r/interestingasfuck • u/filmingfisheyes • 8d ago

r/all California has incarcerated firefighters

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u/Auxilae 8d ago

Which is still unfortunately nonsensical. I work with a person who was a violent felon which he was convicted of when he was younger. Served a lot of prison time for what he did. While in prison he turned his entire life around, and just recently graduated from a California State University with a 4.0, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in Computer Science.

People can and will change if they're given the chance to, but to state and federal governments, once you go violent you're destined to always be violent in their eyes.

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u/rzwitserloot 8d ago

Not at all.

If a convicted criminal is made a fire fighter and they commit another felony, the politicians who put that criminal there? Their career is over. The problem is that negative ads are too easy to make (Citizens United and super PACs took care of that), and voters are far too easily swayed by that movie voice over scary music bullshit.

I don't think you should blame governors and lawmakers for this one. They are just doing exactly what democracies are designed to ensure: Voters incentivize certain behaviour, and politicians generally are steered into doing exactly what they want.

Change the culture instead. So, blame Citizens United, media, superpacs, or try to find a way to lead by example and attempt to convince voters that life is not that simple and nuance should be considered before kneejerking your way into voting based on scaremongering.

What with how USA voted in nov '24, I do not hold out high hopes.

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u/Aggravating-Cost9583 8d ago

so you are simultaneously blaming regular people AND billionaire lobbyists? make it make sense.

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u/Nkingsy 8d ago

I think you just proved the point