JesseHumphry

One suspects it's his wife's shop and she roped him into taking care of a couple of customers because somebody called in sick.

The first step is to understand that people don't see it this way, OP, and that expressing it this way doesn't actually do much to engage those whose minds you wish to change in conversation. A lot of the reason is that people just don't have time. They have things to do. And so that will tilt them more into their bias because it's much easier to take the word of someone who already agrees with you and is rationalizing it for you, than it would be for you to be actively engaged in the political process or in any local social systems that are attempting to replace broken political systems. Now in my opinion, that will always serve the ends of whoever gets power, regardless of their political affiliation. Which means there's an incentive to systematize much more casual participation in social and political systems, especially at scale. But additionally, it incentivizes a very particular kind of political landscape; the politician that wins will almost always be one who runs on a simple platform: "The only thing you have to do is vote for me, and I will take care of everything". And that's what we're seeing. People would rather pass the hard work off to someone they believe in, or at least who says the right things, than to take an active role in improving their community and country themselves. It's down to this: the world has gotten big, messy, loud, and complicated. Mass media and social media have made it impossible to quickly tell the difference between a truth and a lie. What do people do when they have no reasonably efficient way to parse reality? They will have to trust their instinct. And their instinct will always lean towards whatever is most self-beneficial: trust the leader because he says that's all you have to do, and you can focus on your family and your work. Now, unfortunately, the truth is that the answer to your question is even more complicated than that. But I would definitely say some introspection is in order here.

The purchase time slots don't work when you have a locally owned shop that sells what it wants, when it wants, even on religious holidays. You can get all the beer and liquor you want around the clock if you know a shop nearby. I doubt enforcement of any kind would reach those venues.

Why would they do that instead of using the Buriram Circuit? If it's good enough for MotoGP surely it's good enough for F1. It would cost far less and would be less of a hassle to deal with. The propensity of the FIA and Liberty Media to opt for street circuits is quite frankly insane. Dedicated circuits are how you get the cars to come alive. This isn't just a bad idea for Thailand, it's a bad idea for the sport in general. Sure, Albon gets a home race, but again, you have Buriram and it's a solid track.

If she would drink so much she'd abuse her granddaughter, alcoholism is absolutely on the table. "Daily drinking habits" is perhaps the most polite way to describe alcoholism, especially those that result in frequent fights with your family. This idea that the elders can say whatever they want to their charges and should be given respect despite that, is exactly the kind of mentality that pushes someone to acts like this. If you treat the people you are responsible for like dirt and expect them to take it, then you relinquish the right to act surprised when something bad happens. But unfortunately, the entitled in the world think they get to do whatever they want and disrespect whoever they want, and everyone else is responsible for putting up with it. If my grandmother treated my wife with disrespect, at all, I would curse her out and she wouldn't hear from me until she profusely apologized. If my parents disrespected my wife or my children, they would be held accountable for their actions and wouldn't get anything from me until they apologized. This notion of "respect your elders" is crap and it's spewed by the bitter old people whose children have long since given up on them, and who lack the reflective capabilities to see that their behavior is what caused their situation. They're narcissists and they're LUCKY they're getting put in a home instead of left on the street.

Likely that the mother reported immediately, but it took 6 months to go through police investigation. My visa agent got in trouble and it took a year before police even got around to taking my statement.

I really wouldn't hang a hat on this. All it'll take is one high-profile crime linked, however tangentially, to the abuse of these exemptions, and that'll be the end of it.

I would imagine it's not an uptick in crimes, but an uptick in profile. Which basically means if your nationality isn't in the news, you're probably fine.

It seems highly unlikely that this would actually be enforced. The Thai cops make bank setting up checkpoints and charging fines to foreigners either not wearing helmets or not with proper license. That money would go down the drain quickly were this system introduced and ACTUALLY enforced. It seems more likely that it'd be yet another stick on which to attach a carrot. Pay an extra bit of the fine and you won't be yellow-carded. Money is king and I've got suspicions that all of this nationalist blustering is just that; blustering. The boots on the ground know where the money's at, and they're smart enough (read: corrupt enough) to know how to use this to squeeze a bit more blood from the stone.

Doesn't Thailand literally have a monthly lottery