On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking • Hacker News Board

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#191

Post by notanzaiiswear » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 12:52 PM UTC

gatlin wrote: post #178

notanzaiiswear wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine who is white also was checked by the police a lot (in Germany), simply because he had a certain jacket that was apparently associated with drug dealers or trouble makers (checks can include anal probes for hidden drugs, apparently). So maybe dressing for the occasion could work. Sorry for your ordeal. You'd think police would know you after the umpteenth check.

This advice is warm spirited and practical and I endorse taking actions to make oneself safer. But , also, it's disgusting that anyone should be harassed by police and feel unsafe walking where they live. That is a terrible status quo and the GP deserves better, full stop.

On the one hand I agree, on the other hand it is a fact of nature that clothing displays a message. I think demands that clothes should not be significant are simply unrealistic.

I think even if police suspect somebody, they should still treat them with respect, though. That is the real issue.

You can not ask the police to never suspect anybody - that would make their jobs impossible and ridiculous.

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#192

Post by sethammons » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

jiocrag wrote: post #103

silisili wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not uncomfortable with it, just past it. My family's always been poor, and didn't oppress anyone. But, I do recognize that some did. I don't see it today. In fact, in my home city, I'd argue there's more areas where a black could walk freely than a white. But that's just city life and demographics in a shitty US city. In the world, walking is not a racebound privilege.

You’re empirically wrong. Leisurely walking is a privilege of affluence. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6095595/

46 students put into 2 unfamiliar neighborhoods in the UK with various a level of affluence, and "surprisingly" people feel more positive about more affluent area. This says nothing about how residents feel or how different from their own neighborhoods they were for the students. Put me in an unfamiliar area and I'll prefer it to be affluent too, even when I was quite low on the socioeconomic ladder.

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#193

Post by gatlin » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

notanzaiiswear wrote: post #191

gatlin wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This advice is warm spirited and practical and I endorse taking actions to make oneself safer. But , also, it's disgusting that anyone should be harassed by police and feel unsafe walking where they live. That is a terrible status quo and the GP deserves better, full stop.

On the one hand I agree, on the other hand it is a fact of nature that clothing displays a message. I think demands that clothes should not be significant are simply unrealistic. I think even if police suspect somebody, they should still treat them with respect, though. That is the real issue. You can not ask the police to never suspect anybody - that would make their jobs impossible and ridiculous.

Really, I think we should sincerely and earnestly question what problem the police are presumed to solve. The most useful functions they serve in my area are to help direct traffic during construction, for which they absolutely do not need weapons. Otherwise the idea is that we will be safer if a handful of armed people drive around at their whim staring at pedestrians. They can't go back in time, nor do their methods demonstrate any hope of preventing anything. What do they do? edit: I should add, for anyone wondering what my positive contribution to this is, that the idea of a community taking measures to keep itself safe and peaceful is not a problem. But also that isn't what police do in theory or practice.

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#194

Post by mtnGoat » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 2:48 PM UTC

ilovefood wrote: post #118

I love walking and there are many parks next to where I live. However I am never able to fully enjoy it or indulge in any longer thinking activities as most of the time I'll be interrupted by either elderly people asking me "to go back where I came from" or random ID checks by undercover police. This happened a lot (5x times) over the last year when I decide to go and walk in a park, once even during an online call w…

Interesting post, when I worked in Vienna I had a guy who was from Nigeria on my team, his dad was a diplomat to the UN, I believe. One day he told me how long it took him to walk back and forth to work, but it didn’t make sense it took that long. He said because he was African the cops in certain districts stopped him every day to search him, claiming he was a drug dealer and basically just to harass him. So he took the extra time to avoid that district. What an eye opening conversation, to see that racism really does show it’s ugly little face everywhere, even in countries that aren’t really known for it. He was well dressed and worked in tech, mental gymnastics would be required to assume he was slanging drugs.

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#195

Post by blowski » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 2:54 PM UTC

galfarragem wrote: post #181

blowski wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the realisation we're talking about is going from thinking "they eat human babies" to "they drink different types of tea".

I would say that is more like different cultures have different values: Different ways of treating women, different ways of treating animals, different ways of treating the ambient, different ways of looking at work, different ways of looking at state, different ways of looking at religion, different ways of looking at morals, different ways of looking at neighbors, different ways of looking at property, different wa…

I agree with you in part, particularly with why there has been a backlash against multiculturalism. Also with the reality that different cultures tend to have different views to a wide range of issues.

But I’m not sure what you mean by elite. Donald Trump and the whole modern Republican Party are the elites, and I wouldn’t describe them as flexible and open-minded.

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#196

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 3:10 PM UTC

atoav wrote: post #156

ajuc wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eastern Germany is very racist. I'm white and I repeatedly got "the looks" when I spoke Polish on a trip there. Not like Poland is better, but somehow people don't expect it in Germany.

I think it depends entirely on where you are in Germany, like everywhere you have more tolerant places and more intolerant places. Curiously the places with the least foreigners are the most xenophobic ones and vice versa.

[deleted]

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#197

Post by psychomugs » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC

jcq3 wrote: post #46

"Historically, however, walking has been the privilege of white men." Come on... Anyway, Nietzsche used to walk before writing like Darwin Long time ago I read that walking or taking a shower make your thinking more effective because it somehow enables automation mode and allow to be more focused

A great many of my female friends in [Asian country] basically expect to be harassed or asked to go to a "hotel" at least once when they're out and about.

It's easy to roll our eyes at statements like these but that just feels like adding on to the issue.

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#198

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 4:36 PM UTC

quadrifoliate wrote: post #184

Uberphallus wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where's the irony? The bias is there whether you like it or not. Never have I ever been harassed while wearing sports or hiking clothing, including accidental trespassing in countries where I barely spoke the language. Can't say the same about the outfit I mentioned, while doing nothing wrong. The fact that the Adidas tracksuit and the tiny bag are the closest thing to the official uniform of a drug dealer in much of…

> Where's the irony?...Never have I ever been harassed while wearing sports or hiking clothing, including accidental trespassing in countries where I barely spoke the language. Can't say the same about the outfit I mentioned, while doing nothing wrong. I think the OP is likely referring to the recent incident [1] in Georgia in the US where a black man was chased down and killed while he was jogging on the street in,…

[deleted]

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#199

Post by chaps » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 4:39 PM UTC

notanzaiiswear wrote: post #191

gatlin wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This advice is warm spirited and practical and I endorse taking actions to make oneself safer. But , also, it's disgusting that anyone should be harassed by police and feel unsafe walking where they live. That is a terrible status quo and the GP deserves better, full stop.

On the one hand I agree, on the other hand it is a fact of nature that clothing displays a message. I think demands that clothes should not be significant are simply unrealistic. I think even if police suspect somebody, they should still treat them with respect, though. That is the real issue. You can not ask the police to never suspect anybody - that would make their jobs impossible and ridiculous.

I used to walk in a park every night at around midnight, in a big city with tons of police gang units. Not once was I ever approached by anyone. It was peaceful every time, without exception.

That changed when the police started driving their massive SUVs on the park path after 11pm to make sure nobody was in the park. The first time they did it, they argued that the park was closed, though there were no signs saying the park was closed. It turned into a big verbal argument but thankfully it didn't escalate badly. That night I looked up the city code and found that if there's no gate, then the law allows me to walk to the end of the park. I went to the police station to complain, and was told that I shouldn't worry about it because they're not trying to get "people like me".

But still, it happened again, and the cop basically told me "we're going to keep doing this until you stop". So, while the cop wasn't exactly disrespectful, he was wrong about the law in a way that manifested no differently from persistent harassment. They're just trolling for anything illegal on a default position of wronghood.

You're asking the wrong questions.

Re: On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking

#200

Post by anm89 » Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

notanzaiiswear wrote: post #158

ilovefood wrote: post #118

I love walking and there are many parks next to where I live. However I am never able to fully enjoy it or indulge in any longer thinking activities as most of the time I'll be interrupted by either elderly people asking me "to go back where I came from" or random ID checks by undercover police. This happened a lot (5x times) over the last year when I decide to go and walk in a park, once even during an online call w…

A friend of mine who is white also was checked by the police a lot (in Germany), simply because he had a certain jacket that was apparently associated with drug dealers or trouble makers (checks can include anal probes for hidden drugs, apparently). So maybe dressing for the occasion could work. Sorry for your ordeal. You'd think police would know you after the umpteenth check.

Goodness gracious. I'm staying the hell out of Germany. That would even be extreme in the US