has nothing to do with whether you have a mortgage or not.
The real discussion is the concept of property rights. I believe that there should be some finite point when enough property tax has been paid.
You can argue whether that is a date or a dollar amount. But there definitely needs to be a defined ending point.
However, the real argument of taxes goes deeper and that is the collection mechanism, which as I have stated is rooted in violence. If you don't pay, at some point men with guns will show up and force you to.
There are better, less violent ways, but the politicians will never entertain those possibilities because it hinders their ability to control the population.
Right-YIMBY here.
I have zero disdain; I just want:
1) The "ordinary people" choosing that lifestyle to actually fund (in dollars) the externalities of that lifestyle.
2) Stop demanding that everyone else choose the "ordinary people" lifestyle. Let's be extraordinary!!!
SignalToNoiseRatio retweeted
France has FREE health care, paid parental leave, paid family leave, FREE child care, FREE preschool, 5 weeks paid vacation, a 35 hour work week, generous unemployment and housing benefits, and heavily subsidized higher education.
Everything the left says they want AND THEY'RE STILL PROTESTING AND BURNING SHIT DOWN.
This concept is a little bit less than ½ correct.
The problem IS NOT solved by JUST building more housing.
The problem is solved by having MORE FREEDOM for the Unseen Hand to build housing only where people want it.
Regulate safety and durability.
DO NOT regulate quantity!!!
San Francisco: We often hear, "If we just build more housing, it will be affordable. Supply and demand dummy!"
This seems reasonable on the surface, but think a few layers deeper.
If we keep following this advice, at some point we end up like NYC; they have far more housing per square mile than SF.
NYC is dense to the point of near-complete dysfunction. You see piles of trash everywhere, as they can't manage the load. It's one of the only cities with an income tax, because the city has become an unmanageable beast.
Yet, people there are saying the same thing: "If we just build more housing, it will be affordable. Supply and demand!"
The sad truth is that if 5 million people want to live somewhere, there is only one way that density makes it cheaper: by making it so dense, so uncomfortable, so disgusting, so dangerous, that people no longer want to live there.
In other words, if once demand reaches a certain level, no amount of supply will make it cheap. So the only way to make it cheap is to make it so shitty that demand plummets.
Lucky for us, the US has an abundance of cheap land, and we have dying towns that have infrastructure that could be extended. SF was a dying town in the 70s, and people revived it. We can do the same elsewhere.
So instead of ruining cities to make them cheaper, we can build cheaper cities. This is the way!
You use police services EVERY HOUR of your life.
Everyone does.
If the police didn't exist, life would be hell.
No different from the USS Ronald Reagan. The fact that *you* don't see an aircraft carrier every day doesn't mean it's not scaring the shit out of would-be enemies.
Funny how people think this reply is clever.
How many times has the average person used police and fire in the last five years? What would the dollar value of regular security patrols and on call services?
Would roads exist without taxes as they have for all of human history?
How would snow plowing work? What is the cost of schools?
If people actually itemized and paid for what they actually used it would be a tiny fraction of what most people pay in taxes.
SignalToNoiseRatio retweeted
I’m young. I don’t need to go to the doctor regularly. Why would I pay Medicare tax?
“I’m old. I’ve paid my home off,” said Ray Warner, a 72-year-old Akron resident. “Why would I pay property tax?”
Across the country, homeowners are asking the same question and revolting against property taxes at a scale not seen in a half century.
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
I used to be a Libertarian.
Then I realized that every single Libertarian health care policy variant boils down to, "Just let the poor people die and get it over with."
I'm done with them (until they have a real idea).
I don’t think I’ve ever asked this before.
What is something you used to believe or be against, but have changed your mind on in recent years?
For me, the biggest thing would be that I am now pro-EVs (mainly the Telsa brand). I used to be against ‘em, but technology has improved significantly and in many cases they outperform ICEs. I do not care about the environmental angle that much or that Elon is the CEO. They just make a great product.
I am still against EV mandates. I believe consumers should be able to choose the types of vehicles they want to drive!
DSA "math"
MorePerfectUnion “If you spend more than $80,000 renovating an apartment you are trying to turn it from affordable to luxury.”
NYS Lawmakers “Renovations cost $30,000. Anything more than that is greed.”
And then…
Public housing. “We need at least $489,000 per unit to renovate.”
City of New York. “We are giving a public housing development $529,000 per unit to renovate it.”
I mean COME ON!
SignalToNoiseRatio retweeted
“The Boomers didn’t expect to get Social Security, and they still did”
They would not have if the Government did not raise the SS tax 13 times in their lifetime and increase the retirement age
Is that what you want Gen Z and Gen Y?
The moment you figure out a way to exempt yourself from police service, you has better stock up on ammunition, stop sleeping and never leave your house.
The thugs will be patiently waiting to rob your home.
Be grateful strong men stand ready to do violence on your behalf.
Riddle me this.
If I'm not paying property taxes for the property, but I'm rather paying them for duh rhoadz, duh polize, duh fyre departmentz, and duh schoolz, then why would failing to pay property taxes result in my house being seized instead of just losing access to public roads, the police, and fire departments?
I could see this going somewhere...
Replying to @carney @RRSport2022
Ok, let's play out your question. Let's factor in the mortgage obligation into the taxing equation. So in the early years when you put 20% down and the bank owns 80% of your home, the BANK should pay 80% of the property tax.























