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Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

english.elpais.com

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Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selective capitalisation of different races (white cf. Black) is a common dog whistle employed by anti-Whites. Are you sure you want to start using statistical assumptions as "facts" in crime reports? That is going to backfire very badly for your disproportionately black offenders...

You are not in a healthy state of mind.

You would be the first to cry foul if an article included the following:

>The boy who had his bike stolen was White

>Statistics suggest that the thief was undoubtedly poor and, most likely, black

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang (and the other dude) do great work, but still I disagree. The GP comment was extremely low-effort. and while "complaining that HN is turning into reddit" is against site guidelines, I still agree with the critical comment. It's not the profanity alone, but the reddit-ism of the OP using the site as a complaint board (that's a large portion of reddit, especially local subreddits), and then making a 0-effort comme…

I don't agree with the critical comment at all, particularly because the OP is incredibly guilty of making drive-by comments in their very recent post history that don't actually add anything to the conversation. People will complain about the site 'becoming reddit' while making inane posts that are clearly against the rules or don't actually bring anything to the conversation. People don't practice what they clearly…

[flagged]

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can this be true? Probably the entire adult population gets away with hundreds of offenses per annum on average (judging by the total amount on the books). Even the most law abiding and most humble decile of Brazilian adults probably still get away with dozens of offenses per annum. That nobody cares to enforce at all.

> "That nobody cares to enforce at all" That's the point. When everyone is "committing crimes", you can select who you wish to enforce against. It enables corruption.

Huh?

Did you not understand what it means for even the most humble adult to be getting away with dozens of offenses per annum?

It clearly is not binding on the “have-nots” either.

Of course there is selective enforcement of some % of laws on the books, that’s true in every country on Earth.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#154
post #91

I’m new to HN. How does this relate to the theme of Hacker News?

Despite the other comments attempting to expand the scope of "hacking" or general interest to pretty much anything, it doesn't.

On-topic is described as anything that is interesting. And off-topic is described as typical news that doesnt have interesting implications.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "That nobody cares to enforce at all" That's the point. When everyone is "committing crimes", you can select who you wish to enforce against. It enables corruption.

Huh? Did you not understand what it means for even the most humble adult to be getting away with dozens of offenses per annum? It clearly is not binding on the “have-nots” either. Of course there is selective enforcement of some % of laws on the books, that’s true in every country on Earth.

Selective enforcement allows those in power to corruptly select who to prosecute. Even though many (perhaps most) "have-nots" will "get away with it", selective enforcement disproportionately impacts the "have-nots" as they have no leverage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/police-corruptio...

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inequality is a big factor. Story says the woman in this case felt she was compensated. Like feeling 'lucky' to enjoy (some) perks of living in a rich household. If that family had been as poor as her (or her mother), that stops being true. Then it becomes hard to keep a slave from walking away without resorting to violence. Another big factor is the victim simply not knowing any better. Not being able to read might…

Your first paragraph says that poverty makes people accept things they wouldn't if they had more money. Poverty is the problem there. Education and a society's culture are certainly important too.

Yes poverty is a factor. But inequality too - it helps to create [the powerless vs the powerful] situations. Even if those on the bottom may not qualify as poor.

> Education and a society's culture are certainly important too.

Agreed.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first paragraph says that poverty makes people accept things they wouldn't if they had more money. Poverty is the problem there. Education and a society's culture are certainly important too.

Yes poverty is a factor. But inequality too - it helps to create [the powerless vs the powerful] situations. Even if those on the bottom may not qualify as poor. > Education and a society's culture are certainly important too. Agreed.

In the powerless VS powerful situation, taking aside poverty, what do you mean? The powerful manipulating the justice system with money?

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You reckon swearing is what makes the difference?

I'm saying maturity, respect and a modicum of decorum makes a difference.

But swearing is "mature language"?

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the state but the companies that run the prisons and those that contract the workers to work at an extremely low wage.

What’s the financial motivation for the state then?

to lose less money on the prisoners?

i.e. its not a good motivation to increase the number of prisoners (even if one looses less money per prisoner, more prisoners will mean more loss), but it does motivate investigating ways on how one can minimize the loss on individual prisoners.

Re: Woman in Brazil enslaved for 55 years by 3 generations of the same family

#160
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you see inequality as the problem, instead of poverty?

Because they go together. The hallmark of developed countries is that they're even, mostly egalitarian and developed everywhere. The hallmark of developing or underdeveloped countries is precisely the staggering levels of inequality. Not everyone is poor in a developing/underdeveloped country. Quite a few people there live lives that would make upper middle classes in developed countries blush. Life "just" sucks for…

> The hallmark of developed countries is that they're even, mostly egalitarian and developed everywhere.

Nope:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_we...

Developed-but-very-unequal, and less-developed-but-more-equal are a thing.

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