Bro you don't understand bro it's cheaper than fossil fuels bro that's who nobody uses it because people hate saving money!
No problem, you don't need to justify yourself. The beauty of the freedom on the fediverse is we can choose to engage with it however we like.
I added indie because I saw one of the conversations you guys had and they seemed cool.
Someone I work with who travels within the country for work nearly quit his job (and took a 6 months unpaid leave of absence during the worst of the pandemic) because he had the cops checking in on him at home constantly during his quarantine period.
Constant visits from the police under threat of legal action may not be the same as being handcuffed and locked in a literal prison, but that doesn't make it acceptable in a free and democratic society.
Constant visits from the police under threat of legal action may not be the same as being handcuffed and locked in a literal prison, but that doesn't make it acceptable in a free and democratic society.
I get what you're saying, but I can also see that bad actors can take advantage of people's goodwill and desire to be good people as a form of social engineering.
I've seen calls for mass murder against political opponents just this week that were couched in "we're such nice people and they're such mean people, they should be nice like us or they should be made to disappear".
Remember that the most deadly ideologies of the past 100 years were all anti-individualistic. There's a reason fascism invoked the imagery of a bundle of sticks that together was stronger than every individual stick, and national socialism explicitly created a racial faction of "us" to oppose another faction of "them", and both portrayed idyllic images that were very nice to justify their atrocities.
So in that regard, I think the way to build the communities we actually want to see requires us to be open and somewhat tolerant to behavior we don't condone necessarily, but to be the sort of posters we'd like to see and to participate in positive ways to positive things. Even jerks sometimes have something important to bring to the table, so to reform those people you engage with them when they're doing something positive and ignore them when they're engaging in something negative.
I've seen calls for mass murder against political opponents just this week that were couched in "we're such nice people and they're such mean people, they should be nice like us or they should be made to disappear".
Remember that the most deadly ideologies of the past 100 years were all anti-individualistic. There's a reason fascism invoked the imagery of a bundle of sticks that together was stronger than every individual stick, and national socialism explicitly created a racial faction of "us" to oppose another faction of "them", and both portrayed idyllic images that were very nice to justify their atrocities.
So in that regard, I think the way to build the communities we actually want to see requires us to be open and somewhat tolerant to behavior we don't condone necessarily, but to be the sort of posters we'd like to see and to participate in positive ways to positive things. Even jerks sometimes have something important to bring to the table, so to reform those people you engage with them when they're doing something positive and ignore them when they're engaging in something negative.
lol "This isn't twitter this isn't ok"
These people actually think their iron curtain matters. It's really cute.
These people actually think their iron curtain matters. It's really cute.
Why would state sponsored media have a problem with state interference in the media?
I'm thankful for the wonderful relationship I have with my wife, but I can see it's a 2-way street and I think most people don't understand that.
She does a lot of the things guys pray for in a wife -- she'll bring me drinks and snacks when I'm sitting playing video games (including making a sammich -- no lie!). She raises our son with me and wants to impart positive values including her Christian background. I come home from work and the house is spotless and dinner is on the table waiting for me.
But for lack of a better term, it isn't free. I bring home the bacon, but I'm also the tall person to grab something she needs, the muscle to move something heavy, the handyman to fix something that's broken, the accountant, and I'm heavily involved with raising our son too.
It's a team effort, and everyone ends up better off for it. Both people are there by choice, and even with a promise like a marriage it's also a choice to continue to be there every day.
She does a lot of the things guys pray for in a wife -- she'll bring me drinks and snacks when I'm sitting playing video games (including making a sammich -- no lie!). She raises our son with me and wants to impart positive values including her Christian background. I come home from work and the house is spotless and dinner is on the table waiting for me.
But for lack of a better term, it isn't free. I bring home the bacon, but I'm also the tall person to grab something she needs, the muscle to move something heavy, the handyman to fix something that's broken, the accountant, and I'm heavily involved with raising our son too.
It's a team effort, and everyone ends up better off for it. Both people are there by choice, and even with a promise like a marriage it's also a choice to continue to be there every day.
One thing that strikes me about conspiracy theories is that they aren't coming about because people are becoming unmoored from reality but because they've lost trust in an establishment that isn't interested in the truth, isn't interested in fair play, isn't interested in following the rules.
In such an environment, rumor and conjecture becomes the way we try to make sense of the world. I've seen it in non political contexts when a workplace doesn't have good communication but people need information to try to figure out what decisions to make. Obviously some of the conspiracy theories turn out wrong or are self-evidently wrong, but as the song goes: "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you" -- many of the conspiracy theories end up being totally correct.
In such an environment, rumor and conjecture becomes the way we try to make sense of the world. I've seen it in non political contexts when a workplace doesn't have good communication but people need information to try to figure out what decisions to make. Obviously some of the conspiracy theories turn out wrong or are self-evidently wrong, but as the song goes: "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you" -- many of the conspiracy theories end up being totally correct.
In a sense, to be liberal is to be conservative at the moment. That sounds like a contradiction, but the future is authoritarian, and anyone fighting that is trying to protect a good old relic.
Most of the government should be going to a firing squad for what's been done to the first amendment.
Absolute facts.
We don't see a moral component to borrowing money we never intend to pay back (there is a huge moral component, we're selling our kids into slavery because we want free shit) so there's little reason not to keep borrowing forever.
But with that hole in our collective morality, we're doing terrible damage.
We don't see a moral component to borrowing money we never intend to pay back (there is a huge moral component, we're selling our kids into slavery because we want free shit) so there's little reason not to keep borrowing forever.
But with that hole in our collective morality, we're doing terrible damage.
I've felt for years that you start by increasing taxes and slashing spending, and once the budget is in surplus you start cutting taxes while keeping a surplus. It will work, and it'll get things moving in the right direction.
It's entirely possible, there's just no political will for it. Right now every country in the west is on the same path, and it's the path to the destruction. The sooner we start acting like there's a future and we want to protect it, the better.
It's entirely possible, there's just no political will for it. Right now every country in the west is on the same path, and it's the path to the destruction. The sooner we start acting like there's a future and we want to protect it, the better.
"we must take out debt to relieve the debt or the debt will become overwhelming for us!"
Paying off one credit card with another on a global scale
Paying off one credit card with another on a global scale
The next 40 years are going to have a lot that looks like Madonna -- ancient people who stopped doing anything interesting in their 20s pretending they've still got youth and beauty because they neglected to build anything else.
The scar that the lack of meaning while approaching a nihilistic end with no legacy will leave will change society, since it'll be too late to do anything about it but so much of our lives will remain to stew over the meaninglessness of our deaths.
The scar that the lack of meaning while approaching a nihilistic end with no legacy will leave will change society, since it'll be too late to do anything about it but so much of our lives will remain to stew over the meaninglessness of our deaths.