Random Thought Thread

Nathan the Machinist said:
I feel like we're about 15 years behind Europe

I recently read about a "problem" with Americans during the 2024 Olympics in France where the pickpocketers were not accustomed to getting their asses kicked.

I read one account where a pickpocketer stole a fellas wallet, the dude rightfully kicked his ass, took his wallet back, and then drug the pickpocketer over to a police officer and said "this guy just stole my wallet" and the police officer asked the pickpocketer if the pickpocketer would like to press charges.

My father-in-law had a squatter living in a house in New York and couldn't get rid of her.

I like to think of myself as being a relatively conscientious open-minded person, but I feel no tolerance for this kind of behavior and I cannot understand the thought process of people who tolerate this kind of thing.

I guess I'm intolerant.
Click to expand...

That could have happened in London, LA, SF or NY as well, depending on ethnicity. Just saying.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I feel like we're about 15 years behind Europe

I recently read about a "problem" with Americans during the 2024 Olympics in France where the pickpocketers were not accustomed to getting their asses kicked.

I read one account where a pickpocketer stole a fellas wallet, the dude rightfully kicked his ass, took his wallet back, and then drug the pickpocketer over to a police officer and said "this guy just stole my wallet" and the police officer asked the pickpocketer if the pickpocketer would like to press charges.

My father-in-law had a squatter living in a house in New York and couldn't get rid of her.

I like to think of myself as being a relatively conscientious open-minded person, but I feel no tolerance for this kind of behavior and I cannot understand the thought process of people who tolerate this kind of thing.

I guess I'm intolerant.
Click to expand...

bluemax_1 said:
The EU has some really odd mentalities that we tend to find difficult to understand. They don’t really have affirmative self defense laws.

A while back, I read about an incident in Germany IIRC. A father and his 16 y/o daughter were waiting for a train when some scumbag sexually assaulted the girl. The father understandably stopped the scumbag, and was then charged with assault. I didn’t see anything in the article about the scumbag being charged with assaulting the girl.

The other one that was particularly sickening were some of the firsthand accounts of the underaged girls in the UK being groomed and raped by the mostly Pakistani group. When one of the girls managed to escape and run to a police station for help, they treated her like the criminal. I’m guessing they probably already outlawed bulldozers and welding equipment over there.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal
Click to expand...

Similar things happen in the US, although the stakes have been a bit higher. Obviously, each situation is unique and due process matters.

Iowa human trafficking victim Pieper Lewis sentenced, ordered to pay $150,000 : NPR https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1122...ewis-killed-accused-rapist-ordered-pay-150000

katv.com

Father charged with second-degree murder after finding 14-year-old daughter with man

A Lonoke County man is being charged with Second Degree Murder amid accusations that he killed the man he thought sexually assaulted and kidnapped his daughter
katv.com katv.com
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I feel like we're about 15 years behind Europe

I recently read about a "problem" with Americans during the 2024 Olympics in France where the pickpocketers were not accustomed to getting their asses kicked.

I read one account where a pickpocketer stole a fellas wallet, the dude rightfully kicked his ass, took his wallet back, and then drug the pickpocketer over to a police officer and said "this guy just stole my wallet" and the police officer asked the pickpocketer if the pickpocketer would like to press charges.

My father-in-law had a squatter living in a house in New York and couldn't get rid of her.

I like to think of myself as being a relatively conscientious open-minded person, but I feel no tolerance for this kind of behavior and I cannot understand the thought process of people who tolerate this kind of thing.

I guess I'm intolerant.
Click to expand...
The whole squatter situation infuriates me. It’s crazy. I was looking into the difference in squatting and trespassing a while ago and it basically came down to intent. So theoretically if someone was trespassing and just said that they live on your property it becomes a long drawn out civil matter as opposed to a criminal matter. And it’s so much worse if you rent to someone and they decide not to pay or leave. So the owners have to pay the mortgage with no income while the tenants trash your investment for over a year. And then they wonder why there isn’t enough affordable housing. And it’s illegal to shut of the utilities or change locks. So you have to pay their bills too.
 
bluemax_1 said:
The EU has some really odd mentalities that we tend to find difficult to understand. They don’t really have affirmative self defense laws.

A while back, I read about an incident in Germany IIRC. A father and his 16 y/o daughter were waiting for a train when some scumbag sexually assaulted the girl. The father understandably stopped the scumbag, and was then charged with assault. I didn’t see anything in the article about the scumbag being charged with assaulting the girl.

The other one that was particularly sickening were some of the firsthand accounts of the underaged girls in the UK being groomed and raped by the mostly Pakistani group. When one of the girls managed to escape and run to a police station for help, they treated her like the criminal. I’m guessing they probably already outlawed bulldozers and welding equipment over there.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal
Click to expand...

When I was a kid, sometimes these nature shows would come on, and one in particular really struck me and has stuck in my mind all these years. Some kind of a bovine, probably a cape buffalo, was being eaten alive by some kind of a large predator, probably a lion.

It was alive and laying on its side and it had a really sad expression on his face and a lion was eating it alive by tearing out its entrails. What struck me was how it just laid there and took it. It didn't fight back or anything, it had been defeated and had accepted its fate being devoured.

This makes me think of Europe today.

Europe received a lot of trauma during world war II. A Europeans worldview is going to be a little different than mine. Also, it's possible that there may have been some kind of an evolutionary or cultural bias for the survivors of world war II that may have selected for a certain kind of person, and a very different kind of selection for the folks that chose to colonize America. But Americans and Europeans do not seem to agree, intrinsically, on the concept of a person having a god-given right to defend themselves. I believe that our view is correct, because our choice is completely natural and is what would happen in nature. And they might believe that my view is incorrect for the exact same reason.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
When I was a kid, sometimes these nature shows would come on, and one in particular really struck me and has stuck in my mind all these years. Some kind of a bovine, probably a cape buffalo, was being eaten alive by some kind of a large predator, probably a lion.

It was alive and laying on its side and it had a really sad expression on his face and a lion was eating it alive by tearing out its entrails. What struck me was how it just laid there and took it. It didn't fight back or anything, it had been defeated and had accepted its fate being devoured.
Click to expand...
I remember wondering about mentalities, when my brother (2 years older) did a paper on Nazi concentration camps.

One of the photos I saw amongst all the stuff he dug up, was a large mass grave/trench with a bunch of people lined up in front of it. They were unrestrained. There were already bodies in the trench.

A (presumably) SS officer was about to shoot the next person in line in the back of the head with his pistol. According to the written accounts, he/they would line up the victims at the edge of the trench and just shoot them in the head so they collapsed into the trench (later, they decided it was more efficient to line them up and shoot them with a rifle, so a single bullet went through multiple bodies, then they decided to not even use bullets).

I always wondered about the people further down the line. They were unrestrained. Their hands and feet weren’t tied. They’d already seen other people being shot ahead of them. They knew their turn was coming, and were just resigned to their fate.

Trying to run would just get you shot in the back (there were other armed personnel around).

Maybe I’m just a vindictive type, but at that point, I’d be thinking, “Well… I’m dead one way or the other. Might as well play possum, then see how many of them I can take with me. At the very least, the asshole who walks up and puts the barrel to the back of my head is going to be in for a very rude surprise”.
 
Blues said:
I doubt very much that you know what you'd be thinking...which would be from a very different perspective than where you're sitting while considering it today.
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Especially when you consider that you'd be psychologically traumatized, physically exhausted/weak, malnourished, dehydrated, covered in lice/fleas, and constantly borderline hypothermic.

Easy to say you would have done xyz when you're sitting comfortably in your climate controlled home, fully clothed, and with a full belly.
 
bluemax_1 said:
I remember wondering about mentalities, when my brother (2 years older) did a paper on Nazi concentration camps.

One of the photos I saw amongst all the stuff he dug up, was a large mass grave/trench with a bunch of people lined up in front of it. They were unrestrained. There were already bodies in the trench.

A (presumably) SS officer was about to shoot the next person in line in the back of the head with his pistol. According to the written accounts, he/they would line up the victims at the edge of the trench and just shoot them in the head so they collapsed into the trench (later, they decided it was more efficient to line them up and shoot them with a rifle, so a single bullet went through multiple bodies, then they decided to not even use bullets).

I always wondered about the people further down the line. They were unrestrained. Their hands and feet weren’t tied. They’d already seen other people being shot ahead of them. They knew their turn was coming, and were just resigned to their fate.

Trying to run would just get you shot in the back (there were other armed personnel around).

Maybe I’m just a vindictive type, but at that point, I’d be thinking, “Well… I’m dead one way or the other. Might as well play possum, then see how many of them I can take with me. At the very least, the asshole who walks up and puts the barrel to the back of my head is going to be in for a very rude surprise”.
Click to expand...

I figure they were ready and willing. Being completely defeated.

I think it looks like a lot of Europe still feels that way, at least a little bit, because they're not fighting for themselves anymore. They seem, to me and my perspective, to be apathetic and willing to just go down without a fight.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I feel like we're about 15 years behind Europe

I recently read about a "problem" with Americans during the 2024 Olympics in France where the pickpocketers were not accustomed to getting their asses kicked.

I read one account where a pickpocketer stole a fellas wallet, the dude rightfully kicked his ass, took his wallet back, and then drug the pickpocketer over to a police officer and said "this guy just stole my wallet" and the police officer asked the pickpocketer if the pickpocketer would like to press charges.

My father-in-law had a squatter living in a house in New York and couldn't get rid of her.

I like to think of myself as being a relatively conscientious open-minded person, but I feel no tolerance for this kind of behavior and I cannot understand the thought process of people who tolerate this kind of thing.

I guess I'm intolerant.
Click to expand...

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7400917107652791582
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
But Americans and Europeans do not seem to agree, intrinsically, on the concept of a person having a god-given right to defend themselves. I believe that our view is correct, because our choice is completely natural and is what would happen in nature. And they might believe that my view is incorrect for the exact same reason.
Click to expand...

1) you are speaking out of the comfort of a US state with a stand-your-ground law. In practice, not all US states today agree with you.

2) you are right, the US 1st and 2nd amendments are unique compared to Europe. This has always puzzled me regarding the German 1949 constitution, also as it was signed off by the US / Allied Forces after all: no 2nd amendment for a war looser I understand, but no 1st one, I don’t get.
 
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Mendoman said:
The whole squatter situation infuriates me. It’s crazy. I was looking into the difference in squatting and trespassing a while ago and it basically came down to intent. So theoretically if someone was trespassing and just said that they live on your property it becomes a long drawn out civil matter as opposed to a criminal matter. And it’s so much worse if you rent to someone and they decide not to pay or leave. So the owners have to pay the mortgage with no income while the tenants trash your investment for over a year. And then they wonder why there isn’t enough affordable housing. And it’s illegal to shut of the utilities or change locks. So you have to pay their bills too.
Click to expand...
I have a subcontractor that has a friend in FL that spends 6 months out of the year out of the country. He came back and people were living in his house. He has been fighting in court for the last year and a half. His house and paid for. My wife has read these stories before and its one of the reasons she insisted on cameras outside our house since we are gone so much. She was concerned that she would come home and find people living there. Its crazy. I would probably have to go apply for a demo permit and knock it down. If I can't live there nobody can. I do not understand. If you do that with someone's truck its theft and you going to jail.
 
ferider said:
1) you are speaking out of the comfort of a US state with a stand-your-ground law. In practice, not all US states today agree with you.

2) you are right, the US 1st and 2nd amendments are unique compared to Europe. This has always puzzled me regarding the German 1949 constitution, also as it was signed off by the US / Allied Forces after all: no 2nd amendment for a war looser I understand, but no 1st one, I don’t get.
Click to expand...
Not surprising when you look at how the US basically suspended the 1st amendment during and after WW2. Controlling morale and public opinion via censorship and propaganda were seen as more important than free speech, especially abroad. As an example, the army completely banned the Japanese press and mail system from talking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and spread misinformation in the American press to hide the radioactivy of the bombs. It was not until Vietnam that the courts started protecting speech that didn't align with foreign policy during wartime.
 
I should start leaving my house open. Maybe someone will squat here.




…think of the money I’ll save on groceries! Have you seen the price of beef, lately???


grin.gif
 
abraves said:
I have a subcontractor that has a friend in FL that spends 6 months out of the year out of the country. He came back and people were living in his house. He has been fighting in court for the last year and a half. His house and paid for. My wife has read these stories before and its one of the reasons she insisted on cameras outside our house since we are gone so much. She was concerned that she would come home and find people living there. Its crazy. I would probably have to go apply for a demo permit and knock it down. If I can't live there nobody can. I do not understand. If you do that with someone's truck its theft and you going to jail.
Click to expand...

I have heard that you don't want to go to the police in the case of a squatter. They forge a lease and getting the police involved, they can't actually do anything to help you (I'm sorry sir, this is a civil matter) but it then legally establishes the conflict and makes court necessary. If you avoid involving the police and the legal system you can simply remove a squatter with violence. Once you involve the law, violence is no longer an option.

Or so I have heard.
 
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