The latter

People will test the quality of a communication channel by saying nonsensical things on that channel, to see if those interpreting the message believe the nonsense.

It’s a way of affirming a bond of understanding between people.

“Only those who are not patriots would oppose the PATRIOT Act”

— naïveté in a nutshell

We protected democracy when we punished the party that skipped an election. We sent the signal that it is not acceptable to skip an election. That is good for democracy. It would have been very bad to reward the Democrats for skipping their primary.

This “coup” is a new administration being elected.

That’s a lot! What was the effect? Have you taken that much before?

In my own experience if I take more than a teaspoon in maybe a four hour period, I start getting undigested leaves coming out the other end.

No! A teaspoon max.

DO NOT INGEST A TABLESPOON OF BAKING SODA.

Not really because people can die without food, and also without insulin. Nobody is choosing between diamonds and insulin.

Insulin is expensive because of a government-enforced monopoly. It’s a simple fact, no matter how motivated one is to ignore it.

Yeah I know. One of the big differences between prescription drugs and food, in terms of the industries, is that anyone can bake bread and therefore the only reason to buy it at the store is if the loaf at the store costs less time and energy than making it oneself.

Is how to manufacture insulin a trade secret? Is that why there’s no black market for it?

You’re only deciding between insulin and groceries because the government maintains some company’s monopoly on manufacturing insulin.

In an actually free market, the instructions would be open source and the only question would be whether to synthesize it at home or pay someone else to synthesize it for you.

My guess is it would cost about as much as chocolate does per unit mass.

DIR 🤪

Who gets their frying fat in a box?

Can you name one person who’s discussed free speech who was also involved in this firing?