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Comment by TapWaterBandit | Hacker News Reader

On the one hand I agree, bumming off your parents/state/etc is mooching and shouldn't be applauded or tolerated.

On the other hand, so much work that does occur these days is incredibly frivolous and debatable if it adds social value at all. Let's take Video games for example. It is now a larger industry than movie or music combined. And the stereotypical drop-out is the "lives in parents basement playing video games" dude. But if that is a waste of life and mooching, shouldn't we also turn our eyes to the people/companies making these games? If playing game is a waste of life, what does that say about those making them? But these people are never spoken about in such terms.

The same logic can apply to music industry, movie industry, sports industry, tourism industry, etc.

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Thats why I really don't blame the "moocher", except for the damage they do to their families. Am I any better than a guy who smokes out or plays video games all day? No! We're not that different, but except I gave my parents three grand kids to play with, and they're not so worried about my financial will being when they die.

That's why i was so impressed by the Flappy Bird creator. When he realized how destructive his game was, he walked away from it.

"parasitical to his parents and contributing nothing to the human experience."

This is nasty language however you put it and you're certainly talking in a way that makes me think that you DO think you are "better" than this person. But you should be careful, I know plenty of "achieving people" who gave their parents or society this or that and ended up with kids with troubles who under your definition "live as parasitical mooches contributing nothing to the human experience".

Would you like people casting those kind of comments at your own kids in future when they don't know a thing about the struggles they may have been through? Because I'm sorry but claiming you empathise with someone and then calling them a "parasitical mooch" out the other side of your mouth makes me think you don't truly empathise with them at all.

Calling a spade a spade does not mean I don't empathize with them. It can also mean Ive walked along their path.

Trust me, I am acutely aware of what they are, how and why they have fallen and the despair they feel. Its a despair of worthlessness which is tragic because we are all images of the Devine and therefore infinitely precious.

Even today, I walk along their footsteps but for the grace of God.

But we get nowhere pussyfooting with vocabulary.

Ah yes of course, describing people as parasites has a long history of leading to positive social change/movements.

I can honestly only assume you are trolling me at this point if you're bouncing between calling people "Devine" (do you mean "Divine"?) and parasites and thinking you have anything worthwhile to say.

I didn't call them Divine, I said they are made in the image of the Divine. And yes, I misspelled.

Despite our constitution, we can still collapse into ruin. Some of us become cruel. Some of is slothful. Sone of us keep it together.

For those of us prone to slothfulness, the end game is becoming parasitical (ie eating off of the work of others without helping out).

Its not that hard to see that a person may be infinitely valuable and still be a problem. Its the basis of our Western jurisprudence!

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