Torture/Sanctions/The Rights of Prisoners and Everyone to Food, Housing, Healthcare, Fresh Air, Space, Recreation, and a Long Life

I don’t believe in torture, sanctions, etc. I think everyone should have access to food, housing, healthcare, etc. and that short of taking someone else’s organs, even prisoners should be provided with everything to help them live as long a life as possible. That includes fresh air, space, and recreation. But I might be a bit ahead of the times.

Assisted Suicide/Mental Health/Consent/Philanthropy/3-D Printed Organs/Universal Healthcare

Reddit discussion link: Canadians Turn to Euthanasia as Solution to Unbearable Poverty

https://www.reddit.com/r/boringdystopia/comments/x9359o/_

Commenter: How are you going to convince anyone that someone mentally ill enough to not live can make the clear decision to end themselves? I thought Canada was supposed to be friendly? Starting to sound like Texas.

Commenter #2: No, Texas doesn't support a legal framework for self-electing to die. The Texas way is to generally not provide substantial aid or services, including aided suicide.

Texas has it's own kind of awful, but this is a sort of faux-compassionate that Texas wouldn't touch.

Commenter #3: I’m more referring to the fact that Texas likes killing the mentally ill. But yeah.

Me (responding to commenter #1): Also what I don’t understand. Normally, if someone is suicidal and a harm to themselves, we take action (in the US).

I also see a problem with someone choosing to commit slow suicide (by gaining so much weight that they can’t breathe, for example). How is that not classified as a mental illness that warrants intervention?

Say in the future you’re able to get a brain scan and an AI determines that your future is bleak/pain level high enough -and- you’re of sound enough mind to make that kind of decision (or you were of sound enough mind when you made that decision before mental deterioration). Why aren’t other avenues being explored/funded, like pain medication/thought editing/even a full-on brain transplant into a 3 or 4-D printed new body? In terms of effective altruism, this would save lives in a concrete and immediate way, and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I thought we’ve had 3-D printed organs for years now. Who’s getting them? The rich? I never hear about this option being offered to the people who need it most. Where’s the funding for the hardware and whatever goes into the refills/“printer ink?” Where are the philanthropies that could help people whose only alternative is assisted suicide? Where’s the universal healthcare that should cover life-or-death care like this?

Sanctions/Gas/Europe/Military Recruitment/Poor People/Universal Basic Income/Third-Party Candidates/2024 Election

I don’t believe in sanctions…I think I’ve mentioned this before. They’re not ethical because they end up harming the people instead of the governments, especially the poor (and more recently, especially in the UK, the middle class). Of course there are good arguments on both sides, especially since we are in the middle of a war, but this, to me, seems like we are just sacrificing the poor in order to gain an advantage. I feel the same about recruiting poor/working-class people into the military. I believe in a Universal Basic Income (UBI), which means that the government pays people instead of collecting an income tax. Like permanent stimulus checks. It’s what Andrew Yang stood for during the Democratic primaries of 2020. Unfortunately, since then, Yang has declared himself a third-party candidate, and I don’t want him to take votes away from Biden’s re-election and the Democratic Party. Also like I’ve said before, I hope he comes to his senses soon and switches back to the Democratic Party. 

It's okay for you to feel pain/torture as part of your punishment. Look at it this way--at least I didnt take away your "rights."

I think ideally we'd have a non-invasive (ELF-wave) mind reader that could interfere before it got to the point where a person could inflict harm upon another person.

Sort of weird how she dismisses this viewpoint with the questions she first asks regarding invasive treatments (if we had widespread brain implants before widespread ELF technology and/or brain implants ended up being cheaper or more sustainable) and pharmacologically-induced remorse. I feel like the point should be to keep people safe, not to impose your own personal sense of justice and appropriate punishment. Remorse, natural or pharmacologically-induced, is not necessary for a society to safely function, in my opinion, and in some people, it may even be impossible for them to feel remorse in a natural, real way. I'm of the opinion that people in general have much less free will than they think they do. Our DNA, the way we were raised, the circumstances into which we were born, and the situations we find ourselves in second-to-second form a feedback loop that causes certain behavior patterns to flourish.

.

Link to the author's blog where she expands upon what she said in her interview with Aeon regarding future prisoners serving sentences that either last 1000 years or feel like they do (with the assistance of drugs and/or technology): 

"The future of punishment: a clarification"

https://rebeccaroache.weebly.com/blog/the-future-of-punishment-a-clarification

.

One of many articles written based on the author's interview with Aeon (Aeon's link no longer works): 

"Could we condemn criminals to suffer for hundreds of years? Biotechnology could let us extend convicts' lives 'indefinitely'" (written in 2014)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2580828/Could-soon-create-hell-EARTH-Biotechnology-let-extend-criminals-lives-makes-suffering-HUNDREDS-years.html

How to elect a UBI (Universal Basic Income) candidate in 2028

EDIT 01.01.2023: As long as we wait until this MAGA thing dies out or Texas secedes (whichever comes first), a UBI (Universal Basic Income, or free money for every American) will do good things for our country in the long run, and for the world by setting a good example and starting a worldwide movement that will one day make it to the poorest countries.

 Reddit post: 

“Let’s All Not Die

“Hi friends, 

“I am curious if you think an anti-collapse political party could exist or be successful. I am worried that we cannot continue down any path currently endorsed by political parties (I live in the US). Do you think people who may believe in collapse or see the potential issues climate crisis will cause could create enough political traction to get their message out by creating a political party or movement with the goal of protecting the average citizen from probable collapse?”

My response: 

I’d say your best shot would be starting a movement within the Democratic Party, but not creating a whole new party. It’s basically a two-party system, and you’d want to choose the Democrats because Republicans wouldn’t want to support anything that requires money.

It’s because of this that I’m really disappointed that Yang became a third-party candidate.

Hopefully there will be another candidate in 2028 who supports a UBI, but from the Democratic Party. I was very pro-Yang in-between the time Biden first got elected and Yang deciding to go third-party (possibly due to 20/20 hindsight seeing how everyone was affected by the pandemic). I hope that Yang doesn’t take away too many votes from Biden in 2024, but is successful in increasing support for a UBI. Then a Democrat that runs on a UBI platform will hopefully win in 2028…

Reddit post and discussion: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/wd833o/lets_all_not_die

Yes on CA Prop 26 and 27; on the difference between supporting legal drugs, alcohol, gambling vs. legal prostitution

Personally, I’m voting yes on both Prop 26 and 27 (sports betting at Native American casinos and sports betting on cell phones/tablets/etc.). I understand it as a regional issue; as opposed to nationally legalizing these types of betting, it’s probably best left up to the states (or, eventually, individual cities/counties) to decide if the tax revenue is worth the change in the types of people that they get as tourists and new residents, as well as the effect it will have on the lives of the people allowed to gamble away their life savings. I’d have no problem with California becoming more competitive with Las Vegas or Atlantic City, and I believe for the most part in individual decision-making in regards to drugs, alcohol, and gambling. I draw the line at prostitution, partly because of the risk of STDs and mostly because so many people get kicked out of their house as soon as they’re 18 or graduate high school and they’d have nowhere to go, regardless of whether the job market is good or not. They’re just not raised with an education-first mindset, and that’s not their fault, and they shouldn’t be forced to prostitute themselves as a result.

I especially support 27 (sports betting on cell phones/tablets/etc.) because a lot of the tax revenue goes to support the homeless, a group of people who really need the money, and it could be the difference between life and death for them. I’ve seen the way conservatives on Reddit and NextDoor talk about unhoused populations, and it makes me sick. I feel like if 27 isn’t passed, a lot of good will be left undone, and we may not get the chance to significantly increase funding for the unhoused for a while. Meanwhile, global warming continues, making the summers hotter and more unbearable each year, with people more likely to die in larger and larger numbers. It’s one of the few times I feel like my vote will actually count towards something big. A lot of lives are on the line.

Link to info about the issues: https://ballotpedia.org/California_2022_ballot_propositions

The possibility of civil war if Electoral College electors decide that the American public’s votes don’t count, resulting in Trump becoming President despite losing according to the votes

I subscribe to a Reddit community for preppers (people who prepare for emergency/disaster/etc. situations) and someone asked what type of event would be enough to cause them to leave the country (a lot of people, like the author of the podcast “It Could Happen Here,” believe it’s possible that a civil war is in our future, and with the recent Supreme Court decisions and its seeming willingness to allow 2024 electoral college “electors” to decide to their vote goes towards instead of their vote being decided by the people the way most people think it works, it’s possible that no matter who actually wins the election, electors will decide that their vote goes to Trump and he will win the presidency…making a civil war a definite possibility). A lot of people said that they should start preparing to move out of the country (expatriate) -now.-

Link to the Reddit post in the Preppers community: https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/vs3k4t/im_planning_to_leave_the_us_if_shtf_what_event/