Overall, just trying to imagine what a world would look like with
legal drugs makes me speculate it would be much more difficult to arrest
real criminals. I think it would be really hard to find data on this,
because you’d expect there to be people in jail with lots of nonviolent
drug charges who committed undocumented “real” crimes.
I mean, apart from the fact that it blatantly flies in the face of
all documented evidence, this is literally Pratchett-style thinking:
In this [Nobby] was echoing the Patrician’s view of crime and
punishment. If there was crime, there should be punishment. If the
specific criminal should be involved in the punishment process then this
was a happy accident, but if not then any criminal would do, and since
everyone was undoubtedly guilty of something, the net result was that,
in general terms, justice was done.
Oh this is wonderful, that there should be net crime and justice. It doesn't even matter if entirely innocent individuals are punished!
This brings us to the great crime/justice optimizing AI. It projects crime rates based on statistics, and seeks to punish people until enough punishment matches the (presume) crime rate. From writing parking tickets based on studies of how many people go over on their meters and don't get caught, to putting a person in jail (at least!) for every single murder. The world won't be just and free until \_everyone is punished\_.
If there's anything that The Rationalists have proven to me, it's that all those implausible movie setups about why the AI they created is evil are in fact super plausible.
> The world won't be just and free until _everyone is punished_.
Nobody is with out [sin](https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842) ... wait ... this is just christianity with extra steps.
Have they literally never heard of the 4th amendment? And probable
cause? The notion that solving crime trumps everything else and immoral
and unjust laws should stand because of that is… well holy shit.
“Usage of many drugs appears to be closely associated with criminal
culture.”
This is truly the statement if someone who has experienced the world
via a single point of view, and possibly entirely by TV.
There’s a big emphasis on street crime and basically crimes committed by black looking people.
But in the 21st century the biggest crimes by impact are going to be white collar fraud. Madoff. Enron. 2008. And much much more.
Why won’t the rationalists rank crime by financial impact? At which point selling pot on the street barely even registers. What about wage theft?
This is why these kinds of analysises are bogus: they exist in a predetermined framework which lends itself to over criminalize black people. The fact they can’t see this is an indictment of their so called intelligence.
“Hmm, unfortunately I can see straight through the justifications for
the drug war. But how will society survive without an excuse for racial
terrorism?
So lots of criminals aren’t caught. Therefore we should make up new
laws that specifically target them for things that don’t actually matter
by demographic. Then we can punish them for the new “bullshit” crimes
instead of the serious ones they actually committed.
I mean, "I'm really more of a libertarian" is nearly always just the way-station for someone in his -- gender used intentionally -- early twenties on his way to becoming a bog-standard conservative, left liberal, or out and out fascist. (AnCaps for some reason often flip to either flip to full-on commie or full-on fascist.)
So we should arrest people on drugs… not because the drug is the
problem… but because drugs are closely associated with criminality? How
hard do you think it’d be to convince this guy that we should just
arrest people for being black via the exact same logic? I think you
could do it in less than a paragraph.
I mean, apart from the fact that it blatantly flies in the face of all documented evidence, this is literally Pratchett-style thinking:
Have they literally never heard of the 4th amendment? And probable cause? The notion that solving crime trumps everything else and immoral and unjust laws should stand because of that is… well holy shit.
“Usage of many drugs appears to be closely associated with criminal culture.”
This is truly the statement if someone who has experienced the world via a single point of view, and possibly entirely by TV.
can’t wait until this guy learns about wage theft
“Hmm, unfortunately I can see straight through the justifications for the drug war. But how will society survive without an excuse for racial terrorism?
Unless…”
So lots of criminals aren’t caught. Therefore we should make up new laws that specifically target them for things that don’t actually matter by demographic. Then we can punish them for the new “bullshit” crimes instead of the serious ones they actually committed.
I can see no problem with this scheme.
Iirc everybody does at least 1 crime very day, so he isnt totally wrong, apart from being totally wrong of course.
E: and I thought they were supposed to be libertarians. Fritz, your mask has slipped.
Written like an undergraduate trying to sound really serious.
So we should arrest people on drugs… not because the drug is the problem… but because drugs are closely associated with criminality? How hard do you think it’d be to convince this guy that we should just arrest people for being black via the exact same logic? I think you could do it in less than a paragraph.