10 KiB
[BST] suppose you had to become a costumed crimefighter, using only your current resources. How would you do it?
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Author: u/MugaSofer *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/3nyrlb/bst_suppose_you_had_to_become_a_costumed/
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Score: 2
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Created: 2015-10-08T12:41:20
Post:
Comments:
u/GrecklePrime [+25] (4 minutes later)
Join the police academy. Graduate. Get a job as a police officer. Take the uniform. Quit the job. Now since I am no longer a police officer, the uniform qualifies as a costume. Fight crime. Get arrested for impersonating a police officer, stealing a uniform and vigilanteeism.
Wait, did you want us to be effective at fighting crime as well?
u/MugaSofer [+2] (15 minutes later)
Genius!
u/Uncaffeinated [+16] (an hour later)
My current job (cybersecurity) arguably already involves fighting crime, so I guess I'd just start wearing silly clothes to work.
u/None [+7] (7 minutes later)
Start a microinvestment firm in a third-world country with a very unusual office dress code.
u/Salivanth [+3] (2 days later)
I'm going to play this according to the spirit of the question, rather than the letter of it. No "fighting crime" by donating time and money to drug rehabilitation, as effective as that might be.
My current resources.
- A couple of years of martial arts training, ongoing.
- A few grand in the bank.
- A relative who knows a lot about the town I live in. (she basically knows everyone)
My detriments:
- I can't drive.
- I only have about average levels of fitness.
So, what would I do?
Several steps need to be taken. One is to get a LOT more serious about my working out program, and martial arts. There's an MMA place in my town; I'll start looking into that. Another is to get a PO box and a storage unit, so nobody can stumble across my stuff.
I live in a small town in Australia, so the odds that a criminal is going to have a gun is probably not high. Even so, I'd want a bullet proof vest, something to do what I can against knives, and a strong full-faced helmet. I should have the money to order all of these. (though I couldn't afford anything super-advanced for the second one.)
In the meantime, I start subtly pumping my relative for information about the bad neighborhoods and such. Where would it be least safe for me to travel after dark? That's where I'd need to go.
Other requirements would be pepper spray, some sort of non-lethal weapon like a baton or something, and a smartphone so I can use the internet to navigate. I'd need to use my bike to navigate near the areas that I'd be patrolling, but I'd patrol on foot.
Lastly, start studying the law, and other costumed crime-fighters to see what they do. They exist in real life, even though they're uncommon. I need to know what I can and can't do in my country and state. Can I record people without their consent? Things like that.
For the actual crime-fighting, given I live in a small town, drug dealers are likely the worst I'd have to deal with. My greatest danger is running into a dealer enough times that they decide to get some friends and beat the crap out of me via ambush. If I've got weapons and armor, I assume a drug dealer is pretty unlikely to be willing to stand and fight alone. So assuming I don't have a minimum quota to meet, I'd want to patrol infrequently enough that it's not worth keeping a posse on standby for weeks on the off chance that I might show up one night.
The ideal situation would be to create or join up with a group, since there's safety in numbers, but I don't know if anyone else is crazy enough to do it. Besides, every person I tell means someone who can make the connection, and if something goes wrong and I end up on the news, they might just decide to tell the police who I am.
u/ArgentStonecutter [+2] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (21 minutes later)
u/autowikiabot [+1] (21 minutes later)
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#### Minion Master (from Sluggy wikia):
The Minion Master is a wannabe supervillain whose plan consists of rallying enough minions to him so he can take over the world through sheer numbers. He has the capability to completely erase anyone's history and give them a new life as a minion . This is implied to be the only thing he is good at. He sends out his minions to steal technology from other supervillains, earning their enmity. The Minion Master is always seen wearing a purple shirt, black pants, a cape, and a helmet which mimics his facial expressions. He seems content to leave the finer details of operations to his minions, allowing Torg and company to plan and execute the steps of their tech-stealing raids without consulting him. Even when one of their earlier raids doesn't go as planned, he is satisfied by their phrasing of what they did get . He is also not opposed to playing Karaoke Band Hero . His real name is Anthony and his sister is Izzy.
^Interesting: [^Minions ^are ^Forever](https://sluggy.wikia.com/wiki/Minions are Forever) ^| [^Minions ^are ^Forever ^II](https://sluggy.wikia.com/wiki/Minions are Forever II) ^| [^His ^Masterness](https://sluggy.wikia.com/wiki/His Masterness) ^| ^Izzy
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u/None [+2] (12 hours later)
Loudly.
"Costumed crimefighter here, criminals better beware! Better run away quick! La la la!"
Also I'd carry a gun.
u/BadGoyWithAGun [+1] (an hour later)
Put on a weird suit and donate to the charity that pays drug addicts to get sterilised. Thanks to my powers of superior low time preference and agency, this satisfies the "crime fighting" value more than various short term solutions.
u/Transfuturist [+1] Carthago delenda est. (10 hours later)
Your NRx definitely shines through.
That said, the idea is not necessarily bad; my ugh field just triggered momentarily. I would weaken that proposal to the 'long-term' condition rather than the 'permanent.' Might I suggest promoting birth control to poor populations in general instead?
u/BadGoyWithAGun [+1] (22 hours later)
That's only the case if you suffer from high time preference. I don't, so as far (no pun intended) as I'm concerned, supporting contraception and abortions is just as harmful in the long term as supporting any other activities traditionally thought of as criminal. I would much rather offer free sterilisation to anyone who doesn't want children and anyone I believe shouldn't have any, than provide them contraceptives, abortions or "sex education" of the kind that only discusses the mechanics of sex while entirely neglecting its moral justification.
u/Transfuturist [+1] Carthago delenda est. (a day later)
supporting contraception and abortions is just as harmful in the long term as supporting any other activities traditionally thought of as criminal
Are you including all such things as condoms, the pill, male contraception, IUDs, and hormonal implants? Why? Because they encourage sex that is immoral from your point of view? How is that worse than the benefit gained from lower crime rates and consolidation of wealth?
only discusses the mechanics of sex while entirely neglecting its moral justification
The only moralizing sex education I've heard of is abstinence-only, which you can't claim has done any good for birth rates, crime, poverty, or disease in any poor population anywhere. I'm not the one downvoting you, so please explain why you think sex requires moral justification, and why that means birth control is harmful in the long term or should be thought of as criminal. And then please explain how sterilizing people is better than birth control, because it kind of is birth control.
u/BadGoyWithAGun [-1] (a day later)
Are you including all such things as condoms, the pill, male contraception, IUDs, and hormonal implants? Why?
Yes, because they all exist for the sole purpose of enabling sexual contact without its natural consequences - in other words, they enable high time preference behaviour without the accompanying selection pressure that would ordinarily result from such behaviour.
please explain why you think sex requires moral justification
The selection pressure for enjoying sexual contact stems from the obvious fact that normally, sexual contact results in reproduction. When the two are decoupled, you get a perverse incentive to enjoy yourself to no end. Hedonism, wireheading, call it whatever you want, there are sound rational reasons to detest such behaviour and those who fall victim to it due to their high time preference.
And then please explain how sterilizing people is better than birth control, because it kind of is birth control.
Sterilisation prevents them from reproducing at all (barring a reversal surgery that will, hopefully, remain beyond their means for the rest of their lives), while birth control allows them high time preference hedonism in the short term without preventing them from passing on the disposition towards it. If you want to be an unproductive, degenerate hedonist, not passing on your genes seems like a sensible admission price to me. I would add a prohibition against passing on the memes as well - eg, a sodomite agitation and propaganda ban such as currently exists in Russia - but that's a different topic.
u/None [+0] (4 hours later)
Put on a weird hat and go fight people.