# American parents -- again **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 23, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772 "2020-12-23T22:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/21 "2020-12-24T06:34:15Z")
I think she should do time but I can sort of see where she’s coming from. According to reports I read she got a negative test right after landing. I’m sure she was thinking “I’m negative; what’s the big deal?” Dumb, but understandable. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/22 "2020-12-24T06:53:10Z")
As for her being a pre-med student at 18, it’s been my own experience that at least 95% of the people who start college as a pre-med changes their career plans by the end of their sophomore year (organic chemistry being the biggest hurdle) and conversely, a huge percentage if not the outright majority of medical students started out in a non-STEM major and switched later on, or even after working in another field for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/23 "2020-12-24T08:27:08Z")
Two months jail for a quarantine breach? [Could be worse](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53903498). ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/24 "2020-12-24T13:57:44Z")
As a general comment on American parents, after 20 years in education, I hold that far more actively destroy their children’s sense of agency and ego than artificially build them up. Even the parents that publicly seem to indulge their children too much are often doing that for show, or are wildly inconsistent, erratically swinging between indulgent and toxic behaviors. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/25 "2020-12-24T14:59:17Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And the fact they wouldn’t be convicted in the US is the problem. It’s not remotely the way things should be. We treat far lesser offenses, like innocuous drug use, as reasons to pull out a three strikes law. Are you advocating for jail sentences for people who don’t wear masks, even just one time? > [@BigT](#): > > I’m also not on board with the idea that not hurting anyone should matter in this case, because that’s entirely coincidence. Her actions would be the same whether she killed someone or not, and it is her actions (conspiring to violate quarantine because she doesn’t care about other people) that is the problem. The actual harm done has always, and should always, be a part of the calculus of what is a fair sentence. To use an earlier example, drunk driving that results in a death is and should be treated much more severely than a .08 that led to in lane weaving. Taking the actual harm done out of the equation flies in the face of centuries of our criminal justice system. > [@BigT](#): > > It is infuriating to me how many people guilty of negligent homicide we have walking on the streets. That’s what not wearing a mask is. I allow the mitigating factor that our President joined an fake news campaign to convince these people, so some are just ignorant and not malicious. But, in aggregate, they’re still killing people, even if one individual doesn’t. > > The same here. Quarantine has a real meaning, and only happens when things are really serious. So the consequences for willfully violating it should be serious. > > I make the analogy to drunk driving, which we all tend to be willing to throw the book at people for, even if they don’t wind up killing anyone. But at least drunk driving usually isn’t premeditated. The mandatory minimum for drunk driving, in most jurisdictions, is maybe 2 days in jail, not 36. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/26 "2020-12-24T15:12:14Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > But if she’s not covid-positive and didn’t infect anyone, a month in a foreign prison is excessive. We can debate about the harshness of the penalty, but I’m not sure what purpose the word “foreign” serves in this sentence. She’s not in a “foreign” prison; she’s in a prison in the jurisdiction where she broke the law, which is how things usually work. Your sentence implies that there’s something problematic with where she’s serving the sentence. Would you be happy if she were allowed to come home and serve the same sentence in an American prison instead? I don’t know anything about the Cayman Islands criminal justice system, but I know quite a bit about the American one, and if someone offered me a choice between a month in an American prison and a month in a Cayman prison, I’d stick with the Caymans every time. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/27 "2020-12-24T15:29:14Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > > [@Hamlet](#): > > > > But if she’s not covid-positive and didn’t infect anyone, a month in a foreign prison is excessive. > > We can debate about the harshness of the penalty, but I’m not sure what purpose the word “foreign” serves in this sentence. She’s not in a “foreign” prison; she’s in a prison in the jurisdiction where she broke the law, which is how things usually work. > > Your sentence implies that there’s something problematic with where she’s serving the sentence. Would you be happy if she were allowed to come home and serve the same sentence in an American prison instead. Maybe don’t imply things. Barring a Midnight Express horror show I am unaware of, I have no problem with her serving the sentence in the Caymans rather than the US. My issue is with the “harshness of the penalty”, not where it took place. I’d find a 36 days served in jail to be excessive in the US too. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/28 "2020-12-24T15:56:29Z")
This is a particularly egregious case, and – as my wife would surely say – I’ve been pitting this poor, downtrodden, marginalized, underprivileged young lady mercilessly via the home game since the story broke. After all, she only snuck out to buy insulin for her charity-worker boyfriend who was going into a diabetic coma. /s It just feels like that Brett Kavanaugh level of entitlement again, which is pretty sickening. Would I expect the view of her parents to be “Let her rot” ? No. Do I have a strong opinion on the propriety of a 2/4 month sentence ? No. Not really. Mostly because I just don’t care that much about this poor thing. But the level of privilege that some Americans seen to flaunt in stories like this is really wretched. When I was a kid my dad made it pretty clear: don’t stray too far from the line and I’ll be your fiercest ally. Cross it, and I may not lift a finger to help you. With the passage of a whole lot of time … I don’t think that was a bad strategy. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/29 "2020-12-24T17:17:54Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > Maybe don’t imply things. You implied. I inferred. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/30 "2020-12-24T17:34:34Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > When you go somewhere, you have to follow their laws, like it or not. This, period. During a cruise in the southern Caribbean, I was walking around the docks in Barbados. The woman I’d bought lunch from approached me and got my attention. She whispered, “you’re not in your country, be careful”. At the time I was openly smoking a big joint. As she walked back to her stall, I looked around and realized a local cop was watching me. I ate what remained of the joint and was way more discreet from then on. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/31 "2020-12-24T18:02:49Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > A few nights, even a week or two in a country club clink? Fine, I get that. But four months? Excessive. She’s barely an adult. The quarantine itself was over two weeks in a country club. It seems that the punishment for violating it (and endangering the lives of how many people?) should be longer. The current sentence (36 days to 2 months) seems about right. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/32 "2020-12-24T18:15:05Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > The quarantine itself was over two weeks in a country club. It seems that the punishment for violating it (and endangering the lives of how many people?) should be longer. Hah! Good point. A punishment, to be an effective deterrent, should be worse than the consequences of not doing the thing you’re being punished for in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/33 "2020-12-24T18:51:45Z")
Here in Oregon ONE person insisted on going to work sick and caused seven deaths and required over 300 people to self quarantine. Fuck this entitled little shit and fuck the maskholes and fuck anyone who decides it’s okay for them to ignore quarantine protocols. Enjoy jail, you useless sack of shit, hope your party was totes worth it. > **[A person who went to work while sick is likely the cause of two separate...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/23/us/oregon-covid-superspreader-action-trnd/index.html)** > > Seven people died as a result of the first outbreak, and hundreds of people were forced to self-isolate over the second one, Douglas County officials said. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/34 "2020-12-24T19:58:03Z")
It’s entirely possible their choices were “go to work sick and maybe infect others” and “stay home, get fired, don’t get paid, get evicted, have no food, etc.” Our system is broken in a lot of ways and our government has made things far worse because a lot of them are uncaring assholes (I’m looking at **you** , Ron Johnson, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, and a host of their ilk). I don’t condone the choice they made, _at all_, but I can understand if those were the only options they had to choose between. Desperate people can do terrible things. (If it turns out they went to work sick and weren’t masking, or they could have stayed home without risking their job or paycheck, I’ll have a _lot_ less sympathy and probably none at all, but I’ve not seen any information on that.) ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/35 "2020-12-24T21:14:50Z")
I can almost give the Oregonian person a slight pass on the matter for the reasons you specify, but I will point out that their insistence on protecting THEIR paycheck cost hundreds if not thousands of hours for the people they forced to quarantine and the ones who died will never draw a paycheck again and who knows what that might do to seven families? Then there’s the fact that they DID know they were SICK which takes my sympathy down several notches. After almost a YEAR of this shit, going in to work knowing you’re sick is just plain bullshit–and the Oregon eviction ban is firmly in place until at least March so that excuse has less weight than it might have elsewhere. All of which says, to me, FUCK that entitled little Daddy’s girl and her attitude and her parents and all the rest of it. If I go to Dubai and get thrown under the jail for a hundred years for some pot fluff in my pocket I’d get nothing but the “Well, you should have KNOWN BETTER!” That stupid girl knew better, did it anyway, WORKED to make it happen and yeah, she damned well deserves the sentence. Me, I’d make her do the full four months. Bet that’s one entitled little shit who won’t repeat the mistake of taking the laws in another country so casually EVER again. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/36 "2020-12-24T22:10:14Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > and the Oregon eviction ban is firmly in place until at least March so that excuse has less weight than it might have elsewhere. This I didn’t know, and yeah, that makes me far, far less sympathetic. And as I said, while I can understand the (possible) reasons, I do not condone the choice they made. The results were horrific, but even if they weren’t, it was, at best, irresponsible. No arguments on little Miss Snowflake. She knew the requirements before she even left for the trip. If she weren’t okay with complying, _she shouldn’t have gone in the first place_. Watching your boyfriend in a jetski race is something you can do _after_ the plague has subsided. In short, people fucking suck, and I’m running out of ways to express that. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/37 "2020-12-24T23:24:22Z")
I hated when people did that, especially when they had a job that was easily covered by co-workers, and had sick leave to spare. Folks, the company is not going to collapse because you called in sick. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/38 "2020-12-24T23:33:15Z")
I’ve seen a few people here argue that Skylar Mack’s sentence was way too harsh. Funny, though, none of them said a word about her boyfriend, Vanjae Ramgeet, a Caymans resident and competitive Jet-Skier (I had no idea there was such a thing). Ramgeet received the same sentence (for aiding her), and was stripped of the prize money he’d won in the Jet-Ski competition which Ms. Mack broke quarantine to watch, and, according to the story, banned from some future competitions. Why no sympathy for Ramgeet? ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/39 "2020-12-24T23:49:47Z")
I have as much sympathy for him as I do for her, which is not much if any at all. Less, maybe. As a resident he should have known better than she did what the law was and what the penalty was. I suspect we’re not hearing about him here because he’s (a) not American, (b) not female, and © not white. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772/40 "2020-12-25T01:06:20Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Why no sympathy for Ramgeet? Because the OP wasn’t about him or his sentence? Or do you have an actual point that you’re too obtuse to come out and say? Maybe something along the lines of “people who think her sentence is excessive are racists because they dont mention that her boyfriend’s sentence is excessive too”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-parents-again/928772.md?page=3)