The criminal justice system punishes those who can't adapt to capitalism

[Derec]

You were conspicuously silent with your demands for "double-blind peer reviewed scientifically valid studies" when it came to the original thesis that people have to resort to muggings and drug dealing in order to not starve.

wrong thread

No, right thread because that's what OP claimed.

I've been listening to a lot of hip-hop in the last year, and outside of the artistic aspect of it, it's actually taught me a good amount about the 'underground economy' and the economics of being poor. A few notable things I've realized from it:

- a lot of people commit muggings because they're poor and starving and have no other options
- a lot of people enter the illicit drug industry because they're poor and starving and have no other options

So we've built a society that systemically discriminates against both people of colour, and people with no education, to the point that there's a huge subset of society that needs to do anything they can to survive. So they turn to illegal activities, and when they get caught they're put in prison, worsening their life even further.

So in effect we've created a society based on pure competition, where we not only force the losers into poverty, but we put them in prison too.

That's fucked up.

- - - Updated - - -

Un-fucking-believable. Capitalism is not responsible for Camden's problems. Neither is Chris Christie. It's pro-criminal residents like these.

Who were born in a vacuum.

No, the vacuum seems to be between their ears.

 

[untermensche]

Who were born in a vacuum.

No, the vacuum seems to be between their ears.

And they were born that way, right?

 

[Derec]

And they were born that way, right?

However they got that way, if they treat police with open hostility and prevent them from apprehending criminals they have no business complaining about high crime rates in their neighborhoods or about the lack of economic opportunities.

 

[untermensche]

And they were born that way, right?

However they got that way, if they treat police with open hostility and prevent them from apprehending criminals they have no business complaining about high crime rates in their neighborhoods or about the lack of economic opportunities.

So how is American capitalism not to blame?

That is the system they were raised in.

And under American capitalism some live under conditions that create these kinds of people.

People are a product of their society, not their race or religion.

 

[Derec]

So how is American capitalism not to blame?

Because it's a local problem and thus a product of local circumstances (such as mismanagement by local city government). Vast majority of areas in US do not have these problems.

That is the system they were raised in.

It seems to me they were raised on steady diet of rap lyrics (to bring it to the OP).

And under American capitalism some live under conditions that create these kinds of people.

And there is no such thing as personal responsibility? BS!

 

[laughing dog]

And they were born that way, right?

However they got that way, if they treat police with open hostility and prevent them from apprehending criminals they have no business complaining about high crime rates in their neighborhoods or about the lack of economic opportunities.

You forgot "or people using generalizations and non-sequiturs to draw inane conclusions about their lives".

 

[untermensche]

Because it's a local problem and thus a product of local circumstances (such as mismanagement by local city government). Vast majority of areas in US do not have these problems.

That is the system they were raised in.

It seems to me they were raised on steady diet of rap lyrics (to bring it to the OP).

And under American capitalism some live under conditions that create these kinds of people.

And there is no such thing as personal responsibility? BS!

This is one nation. Local conditions are conditions of the nation.

And the nation does have rotting ulcers all over.

Thanks to American capitalism and centuries of legal racism.

 

[arkirk]

Because it's a local problem and thus a product of local circumstances (such as mismanagement by local city government). Vast majority of areas in US do not have these problems.

It seems to me they were raised on steady diet of rap lyrics (to bring it to the OP).

And under American capitalism some live under conditions that create these kinds of people.

And there is no such thing as personal responsibility? BS!

This is one nation. Local conditions are conditions of the nation.

And the nation does have rotting ulcers all over.

Thanks to American capitalism and centuries of legal racism.

And today, thanks to our leaders wars, the cops have bigger better weapons to use on those black and brown people. It really isn't so much a failure of minorities to adapt. It is discrimination in employment...now the big thing is to pit human employment against robots, so that puts the human on the street and without means to make a living. There are plenty of jobs at McDonalds but give them time and that will be automated too. People just don't seem to be able to understand the proposition Aldous Huxley made years ago in Brave New World. Man against machine...no contest. It is people who are too concerned with profit margins that keep this kettle of fish on full boil. It is legislators who do not care if people are poisoned by lead in their drinking water. It is people who are bent on wringing every last dollar out of this society they can and anybody's and everybody's expense. So the losers are becoming police target practice and if they survive that, they get to work in the prison industrial complex....as a prisoner of Corrections Corporation of America,

 

[RavenSky]

Derec the thug with his insight on African American culture.

Well I almost dated a female black rapper once you know.

But do you have any opinion about rousseau's rap-lyric inspired hypothesis that blacks can't get an education due to capitalism and are forced to mug people and deal drugs in order to not starve?
Or do you just feel the need to respond to anything I post in a knee-jerk fashion and call me names?

Do YOU feed the need to respond to anything anyone posts about black people in your typical knee-jerk fashion and make racist statements?

Seriously Derec, how about you just not reply in these types of threads before you get reported yet again for derailing.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Capitalism of course is entirely a man-made situation. It is an artificial situation.

Some adapt to it's artificiality better than others.

Sociopathic egotists adapt very easily. Since it is a system of exploiting others to gain wealth for yourself.

Those that cringe at the idea of exploiting others have difficulties.

The natural system is everyone for themselves.

 

[rousseau]

.....
So in effect we've created a society based on pure competition, ....

"We" didin't create it. Natural evolution and life in general is competition. Species that couldn't successfully compete became extinct.

Yea. After reading a little bit of international relations and starting to get a better grasp on organizational structures I'm starting to lose a bit of faith in the power of individual will. In other words most societies are a result of resources, geography, and biological realities with a sprinkling of randomness, and not the power of people to shape those societies.

So I guess with that criminal justice is meant to solidify meritocracy, and not 'I'm stronger than you'.

 

[barbos]

rousseau, rappers should be given PhDs in sociology for their lyrics, right?

 

[Derec]

Do YOU feed the need to respond to anything anyone posts about black people in your typical knee-jerk fashion and make racist statements?

If there is anybody engaging in knee-jerk responses it would be the likes of Frikki (who only responded to insult me).
And what "racist statements"? If anything, rousseau's statement that so-called "people of colour" can't hack it in the capitalist system and have to resort to illegal means of earning an income would be the one in the neighborhood of being racist.

Seriously Derec, how about you just not reply in these types of threads before you get reported yet again for derailing.

What derailing? I know you are very quick to accuse me of derailing but this is baseless even for you. All my replies on this thread were in direct reference to the OP or other people's posts.

 

[Derec]

rousseau, rappers should be given PhDs in sociology for their lyrics, right?

Isn't that what Dr. Dre's PhD is in?

 

[Bomb#20]

Capitalism of course is entirely a man-made situation. It is an artificial situation.

Some adapt to it's artificiality better than others.

Sociopathic egotists adapt very easily. Since it is a system of exploiting others to gain wealth for yourself.

Those that cringe at the idea of exploiting others have difficulties.

So a lot of people commit muggings or enter the illicit drug industry because they cringe at the idea of exploiting others, do they?

 

[Bomb#20]

So in effect we've created a society based on pure competition

Why do you write things like that? I infer, from the fact that you posted here, that you've been eating. Have you given two seconds of thought to the number of people in our capitalist society whose cooperation caused all that food to go into your mouth?

 

[untermensche]

Capitalism of course is entirely a man-made situation. It is an artificial situation.

Some adapt to it's artificiality better than others.

Sociopathic egotists adapt very easily. Since it is a system of exploiting others to gain wealth for yourself.

Those that cringe at the idea of exploiting others have difficulties.

So a lot of people commit muggings or enter the illicit drug industry because they cringe at the idea of exploiting others, do they?

No, but many of the victims of American style capitalism have very hard lives and end up doing this.

Whenever you have capitalism you have the exploiters and the exploited.

 

[Source]

.....
So in effect we've created a society based on pure competition, ....

"We" didin't create it. Natural evolution and life in general is competition. Species that couldn't successfully compete became extinct.

The purest competition of all is in fact found amongst drug dealers, where competitors are killed, territory is jealously guarded and ruthlessness is the norm. I don't see that in the rest of society.

Drop the average middle class posh boy onto the streets amongst drug dealers and he wouldn't last 5 minutes thanks to the competition.

Trust and co-operation are the glue that keeps a society from descending into one like that found amongst drug dealers.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

If the Camden shipyards were running at full capacity (along with the RCA factories and the Campbell Soup plant), unemployment in the city was low, and the workers there were making the money workers there did during the forties and fifties (contolling for inflation of course), who here thinks thinks that Camden would be a dying city?

 

[rousseau]

So in effect we've created a society based on pure competition

Why do you write things like that? I infer, from the fact that you posted here, that you've been eating. Have you given two seconds of thought to the number of people in our capitalist society whose cooperation caused all that food to go into your mouth?

On the same coin, our capitalist society has forced the exploitation, if not slavery of countless people in less developed nations. But as skepticalblip suggested it's likely just our natural state.

It leads me to believe that we're only moral insofar as our in group is protected. Not a big surprise either, but would be nice if people had the capability to extend goodwill to groups and factions that have no affect on their bottom line.