ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Anonymously Famous » Thu May 11, 2017 4:52 pm

Evai wrote:How do y'all make IRL friends? I only talk to my parents
When I was in school, most of my IRL friends were from school and church.

Now, school has been taken out of the equation. There are a few people I've stayed in touch with, but I've moved and they've moved, so it's not the same as it was. There are a few people from church that I'm kind of close with, though. Still, everyone (including myself) seems busy. They're either at work, busy with kids, or busy doing some other responsible grownup thing. I've found it difficult to have a "good" social life.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Froggychum » Thu May 11, 2017 6:58 pm

im not very social, the only time i wanna talk to people is when my psyche is literally in pain that's almost physical because my human need of social interaction is so low and empty that i am suffering deeply


Okay that was kind of dramatic, but I dont like a lot of people, and even out of the people i do like, i trust none of them.



yup.




I need help: I think i can fly, but i broke my legs, then my arms, then my neck, and now im dead, pls help need revive
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by assdef » Sat May 13, 2017 4:00 pm

Anonymously Famous wrote:
Evai wrote:How do y'all make IRL friends? I only talk to my parents
When I was in school, most of my IRL friends were from school and church.

Now, school has been taken out of the equation. There are a few people I've stayed in touch with, but I've moved and they've moved, so it's not the same as it was. There are a few people from church that I'm kind of close with, though. Still, everyone (including myself) seems busy. They're either at work, busy with kids, or busy doing some other responsible grownup thing. I've found it difficult to have a "good" social life.
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Also, don't you kids have the Facechats and the Snapgrams and the Friendbooks that help you make acquaintances? I assumed that's what all that social technology nonsense was used for.

I've always found that having common interests makes for good friendships. Spend time at the places you like to spend time at (comic book stores, record stores, chess club, YMCA, bars, synagogues, etc.), and meet people that like to spend time there as well, and talk to them. If you've got common ground it's easy to start up a conversation about that common interest, and a friendship will build from there.

Depending on where you live you might also be able to take advantage of local community youth groups or service organizations where you go to volunteer events and meet people. If you're no longer in school but live near a community college they often offer extension classes in fun subjects like art or writing or social sciences that are relatively inexpensive, and you are bound to meet like-minded individuals there. I've also had really good luck with VolunteerMatch.org in the past, getting connected with a non-profit organization that helped me make some good friends.

Or just search ASDF on the InterWeb and BAM! you show up here and hang with this motley crew.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Froggychum » Sat May 13, 2017 5:43 pm

great advice :D
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Uly » Tue May 16, 2017 1:04 am

Yep that's it
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Anonymously Famous » Wed May 17, 2017 7:21 pm

That is really good advice.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by atomtengeralattjaro » Sun May 21, 2017 12:36 pm

Help me understand this:

Why is voter registration required in certain countries (like the US and the UK)? What's wrong with automatically registering all eligible voters? It looks like all registration achieves is lower voter turnout.

I've read that you guys aren't required to have state ID cards and/or notify the government about your place of residence. This might explain the registration. But why no ID card?
Without an ID card, how can for example police check if you're an illegal immigrant or not? How do you handle any government stuff, tax stuff, bank stuff without an ID card?
If the government doesn't know where you live (unless you have a drivers licence), how do you get summoned to court? How are demographic statistics made without that information?
If someone calls the police on your home, how do you prove you actually live there and are not a burglar?

ID cards are so simple and just make your life easier. Also, voter turnout, duh.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by assdef » Mon May 22, 2017 4:50 am

I can only speak to the U.S., but....

You're correct, voter registration is a substitute of sorts for needing a government ID. You register to vote in the US to establish both that you are eligible to vote (e.g., 18+ years old, not an illegal immigrant, etc.) and also establish your residency so the election board knows who you should vote for; that is, what congressional district you live in, what local government officials you should vote for, etc. U.S. Citizens vote for a myriad of candidates in local, state, and national election races, and depending on where you live, the contest in which you vote changes. The problem with automatically registering all voters is that there is no mechanism by which the government knows where your residence is, so you register to tell the government where you're qualified to vote.

You're not required to have an ID card, but it makes life a lot easier if you do. Citizens aren't issued an ID card, but are issued a number by the Social Security Administration (aptly named their Social Security Number) and that number is used for a lot of ID-related items. If the police wanted to check the citizenship status of someone the SSN would help establish that. This is also the number that you would use to file your tax return, open a bank account, etc.

Court summons need to be delivered in person in most jurisdictions. This is done by the local sheriff, or a process server. Obviously they try to serve at a last known address, but sometimes it requires a little bit more research.

Demographic info is captured by a public census that occurs every 10 years. The Census is actually required in the U.S. Constitution. They do other quantitative research on people in between, but the Census is the only official record of resident statistics.

Residence in a home owned by the resident is established by a title deed that is filed with the local county government, or a rental residence is established by a lease agreement. Either are required to obtain a state-issued ID card, and most people have a state ID. If you didn't for whatever reason, you'd use the title deed to the home you own or lease to the apartment you live in to prove your residence.

The interesting thing is that in the U.S. there is a cost for obtaining a state-issued ID card, in addition to the paperwork necessary to receive one. So voters are not required to show an ID card when they vote in some jurisdictions; doing so is argued to be a form of voter disenfranchisement: if you can't afford the cost of the ID, or can't spend time away from work to go to the government office that issues the ID to get one, and aren't allowed to vote as a result, you've essentially been denied your right to vote by the government, which is a big no-no. Plus, election boards use other ways to verify identity besides looking at an ID card to prevent voter fraud (like requiring you to match signatures to your voter registration, or verifying the voter's address when they go to vote), so an ID isn't necessary.

I'm not sure that the lack of an ID card or voter registration is the reason for low voter turnout. Registering to vote is stupid-simple in the U.S.: you fill out a form (online, or mailed in), and wammo!, you're registered. The reason for low voter turnout is voter apathy--people who don't think voting is important enough relative to the effort to go out and vote.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by atomtengeralattjaro » Mon May 22, 2017 11:57 am

Wow, thanks for the detailed answer!

I still find it weird, but I kinda understand now.
The odd thing is that from what I can tell, you're not actually required to have any form of identification, not even a SSN (?), (I mean you probably have an SSN, you might have a state ID, you might have a passport or drivers licence, but not necessarily) and also the fact that election rules and all the identification stuff can vary state by state makes it all a bit confusing.

I prefer our european system still.. sure, the homeless don't have an address, but they can get registered as a resident of the district/munincipality they live in, and get an address card that way. As far as I know it doesn't cost them anything. ID cards are also issued for free. So I don't see any disenfranchisement from this.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by lunar_furor » Mon May 22, 2017 8:44 pm

atomtengeralattjaro wrote:Wow, thanks for the detailed answer!

I still find it weird, but I kinda understand now.
The odd thing is that from what I can tell, you're not actually required to have any form of identification, not even a SSN (?), (I mean you probably have an SSN, you might have a state ID, you might have a passport or drivers licence, but not necessarily) and also the fact that election rules and all the identification stuff can vary state by state makes it all a bit confusing.

I prefer our european system still.. sure, the homeless don't have an address, but they can get registered as a resident of the district/munincipality they live in, and get an address card that way. As far as I know it doesn't cost them anything. ID cards are also issued for free. So I don't see any disenfranchisement from this.
America has a history of wanting things, yet not wanting to pay taxes. As a result most fees involved in getting an id are covered by the person getting one. CGP Grey has a great video on the problems with SSN and identity in the US for any further reading that may answer any questions Assdef didn't already answer.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Shai'tan » Tue May 23, 2017 8:20 am

This is interesting. America is such a weird place from an European perspective.
lunar_furor wrote:America has a history of wanting things, yet not wanting to pay taxes. As a result most fees involved in getting an id are covered by the person getting one. CGP Grey has a great video on the problems with SSN and identity in the US for any further reading that may answer any questions Assdef didn't already answer.
Checking that out now!
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Uly » Thu May 25, 2017 2:23 am

Aw man isn't liberationism great?
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by assdef » Mon May 29, 2017 1:13 pm

lunar_furor wrote: America has a history of wanting things, yet not wanting to pay taxes. As a result most fees involved in getting an id are covered by the person getting one. CGP Grey has a great video on the problems with SSN and identity in the US for any further reading that may answer any questions Assdef didn't already answer.
The CGP Grey video on SSN is laden with factual errors. 1) The Social Security System is not a "savings" system as there is no direct tie between the amount of money you put in versus the benefit you receive. Whether you earn $10,000 a year or $10,000,000 a year during your working life you receive the same exact social security benefit upon retirement. 2) The IRS (Internal Revenue Service, referred to in the video as the "tax department") was forced to utilize the SSN to track social security tax payments by the Social Security Administration, not the other way around. 3) The IRS did not tie the SSN to a "tax discount" to encourage people to get social security numbers, the U.S. Government created a tax benefit for having children in order to promote the welfare/growth of society. 4) The IRS prepared your income tax for you until 1955 (~20 years after the Social Security Administration was created) and so there weren't a bunch of "phantom children" on every tax form, there was no way to lie because the IRS did the work for you, and when they stopped doing the work for you in 1955 they required an SSN for every child on the tax form. 5) Those "exceptions" to social security coverage that he talks about at the end were eliminated in 1951 when the government amended the law and required all local governments and similar entities (like railroad companies which were essentially government-run until 1980) to either provide an old-age pension themselves under what is called a "Section 218 agreement" OR participate in the social security program, so there is no getting out of the social security program anymore by creating a religion.

I am quickly approaching social security age, I know this stuff. An old, bearded man waving his index finger at you while slightly shaking his cane and muttering something.

(Or it could be that I'm an accountant.)
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Anonymously Famous » Tue May 30, 2017 10:14 pm

Wow! This was all super interesting! Thanks, atom, for asking, and thanks, assdef, for the super detailed answers!
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Ml08180 » Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:54 pm

assdef wrote:
Mon May 22, 2017 4:50 am
The problem with automatically registering all voters is that there is no mechanism by which the government knows where your residence is, so you register to tell the government where you're qualified to vote.
In the past (at least where I live) you used to show your drivers license, a bill, or any kind of official mailing/ID that had your address on it to show your residency at the proper polling station. The change to a centralized system is very modern, and in a lot of cases very political
assdef wrote:
Mon May 22, 2017 4:50 am
I'm not sure that the lack of an ID card or voter registration is the reason for low voter turnout. Registering to vote is stupid-simple in the U.S.: you fill out a form (online, or mailed in), and wammo!, you're registered. The reason for low voter turnout is voter apathy--people who don't think voting is important enough relative to the effort to go out and vote.
In the recent election, I know a lot of people who were marked inactive in the computer system despite having registered that same year - meaning their registration had been intentionally voided by someone managing the system. When it got out that people who had registered/re-registered before the deadline were being given "provisional ballots" (ie ballots uncounted unless there's a 50/50 split), a lot of people decided not to take the time away from work to vote. There's a lot of really shady stuff that happens with the registration system and turnout suppression here.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by assdef » Thu Sep 20, 2018 1:59 am

Ml08180 wrote:
Tue Sep 18, 2018 6:54 pm
assdef wrote:
Mon May 22, 2017 4:50 am
The problem with automatically registering all voters is that there is no mechanism by which the government knows where your residence is, so you register to tell the government where you're qualified to vote.
In the past (at least where I live) you used to show your drivers license, a bill, or any kind of official mailing/ID that had your address on it to show your residency at the proper polling station. The change to a centralized system is very modern, and in a lot of cases very political
assdef wrote:
Mon May 22, 2017 4:50 am
I'm not sure that the lack of an ID card or voter registration is the reason for low voter turnout. Registering to vote is stupid-simple in the U.S.: you fill out a form (online, or mailed in), and wammo!, you're registered. The reason for low voter turnout is voter apathy--people who don't think voting is important enough relative to the effort to go out and vote.
In the recent election, I know a lot of people who were marked inactive in the computer system despite having registered that same year - meaning their registration had been intentionally voided by someone managing the system. When it got out that people who had registered/re-registered before the deadline were being given "provisional ballots" (ie ballots uncounted unless there's a 50/50 split), a lot of people decided not to take the time away from work to vote. There's a lot of really shady stuff that happens with the registration system and turnout suppression here.
The ACLU estimates voter disenfranchisement at about 2%, which is about 4.5 million people. In the 2016 election, about 109 million people didn't vote. So I agree voter suppression is unfortunate and a problem, but I would argue it is a minuscule problem compared to voter apathy.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Ml08180 » Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:43 pm

assdef wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 1:59 am

The ACLU estimates voter disenfranchisement at about 2%, which is about 4.5 million people. In the 2016 election, about 109 million people didn't vote. So I agree voter suppression is unfortunate and a problem, but I would argue it is a minuscule problem compared to voter apathy.
While I wholeheartedly agree that people not voting is a very big problem, there's a significant difference in that people who don't vote are actively making the choice not to do so, whereas people who are disenfranchised are having their ability to make a choice taken from them.

Likewise, if we assume that overall people who don't vote are evenly split (I know it doesn't work like that, but just for argument's sake right here) then we still have the issue of voter suppression being used to influence the way elections turn out because it disproportionately affects some groups more than others.

Even when people not coming out to vote impacts the results of our elections, the results of that election are still based on the choices of the voting public; at the end of the day, people who didn't vote because they chose to made that decision. When our elections are impacted by voter disenfranchisement, the people are losing their ability to chose and in some areas the way it is done impacts elections much more majorly than others.

Even though the ACLU doesn't recognize it in their statistics, gerrymandering is a major voter suppression tactic. Here's a map of NC's State House of Representative districts, they come in all sorts of fun shapes. In the 2016 election, 68% of Democrats and 75% of Republicans turned out to vote. Based on the results from the presidential race, we can see that NC's voter turnout is roughly 52R : 48D. We don't see this in our State House of Representatives though, we currently have a 75R : 45D (63%R, 37%D) split. Through gerrymandering, roughly 11% of our state's voting population effectively did not count in selecting our State House because of the way our districts are drawn.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by assdef » Sat Oct 06, 2018 2:21 am

But that's small potatoes compared to the number of people who didn't vote. If the people who didn't vote did go out and vote and express their dissatisfaction with gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, etc., by choosing democratic candidates, the voter suppression tactics leveraged by republicans would not make a difference because republican candidates would be outvoted 2 to 1 in most parts of the country.
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by atomtengeralattjaro » Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:14 pm

I don't recall if this came up in this discussion before, but remind me why, in the U.S., elections aren't held on weekends?
Here we always have them on a Sunday so most people don't need to worry about finding time to vote before/after work or getting a day off, etc...


(
assdef wrote:
Mon May 22, 2017 4:50 am
Registering to vote is stupid-simple in the U.S.: you fill out a form (online, or mailed in), and wammo!, you're registered.
You know what's simpler than that? Having to do nothing, just go and vote with your ID card.)
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Re: ASDF Help Thread. [Serious]

Post by Greyson » Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:41 am

atomtengeralattjaro wrote:
Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:14 pm
I don't recall if this came up in this discussion before, but remind me why, in the U.S., elections aren't held on weekends?
Here we always have them on a Sunday so most people don't need to worry about finding time to vote before/after work or getting a day off, etc...


(
assdef wrote:
Mon May 22, 2017 4:50 am
Registering to vote is stupid-simple in the U.S.: you fill out a form (online, or mailed in), and wammo!, you're registered.
You know what's simpler than that? Having to do nothing, just go and vote with your ID card.)
Same in Germany.

I don't really like the US idea of having to register to be able to vote. If you are a citizen of the country you should have the right to vote without any extra step in between.

But the States like to be... different, I guess.

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