Offside Chat Archives (2014-2021)

It’s honestly soul-crushing to watch someone have to carry such a massive cross on their back, struggling like a pack mule just to deliver a message that is basic, obvious, and something everyone already knows. It leaves you with such a bitter taste in your mouth, realizing you're even part of this society.

How much attention are we actually giving to that ridiculous 🙏
?

I’m genuinely curious, though—what makes you think this whole thing is just some ridiculous joke that doesn't even deserve a second look? I really want to know your take on it.

Honestly, he’s being ridiculous. He’s opted for this grand performance instead of actually fighting against a corrupt system using the very institutions built to handle it.

If he were acting like a rational adult, he would have simply sent an email to Andrej Plenković; that is how sensible people operate.

Rather than advising parents to find a way to fund those millions themselves, he demands the government pick up the tab for expensive medical treatments for the critically ill. It is nothing more than blatant statism.

Lik doesn't even protest against the system itself at first glance. I’d bet anything he’s a loyal voter for one of those major political parties that just keeps swapping seats in power.

Where does the money go? It vanishes into our interstate highways, our railroads, shipyards, petrochemical plants, aviation, county governments, and that massive bureaucratic machine. There's no cash left because by the time the bloated bureaucracy and millions of shell companies have finished feeding themselves, there isn't even enough change left for the rest of us. But does anyone care? Not really. Instead, we just see these ridiculous, sporadic protests pop up every once in a while. It's a classic pattern you see in certain parts of the world.

And there's this fascinating side effect tied to heavy state involvement. The more a government tries to be "social" and grabs everything into its own hands, the less people feel the need to engage in charitable work or even find the will to help their neighbors. It's essentially state-sponsored finger-wagging.☕

Justin James10 said:Lik doesn't even protest against the system itself at first glance. I’d bet anything he’s a loyal voter for one of those major political parties that just keeps swapping seats in power.

Where does the money go? It vanishes into our interstate highways, our railroads, shipyards, petrochemical plants, aviation, county governments, and that massive bureaucratic machine. There's no cash left because by the time the bloated bureaucracy and millions of shell companies have finished feeding themselves, there isn't even enough change left for the rest of us. But does anyone care? Not really. Instead, we just see these ridiculous, sporadic protests pop up every once in a while. It's a classic pattern you see in certain parts of the world.

And there's this fascinating side effect tied to heavy state involvement. The more a government tries to be "social" and grabs everything into its own hands, the less people feel the need to engage in charitable work or even find the will to help their neighbors. It's essentially state-sponsored finger-wagging.☕

Why would you even bet on this? Seriously. If you're wrong, you're gonna be sitting there eating dirt and wishing you hadn't been so damn sure.

Justin James10 said:Lik doesn't even protest against the system itself at first glance. I’d bet anything he’s a loyal voter for one of those major political parties that just keeps swapping seats in power.

Where does the money go? It vanishes into our interstate highways, our railroads, shipyards, petrochemical plants, aviation, county governments, and that massive bureaucratic machine. There's no cash left because by the time the bloated bureaucracy and millions of shell companies have finished feeding themselves, there isn't even enough change left for the rest of us. But does anyone care? Not really. Instead, we just see these ridiculous, sporadic protests pop up every once in a while. It's a classic pattern you see in certain parts of the world.

And there's this fascinating side effect tied to heavy state involvement. The more a government tries to be "social" and grabs everything into its own hands, the less people feel the need to engage in charitable work or even find the will to help their neighbors. It's essentially state-sponsored finger-wagging.☕

Can you actually list those million fake companies, or are you just making it up as you go?

Justin James10 said:Lik doesn't even protest against the system itself at first glance. I’d bet anything he’s a loyal voter for one of those major political parties that just keeps swapping seats in power.

Where does the money go? It vanishes into our interstate highways, our railroads, shipyards, petrochemical plants, aviation, county governments, and that massive bureaucratic machine. There's no cash left because by the time the bloated bureaucracy and millions of shell companies have finished feeding themselves, there isn't even enough change left for the rest of us. But does anyone care? Not really. Instead, we just see these ridiculous, sporadic protests pop up every once in a while. It's a classic pattern you see in certain parts of the world.

And there's this fascinating side effect tied to heavy state involvement. The more a government tries to be "social" and grabs everything into its own hands, the less people feel the need to engage in charitable work or even find the will to help their neighbors. It's essentially state-sponsored finger-wagging.☕

You got any actual scientific research backing this up, or are you just talking out of your ass?

Justin James10 said:Lik doesn't even protest against the system itself at first glance. I’d bet anything he’s a loyal voter for one of those major political parties that just keeps swapping seats in power.

Where does the money go? It vanishes into our interstate highways, our railroads, shipyards, petrochemical plants, aviation, county governments, and that massive bureaucratic machine. There's no cash left because by the time the bloated bureaucracy and millions of shell companies have finished feeding themselves, there isn't even enough change left for the rest of us. But does anyone care? Not really. Instead, we just see these ridiculous, sporadic protests pop up every once in a while. It's a classic pattern you see in certain parts of the world.

And there's this fascinating side effect tied to heavy state involvement. The more a government tries to be "social" and grabs everything into its own hands, the less people feel the need to engage in charitable work or even find the will to help their neighbors. It's essentially state-sponsored finger-wagging.☕

I have to disagree with that. This is just a desperate act from a man who feels completely powerless, and that’s honestly the only way you should view it. You shouldn't try to frame him as some kind of crusader fighting against corrupt bureaucracy, because he clearly doesn't have the ability, let alone the ambition, to actually fix any of that.

Vekjo, just be real with me for a second, because honestly, you’re such a contrarian—which is basically your whole vibe—so I gotta ask, do you actually support this country of ours?
Don't even start with the corruption talk, please, because I know you'll just dodge the question to hide what you really think, I just want to know if you stand behind a government that sticks its nose into every single corner of society, like they have their hands in everything and basically control the whole show? Are you, like, a total follower of the Workers Font or something?

Why the crisis?
Why wasn't he just hauling, I don't know, a water heater or an old CRT monitor?

A Jewish star?

Vekjo, you could look at things like the World Giving Index or similar studies 😉

As for those "phantom" corporations... just look at companies like US Steel or even some of our struggling local manufacturing plants. These outfits are chronically unsuccessful; honestly, nobody even bothers pretending they can turn a profit anymore. It’s become the standard operating procedure to run at a loss while expecting the government to bail them out. At this point, the sole purpose of these ghost companies is simply to maintain the status quo.

Then there's the second category: the railroads, the interstate highway systems, and so on. These are also chronically failing enterprises where the only real objective is to provide cushy jobs for political appointees.

restlesssurfer97 said:Vekjo, just be real with me for a second, because honestly, you’re such a contrarian—which is basically your whole vibe—so I gotta ask, do you actually support this country of ours?
Don't even start with the corruption talk, please, because I know you'll just dodge the question to hide what you really think, I just want to know if you stand behind a government that sticks its nose into every single corner of society, like they have their hands in everything and basically control the whole show? Are you, like, a total follower of the Workers Font or something?

There’s a massive difference between supporting the concept of a state existing at all and supporting whatever specific administration happens to be running things. I definitely don't support the latter. But the idea that a tiny, libertarian-style government is the magic fix for our problems? Not happening. As far as I can see, having an organized state structure, taxes, and a republican system of governance is still the best way to run a society.

The US has plenty of issues, obviously. No debate there. The reasons why things are such a mess are complicated, and thinking privatization is a silver bullet won't change anything because the same rot that plagues the public sector usually finds its way into the private sector too. A country's success isn't really about whether taxes are high or low, or how big the government is. It's about social cooperation. Where people actually work together, society thrives because there’s trust. When there's trust, you can plan for the future. When you can plan, you actually make progress.

Guys like Justin James10 will tell you—if something isn't profitable, it shouldn't exist. The problem is, a lot of stuff isn't "profitable," but it's incredibly useful for everyone. Like a municipal water filtration plant. It doesn't turn a profit. In fact, between setup costs and maintenance, it just burns through money (which then gets patched up by the budget and taxes).

To build actual trust and cooperation, American society needs to focus on becoming fairer—and that means having a legal system that's both just and efficient. We need honest, streamlined public procurement processes.

I can't recall the exact name of the study, but two American political scientists gave a killer diagnosis of what happens when a public system gets gutted—like what happened in Washington, D.C. under Milomir Bandić. Without him (and his crew), you can't get anything done in D.C., because he broke the standard system and replaced it with a parallel one where he's the only one who matters. It creates this illusion that he's this indispensable guy who fixes everything, unlike the "sluggish" official system. The trick is that the system is sluggish *because* of him. It's the oldest move in the book: manufacture a crisis just so you can show up as the savior. That's why people vote for guys like him; they think everything will collapse without them because they've lost faith in the institutions. But the idea that public services would magically get better if we privatized everything—only for those contracts to go to Pripuz and his buddies—is just absurd.

Matthew Young35 said:Why the crisis?
Why wasn't he just hauling, I don't know, a water heater or an old CRT monitor?

Because you just don't hear people saying, "everyone carries their own water heater," do you?☕

Yes, trust. That’s really the crux of it. Social capital in America has been systematically eroded for our generation, and I fear the next one—and the one after that—won't even realize something like this ever existed. You can see the decay everywhere, from voter apathy at the polls to the way we conduct our day-to-day business interactions.

The dismantling of the concept of community in favor of forced individualism is also a fascinating phenomenon, regardless of the reality we live in. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it an agenda.

Justin James10 said:Vekjo, you could look at things like the World Giving Index or similar studies 😉

As for those "phantom" corporations... just look at companies like US Steel or even some of our struggling local manufacturing plants. These outfits are chronically unsuccessful; honestly, nobody even bothers pretending they can turn a profit anymore. It’s become the standard operating procedure to run at a loss while expecting the government to bail them out. At this point, the sole purpose of these ghost companies is simply to maintain the status quo.

Then there's the second category: the railroads, the interstate highway systems, and so on. These are also chronically failing enterprises where the only real objective is to provide cushy jobs for political appointees.

The World Giving Index isn't some deep scientific study, it's just statistics—basically, they call or talk to about 1,000 people a year in a specific country and hit them with these three questions:
Which of the following three charitable acts they had undertaken in the past month:

-helped a stranger, or someone they didn’t know who needed help?
-donated money to a charity?
-volunteered your time to an organisation?

Then you get the results. This point you're trying to make, which the World Giving Index doesn't even support, is that in countries with strong social safety nets, people donate less. That's just nonsense, both according to the actual giving index results (just look at Scandinavia or Canada... they're at the top) and the fact that the survey never even asks "would you donate less if social services were better?". Plus, there are like seven other things that drive charity motivation—how efficient the recipient is (if a country has an organization that actually gets stuff done, people give more), tax breaks for donations, whatever. Also, volunteering is part of the social culture and vibe, and honestly, where there's a strong social net—lots of public projects needing hands—people tend to volunteer more. Besides, Americans always step up whenever they need to donate for a sick kid or something else (remember how everyone was helping out during those big floods?), which totally flies in the face of your theory.

Justin James10 said:Vekjo, you could look at things like the World Giving Index or similar studies 😉

As for those "phantom" corporations... just look at companies like US Steel or even some of our struggling local manufacturing plants. These outfits are chronically unsuccessful; honestly, nobody even bothers pretending they can turn a profit anymore. It’s become the standard operating procedure to run at a loss while expecting the government to bail them out. At this point, the sole purpose of these ghost companies is simply to maintain the status quo.

Then there's the second category: the railroads, the interstate highway systems, and so on. These are also chronically failing enterprises where the only real objective is to provide cushy jobs for political appointees.

Do you even know what the word "fictitious" means? I doubt it. A company that actually does what it's registered to do isn't fictitious. If you and I started a company claiming we make toilet paper, but we didn't actually make any and just used the business to get a residency permit in a certain area, then yeah, that would be a "fictitious company."

Trying to fix a tiny water filter when you’re dealing with a massive, bottomless money pit like Dow Chemical is just a losing game.

I find it absolutely fascinating how most people are fully aware of how broken things are and complain about it constantly, yet they never actually see the system itself as the culprit. Any real attempt to overhaul the structure just triggers this immediate whining about "neoliberal capitalism." In the end, everyone seems perfectly content with the status quo, and the whole conversation just dissolves into ridiculous grumbling. Everyone wants to pin everything on corrupt politicians—as if finding a few sturdy aliens to take over would suddenly make everything perfect! But it won't work that way, will it? The real engine behind the corruption and chronic inefficiency is the system itself, not just some individual actors. Even if the exhausted public finally manages to kick out someone like Milomir Bandić (if that day ever actually comes), someone just like him will step right into the void. They might have a slightly different management style, but at the end of the day, the machinery remains exactly the same.

brightpilot6 said:Yes, trust. That’s really the crux of it. Social capital in America has been systematically eroded for our generation, and I fear the next one—and the one after that—won't even realize something like this ever existed. You can see the decay everywhere, from voter apathy at the polls to the way we conduct our day-to-day business interactions.

The dismantling of the concept of community in favor of forced individualism is also a fascinating phenomenon, regardless of the reality we live in. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it an agenda.

Exactly. Trust is basically non-existent right now, and honestly, can you even blame anyone? It’s not just the government, either—even in private sectors that have absolutely nothing to do with federal overreach, people are looking over their shoulders. Everything feels shaky. Anyway, I'll let Justin James10 explain how the government is supposedly to blame for these specific cases:

So you land this job, right? Boss tells you straight up: three months on probation, then a one-year contract if you don't screw everything up. Standard stuff. You grind for three months, kill it, boss gives you all kinds of praise, feels like you're winning... and then they hit you with another three-month extension instead of the year-long deal you actually signed up for. Just keeps moving the goalposts. Total joke.
So you pull off the job as a subcontractor and then... nothing. Just total radio silence when it comes to getting paid. It’s a joke. You do the work, you deliver, and suddenly everyone’s acting like they don't know who you are. Honestly, it feels impossible sometimes. You're left holding the bag while they just sit on your money. Total scam.
So, your boss is being a total pain and blocking your vacation even though you’re technically within your rights under labor laws? Honestly, what a joke. You know the rules, you've earned the time off, but they just sit there playing gatekeeper like it's their job to ruin your life. It’s such a classic power trip. If you actually follow the handbook, you should be able to walk out that door and head to the beach, regardless of how much they whine about "coverage" or whatever excuse they're throwing at you this week. Don't let them steamroll you.
So, boss isn't actually cutting you the check he promised? Classic. Just typical corporate nonsense. Honestly, I’ve seen this movie before and it never ends well. You think you're part of the team until the money talks, and then suddenly everyone's "reviewing the budget" or whatever bullshit excuse they're throwing at you today. It's a joke. Total scam.
So, you bought some gear from a small business owner for your company, right? Everything seemed fine during the pitch—they were talking a big game, promising the moon. But then the stuff actually arrives at your office, and it’s total junk. It’s nowhere near what they promised when you were signing the contract. What do you even do with that?

blah, blah, blah... same old story.

Justin James10 said:Trying to fix a tiny water filter when you’re dealing with a massive, bottomless money pit like Dow Chemical is just a losing game.

I find it absolutely fascinating how most people are fully aware of how broken things are and complain about it constantly, yet they never actually see the system itself as the culprit. Any real attempt to overhaul the structure just triggers this immediate whining about "neoliberal capitalism." In the end, everyone seems perfectly content with the status quo, and the whole conversation just dissolves into ridiculous grumbling. Everyone wants to pin everything on corrupt politicians—as if finding a few sturdy aliens to take over would suddenly make everything perfect! But it won't work that way, will it? The real engine behind the corruption and chronic inefficiency is the system itself, not just some individual actors. Even if the exhausted public finally manages to kick out someone like Milomir Bandić (if that day ever actually comes), someone just like him will step right into the void. They might have a slightly different management style, but at the end of the day, the machinery remains exactly the same.

The real question isn't whether the current system is broken—it clearly is—but whether the "solution" you’re pitching actually fixes anything. All I ever hear from you and your crowd is a relentless stream of valid criticisms against the way things work now, but I have yet to hear one convincing argument for why massive privatization and total deregulation would actually benefit society. Beyond just handing more wealth to the tiny handful of billionaires who already own everything? I'm still waiting for that part.

Honestly, those VEKO companies are nothing more than smoke and mirrors. I call them fictitious because their entire existence serves one purpose: creating cushy jobs for cronies and funneling money into shady offshore accounts. Isn't it obvious what they're actually doing?

Justin James10 said:Trying to fix a tiny water filter when you’re dealing with a massive, bottomless money pit like Dow Chemical is just a losing game.

I find it absolutely fascinating how most people are fully aware of how broken things are and complain about it constantly, yet they never actually see the system itself as the culprit. Any real attempt to overhaul the structure just triggers this immediate whining about "neoliberal capitalism." In the end, everyone seems perfectly content with the status quo, and the whole conversation just dissolves into ridiculous grumbling. Everyone wants to pin everything on corrupt politicians—as if finding a few sturdy aliens to take over would suddenly make everything perfect! But it won't work that way, will it? The real engine behind the corruption and chronic inefficiency is the system itself, not just some individual actors. Even if the exhausted public finally manages to kick out someone like Milomir Bandić (if that day ever actually comes), someone just like him will step right into the void. They might have a slightly different management style, but at the end of the day, the machinery remains exactly the same.

The difference between how Baldasar ran San Francisco versus how Opara does it? It’s night and day. Seriously. You're just talking nonsense again.