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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • They said the problem was “widespread”. I’m saying it’s not like everywhere you look, but it feels worse than it is if you only go to the high traffic areas where homeless people go to beg for help.

    Cost of living is rising higher than salaries everywhere. This isn’t unique to New York.

    The fact that homeless people exist is a poor reason to avoid New York, in my view. People act like you’re going to be wrestling with the homeless every day.

    We should do more than ignore the homeless, but that’s a separate conversation.


  • If you live here you don’t really go through Penn station. That’s a major commuter hub.

    I’ve lived here for years and only go there if I need to go to NJ transit for some reason (which isn’t often).

    That’s like thinking all of NJ is Secaucus train station, or all of someplace else is just the airport. It’s not representative.







  • You seem to be media illiterate and I don’t know if I have it in me to do a whole course. But here I am typing on my phone.

    The comic is being derided because it’s showing the NYC subway as a dangerous place where fights just happen. This coincides with the common right wing belief that cities are dangerous, which has racist roots (see: white flight).

    In order for the joke to work, you need to accept that premise. Imagine if the comic was instead someone in the first frame holding a $100 ticket to a zoo, and then a $3 ticket to the subway, where the subway is full of elephants. That wouldn’t make any sense because there’s no idea that wild animals are on the train. It would simply be absurd.

    Even if the author didn’t intend to reference that fear of urban areas, it’s there. Death of the author. Authorial intent does not supersede the text. It can provide clues, but it can’t take something out.

    The joke doesn’t work without the racist context imported.

    The authors usage of woke could be any of those things, but given their comics seem to mostly be making fun of left wing positions, I don’t think it’s plausible that it’s some deep irony. It’s much more likely that they’re a simple right wing troll.

    Also like why are you going to bat so hard for this?






  • That doesn’t logically follow. No more than saying “Building more highways is bad for the environment, ergo the highway administrators benefit from having more cars on the road.” You’re looking at a problem of induced demand and concluding the problem is on the demand-side of the equation.

    What? Yes it does. Facebook needs users to generate revenue. With no users, they can’t sell ads or user data. How else do you think they make money? Do you not think making money is a benefit for the owners of facebook?

    It’s one node in a massive web. And it’s easy to say “Well, you have to do your part because <insert consumerist morality here>”. But mostly it’s just some random asshole on the internet telling me not to use my telephone because AT&T is run by a richer set of random assholes. There’s no material benefit to me and no collective coordinated action that I’m seriously participating in.

    You’re reminding me of Eleanor from the good place. Do you also litter? Refuse to return shopping carts?