Me: there’s a fire in my house! Please abolish it!

Fireman: Ok, we’re ready! What are you going to replace it with?

Me: what

Fireman: The fire. What are you going to replace it with? Fire has a purpose, you know, you can’t just remove it. The combustion that powers your car engine, that’s fire. And the fire in my woodstove heats my house and keeps my family warm. Fire is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, and in the correct place, at the correct time.

Me: It’s destroying my home. Please abolish it.

Fireman: Do you even know what fire is LOL fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in a self-sustaining chemical reaction, do you REALLY think you can just abolish that? Do you even know what you’re talking about?

Me: I’m fine with it existing just not in my house right now.

House: destroyed

Fireman: Why didn’t you give me a valid replacement??? We could have helped you.

  • @Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    OP, when the body is taken into account you have positioned this post essentially as a leading question/rage bait. AskLemmy is intended for genuinely open-ended, thought provoking questions. For example, “What might be some viable alternatives to prison/policing”. Please update your question to be less leading and more open-ended and thought provoking.

    Edit: Sigh, I tried. Not an open ended question. Locking.

      • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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        -315 days ago

        Why not? This thread is achieving the desired outcome; discussion about the topic, exploration of solutions and critique, and attentiveness to the issue. If you don’t like the way it’s phrased because of some arcane rule you can piss off and participate in another thread.

    • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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      -515 days ago

      I want your users to be angry because until now their position on overpolicing has been an echo chamber: “we need to make gradual improvements to the existing system and hope for the best”.

      The purpose of your community is to generate discussion and thought-provocation, which I’ve accomplished.

      This post is “not essentially rage bait” and the suggestion is offensive. ALL revolutionary ideology is rage-inducing. We got to this point because of decades of abuse, how could a person not be enraged by it?

      Do you think I feel strongly about this issue and want people to change their minds about it, or do you think I came here to make people mad for fun? Do your job and stop the grandstanding.

  • @1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1116 days ago

    Correction:

    “Abolish fire in my house”

    “Are you sure? We can just put out the fire in the living room and you’ll still need a working boiler, cooker and oven given it’s the height of winter?”

    “No; abolish fire in my house. I’ll still be able to heat my house and cook my food.”

    “Ok… If you say so”

    “Why is my house cold? Why is my food raw?”

    • @IMALlama@lemmy.world
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      215 days ago

      Electric stovrs and heat, in the form of heat pumps and traditional resistive, are a thing. Arguably you’re using magic to pipe a remote fire from a power plant or the sun into your house, so you can heat your house and cook without fire in your house. Bonus points if you use hydro and/or wind for power generation, then there’s turely zero fire involved.

      • @1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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        215 days ago

        And in the weeks it takes to install them, and months it takes to get wind (fine) and hydro (ecologically devastating) up and running?

        • @IMALlama@lemmy.world
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          215 days ago

          All I was trying to say is that there are already homes that do not rely on combustion inside the house for heat. I then took it the next step further, lol.

    • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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      -315 days ago

      Incorrect use of metaphor, but ignoring that, how do you feel about the comparison to rampant police/prison abuse?

    • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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      -415 days ago

      This person is suggesting that if we abolish the fire that’s burning the house down, we won’t be able to heat up food or stay warm in winter.

      … Which is the entire point of the post. It is literally a parody of this style of rhetoric, in which the subject of abolition is compared to something strictly necessary, and shown to be not necessary, and often harmful. I don’t know if this person struggles with reading comprehension, but they read and recited the metaphor without any comprehension of its meaning. Stay in school kids

      • @1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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        715 days ago

        “Abolish the fire in my house” ≠ “Put out that one fire in my house”

        There’s one of us who struggles with comprehension and it’s not me

        • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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          -515 days ago

          You’re arguing against my position by challenging the metaphor… by saying the two entities are not the same. Honey that’s what metaphors are used for. To compare two different things. This is tragic.

          • @papalonian@lemmy.world
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            715 days ago

            They aren’t challenging the metaphor at all with their statement. They’re showing you that the entire premise is garbage, because within your metaphor, “Abolish the fire in my house” ≠ “Put out that one fire in my house”.

            The metaphor is… Ok, I guess, if not a gross oversimplification, but your post and energy in the comments just scream “debate me bro” when it doesn’t seem like you’ve got the maturity for even a normal conversation. Like you maybe just found your first Ben Shapiro video or something.

            • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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              -115 days ago

              within your metaphor, “Abolish the fire in my house” ≠ “Put out that one fire in my house”.

              How does that challenge the premise? I’m saying that the unequalness of the two entities support the premise. Understand?

              • @papalonian@lemmy.world
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                315 days ago

                No, I don’t. Because the unequalness does NOT support what you’re saying, at least not to anyone else. It comes across as a huge red flag that you’re making up a false equivalency to back up the ideal you’re trying to get people to argue with you on. Nobody’s gonna debate you on a topic that you can’t even seem to frame fairly.

  • Call me Lenny/Leni
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    616 days ago

    The difference between fire and police is that fire is unnecessary, mindless, and controlled by instinct while police always fill at least some role, are not mindless, and can be communicated with. No non-tribal nation in history has ever been without police except for when absolute chaos has broken out, not the Greeks, not the Romans, not the Japanese, not the Egyptians, not even Polynesians. Many places have had some unique kind of policing system, sometimes publicizing/privatizing/militarizing/communalizing it, but nobody has done things on a completely layperson basis. The cultural revolution had aspects related to what you’re looking for, and it ended up being the second-deadliest human tragedy of all time behind the conquests of Genghis Khan.

  • Do you believe police are literally an inherent part of nature? Because that’s what your ludicrous comparison here sounds like. You’re not comparing police to firefighters; but to the fucking fire. Like some kind of clown.

    • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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      -115 days ago

      No friendo, that is the point of metaphor; to compare two dissimilar things. I can forgive you for not knowing this, but I can’t forgive your educational institution for not teaching it to you. I would request a refund if I were you, assuming you paid for it.

      Police and prisons are a crisis raging out of control; they are hurting innocent people, consuming a great deal of resources, stealing away the happy productive lives we were promise, and making us fearful of defending ourselves from abuse. It’s exactly like a fire. Again you’ll need to contact the facility that trained you to comprehend language because they’re failing and should be made aware. Stay in school.

      • @Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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        015 days ago

        Hey stinky, if you click the blue ‘metaphor’ link you posted, you can actually read the definition of metaphor. Best do that next time before making yourself look a fool by not knowing what it means and then posting the definition without reading it.

        • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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          115 days ago

          From the article: “…identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to create a likeness or an analogy”

          This is why education is important :)

          • @Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
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            015 days ago

            You truely don’t see how dumb you are, and now I just feel bad.

            Don’t know if you were home schooled or what, (that would explain your weird boner for accusing others of not being properly educated) but when you are the only one pointing out your own ignorance, I don’t think it’s fair to keep egging you on.

            Have a good one.

  • @parpol@programming.dev
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    416 days ago

    Your house can burn. I still use my fire properly and don’t want it gone just because you played with yours and burned your house down.

    • @stinky@redlemmy.comOP
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      015 days ago

      Ibuprofen? Sorry but please focus, I’d like you to respond to the message, not your immediate emotional reaction.