Well, I can only explain it to you. I can’t understand it for you.

It seems like you are trying to use statistical trickery to diminish the perception of the wealth gap. Whether this is intentional or not, it will elicit an emotional reaction, because spreading awareness of the wealth gap is arguably the most important work our society has to do. And your core argument, that is easier to understand on a log scale, is flawed. That leaves people with a passion for communicating this issue suspicious of your motives in an anonymous forum where billionaires can easily send people or bots to muddy the waters. We do not need your bad take here. It is actively damaging the cause.
The true nature of the wealth gap is that it is linear. Billionaires don’t work a thousand times harder than the working class, yet they are paid a thousand times more. They can buy 5000 of your dream car. They can but the entire street containing the house you’re desperately saving for, just to keep you out. If I had worked every day since Julius Caesar was in power, earning my annual wage EVERY DAY, I still wouldn’t be as rich as Elon Musk. And I’m a better human being than him. Recording these things linearly exposes the obscenity of the problem, and it also makes sense logically. On top of that is the best way to show people they’re being had.

It’s really not hard to tell the difference between millions and billions. There are multitudinous ways in which that can be achieved, even if you’re explaining to a toddler. Anyone who can understand the concept of a log scales can understand the difference between a million and a billion linearly. How many threads in this carpet? Around a million? Cool. And a billion would be what, an entire city? Cool. Easy.

Yes, log scales are important if you put aside personal wealth, but why would you want to put aside personal wealth when it’s what we’re discussing?

Bernie doesn’t say “eat the rich”, you’re saying that. Bernie makes specific statements about who to tax, and when and how.
He does pay his fair share. If the richest in the US paid tax like he does, there wouldn’t be a problem.

The very fact that there’s an order of magnitude difference is the point of the comparison. There shouldn’t be five orders of magnitude between any two people’s wealth; it’s obscene. Maintaining a linear comparison shows the true nature of the wealth gap.

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This post sent me down a rabbit hole. Fun fact: company scrip/employer debt bondage in general has been illegal in England and Wales since 1464
In the US, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 outlawed it.
I’m sure it’s not beyond the wit of Bezos and his teams of ghouls to reinstate debt bondage while somehow staying within the letter of these kinds of law.

You haven’t given me a source other than Slate.
And look, if you can’t see how that argument generalises to antivax acceptance then you are part of the problem frankly.
I’m going to stop here because you’re dug in, and starting to project ad hominems.

No, because down that road of argument lies the validation of antivax views.

There is plenty of evidence for consensus. Medical institutions and departments national and international all claim that brain maturity is not reached until the mid to late twenties. Google “prefrontal cortex development age”. There very much is a consensus, unless we are using different meanings for the word “consensus”. Or perhaps we’re not talking about the same fact that there’s consensus over. If course there’s no consensus on the exact age, and that’s all the articles were saying, but that has no bearing on the fact that development doesn’t peak and fall until the twenties.

I choose to believe the consensus. It’s getting tiring saying the same thing.

You’re sources are junk, I’m afraid. They are magazine articles written to excite readers rather than get at the truth. I’m finding it hard to explain this to you without sounding patronising so maybe you should educate yourself on the veracity of source types.

So your claim is that there’s no “fully developed”? That then does not support your original assertion that we shouldn’t go easier on people who are younger for making bad decisions. They remain significantly less developed than their mature counterparts, whether or not someone in their 40s still has the potential for development (of course they do). Neural plasticity doesn’t suddenly 'switch off, but it does appear to peak and fall quite quickly in the late twenties (of course, this is not an iron rule: everyone is different). I can source this claim with any number of studies if you like.

I’m sorry I feel I picked on you a bit, really I just wanted a dialogue. I’ve seen this notion going round that “our brains not being fully developed until after 25 has been debunked” and I’ve been meaning to read into it for a while to see if it’s true. I’m going to keep looking at it, but I don’t see any evidence that scientific understanding of prefrontal development has changed. I’m a scientist by education so I am perfectly capable of charging my mind if I believe there is evidence to do so. In fact I find that process thrilling and it’s literally one of the reasons I get out of bed in the morning. I’m not stubborn or dogmatic in the slightest. But I am hard to convince. Sorry about that.

I did.
That Slate article argues that there’s nothing special about the age of 25, not that brains are still in development at that age.
If you can’t find a scholarly, reliable source for your claim that our brains are fully developed at 25, then I’m afraid you’re not going to convince me. The reason for that is this: I’m not hubristic enough to believe I know better than the field of neuroscience, and I’m not credulous enough to believe one person’s opinion that they do.
Nothing you have shown me contradicts the fact that the prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed in people in their early twenties. In fact your latest source repeats the claim multiple times.

I did. But that link is just opinion. The studies are real science. The claim that all the research stems from it being the cutoff year is unsupported by the article in the link, which, again, is one person’s opinion. Weighted against the consensus of medical science, it’s just not very convincing to me.

So what kind of source would you accept?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-021-01137-9

Although neurons of the PFC are generated before birth, the differentiation of its neurons and development of synaptic connections in humans extend to the 3rd decade of life.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3621648/#%3A~%3Atext=The+development+and+maturation+of+the+prefrontal+cortex+occurs+primarily%2Cthe+age+of+25+years.

The development and maturation of the prefrontal cortex occurs primarily during adolescence and is fully accomplished at the age of 25 years.

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-teen-brain-7-things-to-know

The brain finishes developing and maturing in the mid-to-late 20s.

It seems to me that there is a scientific consensus on the subject.

So I agree it shouldn’t be used as an excuse, but in a perfect world it would definitely be grounds for diminished responsibility. If your brain hasn’t fully developed its decision making centre then you aren’t on a level playing field with those whose have. And it’s a fact that full development of the prefontal cortex doesn’t occur until mid to late twenties. They’re just not at the you-ought-to-know-better endgame, neurologically.

You’re right, except it’s the only game, not the endgame. Since neoliberalism became consensus, public assets have been sold off and paid for again by the public, but privately. We bought the roads, railways, waterways, weather stations etc with our taxes, they were sold, and we didn’t see a penny of the profits, and then we have to buy them again with our wages. The endgame is where there’s nothing left to sell off, no more exponential growth to be had, that’s when it all collapses. Greed, it seems, allows you to see past the fact that this collapse is inevitable.

I’m autistic, so it’s hard for me to map those cartoons onto a real face. They all kind of look like captain Barnacle to me to be honest. It’s probably better if I don’t know, I suppose.
Bottom line though is of course that nobody should be judged on their appearance because that’s blatantly stupid. Further, I think, when you break it down, judging someone because their appearance conforms loosely to your idea of the appearance of a population which is most concentrated in a country whose government’s military is committing atrocities against a country whose population’s appearance conforms to one to which you think you belong… is beyond stupidity and can be nothing short of outright malicious. Fuck that you have to deal with that. Especially since you’ve been outspoken in your opposition to the crimes of that government.

I’ve only ever found Muslims to be at worst civil and at best excellent friends. And I used to live in Luton (highest proportion of Muslim population in the UK). I’m not Jewish though.

Weird question - I’ve never been able to say for sure if someone is Jewish by looking at them (unless they’re wearing a yarmulke or Hasidic getup). I remember someone at work telling me to go talk to Mark, he’s the ‘obviously Jewish guy’, and having zero idea who that was. Even when he was pointed out to me I couldn’t see what was different from him and any other dark-haired European. Is this a me problem or are people just projecting patterns?

Don’t be daft lad, you’re one of us now!
Anyone putting up with this fucking weather is.
2 rules:

1. Don’t be a cunt.
2. See rule 1.

Anyone othering you is in breach of rule 1 and will be tutted at furiously