Michael Kindt's Blog, page 42
July 12, 2016
I have been called many things in my years on social media, but "weapons grade smartass" is still my favorite.
Said by someone who I eventually pissed off, someone who subsequently “unfollowed” me or “unfriended” me, whatever it is you do when you hear dissonance in your echo chamber. I guess I was either too liberal or too conservative that day.
Hey, if you can’t hack it….
Social media creates intellectual clones. Everybody follows everybody else who is just like them. You get one big circle jerk.
Hey, at least your views are validated, though! On the internet, it seems like they’re important.
I try to break free of the echo chamber. I follow many liberals and conservatives, all of whom are gross. My skin is red and sore from all the showers I’m forced to take dealing with such subhumans. They’re worse than Canadians.
When I was young, like in my 20s, I hoped that people would one day think for themselves. In the age of social media, that is clearly impossible and will never happen in a zillion years. Social media is conformity’s bitch.
“Mind control”, “tracking devices”….these are terms bandied about by lunatic conspiracy people. Yet our phones track us everywhere we go, both online and geographically, and everybody on the internet is divided into precise groups which believe certain things precisely about very specific issues.
I’m not really pissed about all this, mind you, just bemused. A consuming fire is always entertaining to watch. One aspect of it all that I really love, though, is instead of sneakily planting tracking devices, like, under our skin or in our bloodstream, they have figured out a way for us to actually desire the tracking devices themselves, and even pay for them with our own money (or in the case of Millennials, with their parents’ money).
You gotta love it. Nothing says America more, baby.
WE’RE HIRING: The Dallas Police Department is offering...
WE’RE HIRING: The Dallas Police Department is offering protesters a chance to put down their signs and pick up a badge.
Put your money where your mouth is. Or ass where your mouth is, in this case. Fucking A.
July 11, 2016
In stock news
after the non-event that was Brexit, stocks in the U.S plummeted. They are now higher than they were before Brexit. Did you buy on the dip? Digital Ally, the company that makes all those dashboard and body cams that the police use went from $4 a share to $7 a share overnight after that chickenshit, tiny dicked motherfucker shot those cops in Dallas. The new Pokemon GO game caused Nintendo stock to rise 25% in a just a matter of hours.
Keep your nose to the ground, people, and have a happy Monday!
July 10, 2016
What if the police just quit (or went on a nation-wide strike)? Seriously. I'm not taking any sides here. But what if they, you know, just up and fucking quit?
Discuss…
They will never do that. Even if they did.
The Army.
They would be fired, new people would be trained and hired. In the interim, citizen volunteers would organize and step in with the help of federal law enforcement agencies and most importantly: we would have a chance to try again to get this policing thing right.
The Army is a scary idea. As for @hopwizard ‘s comment, I feel it is quite optimistic. Baltimore is, at this moment, having difficulty filling its ranks as cops move on or retire. To expand the thought experiment: what if not enough people want this thankless job?
Oh well, like most jobs, it’s not about to go away any time soon because people are paid to do it. “Thanks” do not buy groceries. So of all the reasons why people choose this job, “its a living” survey says - is likely the most common reason.
Policing as a “noble profession” is a bill of sale, not unlike the “all soldiers are heroes” and it’s just as fallacious. A lot of cops are attracted to the job because their father was a cop, and that’s pretty typical. Nothing wrong with it.
Far too many are attracted to the idea of being someone who wields power. The police are an authority figure and for those who have grown up feeling powerless, that’s a heady concept. The ranks of cops are full of bullies and those who take advantage of the power they are given. Plenty of good people are cops also but they are not empowered to police themselves.
There was a saying the Air Force: if it weren’t for cops on the base, you wouldn’t need cops on the base. This reference recognized that the cops were very often the ones most often in trouble. In fact, those who couldn’t qualify for technical jobs were most often given jobs as cops. They were handed lethal weapons and told to police the rest of us.
I have several family members who are cops in the Air Force. They are good people but they are not capable of performing highly technical jobs. I’m not suggesting that being a cop is highly technical but I am suggesting that interacting with people and choosing whether or not it is appropriate to use lethal force, is just as important. Maybe more so.
It seems that cops have been taught to shoot first and ask questions later. As they are so rarely held responsible for mistakenly killing people, this seems prudent from their point of view. However, I would suggest that training cops in this ethos is the very problem with our cops.
Giving cops the green light to kill, any time they feel threatened, is giving cops the authority to kill any time they want to.
The problem is, in part, the militarization of the police. That “shoot first” mentality is very militaresque. That was a conscious decision on the part of those responsible for training infantry. During WWII, the percentage of soldiers who engaged the enemy was relatively low, so the military changed how it trained its members to engage targets. Moving to a timed, pop-up target teaches “shoot first.”
To answer the “thought experiment,” the National Guard would be called in until a new force could be stood up. It would go poorly. I fear marshal law would be enacted and civilian deaths would dwarf what we have now.
Alright, now we’re getting discussion! Good points all around.
Me, I have no idea what we’re going to do. You’re not going to de-gunnify America. Ever. Guns are to America what pasta is to Italy, chopsticks to China, suicide to Scandinavia.
My sci-fi self says we need to find a non-lethal way to truly and completely and instantly incapacitate someone, from a distance if needed, via technology. Tasers don’t cut it. A set your phasers on stun type of thing.
Earmark a billion dollars for this, spread it out among the top-notch American tech/military companies. Whoever wins gets a 100 year exclusive patent.
Get the fuck on it, America.
What if the police just quit (or went on a nation-wide strike)? Seriously. I'm not taking any sides here. But what if they, you know, just up and fucking quit?
Discuss…
They will never do that. Even if they did.
The Army.
They would be fired, new people would be trained and hired. In the interim, citizen volunteers would organize and step in with the help of federal law enforcement agencies and most importantly: we would have a chance to try again to get this policing thing right.
The Army is a scary idea. As for @hopwizard ‘s comment, I feel it is quite optimistic. Baltimore is, at this moment, having difficulty filling its ranks as cops move on or retire. To expand the thought experiment: what if not enough people want this thankless job?
July 9, 2016
LowRideErWAR - Low Rider
Low
Ride
Er
WAR - Low Rider
I came to get downHouse of Pain - Jump Around
I came to get down
House of Pain - Jump Around
So this happened.My son got a tattoo. Um, woohoo!It’s...
So this happened.
My son got a tattoo. Um, woohoo!
It’s totally raw and down home, done prison-style with a needle dipped again and again in black ink.
As the Mike in question, I feel honored.
I have decided, as my fatherly duty, to get a matching tattoo. Mine also will say “Mike”.
I showed his mother this picture and she agreed. She will also get a “Mike” tattoo.
Long live the Patriarchy!
