Fair. But weighing malice against incompetence seems risky these days with malice ascendent.

I agree. But the line can be difficult to see. Pulling together should be on the lookout for excluding others.

I am terrified that all organizations like this are likely to be raided at some point. Then every known member will be rounded up for blacklisting, “reeducation”, or disappearing.

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the (fill in the blank) party?”

This is being done today. In my area. But it produces the opposite results you may seek.

There is a community near me. Very insular. It hits the national news every so often, but is always top of mind in my region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Square%2C_New_York

You may have heard of the issues with the East Ramapo school district. I’ll let others fill in those stories. Or you can search area news articles for the past 20 years.

My story goes like this: a community member stopped paying taxes. The property goes for auction. A neighbor buys for pennies because there is only one bidder. The bidder moves into the property and stops paying taxes on his first home. That goes to auction and the first party buys for pennies. And it goes around the entire community. Endlessly. Perfectly legal tax evasion.

One day, a developer scans the foreclosure pages and sees a property for sale. Except he doesn’t know the unwritten rules. So he purchases the place for a song. The community leaves some clear messages that he needs to walk away. He doesn’t get the hint.

One peaceful night, the 911 switchboard lights up. There are shootouts, break-ins, fires, domestic disturbances all over the area. But all are nowhere near the property.

With every first responder in the area tied up, the community got to work demolishing the home - by hand. They took that place apart with crowbars and handsaws in a few hours.

There were no witnesses.

And so the developer walked away. The situation continues to this day. Nearby folks trying to get a rational price to sell their home are assured by a visitor that there will be precisely ONE offer - that they should not refuse.

Lockstep communities are not always a good thing.

Socrates railed against writing. He is credited with saying that it was a crutch that would reduce the human capacity to remember things.

Are you a professional writer? If not, you could be. This is thorough and clear. A best-of kind of post.

Does anyone else remember the source of the phrase “concentrated evil”? I do.

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It can be advertised as “cruelty free”. As in “No humans were coerced into doing these acts.”

I got a pair from Cabela’s. “Force” something or other. Has a thread grid like ripstop, but not nylon. Comfy, durable.

Sindarin

I had to fill out the number for my HR department on some paperwork. Tried to look it up. My large employer doesn’t have a phone number at all for any department - even HQ.

I did a good job preparing for Y2K. So good that they outsourced all IT once it was clear that we were successful.

Another time I made the mistake of getting paid what I was worth. They found a new guy to do the same for much less. He left within 6 months for a job that paid a reasonable amount.

Execute

The RV rental place.

Lure trump and all his Nazi cohorts into it, and disable escape. Let them live in their own fantasy hellscape and leave us alone

I use Amazon pharmacy. It is godawful convenient. I’m on a lot of different meds. A month’s worth arrives in the mail. It’s a spool of individual packets marked with the date and time to take it.

Enslaved with honor is still enslaved.

We could have been great friends.

I have a lens in that age range, and you are on to something.