People Are A-holes

[weltschmerz]

A week ago, Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California was forced to shut down its campgrounds due to “health and safety concerns over near-capacity pit toilets,” according to CNN.



But despite the partial closure, things continued to get worse.



According to National Parks Traveler, visitors are creating illegal roads and driving into some of the park’s most fragile areas. They are also chopping down trees, setting illegal fires, and graffitiing rocks. With Joshua Tree being roughly the size of Delaware, the eight on-duty law enforcement rangers had no way to stop all the prohibited activity.

www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/10/18177478/joshua-tree-national-park-government-shutdown

[Tennesseer]

Jan 11, 2019 17:06:43 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

A week ago, Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California was forced to shut down its campgrounds due to “health and safety concerns over near-capacity pit toilets,” according to CNN.



But despite the partial closure, things continued to get worse.



According to National Parks Traveler, visitors are creating illegal roads and driving into some of the park’s most fragile areas. They are also chopping down trees, setting illegal fires, and graffitiing rocks. With Joshua Tree being roughly the size of Delaware, the eight on-duty law enforcement rangers had no way to stop all the prohibited activity.

www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/10/18177478/joshua-tree-national-park-government-shutdown

I have been to Joshua Tree National Park and it's a very fragile ecosystem.

[weltschmerz]

I've been there too, Tenn. It's beautiful....and fragile.
What kind of idiots set fires, plow over fragile cacti with four-wheelers, chop down endangered trees and deface everything with graffiti?
Who does that?

[Tiny]

Jan 11, 2019 17:29:27 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

I've been there too, Tenn. It's beautiful....and fragile.
What kind of idiots set fires, plow over fragile cacti with four-wheelers, chop down endangered trees and deface everything with graffiti?
Who does that?

People who don't subscribe to the idea that one of the possible reasons they exist is to "become better people"?

[thyme4change]

I've been wondering just how big this problem is. Joshua Tree is a big place - is this one tree, or all over?

[Gardening Grandma]

I was so stunned I had to check with Snopes. It is true. I am shocked and angry.

[Tennesseer]

Jan 11, 2019 19:40:44 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I've been wondering just how big this problem is. Joshua Tree is a big place - is this one tree, or all over?

From the article in the OP:

"They are also chopping down trees, setting illegal fires, and graffitiing rocks."

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

DH and I were just talking about this a little while ago. What the hell is wrong with people. I really just don’t understand lack of respect for our natural resources. 

[mroped]

And it didn’t take long to see what happens in the absence of the evil government!
If we have or you know any “libertarians” out there this is pretty much what they stand for: no rules.
That in itself makes the so-called libertarians just your average dumb ass anarchists.
Im wondering if this is the kind of world they envision living in?
No taxes, little to no government, no rules!

[Tiny]

Jan 12, 2019 7:43:59 GMT -5 mroped said:

And it didn’t take long to see what happens in the absence of the evil government!
If we have or you know any “libertarians” out there this is pretty much what they stand for: no rules.
That in itself makes the so-called libertarians just your average dumb ass anarchists.
Im wondering if this is the kind of world they envision living in?
No taxes, little to no government, no rules!

the libertarians I know seem to think (ok my opinion)  that people will "do the right thing" all by themselves because they have a sense of right/wrong and don't want to do "wrong"...  (or because of peer pressure).     I think libertarianism works great for small groups of people (think large extended families or very small communities (several hundred people)  who don't need to rely on or work with people outside their group.   Kind of like how socialism works pretty good for small groups  of people (like extended families/several hundred people).   Once your group of people gets large it's too hard to keep the "cooperative, for the good of the group" idealism going... 

[Deleted]

I always thought Penn Jillette had a common sense view of the Libertarian platform, starts at 3:45 in this video: