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timestamped/2026-03-14_08-24-04.md

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+---
+id: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-04:00
+aliases: []
+title: 2026-03-14 08:24:04
+tags:
+  - authorship/original
+  - destiny/permanent
+  - status/draft
+  - type/periodic/timestamped
+dg-publish: true
+date-created: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-04:00
+daily: "[[2026-03-14]]"
+weekly: "[[2026-W11]]"
+monthly: "[[2026-03]]"
+quarterly: "[[2026-Q1]]"
+yearly: "[[2026]]"
+---
+# 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.