46 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-0400
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title: 2026-03-14 08:24:04
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tags:
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- status/draft
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date-created: 2026-03-14T08:24:04-04:00
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daily: "[[2026-03-14]]"
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---
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# 2026-03-14 08:24:04
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My dad frequently tells me how people (especially immigrants)
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are taking undue advantage of welfare and other government programs.
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His favorite example right now is the "Somali daycare fraud".
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He tries to bait me into agreeing that these people are lazy or selfish.
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It's a frustrating line of argument,
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especially from a man I know is intelligent,
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because the blame is so obviously misplaced.
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It's not logical to criticize the abusers of government aid
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that you already believed was inappropriate.
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Despite benefiting from regulation in every aspect of his life,
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he fancies himself a small government type.
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For a libertarian like he claims to be,
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abuse of government programs
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is just a symptom of the real problem,
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that the programs exist in the first place.
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Complaining about something directly offensive to your personal sensibilities
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is just whining,
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and whining is a net negative for yourself and potential supporters,
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since it negatively impacts perception of your cause.
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Only the people responsible for the offense are unaffected,
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they may even be benefited by your tantrum,
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if (by pouting) you get the relief of catharsis,
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and don't actually do anything about the real problem.
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Turning whining into belief requires considering
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* why the the thing you don't like happens,
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* what could be done to stop it from happening,
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* what the secondary impacts of the solution would be,
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* if the result is even worth the cost.
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These are the bare minimum for discussing societal,
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or even just organizational issues.
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Until you have done them all several times
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and understand the problem from all sides,
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keep that shit to yourself.
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