• Corhen@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I mean, the options seem to be “this man is mentally ill, he needs to enter adult conservatorship” or “this man is an adult, who made a contract, and is being held to a contract”

    He doesnt seem to be so far gone he needs a conservator, so his contracts are valid.

    • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      there needs to be some sort of space between “this person needs a conservator and can’t have any rights” and “this is a logical rational person who can contractually give away 5 million dollars because he’s filled with religious delusions”

      • abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        It sucks, but there is a lot of precedent in the US for “you are allowed to be as stupid with your money as you want, as long as you’re sane.”

        He may have delusions around his religion or beliefs, but he has the rights to have those delusions and beliefs, and if he wants to place bets on his beliefs because he holds them that strongly then he can. If someone else spots him as a mark and takes advantage of him, sure it was dumb of him, and they may not be in the cleanest moral area, but that’s America, learn your lesson and move on.

        You go to New York and some guy sells you a newspaper that helps raise money for charity and the homeless for $5 and you believe him then find out it’s a free paper all over the city, that’s life.

        We can protect you when you don’t know any better, but when you bet everyone in the room that you can fly and you can’t? That’s a hard bet to make buddy, and a harder bill to pay.

        • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          The reality is he is an older American and 5 million dollars is a lot, it’s not a 5 dollar bill. This is exploitation and society is only allowing it because he’s a right wing religious idiot.

          • RunningInRVA@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            The guy held a contest for $5M. Why are you defending him for not paying out? He is supposed to be credible, no?

            • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              No one of even mild to low intelligence thinks Mike Lindell is a credible person.

              This is a person who had a positive attitude and made a lot of money making pillows, then got older. He is religious and religion and aging affected his brain, especially because he’s clearly not that bright to begin with as evidenced by his religious beliefs. Plenty of people do well in society without being that intelligent because they have a positive attitude.

              Stripping this person of 5 million dollars is a form of laissez-faire elder abuse wrapped in the artifice of polite society and it’s blatantly vile.

              Just because he’s a disgusting right-wing religious idiot doesn’t mean that elder abuse is acceptable, and intelligent people in society should have the decency to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

              • modifier@lemmy.ca
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                5 months ago

                Mmmm except whatever shibboleths you may utter against “right-wing religious idiots”, comments like yours help those idiots and others like them by giving them a sort of ‘cognitive plausible deniability’ to get up to whatever evil shit they’ve been getting up to and worse.

                Like it’s so obviously minimizing real evil - the evil UNDERNEATH shit like this ‘innocent little contest’, genius - under a shield of “d’aww shucks those pesky white nationalists are up to their hijinx again, those silly knuckleheads”.

                So in that context, you talking about ‘disgusting right-wing idiots’ comes off as a real fellowkids moment for you.

                • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  i hate to say it, but this is a really good response

                  it’s true that a lot of these right-wing religious people are awful people. i just wish that we lived in a better world in which people would never vote for idiots like this and there would be financial protection for people as they aged and became less intelligent, but not incapable of managing all aspects of their lives

                  ask yourself this: if a random person mike lindell’s age offered 5 million dollars if someone could prove the earth isn’t flat, would someone ever be allowed to collect that in court?

                  but perhaps i am living in a fantasy world by seeing these people as less pernicious than they are, and your point is taken that he is part of a white-nationalist movement that is scary and evil, and perhaps i should be glad when anything slows it down or stops it from spreading instead of nit-picking over the logistics of such. i do think religion and racism are both a sort of cognitive infection that afflict the stupid, and it’s not entirely their fault for being stupid and susceptible to infection. as much as i hate racism and right-wing people, this really feels exploitative to me, even if Mike Lindell is infected

                  • modifier@lemmy.ca
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                    5 months ago

                    Let historians unpack their intentions, I say. And deal with their actions now, while they’re action-y and actively harming everyone and everything.

                    Have a good night.

                  • Corhen@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    ask yourself this: if a random person mike lindell’s age offered 5 million dollars if someone could prove the earth isn’t flat, would someone ever be allowed to collect that in court?

                    If someone who was known to be relatively rich held a competition, where he repeatedly made the claim, and said anyone who could prove him wrong would be paid, set requirements “you have to pay to come to my event to make a claim”, and then advertised that fact, then yes, i think that person would have an appropriate claim.

                    At some point, ‘you’ have to take responsibility for your actions. If I a bet online, and lost, I would expect to have to pay.

              • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                5 months ago

                you really just keep rattling on about religion and religious beliefs don’t you, you seem to almost carry the same behaviorisms that you apply to lindell.