Well, we all knew this one would make the list! WATERGATE! The biggest news in RC in 2017 right? Oh my lord was this a big one. Weeks of FB fights thanks to Degani’s water fuel. People seemed to get really passionate about this debacle.
This blog post was also when the fued between #spamadamdrake and yours truly began. A couple of blog posts about “Operation Richard Saxton”, a couple of others making fun of the fact that I beat him with a borrowed AE, and egos got hurt. Well now it’s just the gift that keeps on giving.
Recently there has been a political shift in the western world which seems to be heading more and more towards right wing ideologies, thanks to ideas such as blaming immigrants and muslims for most of the issues in society, and blaming government regulation and taxation, along with the poor people on welfare for whatever issues are left over.
I made the comment on a facebook post a while ago where I said that if there is to be a solution to the worlds problems it won’t be found by voting in right wing governments. I wrote that a solution would need to be approached from the left’s core values, if one is to be found. This comment received some backlash, and I said I would write a blog about it because it’s not a simple issue. Let’s start by defining the terms.
Left
Liberal
Universal care and compassion central to the political ideology – empathy.
Highest value placed on fairness and equality.
Open to new experiences, creativity, diversity, variety.
Socialism within a capitalist society. Individuals and companies are able to do business and succeed, but the government makes sure no one is left behind, universal healthcare, free education, welfare programs. Let’s call it capitalism with empathy.
Speak for the oppressed, want change and justice even over order and tradition.
Extreme left, the fringes, clearly not the way to go
Communism
Social Justice Warriors
Political Correctness, trigger warnings, safe spaces
Right
Conservative
The well being and success of your own ”tribe”, a survival of the fittest, winner takes all mentality central to the ideology.
Highest value placed on tradition, the nation state, economic freedom, liberty of the individual to succeed without interference from the government, such as excessive taxation or regulation.
Free markets, deregulation, privatisation, winner takes all in the sense that people are free to pursue success, and there should be little or no welfare, and in the case of America, no universal healthcare or free education. Let’s call it capitalism on steroids.
Speak for the nation, institutions and traditions, resist change even at the expense of the oppressed or the weak.
Extreme right, the fringes, clearly not the way to go
Fascism, nationalism
Nazies, racial supremacists, nativists
Patriotism that turns into hateriotism.
One of the major problems in Europe today is immigration. I don’t think it’s a major problem in America, even though the Americans seem to think it is. I think to explain my point best I’ll use immigration as an example, and a discussion about the problem in Finland, but the basic idea works for any problem in society. I’m not proposing a solution to the immigration issue, but explaining why I think the solution will be found by basing it on left wing values.
Part 1: Defining the Problem
A large number of refugees and immigrants are entering Europe and then Finland. This leads to
– crime
– unemployment
– The state welfare, medical services, schools, subsidies, etc. are burdened and it could lead to the potential collapse of the welfare state.
– The rich western countries have a healthy positive culture (human rights, equality, freedom etc.). A large amount of immigrants who don’t share these values could lead to the damage or loss of the positive aspects of our culture.
Solutions need to be found to the above problems. All thinking people agree with this, the above statements are not a matter of opinion, they are real risks. The dispute here is not really about the validity of those claims, but to what extent the points mentioned above actually are or will become problems, and how they should be solved. The right wing exaggerate the problems with anti immigration propaganda, and the left wing belittle and minimise the problems, even going as far as to covering up news about crimes committed by immigrants, in order to not fuel the fire on the right.
Part 2: What to do?
Left
Help the needy the best we can. Solve the above problems by other means, working on integrating and educating immigrants.
Right
Build a wall! Don’t let anyone in! Finland only for Finns!
The world is complex and it is challenging to build and sustain a functioning society. However, there is one in Finland, and there can still be one in the future if the problems are analysed and solved.
Part 3: Arguments
Finnish right wing ideology supporters tend to argue:
The blacks just hang around in the city centers and don’t work.
The muslims come here and rape our women and steal our welfare money.
There are mainly men coming here, they are too cowardly to fight for their country, so they leave their families and come here. What pieces of shit.
Lazy immigrants don’t want to work, just break the law and live on welfare.
All of the above negative allegations apply to 90% (or an equivalent, however, a clear majority) of:
Immigrants
Dark skinned people
Muslims
Part 4: Counter Arguments
A Finnish left wing ideology supporter could counter those arguments like this:
Crime, unemployment, laziness, and all the other negative right wing arguments are not particular traits reserved for immigrants, blacks or muslims. White Europeans do all of those things too.
Poverty and the lack of an education are a major cause of these problems. When a poor uneducated couple start a family the child does not share the same opportunities as a child born into an educated better off family. We need to accept this.
For example, in the United States after over 200 years of slavery, the black population was still killed, tortured, discriminated against and trampled over when it came to education, work or owning property for another century or more, and they are now in general poorer and less educated in relation to white Americans. Is it then a surprise that the crime rates in predominantly black neighbourhoods is higher than that of crime in predominantly white neighborhoods?
Is the solution to the problem then to blame black people for being lazy, leaches on welfare, ignorant and criminals, or should we possibly try to understand what has led to this situation? Does it make more sense to work on improving education and work opportunities, and figuring out solutions locally with the community in question, or is it better that the police target, harass, and far too often shoot and kill these “thugs” in the street?
Back to immigration.
The majority of the immigrants coming to Finland are normal people who want a good happy and healthy life, for themselves, their own family and all their friends. I can say this because the majority of people in the world are normal people who want a good happy and healthy life, for themselves and their own family and all their friends. It’s not like only the assholes made the trip over. People from all walks of life did.
If Finland continues in the same fashion, as a welfare state where all people are taken care of, supported, educated, and respected, things will continue as they have done so far. If Finland decides to change over to a right wing ideology, which stirs up hatred and division, if we start to fight and to discriminate, things will go to hell. (Look at many communities in USA right now).
Part 5: Counter…Counter Arguments – Why Left wing ideologies won’t work.
If the blinkered lefties, the “libtards” cannot see any problems with immigration and go on naively, without addressing the issues, things will also end badly. (See, for example, certain areas of Sweden). Everything should not be understood or accepted, in the name of remaining politically correct or culturally sensitive. In Finland there is a saying, “maassa maan tavalla”, basically “when in Rome, do as the Romans”, and even though the saying has been hijacked by the more extreme right wing, there is still some truth to it. There are reasons for Finland being a rich country with a high standard of living, and they have to do with the way the society is built to be free and fair.
Religious and cultural practices that trample human rights, freedom and the well being of people in general have no place in a 2017 society. That needs to be made clear from the start.
Religious and cultural practices that trample human rights, freedom and the well being of people in general have no place in a 2017 society. That needs to be made clear from the start. Finland has certain laws and societal norms, and there is no need to bend over backwards to make room for new ones, not on small or big issues. We eat ham while celebrating Christmas, and women are equal to men, and aren’t stoned to death, or murdered in honor killings. As an immigrant you don’t have to eat ham, but you need to accept that others do, and you do have to treat women as equals. See what I mean? There are good ideas and there are bad ideas, and bad ideas need to be challenged, which will lead to their eventual destruction.
Part 6: THE Conclusion
World views can be roughly divided into two parts.
Left = “Libtards” who care for all people and human values.
Right: “We’re better than you, so piss off.”
The rational thinking person understands that the truth, and the solution can be found somewhere between left and right, and the further to one side you go, the more problems there will be.
The rational thinking person understands that the truth, and the solution can be found somewhere between left and right, and the further to one side you go, the more problems there will be.
MY OPINION IS that the best possible result is achieved when approaching a societal problem from the left, that is, basing your ideology on the idea of equal human dignity, human rights and the general well being of all. This is quite universally seen as “left wing” thinking, and that is why I wrote what I did on FB. It does not mean that everyone should have equal opportunities, or wealth, or outcomes in life, but what it does mean is that there are certain non negotiable rights that are inherent to all human beings, and that every persons life and dignity needs to be respected. That means that decisions are made by taking everyone into account, which leads to more equal opportunities for all.
A right wing ideology inevitably creates division, because a right wing ideology focuses on the relevant “tribe”. By stirring up hatred, by fighting, by blaming, by waging war, discriminating, escalating fear, emphasising differences (skin colour, religion, nationality), and viewing your own “tribe” as superior is not a way to solve problems. We have learned that repeatedly throughout history. I don’t understand how people still in this day and age cannot understand this, and how they can’t see the potential catastrophe we face by marching right into it. (Pun intended).
The thing is that today we live in a global world, and in a global world it is not possible to find peace without expanding your empathy level to a global level too.
The thing is that today we live in a global world, and in a global world it is not possible to find peace without expanding your empathy level to a global level too. Like the black eyed peas sing ”if you only have love for your own race, then you only leave space to discriminate.” That’s true when it comes to nations, religions, political ideologies or sexual preferences. More division is not going to lead to peace. If solutions to today’s problems are to be found, they need to be based on the notion that we all have equal human value at birth, and that as a society we should strive for fairness and equality. After that you mix left and right wing values and ideas, but what exists at the core has to be non negotiable.
But what do I know, I’m just a village idiot from Finland.
How sad does your life have to be, in order for you to truly be happy at someone else’s misfortune? There are people I don’t like, and sure, I’ll snicker at their failures, and I’ll secretly hope they aren’t successful, but do I really care? No I don’t. It doesn’t make me happy to see someone struggle, or fail, I won’t post about it or write something shitty to them. You know what I do to people I don’t like? I ignore them, because I don’t want to waste my time.
I honestly don’t get it. Look at the comments section on youtube, look at comments on fb, what is wrong with people? I really don’t understand where all this energy and motivation to actually post hate comes from. Some of you may think, but JQ, you hate on your blog all the time. No I don’t, I write humorous blog posts about all kinds of stuff, and a lot of different people, but I don’t celebrate people’s short comings or failures to put them down, because that isn’t funny. I take a grain of truth, and make it funny by blowing it up, I write about a real issue, I take a person or situation and attempt to reel them back to reality. I have never written something to the effect of: “It was awesome to see this person fail because he is a fucking idiot. It made my day. I hope his mum gets cancer too.”. That’s not funny.
My point is:
If your happiness is dependent on others, or dependent on other people’s misfortune, then you my friend have a problem!
On a scale of 42 to your mum, how annoying is track watering?
The thing about watering is it makes racing a lot harder, not only does your car need cleaning all the time, you are picking tyres like you pick lottery numbers, and it extends the day by 7 hours. It’s actually impossible to figure out how to set your car up, because not only is the track different beginning, middle and end of a qualifier, each of the times you hit the track, the beginning, middle and end are different too.
“It’s the same for everyone, quit complaining”. Yes, well it’s just that it’s not the same because of this thing called talent. We have been over this. Talented drivers adapt fast, non talented drivers don’t. Search “talent” in the blog, I have written about it.
Why isn’t watering consistent? Partly because of time of day, partly because of stupid decisions being made, water every heat, water every second heat, re-seed, water this heat, water that heat, but in the end because of saving money. When a toothless sign spinner from Hemet can’t figure out how to use a hose, don’t be mad at him. He is, after all, a sign spinner. When the rastafarian at the other end of the track is so baked out of his mind that when he actually is there, he can’t tell the difference between the sky and the track, don’t blame him, because…
After all week, mudbog in practice, mudbog to just damp in quals, then figuring out how the track works in a long main when wet, basically drying, becoming dusty, then slick as an ice rink, you know what would really be a genius move? How would you really then prove to the entire world how ridiculous the whole event is when it comes to watering, and putting on a fair and just race? After all this watering of the damn track all week long:
Do not water the A main, at all.
There, prepare for that suckers! Now the track is different again, and I guess an airport shutdown imminent! What is the explanation for this? How does it make sense NOT to water for the A main, when you water every single other race? There is none, it makes 0 sense. This is why racing in America is so hard. There are no rules (except for Truck tanks), no schedule, no consistency, and you just don’t know what you are gonna get, like ordering at the drive through at Taco Bell.
But please do water the PNB as it is indoors, and the dust is deadly! HAHA
I will start off with a quote from Jeff Bowland, whom I do not know. Basically he wrote everything you really need to know, but I will give you my version too:
“JQ didn’t do anything intentional, it was a borrowed truck and the tank swelled. Degani used ice water to shrink the tank back down….. Go look in half of the coolers in the pits, Drakes included (who got the bump because of the DQ) and you are sure to find a a bottle of fuel in more than one. JQ has a target on his back because he goes against the grain and does/says things his way. We should encourage that, not target it.”
-Jeff Bowland
After rather amazingly making the main in Truck, beating many established truck racers, my tank was then found to be 1cc too big. Eventually I was DQ:ed. Let’s begin by establishing a few facts:
There was no intentional cheating regarding tank size, I borrowed a truck, raced it at DNC, returned it, borrowed it again, and raced it at SS. I took the body off once at SS, to change my clutch before the main, I never checked the tank.
There was ”no advantage”, 1cc is about 3-4 seconds of runtime. Oh huge, specially since I stopped at 7:30 and my runtime was more than enough. It’s not like I cared enough to ever check it.
I really didn’t care, I enjoyed the B main, because I was actually competitive, and because I beat good drivers that actually care about truck. I didn’t even want to do the truck main after I made the main in Buggy, I just wanted to prepare and focus on that. So if you are one of those people that are so happy because I got screwed, this is not a great opportunity to do that.
For the entire debacle of #tankgate, I was actually sitting in the pits, gluing tyres, and preparing my buggy for my B main, as it was coming up. Degani went to tech to see what was going on. 1st attempt, failed 1cc over, 2nd attempt after a cool down period, failed. Then, for whatever reason a 3rd attempt was offered. Before the 3rd attempt Degani got the fuel bottle to the pits and filled it with ice cold water from the cooler. The cold water would cool down the hot tank making it smaller. Now thinking back, had he in his rush realised to mix in 10% blue sidewinder, no one would have been the wiser, but he didn’t, it was probably 98% water. 2% fuel. The tank is checked for a 3rd time, and low and behold, it passes! Terminator Tech guy called it, it’s a pass. Degani picks up the truck and walks back to the pits, it’s all good. The beaker is still on the table, and Maifield and Tim Long are feeling it, looking at it, tasting it, and figure out its ice water, and they say it’s not legal. So I get called back to tech. The tech guy picks up the truck again to be tested. It never get’s tested and I get DQ:ed. Had Degani emptied the beaker, again I would have been fine.
So what’s wrong with this situation? Everything.
In America there are ”no rules”. Where is the rule book for Silver State again? What Roar rules are enforced, what rules aren’t? No one knows, it’s just do whatever, and you may or may not be illegal or legal, jump the start, cut the track, run a different car, take someone out, get extra practice tickets, whatever you want. Rules, procedures and penalties are all made up as they occur.
At least there is this rule, 150cc for a truck tank, that’s simple, but then you have to have a procedure you follow to then determine that a tank is definitely legal or illegal.
Have the right beaker, so you can tell a 0.5cc difference easily, it needs to have a thin spout.
Have a horisontal surface.
Actually follow a procedure, how many times to try it, how long and how to let the tank cool down, and don’t let people interfere. Don’t let Degani put ice water in the fuel bottle, don’t let someone drop something in the tank, and don’t let the people who would benefit from a disqualification mess with the results either.
If you did that you wouldn’t pass a car, and then 5 minutes later DQ it anyway because someone complained.
Why was I OK with Degani doing what he did, if I’m so honest and I don’t cheat? Because tech in America is a complete joke. Jason Ashton won the ROAR Nationals, the biggest race in America with a fueltank that was 3-5cc’s over the limit. Why wasn’t he disqualified? Because he was fast and deserved the win, he was a nice guy, he was a local guy, I don’t know, because it was a cool story or because he pitted at 5 minutes? I was OK with what Degani did because there are no written rules at these races and the rules they make up as they go along aren’t enforced fairly or equally. Show me the Silver State rule that states that you have to tech fuel, we are checking for capacity, the liquid doesn’t matter. I have seen 2 minute calls be ignored, and I have seen 2 minute calls turn into, let me change this servo. After you tech your car before a race, not that there is a reason to, but you could actually switch to a completely different car. Same after a race, you could hand tech a different car. No one would know, there is no system. I don’t even know why they bother with tech.
Do you think the ice water idea was just invented? Even your hero Adam Drake mentioned that he had employed the ice fuel trick before. When in Rome, do as the Romans.
All RC Racers with “Public Figure” Facebook pages.
Comedy, it’s funny. Comedy has always been a big part of my life. I am a very non-serious serious person. I guess I have my father to thank, as he introduced me to Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, etc. I can start and run a company that operates all around the world, yet at the same time looking at me people probably go how in the hell…..That’s because of this thing called humour. If you have a good sense of humour, you can deal with any situation, because your mind can process anything that get’s thrown at it. And that’s a fact. I didn’t read this somewhere, I just made it up. But I think it’s a pretty solid statement.
RC Racing had become boring to me, going to another big race, people being all serious wrenching in private containers, lying to team mates about setups, all serious and boring. Read stuff online, you just get boring kiss ass reviews, interviews and “opinions”, zero substance. Everything is great and everyone is awesome. So I had enough and thought I would spice things up, if not for anyone else, for me, because I’m stuck with this now.
Most of my blog posts are supposed to be funny, some are laugh out loud funny, some are amusing, but most definitely, the more serious they sound, the more likely it is I was laughing when I wrote it. So to all of you crybabies out there, try to look inside of you and find your sense of humour. If you find yourself getting mad at what I say, it’s time for you to take yourself a little less seriously. Let me tell you a story.
There was this stand up comedian who began his set, and he started off at the deep end, making fun of religion. The audience loved it, turns out they were secular, and they thought religious people were a bit silly. What a great show it was. Then the comedian moved on and made some jokes about autistic children. Suddenly he wasn’t the best comedian ever anymore. There was a man in the audience whose boy was autistic. He didn’t appreciate the jokes. He got mad and left.
Don’t be THAT guy.
I make fun of everything and everyone. If I make fun of a car, a brand, a person, an event, it doesn’t mean I hate it or them. It simply means I wrote or said something that made someone else laugh. It’s that simple.
If you get offended or mad because of a joke, you completely deserve it.
On my drive back from Arizona I had the idea to start a new completely irregularly posted blog segment, highlighting the idiots of the world. I find stupid things quite entertaining. I look at some things in the world, and I just wonder who came up with such a ridiculous idea. Or I look at people and wonder how Darwin hasn’t already taken care of them and put them 6ft under.
Hate is a strong word, I don’t really hate. Even my first girlfriend who cheated on me after, or rather during a 4 year relationship, I didn’t hate her. I packed her stuff, and asked her to move out. I even found her an apartment and moved her stuff there. Then I told her to never call me again. But I don’t hate her. There are people that clearly hate me, I don’t hate them, I’m just indifferent. Maybe they have some issues in their life and they need to take it out on me. I don’t know. I have clearly lived a privileged life, since I don’t feel the need to hate anyone.
If there was a God, an all powerful being, and it came to me and said, JQ, tell me one person you hate, and I’ll send him to hell for you. I really couldn’t give a very good answer, but if I was forced to, I would have to settle for someone that definitely would deserve such a fate, someone like Robert Mugabe or Henry Kissinger for example. You know an asshole on a global scale.
Having said that, I’m still going to make the title I Hate Stupid People, because it’s just a much better title that way.
Well, we all knew this one would make the list! WATERGATE! The biggest news in RC in 2017 right? Oh my lord was this a big one. Weeks of FB fights thanks to Degani’s water fuel. People seemed to get really passionate about this debacle.
This blog post was also when the fued between #spamadamdrake and yours truly began. A couple of blog posts about “Operation Richard Saxton”, a couple of others making fun of the fact that I beat him with a borrowed AE, and egos got hurt. Well now it’s just the gift that keeps on giving.
THEQuagraine 