If you tell them that they are a deeply unserious person, they'll probably assume their life is in danger and flee.

Told them to log off for "disagreeing with LGBT" is wild. If someone is being actively homophobic, log off is exceptionally restrained.

I'm not going to lie, I've been very anti treatbrain rhetoric in the past but I think this thread has broken me of that. I'm genuinely unsure how we got to this point, never expected so many Hexbear to defend DraftKings like this

Yeah, that was a bit of an exaggeration, I think I was just shocked a bit by how much pushback "giant particularly evil capitalist enterprise bad" got

Deep magic, black art, heavy wizardry, almost feels like cheating.

I don't even know computer stuff, just picked these up via osmosis.

EDIT: blue screen of death is a very powerful abjuration spell

I assume from some of them talking about props that these are for cosplayers at cons? But all the ones specifically about hugs remind me of this book we read our kid called "Don't Hug Doug" about how some people don't want to be touched and you need to get permission before showing people physical affection.

At one point it points out that you can hug a porcupine, but it's not recommended.

Very cute book.

We could say the same for gambling too though, right? It's about as old and has similar cultural effects.

Personal betting is thousands of years old. Gigantic billionaire dollar smart phone betting companies are extremely recent.

You will never convince people to quit betting their buddies 10 bucks over whose favorite team will score more points this weekend. You absolutely can, and if you as a government care about your citizens at all, must, stop DraftKings from taking all the rent money out of a poor family's bank account.

that barrier to entry means very few people would end up doing it.

Enough people would do it and distribute it, that it would drive up deaths and injuries significantly

I question the irrepressability of gambling being limited to the small scale. Unlike alcohol production which has a pretty big physical footprint, a pretty big gambling operation could just go through encrypted channels and stuff to keep it stealthy.

One: the barrier to entry would reduce the societal impact a lot

Two: you could still work to shut these places down, it would just be more work.

Also, I was thinking about currently still illegal gambling stuff like dogfighting or cockfighting. Isn't it possible that people could get pushed to more harmful types of gambling like that if it gets pushed underground?

I doubt it.

First of all it was illegal half a decade ago.

Do you have reason to believe that dogfighting has dropped specifically in the last 6 years?

Per the ASPCA it's been on the decline since the 90s (when, remember, all this app casino shit that has been normalized enough in SIX YEARS that multiple posters in this communist instance are defending it, was illegal), but has been on the rise again "in recent years" due to the internet making it easier to organize, so if anything it's gotten more common along with sports betting.

Furthermore, in the Citations Needed ep they mentioned that gambling constantly desensitizes gamblers to the risk and they start making riskier, higher stakes bets over time. If anything, willingness to do riskier bets is going to make these people more likely to go to a dogfight, not less.

Bleeding Gumsmongold

I do think that the substances have important differences on top of the competency gap between countries.

One of these is made from one plant, often imported. The other can be made by anyone with a waterproof container and literally any plant.

The one that's easier to make is also ingrained in society as a way to form bonds with ones fellows by letting your guard down in a social environment, while the other basically removed you from society so the number and type of person who's going to resist the prohibition is very different.

Yeah, just it felt like deja vu listening to it. It's like they used a time machine to read this thread before recording their intro.

Talk about going to extremes.

Three minutes before this post you said that since people here disagree with you, you're going to kill yourself.

Please, first of all, if that wasn't an empty threat, don't do that over Hexbear.

But also please get some perspective here.

I mean banning it like it was what, only a decade ago? That's clearly the best solution. Friendly wagers over the local game don't cause a mass transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, FanDuel does

Oh my God then they started talking about self-identified socialists now having a libertarian streak and thinking restrictions on people's actions by a Nanny State are bad.

Lmao, I just started listening to this and they immediately compare it to legalizing heroin and giving control of the heroin industry to tobacco companies, with the implication that that would obviously be incredibly bad.

Turns out half the people in this thread think that that's a great idea actually.

I don't need a libertarian to tell me what a good communist would do.

See my previous comment

I don't follow. Are you saying that if people understand the dangers of overdosing they'll quit doing it? Because if so I think you're ignoring the impaired judgement.

And why were they doing this? Because the drugs were available or because it was profitable?

The drugs are available because they're profitable. Giving them to anyone who asks for free won't make them safer.

One: cigarettes should be banned Two: I'm ambivalent about alcohol because it's been part of human culture basically since human culture has existed, it feels almost like cultural erasure to ban it- nonetheless alcoholism needs to be treated more seriously in this country, there is almost no treatment available and the barrier to purchase is non-existent.

Three: alcohol is clearly different because Smirnoff doesn't make deadly poisonous bad batches of vodka on the regular, and if you ban it outright ,then people making it in their bathtubs will.

Small scale, illegal but irrepressible sports betting between friends is less harmful, small scale, illegal but irrepressible alcohol production is incredibly dangerous.

Aside from causing permanent brain damage?

Because they impair your judgement and kill you if you take too much which you could easily do do if your judgement is impaired?

Also, yes it fucking is because of the availability. The reason it became a massive epidemic is that every other doctor in the country became a drug dealer for dangerous recreational drugs.

But just because some people become addicted to a thing, and a few people ruin their lives over the thing,

It's not a few we're talking about the systemic robbery of the working class by Draft Kings and their ilk

doesn't mean the government should force all of us to avoid the thing.

For every addict or idiot who blows up their account and has to sell their home, there's millions of people who are enjoying gambling for what it is supposed to be: entertainment.

Millions!? Are you fucking kidding me, where did this ratio come from?

There's NO ethical consumption under Capitalism! Why would I single out one type of consumption when the whole damn system is rotten?

Capitalism is bad everywhere so nothing is worse than anything else. I can actually do whatever the fuck I want. Since jaywalking is also a crime it makes no sense to jail someone longer for murder. Everything is flat! Tomatoes and the fucking Mafia are equal! I'm on a smart phone so I'm as bad as the goddamn Sackler family who should be allowed to keep up their drug operation because everything is equally bad!

"nanny" state

you sound like my racist uncle

baffles me that as leftists

"leftist" is a wobbly meaningless word that lets radlibs pretend to be revolutionary. Hexbear is a communist community. Communist communist communist. I'm a commie.

we claim to want to liberate the masses, and then turn around and get very paternal about a few specific things like gambling, drugs, etc.

I'm extremely pro laws and rules and restrictions if they're in the interest of the working class. Banning sports betting apps is clearly in the interest of the working class.

I would think us of all people would understand wanting to be left alone! I want to be left alone! I want a state that leaves people alone!

I don't share your sentiment and think you should change your display name to Ron Paul.

Maybe a state where the people have complete control will be different, but I do NOT ever want to allow unelected bureaucrats to have power over my body, my family, and my friends' lives the way the U.S. has control over those right now.

Did one of your friends or family members found DraftKings or something?