Videogames and computers cause lower crime
Why have crime rates fallen so much during the last two decades?
I say that a major contributor is that teenagers are busy at home playing videogames, or using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Teenagers at home addicted to videogames, computers and iPhones means that they are not out on the streets getting themselves into trouble.
This means that the government could help nudge crime even lower by providing free videogames and internet access to poor families.
Lion of the Blogosphere 
I believe this is true.
I wondow if this also explains declines in teen driving:
“Only 28 percent of 16-year-olds had their driver’s license in 2010, compared with about 46 percent of 16-year-olds who were licensed drivers in 1983”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100880818#.
Dan
January 1, 2015 at 2:46 PM
Fewer teenagers have after-school jobs due to changes in labor laws, changes in high school graduation requirements, and changes in business models for low skill employers. Fewer teenagers need to drive themselves to work.
Also, many more high schools have made themselves closed campuses thus to leaving at lunch, gotten rid of vocational training programs, and charge for parking. Schools have created less reasons for people to drive. Also, it was different living in the suburbs and rural American in 1983 than living in denser urban and inner suburbs in 2015.
And last, I have noticed that minorities and recent immigrants do not encourage their children to learn to drive in order to maintain more control over them.
superdestroyer
January 2, 2015 at 7:48 AM
crappy job market, sky-high insurance, bad financing terms
grey enlightenment
January 2, 2015 at 10:38 AM
How many states even let 16-year-olds drive? In NYC it’s 18, and in NJ it’s 17. They should tally the number of 18- or 19-year-olds since that’s when age is no longer a restriction.
Kyo
January 2, 2015 at 2:49 PM
Maybe because the percentage of White middle class responsible 16 year olds has crashed.
And the black and hispanic percentage of 16 year olds has skyrocketed and they are driving WITHOUT licensees.
Just a theory.
Rifleman
January 2, 2015 at 3:25 PM
Why have crime rates fallen so much during the last two decades?
Crime just went down 66% in NYC in just one day.
Toad
January 1, 2015 at 2:50 PM
This means that the government could help nudge crime even lower by providing free videogames and internet access to poor families.
And legalizing weed to lower their birth rates. Marijuana users usually report lower sex drive.
The Undiscovered Jew
January 1, 2015 at 2:53 PM
I don’t buy that argument. Video games were around in the 1980’s with atari and nintendo in early 90s. Crime was rampant then.
unam
January 1, 2015 at 3:41 PM
It wasn’t anywhere near mainstream. Only uber-nerds played back then. Now have a lot of black people who are huge into video games.
Kaz
January 1, 2015 at 9:03 PM
Consoles and games were a lot more expensive back then. Essentially gaming back then was a middle class hobby. The poor couldnt afford the consoles and games. Democratization of gaming didnt happen until the early 90s.
pork chop
January 1, 2015 at 10:27 PM
Video games are a lot more popular and affordable now than they were in the ’80s and ’90s; they seem to have a lot more appeal to young adult men (i.e., potential troublemakers), and in particular lasting appeal. Lot of sequels and games with popular online components on this list.
Ideas for future blog posts: Lion joins a clan of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare players; Lion attends a midnight release sale for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
A dumbass genius sometimes mentioned on this blog has noted the “slow torture” of the TV and bland food options one had until pretty recently. Maybe improvements in these areas have contributed to the decline in the crime rate.
There’s also the incarceration rate, which, at least in the States, has risen dramatically since the 1980s. I wonder how the first-offense rate has changed over the years.
Genserico
January 1, 2015 at 10:37 PM
that ties into the idea of paying people to use twitter, netflix, snapchat and facebook. To make it taxpayer friendly, these companies in a partnership with the government would pay individuals for engaging in social media actions or streaming movies. Cheap, abundant entertainment is important to placate the masses
grey enlightenment
January 1, 2015 at 4:27 PM
Let them eat cake!
Kant
January 2, 2015 at 9:48 AM
Panem et circenses! Are you mad! This is the end of America, mate.
No new year greetings to your readers? I listened to Putin and he was great as usual.
Yakov
January 1, 2015 at 5:25 PM
Why, I rather think it’s just the beginning – a new stage in the history of natural selection for humanity!
Viscount Douchenozzlé
January 2, 2015 at 10:15 PM
maybe not ‘natural’ and definitely not survival of the fittest.
not too late
January 4, 2015 at 12:14 PM
I know that JS made this same claim some months ago. I disagreed with him, but have reconsidered the argument. It’s possible that this may have had something to do with lowering the crime rate – at least a bit.. However, funding video games and providing free internet service, even if it could result in a further reduction in the crime rate, sounds unwise to me. It is well-known that once you offer people something for free you can never get them to pay for it again. Also, the long-run outcome would be an increase in the sense of entitlement that poor or lower income people have. And lower income people are already plagued by a sense of entitlement that screws up their future in a lot of different ways. Eventually society would pay the price for this mistake.
It is well known that you get more of what you fund. It would make more sense to fund the distribution of “Hooked on Phonics” kits than spend the money on free internet. True, some would just sell the kits on ebay. But some would think “hey, I got it for free. Why not try it?” What could free phonics kits lead to that would be bad? A call for free schools (we already have them.) Free libraries? We have them now also. Of course, there would be other reasons why free phonics kits would be a bad idea. I’m just speculating about what we could fund that might be mildly helpful but not harmful long-term.
Maryk
January 1, 2015 at 6:11 PM
I never said the internet would be free. It does however keeps NAM distracted with their online videogames and music sites, which would keep them off the streets most of the time, where the devil’s hands are less frequent at work, such that committing crimes and defecating property are reduced significantly. Basic internet service is not that expensive and I believe low income NAMs pay at a discounted rate or their often irresponsible parents do, who otherwise don’t give a damn about their children’s schooling and well being.
JS
January 2, 2015 at 12:39 PM
By the way, wishing you and Lion, a Happy Prole Year – 2015!
I expect this year to be a continuation of 2014, with its racial divide and black plaque in the United States.
JS
January 2, 2015 at 12:41 PM
“By the way, wishing you and Lion, a Happy Prole Year – 2015!”
You’re writing as if Lion and I are a couple! (If we were we’d be the HBD Odd Couple.) I may be a proless, but I’m no lioness!
Happy New Year to you, JS! May there be more S in your SWPL, a bonanza in your BOBO, and may your TOOS fit you to a T! Are we really going to lose you to Quebec soon? The US’s loss will be Canada’s gain.
On an unrelated topic: Why doesn’t Lion do a post with the theme of “How to become future-oriented in small, painless ways.” With the brainpower that is present in Lion and his “pride” we should be able to come up with some interesting suggestions.
Maryk
January 2, 2015 at 9:03 PM
The WSJ has a great article explaining the causes of reduced crime. It’s worth reading but here are the highlights.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304066504576345553135009870
imprisonment — giving criminals longer sentences works
policing — “hotspot” policing works
environmental changes — lead in gas and paint is correlated with brain damage and violence
less cocaine abuse — hardcore addicts commit crime to feed their habits
destructure
January 1, 2015 at 6:54 PM
the leaded gasoline is bullshit, but the first two are believable.
but why has the cocaine/crack habit died down?
was it replaced by something else? if no, why?
if yes, was that something else less addictive? less expensive? less likely to require stealing to pay for it?
World Moustache Champion
January 2, 2015 at 5:51 AM
it will be interesting to see if the legalization of mj will reduce crime in CO, WA, and OR.
i predict it will, as mj can substitute for other drugs to some extent, or so i’ve heard.
but the only time i’ve tried it, it was: “i coulda had a v8!” no effect at all.
World Moustache Champion
January 2, 2015 at 5:57 AM
marijuana is a depressant. It is cheaper because it requires only drying not actual processing. Cocaine is more work to make and it is a stimulant. Bottom line, passed out druggies commit fewer crimes than hyped up druggies.
not too late
January 4, 2015 at 12:20 PM
if heroin were the substitute i expect crime would be even worse, as heroin withdrawal has very unpleasant physical effects, whereas cocaine and meth withdrawal have no physical withdrawal effects, or so i’ve read.
the physical withdrawal effects are so unpleasant that heroin addicts don’t shoot up to get high. they shoot up to avoid getting “sick”.
of course as unpleasant as heroin withdrawal is, only withdrawal from alcohol, benzos, and barbiturates can actually kill you.
World Moustache Champion
January 2, 2015 at 6:48 AM
it makes sense – putting the criminals away for longer duration = less crime. The fear of harsh punishment the only good deterrent to crime
grey enlightenment
January 2, 2015 at 10:32 AM
true but:
1. rehabilitation is much more difficult in the US. and when you can’t get a legit job, crime is your fallback. most crime is economic. chimos, rapists, serial killers, etc. are a tiny minority.
2. criminals are sometimes, but usually not, a distinct class of people. but there’s a name/a word “criminal” so the cognitive bias of “essentialism” infects those who frequent ideological bathhouses.
World Moustache Champion
January 2, 2015 at 7:38 PM
I posted this in the previous thread, sorry for the double post, but it’s relevant here:
——
It is plain as day that the lead theory of crime is 100% wrong. Another reminder that when the work of scientists intersects with politics, the scientists are almost certainly lying on purpose.
There are two giant holes in the theory. First, lead was used as an additive in gasoline since the 1920s. It was banned in 1974. Crime peaked around 1990, long after lead had been banned. By that time levels of lead in the blood of Americans was 4/5 lower than it was in 1975. The cohort that would have first been impacted by lead in gasoline was by then living in retirement communities.
But never doubt the social justice warrior explainers’ ability to heap lies on top of one another in order to keep the original lie going. In this case, the ready explanation is that all the happened in utero, so those criminals in 1990 were in their mothers wombs being turned into criminals by evil polluters 16 or 18 years before the crime peak.
But this too is an easily debunked pile of cow patties. You see, the crime wave involved a spike and then a decline in the crime wave for 10 different cohorts (age groups) all at once. In other words, many different age groups supposedly ruined in utero by lead were well behaved and then got into a crime party at the same time (the crime party was long after lead was banned) and then were well behaved again.
http://www.samefacts.com/2014/04/crime-incarceration/lead-and-crime-a-hole-in-the-theory/
Dan
January 2, 2015 at 11:09 AM
Such a good comment, you have permission to post it twice 🙂
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 2, 2015 at 12:00 PM
Maybe there is lower crime. But I still avoid people of color…
Snubby
January 1, 2015 at 7:02 PM
Maybe one reason crime is lower is because there are a lot of whites like you who avoid people of color. They can’t rob whites if whites live 20 miles out in some suburb and avoid walking or driving around in black areas. Even white liberals who deny blacks are more prone to crime will not usually live in or walk around in poor black neighborhoods. The few whites I know who do live in high crime areas have extensive security systems or guns and that prevents them from being crime victims. Poor blacks can still rob other poor blacks but there’s not much point in it because there’s not much to steal from them. Before the sixties, enforced segregation kept black criminals out of white areas. The ending of that enforced segregation allowed blacks more opportunities for crime. It wasn’t until whites put more distance between themselves and blacks by moving away from them or putting them away in prison that crime started dropping again.
Mark
January 2, 2015 at 11:43 AM
“Maybe one reason crime is lower is because there are a lot of whites like you who avoid people of color. They can’t rob whites if whites live 20 miles out in some suburb and avoid walking or driving around in black areas. Even white liberals who deny blacks are more prone to crime will not usually live in or walk around in poor black neighborhoods. The few whites I know who do live in high crime areas have extensive security systems or guns and that prevents them from being crime victims. Poor blacks can still rob other poor blacks but there’s not much point in it because there’s not much to steal from them. Before the sixties, enforced segregation kept black criminals out of white areas. The ending of that enforced segregation allowed blacks more opportunities for crime. It wasn’t until whites put more distance between themselves and blacks by moving away from them or putting them away in prison that crime started dropping again.”
this comment gets an A+ from me.
rivelino
January 2, 2015 at 3:10 PM
“Teenagers at home addicted to videogames, computers and iPhones means that they are not out on the streets getting themselves into trouble.”
it’s a nice theory, but is it true?
they say 20% of people cause 80% of the crime, so are those 20% *also* playing video games instead of getting out there and hustling for real? i find that hard to believe. yeah, the soft and skinny timid boys, i can see them being pacified by video games, but the real thugs, the real tough, mean, aggressive violent guys — i don’t see that. they are not only violent but ambitious. they want more. more money, more resources, more power, in the real world.
rivelino
January 1, 2015 at 8:18 PM
The source data are really terrible here, I think everyone has to recognize that. No one agrees on what a lot of crime rates really, as in really really, are. Or at least large proportions of the media and political pundits have to be outright wrong and contradicting themselves on some points. There’s a lot to be curious about with the idea that some crime rates haven’t changed much or even gone up, and things only look better because of improvements in other areas, like medical technology causing gunshot victims to bleed out and die less. That’s with related trends like increased urbanization of the total population making centralized medical care and fast responses by personnel more effective. There is reasonably high quality independent evidence that medical care has in fact improved for the country averaged as a whole, so that has to count for something in the overall murder rate which has gone down. (And the final murder rates are still pretty shockingly high in America compared to other Western industrialized nations, regardless of what the attempted murder or homicide rate is.) Then, listening to the media you would think the rates of certain violent crimes like rape and sexual assualt have actually increased a lot compared to the past. Especially as there is the claimed “tip of the iceberg” problem where the number of actual crimes is supposed to be much larger than what is reported. Of course if there is a real decline in crime then sex crimes should have gone down along with murder or other violent assaults, but how often do you hear those statistics confirmed?
So take various hypothetical factors, of which there are a lot of sufficiently un-controversial places to start: gun control laws (either way), different policing and prison policies, lead paints, abortion, improved access to and better medical science, and videogames, and look at where each would have an impact.
One thing is that if the videogame hypothesis is true you’d expect to see clear declines in per capita rape and sexual assaults, whatever it could be, 2 times, 5 times, 10 times. There’s no way the videogame hypothesis could cause just murder or other similar violent crimes to go down but not sex crimes, in fact if anything it would be stronger the other way as murder is much less common in the first place. The idea that videogames could convince someone to not go out and murder, murder often being committed by rare psychopaths in the first place, but that they wouldn’t cause people to not commit so many sexual assaults too doesn’t add up.
But good luck finding statistics that will convince people of what are the actual crime rates and changes in crime rates over time. Not an easy effort to figure out alone.
Bobby Smith
January 2, 2015 at 2:14 AM
“No one agrees on what a lot of crime rates really, as in really really, are. -Bobby Smith”
you are very right, great comment. there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
rivelino
January 2, 2015 at 11:23 PM
“murder rates are still pretty shockingly high in America compared to other Western industrialized nations”
Chicago is about half white. About 1 million whites and 20 white murder victims per year. That is the same rate as Europe. The other half of Chicago is black and hispanic with over 400 black/hispanic victims. That is about the same rate as the average of Latin America and Africa.
not too late
January 4, 2015 at 12:27 PM
It may be that kids grew up indoors plug into electronic devices and simply never developed into the thugs they had the potential to be.
Dan
January 2, 2015 at 10:21 AM
Video games and computers restrict tech-addiction-resistant mean aggressive violent guys’ access to soft and skinny timid boys. SSTB were probably considerably easier marks when they had to play outside and work summer jobs and stuff.
Genserico
January 2, 2015 at 1:47 PM
“Video games and computers restrict tech-addiction-resistant mean aggressive violent guys’ access to soft and skinny timid boys. SSTB were probably considerably easier marks when they had to play outside and work summer jobs and stuff. -Genserico”
this is an excellent point i hadn’t thought of.
rivelino
January 2, 2015 at 11:22 PM
Another cause (or symptom?) of declining crime rates may be the end of gangster rap. There are a few authentically violent rappers today such as Bobby Shmurda, but for the most part rappers today are not “from the streets”.
PoorGradStudent
January 1, 2015 at 11:11 PM
Never thought I would see someone reference Bobby Shmurda (or any current, non-mainstream gangster rapper) on an HBD blog. I thought it was mostly old white men around here.
I'm back! Lion of Judah/Live-Evil
January 2, 2015 at 12:26 PM
There are a few authentically violent rappers today such as Bobby Shmurda, but for the most part rappers today are not “from the streets”.
Cause duh utters be ded.
I thought it was mostly old white men around here.
You underestimate Lion’s gangsta rap knowledge at your peril. Back during the 80s he strutted around with a fearsome boombox.
The Undiscovered Jew
January 2, 2015 at 9:03 PM
These gadgets make normal people, leave alone NAMs, totally dysfunctional and stupid. There are workplaces that don’t allow the use of smart phones at work. If anything, getting to be more stupid and less educated is going to increase crime not decrease it. It will also decrease their earning ability. I have a friend who spent 9 months in Mozambique when he was an officer in the Soviet Army and guess what? The niggers over there worked jolly well because the choice was starving to death. Give them gadgets and food stamps and they wont move a finger.
When I was in Rikers the niggas played games, pumped weights and watch TV the whole day under better living conditions than in their hoods. Now give them internet and video games and they will have even less incentives to stay out of prison. I cannot believe that Lion wrote this post. Lion were you inebriated or something?
Also, sure typing is faster then writing, but I enjoy writing with a pen, reading a real hardcover book and drinking wine from a crystal glass rather than a plastic cup.
Yakov
January 1, 2015 at 11:18 PM
Since when did the elite want anything but dumbed down and complacent servants?
pork chop
January 2, 2015 at 9:57 AM
the weight room is the problem. they come out literally more hardened criminals.
grey enlightenment
January 2, 2015 at 10:33 AM
So teenagers playing videogames instead of lifting weights means less crime.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 2, 2015 at 11:58 AM
You can still work out without weights. You can do one handed or handstand pushups, squats on one leg, squat thrusts, run in place, etc.
not too late
January 4, 2015 at 12:32 PM
The real problem is that incarceration is not made painful and thus is not a deterrent. Also, in prison you learn more bad behavior, make bad friends and are more likely to come out worse than you came in. In my 3 days and 2 nights at Rikers, before friends bailed me out, I had learned tons of stuff. For example, I’d learned where the niggers can hide drugs that no daily strip search will discover, I’m a boxer and boxed with a big nigger and learned some good moves, by the third day I was able to eat truly disgusting kosher prison food, I was able to go to the bathroom with a bunch of niggers jerking off in a circle facing the camera for a female guard to see. When I was released at 1 am with a metro card for two fares, a big nigger invited me for a coffee and a cigarette with the money that he had brought out in his butt. So I learned how to do that also. All this and much more in just a couple of days! Imagine if I had to spend a few months there! Oh, and a few guys wanted to stay in touch, lol!
What’s needed is brutal forced labor 10-12 hours a day compared to which a job flipping burgers at McDonald for a minimum wage will look like a dream.
Yakov
January 3, 2015 at 8:14 PM
There’s a reason why games like Grand Theft Auto sell really well. It appeals to many criminally inclined young men. You get the high of living the life of big time gang banger, without the risk of going to prison. I wouldn’t be surprised if internet pornography has a significant impact on keeping impulsive and criminally inclined young men satiated as well.
hny2015
January 1, 2015 at 11:31 PM
One possible cause of the reduced crime rate is increasing rates of obesity.
Rates of obesity have increased over the last 20 years and overweight young people aren’t going to want to do much of anything, let alone get off the couch and go half-way across town to commit a violent crime.
Excess fat lowers free testosterone levels. Young men with high testosterone commit a large proportion of violent crime and anything that lowers their testosterone will lower crime.
JamesJames
January 2, 2015 at 1:13 AM
On the other hand, large people are intimidating to mugging victims, even if the largeness is mostly fat.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 2, 2015 at 10:21 AM
i think mugging is much more about quickness than size
grey enlightenment
January 2, 2015 at 10:37 AM
One-on-one muggings are rare. It’s usually a group activity
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 2, 2015 at 11:59 AM
That was also my thought.
But there are other technological factors as well. For example, ubiquity of cell phones means it is far easier to promptly report crimes. Likewise, cheap cameras and cheap computer memory made video monitoring easier.
WRB
January 2, 2015 at 5:07 AM
Correct. I would say the drop in crime since the early 1990s maps perfectly to the rise in cell phones. Anyone in trouble can call the cops in seconds. In all the old slasher films, step number one is for the villain to cut the land line of the pretty young maiden. What would these poor bad guys do today?
Dan
January 2, 2015 at 1:35 PM
“I would say the drop in crime since the early 1990s maps perfectly to the rise in cell phones. ”
excellent point.
remember when rodney king happened, people thought soon everything was going to be caught on video by vigilantes.
rivelino
January 4, 2015 at 1:36 AM
What would these poor bad guys do today?
Plant a signal jammer in the maiden’s house?
The Undiscovered Jew
January 2, 2015 at 9:06 PM
Cell phones and Internet also made adultery so much easier to commit…
WRB
January 3, 2015 at 11:13 AM
The teen pregnancy rate is way down too, maybe for the same reason.
Mark Caplan
January 2, 2015 at 2:28 PM
Teen pregnancy is down 90% among married teens and up 700% among unmarried teens. Not much to cheer there. Far fewer teens marry. The losers are getting pregnant more. Same holds true for the 20-24 age group. One small bright spot is that these losers will have fewer kids total over their lifetimes because they will be chronically miserable/undesirable after the first kid or two.
not too late
January 4, 2015 at 12:40 PM
My theory of how crime surged and then dropped is simple. Its the same dynamic as with looting. Normally people don’t randomly hoot and holler and throw a chair through the plate glass window of Best Buy and march around looking for the biggest TV they can carry. But if someone breaks the ice (so to speak, ha!) and gets away with it, then suddenly lots of people do exactly that.
In the early 1990s, the perception of order was simply lost. Then strong policing and things like universal cell phones tipped the balance and the party was over. The drug war was very effective in reducing crime but it could have been various things. The point was to show people that the state is boss. Singapore manages the lowest crime rate in the world (a rate 1/10 of adjacent Malaysia) in a very simple way: they lay down the law. Capital crimes include drug trafficking, rape and shooting at someone, even if you miss.
Dan
January 2, 2015 at 2:35 PM
Obesity didn’t stop Eric Garner from being arrested 30 times in his 34 years.
Singapore manages the lowest crime rate in the world (a rate 1/10 of adjacent Malaysia) in a very simple way: they lay down the law.
LOL, Singapore has demographics that make their system work.
Camlost
January 2, 2015 at 8:24 PM
christian gomez
1. violent
2. mental issues
3. not appeased by video games
http://nypost.com/2015/01/01/man-arrested-for-decapitating-mother-with-ax/
rivelino
January 3, 2015 at 7:02 AM
Slightly O/T – It seems like a growing number of liberals have finally come out and say “I’m no longer a hypocrite and I want to live among NAMs”.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-29/the-do-good-startups-of-nairobi
This article proves as to why sub-saharans will be forever dumb and primitive. They need the higher IQ races to help them progress with life. Startups in Nairiobi founded by White liberals, who would have thought of that? It’s more like liberals and their value transference scheme and fake moral posturing. I hope the natives will kick them out because they are trying to colonize Kenya and exploit the natives with cheap wages while the White masters pay themselves handsomely.
While they’re at it, let’s ship all of our black americans into East Africa so they can get a piece of the action.
JS
January 3, 2015 at 10:23 AM
neo colonialists
maybe the African countries will nationalize their companies as soon as they are profitable.
one can hope
not too late
January 4, 2015 at 12:45 PM
Are we really going to lose you to Quebec soon? The US’s loss will be Canada’s gain.
It’s really amazing that Montreal and Quebec province HAS NOT become a trendy hot spot for American SWPLs, especially those from Manhattan and Brooklyn, given their strong desire for anything that is old world and French when it comes to Canada. Your typical NYC bobo has been to Paris many times over, but I would be shocked if they ever visited Quebec. This goes to show you how provincial minded many of them are, and they are no different from proles in regards to this matter.
JS
January 3, 2015 at 10:53 AM
…in regard to…
sand -s.
the french. you cannot be serious.
cirque du soleil, the Albertville opening ceremonies, the stanky metro, the f-ed up language—spoken mostly though the nose, the gibberish pseudo-philosophy, the Montreal Canadiens proving their manhood,…
the best thing france has ever produced is the Le Grand Caniche.
World Moustache Champion
January 3, 2015 at 11:04 PM
sans…being able to type is prole;)
i think it was heidegger who said: when the french think, they think in german.
World Moustache Champion
January 3, 2015 at 11:10 PM
And how is Anglophone Canada any better? Rob ford is their mascot. He belongs in America with rest of the rednecks.
JS
January 4, 2015 at 11:31 AM
OT but race and violence is never off topic, a quick post about corrie sanders, the white boxing champ who was murdered by three black thugs in 2012. the race of the killers was never mentioned in the MSM, of course.
http://rivsdiary.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/death-of-a-champion/
rivelino
January 3, 2015 at 4:35 PM
Friday I walk into an electrical supplier and order two 50 feet bx cables. A Jewish guy processes the order and a black guy goes to get it while playing on a smart phone. Guess what? Of course he brings the wrong thing – one 100 feet bx cable. He goes and gets the right one while giggling, shaking and not leaving his phone alone and nobody tells him anything!
But it gets better. I got a new Spanish helper with 7 years of experience who, my boss thinks, is ready for service. This guy takes 3.5 hours to replace two electronic boards which is a procedure that shouldn’t take more then 1 hour tops! Every time I pass by I see him busy with his cell phone! He connects the boards wrong and I have to come back the next day and waste 5 hours with travel time to fix the problem. The idiot looks at me in a shock and says: ‘Why couldn’t I do it right? I don’t understand?’ This guy is history, he is finished, he is on his way to becoming unemployable.
So Lion, smart phones and social programs are the worst thing that had happened to these stupid people and to the society that doesn’t know how to control them.
Yakov
January 3, 2015 at 7:56 PM
indeed. one of the great advantages the Soviets had was they never wasted money on crap. except for military crap, and the west scared them into that. Stalin really didn’t want to fight the second war. there was no Marshall plan for the USSR!
they also wasted money on sports as propaganda. but it didn’t work. “look how great the Soviet Union is we can win at the biathlon or hockeyor chess …” whatevs. Americans just yawned.
World Moustache Champion
January 3, 2015 at 10:51 PM
AAPL is still the most valuable company in the world. and it’s a led by a poof to boot.
surely there is no more conspicuous sign of bourgeois decadence, though contemporary art comes close.
liberal capitalism is an anachronism at best for the developed world. but will it fade away or go gentle into that good night? or will there be revolution?
maybe neither. maybe idiocracy. as Lao-Tzu said:
Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties
their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens
their bones.
World Moustache Champion
January 3, 2015 at 10:56 PM
Conscientiousness, diligence, caring, etc. those outmoded Puritan ethics, yea, cheap labor is just that.
not too late
January 4, 2015 at 12:50 PM
I know, but these are my values and what I love about the colonial and revolutionary America. I’m am a dinosaur, I know. But what a great country it once was!
Yakov
January 4, 2015 at 9:54 PM
Surely cultural influences and changes in lifestyle need to be taken into account, along with general affluence. In the UK at least only losers would risk 2 years in borstal or prison by stealing a phone from a car or a DVD player by burglarising a house when such gadgets only cost 12 pounds to buy new. Also, there has been a general trend among young people to adopt a more middle class state of mind. Its no longer “cool” to get in fights, or get hopelessly drunk or take drugs without regard to safety. After all, drinking and smoking joints is something their parents do! How uncool is that! As for stabbing someone. Well, some young scumbag not far from me senselessly murdered another young man last year and now he is serving a life with a minimum of I think it is 20 years, and his father and brother are both serving five years for perjury. What a complete loser, when there are so many exciting things you can be doing these days. His friends are going paintballing, chatting up birds, having sex, going to the football, learning to drive and earning money, he is locked up in a cell, forgotten, looking forward to a bowl of porridge in the morning.
martin
January 3, 2015 at 9:03 PM
I guess this person who posted this question has never heard of the word “prole’?
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120306054953AABOOJR
I live in Bensonhurst and everyone here talks about boring things like money, shopping, family and kids. Most people have never read a book or been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Why are people that uncultured?
And this post should be directed to MaryK and anyone who is familiar with Prole Brooklyn and Bobo Parkslope/Carroll Gardens/Cobble & Boerum Hill. Not that bobos are really “cultured” in any stretch of the imagination.
JS
January 4, 2015 at 5:21 PM
Let met start by saying that most people everywhere are proles – low prole or high prole. About 90% of the US would qualify as prole by the standards that JS seems to use. Not being critical – just pointing out an important point. The person who wrote that Yahoo post may just have been having a “why can’t more people value the things I do?” moment, and be genuinely perplexed at why his book reading and museum going habits aren’t shared by most of his neighbors. He may not necessarily be the snob that the commenters responding to his post accused him of being. But if he lived in most places in the US he would have these same complaints. Bensonhurst (either the old one or what the place is now) is actually more typical and Cobble Hill and Park Slope are unusual. Another possibility is that this person is trying to feel superior by looking down at his neighbors. He may be someone who aspires to be like the people in Park Slope or Cobble Hill but doesn’t think he’ll ever make it career wise or money wise.. So he insults the people where he lives.
Maryk
January 4, 2015 at 9:15 PM
About 90% of the US would qualify as prole by the standards that JS seems to use.
That’s correct, given that less than 1/2 of the US population own a passport.
JS
January 5, 2015 at 2:28 PM
People with modest salaries who don’t waste their money on expensive international vacations are wise. Probably all of the people without passports are men and married women. Single women, even prole single women, love to spend all of their money on vacations.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 5, 2015 at 2:34 PM
That’s a simple reductionist excuse as to why Americans don’t travel aboard. I have Spanish friends who own passports and have been to Tibet and the Andes Mountains. I know a few Hipsters and Brooklyn Cobblestone Bobos who have not traveled to any of these places. One could make a point that these SWPL types waste their money on high rents and expensive restaurant meals, and not have the money to travel as frequently.
JS
January 5, 2015 at 2:47 PM