Yeah, another heavy dramatic saga to wade through. I think I’d prefer a Simon Pegg/Nick Frost adaptation. Or maybe a Matt Stone/Trey Parker version. Something still epic, but also hilarious and full of the vibrancy of humans.

I mean, that didn’t stop kids from going to fight in Iraq.

Another method: tax is often about 8%, so double that as a baseline and adjust from there.

I commented this elsewhere too, but dude took this expertise with a tough subject and shared it well with the high schoolers he taught: Tim Walz’s Class Project on the Holocaust Draws New Attention Online https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/09/us/politics/tim-walz-holocaust-class-rwanda-genocide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ck4.FpW4.05czkX9J5r9u

And back in the real world, he went on to use that critical thinking in classroom assignments, helping students understand actions and attitudes that lead to genocide: Tim Walz’s Class Project on the Holocaust Draws New Attention Online https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/09/us/politics/tim-walz-holocaust-class-rwanda-genocide.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ck4.FpW4.05czkX9J5r9u

Tldr, in one of his geography classes, Walz taught his class about how violence rises, class voted on what country they thought likely to deal with that kind of violence, like a year later the Rwanda genocide began.

Mental health is a squishier standard. Let’s say I had depression and decided to talk to someone about it, get the help I needed to become mentally healthy again. Should that necessarily be penalized if I want to go buy a gun to go out to the range or hunting with my buddies? Should seeking help disqualify someone entirely? Does that prevent people from getting help they think they might need, stigmatizing an already stigmatized practice?

Meanwhile, if Dave down the hill has a record, he’s already shown he was willing to do an illegal thing, whether or not the record is fair. If he already has reports against him for domestic disturbances, that’s pretty cut and dry violent behavior that ought not be allowed to intensify.

I’m not saying mental checks aren’t a good idea or aren’t worth it. I’m saying that they’re a harder sell because a) they take more nuance to formulate well and b) the propaganda machine will have an easier time telling people how those checks are overreach.

Forgive me, but I don’t believe political affiliation is a protected class–protected classes are the only things people can’t discriminate based on. So like, race, sex, religion are protected, but democrat/republican/green party aren’t protected. Businesses can legally discriminate against non-protected classes. It’s just usually a bad business strategy to turn customers away.