I don’t think you can confidently say what’s going on in someone’s head.
I will say that if someone is so thick-headed that their actions are indistinct from bad-faith interaction, and they don’t seem concerned with why folks think they’re interacting in bad faith, then putatively it’s bad faith even if they aren’t consciously twirling their mustache and pressing other people’s buttons.
If it talks like a sealion and… uh… waddles like one, etc.
Catches fish with its mouth, etc, etc
Not always. But in some cases one can be quite confident in distinguishing dishonest behavior from other failings.
But I do think his actions are quite distinct from bad-faith interaction. His stubbornness and persistence can be annoying, but that is qualitatively very different from dishonesty.
An infestation of sealions?
“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”
Thread 
Honestly if I were ever to pit myself it would be for abandoning debates… the opposite of stubbornness and persistence.
I have a lot of debates that I just put back in the drawer and never opened again. Sometimes I get a lot of pushback and just take a break because it’s stressful. Sometimes life gets busy and I forget where I was going, then never bother putting in the effort to get back into that debate. Sometimes…
Just today I made the assertion that modern antisemitism isn’t about genetics. I really do believe that, or at least that scientific/racial antisemitism is like a very fringe thing, a slim margin of the more widespread antisemitism today. I did some research and started a draft for a GD topic but you know what happened? I was sitting there, trying to find out whether antisemites today think of Jews as an inferior race, and I was having a whole lot of trouble Googling the manifestos the dudes would post online before shooting up a synagogue or something. The internet is like hell-bent on making it so I can’t read this stuff. And then I caught myself. Fuck this!
~Max
This is an instinct that you should cultivate.
Inside you there are two wolves…
I will say that I don’t think Max is stupid. In fact, I think he’s intelligent.
Which is why I find it troubling that he seems so determined to use his intelligence to rationalize himself into being a shitty, selfish human being, completely devoid of kindness and compassion.
Some people like to use small acts to spread kindness. To me, a good tip is an easy way to accomplish that goal. I see that extra dollar as a way to lift the spirit of another human being for a little while, and it’s well worth it to me. It’s part of my “if everyone in the world did this, would the world be a better place” philosophy of life.
When I listen to Max waste so much time and energy convincing himself that the other person doesn’t deserve that dollar bill, won’t benefit from that dollar bill, convincing himself that he is somehow being cheated or abused or otherwise put on the wrong side of a transaction if he doesn’t hang onto that one little scrap of dresser change, my already low opinion of him sinks even lower.
Then there’s that fucking annoying habit he has of digging through the shitty behavior of shitty people looking for little lumps of something that isn’t shit, and holding them high like they constitute some sort of vindication.
I replied to this with a quote from a favorite movie
To be fair, Hitler was better looking than Churchill. He was a better dresser than Churchill. He had more hair! He told funnier jokes! And he could dance the pants off Churchill!
And it went right over his tone-deaf pointy head. He actually thought I was making a point about Hitler, not about him and his shit-mining habit.
Now, I don’t think Max is irredeemable. But it’s sad to see an intelligent young person trying so hard to be callous and uncaring because he thinks it’s a necessary life skill, or something. I hope he changes.
Wow, a whole 16 2/3% tip!
I used to tip 20% a decade ago. These days, with the pandemic and fewer customers and fewer tips, I’ve been tipping 25-30%.
The waitstaff at my favorite takeout restaurant make $4/hour. (“Tipped staff” minimum wages run as low as $2.13/hour!). So I usually think “Am I making more than this person, even though they’re doing more work, juggling schedules and other jobs, and putting up with asshole customers?”
They deserve even more than this, I think, as I try to put a minuscule dent in an unfair system.
I still tip 20%, slightly more for good service. I also tip when I get pickup, though, which I didn’t usually before, and when I did, it would be more like 10%, but is now more like the full 20%. It still ends up being more because food is more expensive.
Many people think the opposite way, and think that they deserve more, and the person putting up with them being an asshole customer deserves less.
I wonder if Max places repeat delivery orders from the same restaurants.
I wonder if after a while, the texture or taste (or appearance) of the food is just a little bit off.
Yes, no. I rarely if ever see the same driver twice. Chris, Jeana, Gloria, Christina, Jose, Oscar, Taneicia, Ivan, Fay, Rebekah, Yoshua, Carilyn, Beverly, Ronald, John, Janiya… ok, back in August Carilyn delivered my food twice.
~Max
Are these drivers exclusively from delivery places (Grubhub, Uber Eats, DoorDash, etc.) or are they from the restaurant? (Many restaurants, especially pizza places, use their own employees to deliver things.) If a delivery driver for a restaurant is getting little-to-no tip, I guarantee you that they’re going to grumble about it to their coworkers.
I’ve made it a rule to not piss off someone who is feeding me.
It’s also a rule (or at least a general principle) not to dig deeper when one finds oneself in a hole. But most Pittees can’t seem to help themselves on that one either.
It ain’t much of a Pit if the hole isn’t that deep. 
Yes. Aside from pizza places, we have one local restaurant who still delivers but they are on the other side of town and are more of a dinner place. And I don’t bother with pizza deliveries for lunch since we have a Pizza Hut two buildings over.
~Max
From the Why Republicans are destined to fail thread. Max has requested cites on the deficiency of the Trump Administration’s Covid-19 response and @Ziberian has responded at length.
I didn’t come over here to pit Max….this time. I’m posting in this thread to make a prediction as to Max’s response.
I predict that Max reviews this page of links, finds ONE claim that is incorrect or disputed, and focuses his entire response on that one item. Because……to be fair, Hitler was a terrific dancer.