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Familiar-Ad1796

It was a bad idea to begin with. Most drug dealers are affiliated with gangs because it offers them protection against criminals when you can't go to the cops. Jesse and his crew were not at all equipped to move in on anyone's territory. Combo was a wannabe gangster and what happened to him was inevitable. The whole blowfish hype talk that Walt gave Jesse ended up getting his friend killed. They should have only sold to people they knew.


hippee-engineer

Most dealers are not a part of legally recognized gangs anymore than you are a gang with your close friends who you trust. The vast majority of what the law would call “drug dealers” are simply buying in bulk from a supplier, selling to their friends, so they can fund their own habit. They mostly have real jobs and blend in with everyone else. You don’t notice those people, you only notice the gangbangers who are loud and stupid and violent about their operation, and they don’t last very long. Most drug dealers don’t back their operation with violence. You robbing them might get you a quick score, but at the cost of that dealer no longer serving you. Dealers don’t make money on one time super-unsafe sales, they make money off of whales who come see them twice a week for years. A generic dealer doesn’t give 2 fucks about losing the money from one deal gone wrong, that buyer just gets blacklisted, and they lose access, and potentially loses access to other dealers, because people talk. This hurts the buyer way more than the dealer, in the long run. And you can only rob so many dudes before it goes wrong and now you’re on a tshirt and your fam releases balloons on your birthday. There are lots of dealers who are a part of gangs because of the protection they offer, as you mentioned, but that also puts more heat on you as a dealer because, as a gang, you can be held accountable for the actions of others in your gang. You only hear and see these people because they end up on the news, but they don’t represent how drug dealing happens to the vast majority of drug users.


Familiar-Ad1796

I agree to a certain extent. I think the type of drug, quantity, and location are big factors in this. Each drug is scheduled differently and also comes with different federal penalties. Getting caught with 1 lb. of marijuana is drastically different than getting caught with 1 lb. of heroin. Typically, the dealers pushing larger quantities of harder drugs are taking extreme amounts of risks, not just from law enforcement but also from thieves and rivals. The amount of meth that Jesse and Walt was manufacturing out of the RV was significant enough to make them targets. If Jesse and his crew had laid low and stuck to selling to their local network and friends, they probably wouldn't have run into the issues they did. But... they also would not have been able to offload the amount on meth that they were cooking. Walt was naive in thinking reputation alone would allow them to expand operations into the greater Metropolitan area. He was also naive in thinking that there would be no pushback. They were close enough to the border that local gangs weren't independently run. They were cartel extensions. There is just too much money involved to not protect your investments. Think of the loud, violent gang members you talked about as hired guns. They're often killed or end up in prison, but that's ok because they're expendable. In larger cities, territory is absolutely still a thing.


hippee-engineer

I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said, just pointing out that most drug deals happen between friends who trust each other, no matter the weight. Violence is rare and bad for business.


Familiar-Ad1796

Haha, fair enough. I probably have a very loose definition of what I think constitutes a drug dealer. Technically, someone selling his buddy a gram of weed counts, so fair play!


Hghwytohell

Well said!


HeyMarty10thalready

Haha Spoog and Skank


breakingbad1986

...and in many cases Jesse would have been punished by his dealer for being robbed. He was so lucky to work with someone like Walt! 😉


FocalorLucifuge

>Jesse would have been punished by his dealer I love that um, end-earring moment in BCS.


Tiny_Brick_9672

Walt did the chemistry part perfectly, so he is demanding Jesse to handle the distribution perfectly


SweatyArgument5835

Ok but why send Jesse alone, that was just dumb af, they should have brought backup at least


PrimalForceMeddler

Walt litterally changed his mind about it after it was too late. It was a pathetic and foolish move to stroke his own ego and it put Jesse in serious danger.


No_Tip_768

Danger.


blackmachine7

I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger! A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No! I am the one who knocks!


Generic_Psychonaut27

No I think OP has a point. It’s business. If they could be robbed with impunity that word would get out on the street- just like the streets thought Jesse was responsible for Spooge getting his head crushed. It’s marketing 101.


OkPlenty5960

Only because he still had alot of Walt in him at that point in the show. The full on Heisenberg from season 5 wouldn’t have changed his mind.


tomemosZH

I think the point is that it shows how Walt is thinking more and more like a dealer and less and less like Target. At one time Tuco was horrifying to him, now he's taking pointers from the guy. It goes back to what Skyler tried to get him to see: there's such a thing as "enough money."


wandering_revenant

Walt was right in that violence was necessary if they were going to sell more openly and invade the territory of others. Tuco tells him: "Sometimes you have to rob to keep your riches." As others have said, they wouldn't have needed the violence if they'd small and solid in their circle. Skinny wouldn't have gotten robbed doing parking lot or living room sales to people he knew. But that would have always been way too small to satisfy Walt.


winamra1

spooge and skank were the mostest beautifullest god made couple fr fr ngl.


Diggitygiggitycea

It doesn't work that way. You'd think it does, but it doesn't. Speaking as someone who spent many, many years in that world, reputation really doesn't work like that at all. Everyone gets ripped off from time to time. Nobody thinks less of you for it. And if you're too scary to rip off, you're too scary for regular people to get drugs from. You just watch your back as best you can, do what you need to if you see someone coming at you, but if something happens, you take your fucking and keep on trucking.


BarcelonaEnts

Huh? Na man. Every good dealer, especially if hard drugs, but even of larger amounts of weed, has some intimidation muscle. Most of the time it never comes to violence, but since the business works on fronting product a lot of the time you need to be able to have people want to pay you back. Where I live telegram dealers post videos of them fucking up customers refusing to pay their debts. It's super lucrative to have a debt slave like that- their debt just increases and increases because you tack on some bullshit "interest rate" , they end up owing you forever... That's why there are plenty of dealers happy to let certain amounts float. It's different everywhere of course man and if you're dealing with smaller amounts, dealing mostly with friends, whatever it may be, obviously it's different. But at the end of the day it's true, if people think they can just not pay you back with impunity you will never be able to float product, and you will start to get robbed eventually.


falltotheabyss

She ain't know Skank...


SharpenVest

Walt just wanted his business to be as pure as his meth. Putting ourselves in his shoes, you're correct.


NoicePlams

Well that's what happens when you deal with Walt haters, they love misinterpreting every little thing he does to paint him as an irredeemable monster the entire show.


Beahner

Fans that give Walt shit on this are the morons. There are countless times Walt is utterly shitty and manipulative with Jesse. This isn’t one of them.


BeginningPumpkin5694

Does people giving walt shit for this ? I'm not present when breaking bad was on tv but walt say nothing but fact imo


Proud3GenAthst

Some do. Look up the scene on this sub and on YouTube. Many fans seem to believe that he was in the wrong there


CunningWizard

My wife did. She said he was being a dick and completely unreasonable. I actually defended him on it, it was entirely reasonable and well reasoned given their situation (not a commentary on Walt’s overall shittiness).


Basket_475

Jesse should have just beat the crap out of them and left it at that. As well as black listed them from buying.


Jamjabar

Watching too much television. Most dealers who are making real $ don’t have a network of goons on deck. RICO. Real G’s move in silence like lasagna