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Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

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Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#131

Post by burgerbrain »

rmc wrote: post #110
burgerbrain wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what your opinion is on baseball cards.

There isn't a history of baseball players being systematically repressed. Also all baseball players chose to be baseball players, and can easily choose to leave and not be in the group of 'baseball players'. Not so with women.

Those models are free to leave modeling just as baseball players are free to leave baseball.

The generic concept of "women" cannot disassociate themselves from the images of these particular models in the same way that the generic concept of "men" cannot disassociate themselves from the image of these particular baseball players. I find it hard to be concerned about either of these situations.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#132

Post by stanleydrew »

zerostar07 wrote: post #120
lionhearted wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, c'mon, can we be real here? If a guy is paying $600 to $900 to rent a car for a few hours, he's probably trying to get girls or close a business deal. People don't do that just to hang out with their buddy, unless they've got silly-money, in which case they just own their own cars. Also, some of the shots were rather tasteful (others, not so much, but this one for instance) - http://www.higear.com/images/our_co…

That's just perpetuating stereotypes that (i 'd like to think) we are now over with: Fancy cars make men rich, Girls drool over money, Cars are penis extensions. This was a service for douchebags, I 'm glad there weren't enough of them to keep it running.

I'm fairly certain there are enough "douchebags" to keep this running. The service was apparently doing well before professional criminals got involved.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#133

Post by burgerbrain »

stanleydrew wrote: post #130
jasonlotito wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, your solution is to ban women from being objectified, regardless of their opinion? Only women though, as they have a long history of being objectified.

Who said anything about banning women from being objectified?

If we vilify those who do it, the effective message is a desired ban.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#134

Post by burgerbrain »

rmc wrote: post #109
mattdeboard wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sexy cars and pin-up girls have gone hand-in-hand for generations, and probably always will. Are you really outraged at the notion of dudes wanting to look at hot girls?

Just because something has happened for ages doesn't make it right. Societies change (e.g. we let women and the common man vote now). (Also, not all men want gto look at hot girls)

(Also, not all men want gto look at hot girls)

No, but something around 90% of men do. Sex sells, people need to get over that.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#135

Post by burgerbrain »

dennisgorelik wrote: post #56
shadowfiend wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safety, for one. As for moving, family and lack of a link to anywhere else. Starting a new life isn't as easy as you seem to think it is. Nor, for that matter, is moving. Particularly if you don't necessarily have any good marketable skills.

I would guess that former gang member should be able to flip burgers, mop the floor and collect trash from the streets. That's a good start. Yes, that might not pay as much as criminal activity, but that's definitely enough to survive. As for safety - why is it not safe to quit a gang? Why would remaining gang members care about former gang member who disappeared in unknown direction and does not cause any trouble?

"Why would remaining gang members care about former gang member who disappeared in unknown direction and does not cause any trouble?"

Ignoring the obvious answers, try this one on for size:

Who fucking cares? The fact is that they do care.

You need not understand the problem for it to exist.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#136

Post by SkyMarshal »

jackowayed wrote: post #11

I felt worse for these guys until I read to the end of the letter and found out about the "HiGear girls". It's not quite as bad as I thought because they don't seem to "rent out" these models like they do cars; I guess it was just a publicity thing. But still, having revealing pictures and even stats (measurements) of the women is pretty much the definition of objectification. FOLLOWUP (responding to comments): I'm n…

And there's a flip side to female objectification - male zombification. As a modern male, I'm pretty damn sick of 'sex sells', especially when the thing being sold has nothing whatsoever to do with sex.

Want to use racy ads and associations to try to get me to buy lingerie for my gf, or condoms from your website? Ok fine. But, ahem, Godaddy, are you seriously trying to persuade me to buy internet domains from you using a sex sells strategy? Godaddy girls? Really? I couldn't think of anything less relevant.

But that's the problem - when men are bombarded with messages and images that link things that have no connection whatsoever, over time it actually does create a connection by weakening the critical faculties necessary to reject the association in the first place, and makes men more vulnerable to manipulation, power of suggestion, etc.. Moreso in some men than others.

Sex is one of the most powerful concepts to link to totally irrelevant products or services since it triggers our ape subroutines. See the same associations enough, and when it actually comes time to evaluate a purchase or other decision, those ape subroutines have more influence and control vs. your reasoning and critical faculties than they should. This effect is pervasive and pernicious.

So, the flip side of female objectification is male zombification, or a weakening of critical and reasoning faculties. It's not just females that suffer from female objectification in the media.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#137

Post by dennisgorelik »

burgerbrain wrote: post #135
dennisgorelik wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess that former gang member should be able to flip burgers, mop the floor and collect trash from the streets. That's a good start. Yes, that might not pay as much as criminal activity, but that's definitely enough to survive. As for safety - why is it not safe to quit a gang? Why would remaining gang members care about former gang member who disappeared in unknown direction and does not cause any trouble?

"Why would remaining gang members care about former gang member who disappeared in unknown direction and does not cause any trouble?" Ignoring the obvious answers, try this one on for size: Who fucking cares? The fact is that they do care. You need not understand the problem for it to exist.

In order to solve the problem you typically need to understand it.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#138

Post by sliverstorm »

rmc wrote: post #124
sliverstorm wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The statement that always throws me for a loop is, "Everyone is (physically) beautiful". Besides not making sense (right up there with "... and all the children are above average"), it seems irresponsible to actually embrace being unhealthy in the name of feeling good about yourself.

It's not the same as "all children are above average", since you're comparing a subjective evaluation (beauty) to an objective evaluation (e.g. reading skills). Neither am I saying that everyone is beautiful to everyone else, just that everyone is beautiful to someone. After all, there are some niche tastes. Just look at the gay community whose tastes can range from Bears (big chunky hairy guys) to twinks (young skin…

But how would you know beauty if you did not also know the lack of beauty? In the same way as, what is light without dark? You can't truly appreciate one without the other.

You could be right about the "everyone is beautiful to someone".

I agree, the fashion industry is not much better. If I was king, I'd have everyone aim for athletic/fit. I suppose that's just one person's preference though.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#139

Post by __alexs »

slug wrote: post #63
dennisgorelik wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably meant "expert thief". Somebody who had 10000+ hours of expertise. Somebody who risked to get caught while gaining that expertise. There are not so many real expert thieves. That's why extended security measures do work: less experienced majority of thieves is caught outright, and more experienced minority of thieves is eventually caught due to unforeseen circumstances (unexpected witness, unexpected new…

"For example, GPS transmitter can stay silent until it gets "You are stolen" signal." That's true, but most electronic circuits emit stray radiation, switching or crystal references. Not only that, the hypothetical receiver needed for your stolen signal has a least a local oscillator with a nice and probably almost on clean signal. (I think in UK they used something like this to track people that didn't pay their TV…

> I think in UK they used something like this to track people that didn't pay their TV tax

There is a certain amount of evidence to suggest that the TV detector vans are (if not entirely fictional) exist mostly to scare people into paying.

Re: Car-sharing service HiGear shuts down due to theft of 4 cars worth $400,000

#140

Post by zerostar07 »

stanleydrew wrote: post #132
zerostar07 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just perpetuating stereotypes that (i 'd like to think) we are now over with: Fancy cars make men rich, Girls drool over money, Cars are penis extensions. This was a service for douchebags, I 'm glad there weren't enough of them to keep it running.

I'm fairly certain there are enough "douchebags" to keep this running. The service was apparently doing well before professional criminals got involved.

Damage like this is to be expected though (it could be much worse, something involving the human accessories that go with the cars). Airbnb took some beating from criminals. I have still hope that the douchebaggery estimates are not wrong
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