---
id: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-0400
title: 2026-03-14 08:24:04
tags:
  - status/draft
date-created: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-04:00
daily: "[[2026-03-14]]"
---
# 2026-03-14 08:24:04

My dad frequently tells me how people (especially immigrants)
are taking undue advantage of welfare and other government programs.
His favorite example right now is the "Somali daycare fraud".
He tries to bait me into agreeing that these people are lazy or selfish.
It's a frustrating line of argument,
especially from a man I know is intelligent,
because the blame is so obviously misplaced.
It's not logical to criticize the abusers of government aid
that you already believed was inappropriate.
Despite benefiting from regulation in every aspect of his life,
he fancies himself a small government type.
For a libertarian like he claims to be,
abuse of government programs
is just a symptom of the real problem,
that the programs exist in the first place.

Complaining about something directly offensive to your personal sensibilities
is just whining,
and whining is a net negative for yourself and potential supporters,
since it negatively impacts perception of your cause.
Only the people responsible for the offense are unaffected,
they may even be benefited by your tantrum,
if (by pouting) you get the relief of catharsis,
and don't actually do anything about the real problem.

Turning whining into belief requires considering
* why the the thing you don't like happens,
* what could be done to stop it from happening,
* what the secondary impacts of the solution would be,
* if the result is even worth the cost.
These are the bare minimum for discussing societal,
or even just organizational issues.
Until you have done them all several times
and understand the problem from all sides,
keep that shit to yourself.
