Is the US a dystopia?

in orbit speaks wisdom

but sometimes (just a slight counterpoint) self-destructive behaviors can also be kinda exhilarating, like "look what I can do and still survive"

Well and also the things that can become self-destructive behaviors tend to start out as simple pleasure seeking. Gambling (if you enjoy it) is a little exciting, you get a buzz from it. Same with drugs, getting high is fun. And in both cases lots of people can indulge in a little thrill-seeking without doing much damage to themselves or their lives. It's when you overlay those short-term thrills on top of existing despair/anhedonia/trauma/etc that the thrill-seeking becomes destructive, a way to escape pain rather than sprinkle some dopamine on a more solid psychological foundation. I wouldn't call any of those impulses inherently self-destructive, they're situationally self-destructive. Which makes regulating them tricky, because it's so easy to say "Well, most people can handle it," without sufficiently accounting for the damage they can do.

Desmond Morris has a book adding a whole ev-bio cast to this discussion, which is probably discredited now and probably not helpful. Roughly, Tom Sawyer does stupid shit to get Becky Thatcher's attention.

Especially when you're drunk on free (bad) booze.

I've only had two casino experiences, one in Atlantic City and one in Reno. I thought both were equal parts fascinating, entertaining, and depressing.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, November 21, 2022 1:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

This pretty nicely describes my one casino experience, in Ocean Pines, Maryland in 2014.

It was almost comical how manipulative the whole thing was. It’s easy to see how people get played.

I went in with $10, which was to be the extent of my money to wager on slot machines. Stuck to that, and ultimately left with the same about of money.

“About the same amount of money” - maybe it was low $9.57 or so.

My grammar is awful this week.

The best account I've read of professional gambling was an interview with a guy who was a longtime casino grinder. He had a simple system, he started out every day with $1,500. He knew the games he was best at or had the best odds, and he would play those until he either lost all his money or doubled it. Sometimes took all day, sometimes he'd be done in a half-hour, but either way he would walk away. At the time — I think this was like 20 years ago I read this — he said he grossed about $75k a year. Which seemed OK if you just really liked hanging around casino but struck me as not a lot of fun.

Anyway, to connect all this back to the thread title, I think one definition or at least symptom of a dystopian society is that it uses these short-term thrills — gambling, drugs, bread, circuses — in the way addicts do, to distract from or paper over abysses of need and hurt, rather than dealing with the underlying damages.

Absolutely and in orbit was otm earlier about motivations towards these behaviors on the individual level.

But the story milo first posted was about how even (some) public universities have become like private equity firms, treating the people they are supposed to be educating and caring for as a constantly replenishing population of marks, as a resource to be mined. And yeah student loans and other terrible things mean that isn't nec new—universities are on a long and steady neoliberal decline—but the gangster mentality of pushing gambling on students because the already disgustingly over-funded athletic program gets a cut is still a little shocking to me.

Y'all I literally smoke cigarettes, I understand death drives and exhilaration and have quite a lot of contempt for myself as evidenced by my poor life choices over the years. I'm just saying, on the whole, if we took care of people more they would kill themselves less, including by gambling away their futures for a thrill or possibly as the only prospect of escaping financial ruin by winning a fantasy amount of money. tipsy otm above.

Gambling indeed comes with a major endorphin rush when you win, and yet it's hard to walk away when you lose. That stupid cliche on TV/movies where someone just makes another bet to try to make back their first is pretty real - your confidence in winning the next bet shoots up after a loss, the need to "not lose" supercedes preservation. And it's how I lost thousands once.

I struggle with it - I broke down crying once after losing money I shouldn't have been betting , and angrily destroyed a laptop another time after another loss.

When you have a lot of disposable income, if you're not full-on addicted, you may be able to self-regulate enough to win a little money and not dent your savings. But the moment your situation changes financially (as mine did due to my changing life situation two years ago), all these habits are still ingrained in you, and your brain isn't necessarily going to let you pull back. Hence why I did some stupid shit last year that I'm still upset about.

I've dealt with it by now only allowing myself longshot bets (i.e. parlays, guessing scores) where you bet $20 and win $1000. Haven't hit yet but also have stopped big wagers.

The other thing = winning a small bet is an easy gateway to thinking "why don't I add another zero into the next one? I could solve my debt with one bet" type fantasy leaps

feeling you on all that. I have successfully quit video poker gambling for over 3 years now, but I still buy the occasional lottery ticket

Yeah, I also want to make clear that I have a lot of empathy for addicts of all sorts— I mean, I smoked a quarter pack of cigs on Saturday night, and I nearly died in 2019 of cancer. I don't usually smoke, but sometimes I just desire that deathly pleasure.

My main qualm is with the industry and culture of gambling, particularly as it is tied to sport, and when my kneejerk reaction is "ban it," I am mostly reacting against those elements, not against those who gamble (with problems or without).

going to the horsetrack is the only form of gambling i like, but i find that so different than the casino, very relaxing, horses are chill, you can really get through an afternoon just placing little bullshit $1-$5 bets and not lose much, plus with horses you'll probably get lucky once. i typically lose about $20 over the course of 10 races

that's the way to do it, really. makes the races a little more fun, but you're not disappointed if/when you don't win, you can have fun outdoors while doing it, and your pocket is no lighter than it was if you went to the bar.

I don’t understand the appeal of gambling though.

Er, you might win some money?

I had perhaps a three month stretch where I was going on a Casino Boat Cruise two-three times a week, because I would play the video blackjack machine. the upside to doing that over a table was the sheer volume of hands you could play in a short time, esp since sometimes the table was empty. using advanced blackjack strategies, I was routinely walking away with lots of money (including $500 once) and never losing, since if you know what you're doing, you win about 41% of the time, and if you increase your bets at the right time, boom.

and then one day, boom, $600 lost. since it's video blackjack, I would guess someone changed the algorithm to game how often players won, as someone (not me) probably took them for a lot. I wasn't the only person who tried that strategy.

moral of story is casinos always know how to put an end to the house losing.

xpost I mean, yeah, exactly. my biggest win was $850 once (betting against my Miami Dolphins), which I used to make the rest of my payment on a cruise. stuff like that's exciting, and it actually allowed me to quit for a while feeling "on top", but then you remember that moment months later and "hey what if I get lucky again".

the other thing is winnings aren't permanent, the $500 you won months ago and used on something fun then becomes a deficit if you don't stop betting and lose $500 or more months later.

I totally get how it can be addicting, chasing the rush. One reason I've never done it in any serious way. My gambling such as it is is limited to a friendly regular poker game with a $10 buy-in. Generally costs me less than a night out at a bar. A big night is being up $20-$30, a bad night is being down the same. (Also we haven't adjusted the buy-in in years, so it's gotten progressively cheaper with inflation.)

When the whole online betting thing took off, I had one friend who got really into it and kept trying to recruit a bunch of us — "You get $500 credit to start," etc. I told him nothing I've learned in my 50-plus years on the planet has made me think developing a gambling habit was a good idea.

I felt bad that I almost sucked my friend into the world at a time when Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, FL had an app (before the State of Florida made the app illegal)

I let her give me $20 to make a small bet because I'd told her I was doing one, and we both made the same bet and won. And days later she's like "oh look this book gives a $200 free play, we should do a bigger bet".

Awkward trying to talk her out of it while thinking simultaneously "lol pot kettle bruh". But she's the impulsive type who could have easily gotten into trouble.

Thankfully she lost interest after I said I didn't wanna place a big bet.

the State of Florida made the app illegal

to tables' earlier point, this is the kind of banning that I think is good, having it be legal as a general concept means you can control it more strictly (which mostly isn't happening due to other factors, hence why we are talking abt it in the dystopia thread)

Yeah, taking away the ease of betting is a big help. Nobody should make life destroying decisions in two seconds on their couch. You might give more pause if you have to make an effort to do it.

(Aka Milo's point up thread)

You underestimate my ability to make terrible decisions, bruh

Like, I am on a couch right now, and I can make a lot of REALLY bad decisions with no help from the sports book industry

Listen YMP. take Mr Bonamassa home. He said he won't press charges.

I like Circus Circus in Reno but that's because they have skee ball and dog shows under the big top

Also the $8.99 Prime Rib dinner at CalNeva is a great deal.. comes with all the fixings

Breaking News: New York City will hospitalize more mentally ill people involuntarily, in a push to remove them from streets and subways, Mayor Eric Adams said. https://t.co/XFDchWwKiW

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 29, 2022

Yeah, just heard that on the radio... Giuliani redux

cool enjoy getting sued you Nazi ghoul

(emphasizing that this is 61% of its $3.5 TRILLION in assets)

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3740921-defense-department-fails-another-audit-but-makes-progress/

The Defense Department has failed its fifth-ever audit, unable to account for more than half of its assets, but the effort is being viewed as a “teachable moment,” according to its chief financial officer.

After 1,600 auditors combed through DOD’s $3.5 trillion in assets and $3.7 trillion in liabilities, officials found that the department couldn’t account for about 61 percent of its assets, Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord told reporters on Tuesday.

San Francisco supervisors approve SFPD plan to give robots 'deadly force option' @sfbos @SFPD #SanFrancisco https://t.co/DDIAhqCHP1

— KTVU (@KTVU) November 30, 2022

ED 209 finally goes to market

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/05/how-hospice-became-a-for-profit-hustle

You have 30 seconds to comply.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/05/how-hospice-became-a-for-profit-hustle🕸

Paywall avoidance version:
https://archive.ph/IuC4b

Thanks!

Sorry if yr paywalled out, but I’m only a few graphs into this and had to post it…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/us/jrotc-schools-mandatory-automatic-enrollment.html

Kids being forced into JROTC programs, mainly in Black and poor areas of major cities.

That is disturbing. I'm surprised the word "draft" never appears in that piece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLxi1kzpkQY

a quarter billion and they still hired the interior decorators from every airport hotel lobby

related:

https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-44/the-intellectual-situation/why-is-everything-so-ugly/

^makes its point, then restates it, makes it again, then churns out its point several more times, then...

much like your posts

A mom was kicked out of a Rockettes show because *facial recognition tech* at MSG identified her as working at a law firm involved in a suit dealing with the venue. https://t.co/5Z0Oa79Scc

— Hannah Recht (@hannah_recht) December 20, 2022

related to the above
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/realestate/luxury-high-rise-432-park.html

also fuck dolan forever

"A Fifth of American Adults Struggle to Read. Why Are We Failing to Teach Them?"
https://www.propublica.org/article/literacy-adult-education-united-states

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/fatal-police-shootings-unreported/

"As fatal police shootings increase, more go unreported."