Oddbean

"There are 500-600 of the Jan 6 protestors in prison, and not one person on the Epstein flight list..." If you actually want to understand why people are so angry and believe our govt is corrupt beyond salvageability, this explains it in a single line. If this doesn't bother you and your immediately reaction is "bUT WhAt AbOuT..." - then you've lost the plot, imo. https://v.nostr.build/OzYgoVADbiNdyIcj.mp4

I’m thinking more of a “yes and.” Like, if you participate in an underage prostitution ring you should definitely go to jail. But if you trespass on government property making violent threats you should probably also go to jail (hopefully for less time). But I guess more importantly, fuck pedos?

I dunno if that was the main point tbh. More that a corrupt system has allowed literal pedophiles to go without facing justice. But regardless, by the letter of the law, yeah if you stepped foot inside the capital building during the riot then… right to jail inb4 “but remember BLM???” yep if you smash a window during a riot you should go to jail too.

Much less about whether anyone supports or thinks jan 6 protestors should be in jail or not, and more about which crimes they punish, the absurd imbalance of that punishment, and how horrible, disgusting people are being actively protected and are directly involved in the operation of our govt and "justice."

if you try to speak to others outside your own bubble, you really gotta just spell things out in explicit terms. what do you mean…? “but what about…” what? who’s saying what? and what’s your plot line? what’s your argument? but also, they were not just protesters. they were literally a very violent mob that literally stormed the capitol, trying to literally hunt vice president pence down to kill him. the treasonous insurrectionists should definitely in jail. epstein clients should be in jail ~also~

From “Anatomy of the State” As Mencken puts it in his inimitable fashion: This gang (“the exploiters constituting the govern- ment”) is well nigh immune to punishment. Its worst extortions, even when they are baldly for private profit, carry no certain penalties under our laws. Since the first days of the Republic, less than a few dozen of its mem- bers have been impeached, and only a few obscure understrappers have ever been put into prison. The number of men sitting at Atlanta and Leavenworth for revolting against the extortions of the government is always ten times as great as the number of government officials condemned for oppressing the taxpayers to their own gain. (Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, pp. 147–48)