TFA would feel a bit more complete if it included the phrase "per capita".
Brazil sets new record for homicides
181–190 of 193 posts
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#182Is Brazil basically a failed state?
no, it's a successful state (people are those who failed).
I'm not trying to call Brazil's surely beautiful people out, I'm referring to this concept:
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
no, it's a successful state (people are those who failed).
I'm not trying to call Brazil's surely beautiful people out, I'm referring to this concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state
I used another concept.. imagine people as slaves and state agents (mostly politicians) as slave-owners. Does poor slaves implies slave-owners' failure? Nope.
And this is reality in Brazil. Politicians are wealthy, they are paid well, they create monopolies for corporations (and get benefits from it whereas consumers pay the cost) and they may even be corrupt. Some may get caught, sure, but are replaced by others. But nonetheless, the slaves keep hoping for the "right slave owner".
Thus politicians, politics and the state are extremely successful.
In this perspective, a failing state would be one whose politicians are getting less wealthy, lose intervention power and so on. Strong individuals, weak politics is a failed state. But in this situation people are wealthy (contrary to the concept shown on wikipedia).
Another (somehow related) type of failed state are those whose population emigrates massively, therefore slave-owners have less slaves. Or when a secession occurs, where power get less centralized.
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Blame - feel or declare that (someone or something) is responsible for a fault or wrong, which is exactly what you are doing. So colonialism is the cause for the recent presidential corruption scandals?
You are the only one talking about presidential corruption. Besides Brazil certainly isn't leading the world on that measure.
SO who are you going to blame for the president being corrupt. If the President is corrupt what messages does it send to the ordinary people. Why should they follow the law if the President does not?
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, yes, they do it because they know the population is not armed.
Not really, they do it because they know can get away with it. I've heard horror stories of people that got attacked by like 7 guys holding assault rifles when the wife was pulling into the garage. Your safety magnum in the bedroom isn't gonna do anything for you in that case, and chances are they are just gonna steal it from you if they find it. Also, a lot of robberies happen on the streets. A middle-class person o…
If you dont think having guns would change this situation, you are oblivious.
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because 80% of them are directly related to drug dealers. (Or at least that's what the news keeps saying here.)
Have you compared that number with countries where drug usage is legal?
You are working hard to find a problem with it, aren't you?
80% of the crimes being linked to drug use means that most people will only care about the remaining 20%.
But, anyway, AFAIK, drug usage is not a crime in Brazil. Dealing is. And for dealing related crimes to go away, one has to legalize the entire production and distribution.
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm from Belo Horizonte and the constant anxiety is real, of course it's not a problem every moment but shows up in every situation. Waiting for the bus every day of the week for 15-30min, you're very exposed, and should be careful with your phone out, and some people learn your commute time, follow you, it's rare, but if you're not paying attention, it can happen. I personally used to(don't live there anymore) doubl…
Brazil is the example I use to explain to people why I'm in favor of the 2nd amendment and Stand Your Ground laws. When owning a gun is criminal, only criminals will have guns and everyone else will be unable to defend themselves. If ordinary citizens had guns, at least in their own home, the criminals would think twice about breaking and entering because they won't know which homes are armed.
While I agree that being able to own weapons is a great thing, that alone wouldn't stop all types of crimes. One might be able to protect oneself from some random robber and other opportunistic types, but killing a well-connected or powerful criminal might cause a small army to hunt down the one responsible. No citizen can take on drug lords alone.
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Different thing. There aren't black markets for things that aren't illegal. Often, the gang murders we thing of are "turf wars" where one gang is competing with another gang for the same sales territory. So legalizing drug trade likely decreases drug gangs, which likely decreases murders. People might still die from drug use, but that becomes a separate problem.
We dont know if this is true,because no developed country has decriminalised the drug trade. It seems to me that doing that would increase drug use and the associated public health and social problems. I’m much more in favour of decriminalising use but keeping the trade itself illegal, as in Portugal. That enables attacking the problem from both directions at the same time. Restrict availability through cracking down…
We have alcohol in the U.S. as an example; It was made illegal; so gangs moved into the import business and made more money than they had before - gangs had turf wars bigger than they had had before.
Moonshiners started making it, and sometimes it created poison.
The police were corrupted where corruptible or killed when they didn't go the gangs ways.
The rich had parties and skirted the enforcement of the law.
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not really, they do it because they know can get away with it. I've heard horror stories of people that got attacked by like 7 guys holding assault rifles when the wife was pulling into the garage. Your safety magnum in the bedroom isn't gonna do anything for you in that case, and chances are they are just gonna steal it from you if they find it. Also, a lot of robberies happen on the streets. A middle-class person o…
If you dont think having guns would change this situation, you are oblivious.
I never said guns would not change the situation, but I do believe they would make things worse.
When was the last time you've heard of a gun-wielding vigilante saving the day in the US? Was he in his car with his family getting robbed by 3 teenagers at a stop light?
I lived in Brazil and I've been robbed and I've witnessed people being shot in gang fights, and I don't see how having a gun on me would've helped, so forgive me if I'm cynical of armchair vigilantism.
Re: Brazil sets new record for homicides
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you dont think having guns would change this situation, you are oblivious.
I never said guns would not change the situation, but I do believe they would make things worse. When was the last time you've heard of a gun-wielding vigilante saving the day in the US? Was he in his car with his family getting robbed by 3 teenagers at a stop light? I lived in Brazil and I've been robbed and I've witnessed people being shot in gang fights, and I don't see how having a gun on me would've helped, so f…
This happened in Brazil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VThEm-UhFIs
I suspect that the reason you don't hear about a "gun-wielding vigilante saving the day in the US" has more to do with the media sources you consume. Here is a scholarly article detailing how common defensive gun use is in the United States:
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewconten...
Estimates range from 100,000 to 2.5 million. Even at the very very low end of those estimates, there are at least 100,000 instances of a "gun-wielding vigilante saving the day in the US" every year that you never hear about.
I also suspect it's hard to understand how a gun would have helped you when you don't know how to use a gun, which I suspect is the case given your position on guns from this thread.
It's entirely possible for the average citizen to acquire the same firearm training as a police officer or soldier and therefore be capable of providing the same level of protection.