People actually have done that, and by a decent but not landslide majority (upper 60s%, IIRC), the original inhabitants of North America like the catch-all term: ‘American Indian’. Halfway alluding to the other guy’s reply, they actually do like to call attention to the ignorance that was put upon them upon first meeting. It’s hardly their blunder to be embarrassed by, and that moniker has become part of their history. Has it not?

If you want to be truly proper, you’d have to get down to the nitty-gritty & list every single tribe ever. By name. And that doesn’t work very well on a form when you’re making people check & sort themselves into boxes.

…which brings me to the final, and most ironic point of it all. People insisting on using Native American & African American often fail to realize those titles were put upon those people by the goddamn United States Government. Yes, the same one that enslaved the blacks. The same one that drove the American Indians from their lands, hunted them for sport, and rounded them up into camps. After the mistreatment, the USG said, “Hmm, what should we call these people? Oh, I know. ‘Native Americans’ & ‘African-Americans’.” Now it’s been baked into the cake for so long nobody even stops to question it, they insist upon it. Even if it’s technically inaccurate in niche cases (like Jamaican Americans), or insensitive (being labeled by your conquerors).

…idk. Call me a romantic bumpkin, but I work with black men & women who haven’t stepped a single foot in Africa. They eat cheeseburgers like I do, we drink from the same water fountains & use the same toilets, we shake hands. There’s nothing African about them besides their genetics; they are Americans just like I am an American. They happen to be black. Idk too many American Indians around here, only some with very diluted, distant heritage.

Progress is progress, and it’s good to be skeptical (I literally just posted a comment saying “I’m skeptical”!), but progress is good. 🙂 What other alternatives are there?

If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense. That’s why the electric car movement is having a hard time really taking off rn; it is hard to justify & all the tech, all our builds, aren’t exactly super economical yet. And they’re not built for tough conditions, heavy towing, long commutes, and easily workable & recyclable components.

…but things are, indeed, getting better. If you look at it from a macro view. Lithium recycling can be done even a decade ago, but IIRC it was relatively small scale & the lithium could be refreshed “most of the way”, not fully. The right things will catch on when their time is right & its viability is realized.

Man’s greatest strength is our shared knowledge, technology, science, and innovation. I encourage you to make good decisions in your personal life and be positive. 🙂

Now the reactor is le tired

Well, I’m still skeptical, but I have far more trust in France’s reporting than Chinese claims.

It’s good to be prepared before the need arises. These can be made, unused, put away for a rainy day. Maybe it’ll never be needed.

This drone stuff is no joke, any dumb terrorist/criminal fuck with a few hundred dollars can get a drone & do terrible things. Evil people can never just be allowed to have the upper hand, with no countermeasures.

Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.

In any case…it’s either stuff like this, or jamming propellers, or steel birdshot. We’ve all seen the Ukrainian drone footage.

Personally, I don’t consider it moral at all. They spent a lot of money on that thing. And what if people on the other side decide to vandalize back?

This looks like relatively harmless vandalism. What if it escalates?

What if car vandalism isn’t enough, what if they burn your house down? Or you to them?

I just think it’s an ugly way to live & nothing good comes from messing with shit that isn’t yours. In this case, the fitting punishment is already applied & by their own hand. Rapid depreciation, vehicles that rust in car washes, virtually no product support, expensive to maintain, ridicule from others…idk. I think that’s enough on its own.

I would say $100K+ & provide a link. Idk. It’s nice & short, it’s lowball & true to say, and if people want to look up more accurate numbers they can do so on their own time.

“There’s literally everything in space, Morty!”

I guess that is an angle. But I think I heard of an old Asian tale basically saying that tyrants, dictators, and oppressors require amazing security detail by default. But universally loved rulers who care for the people & do incredible amounts of good need minimal security, and every good man is an unpaid member of their security detail. Virtually all will work to protect him.

Even if that were the case, if you could quickly work over a few countries & create organic, fertile topsoil for all the barren land on Earth – I would argue you have a moral obligation to quickly, quietly execute that power. Even if it kills you. Perhaps start by creating oceans of slightly stale baguettes in the deserts; leave people in the dark. Then go to countries in secret & be like I am the bread god, you’ve seen my work, pay me now, and get all the bread.

Even if they were to eventually find & kill you, strictly speaking about utility, creating millions of tons of fertile, rich compost & filling the bellies of millions of people is more good than you or I could ever hope to accomplish in a lifetime. Even a million people. It would be an act of goodness that would change the world forever.

Being only slightly stale isn’t an issue at all, especially when it comes to sustenance to stay alive. Setting personal gain aside, have people pay you to travel to Bumfuck, Africa. Make it rain infinite slightly stale baguettes. Solve their hunger, at least for a while, and build a composting facility to create mass amounts of compost out of tons of slightly stale baguettes. Feed their livestock tons of slightly stale baguettes.

Travel to Bumfuck, India. Make it rain infinite slightly stale baguettes. Solve their hunger, at least for a while, and build a composting facility to create mass amounts of compost out of tons of slightly stale baguettes. Feed their livestock tons of slightly stale baguettes.

I’m sure you could reach out to many impoverished countries of the world, say hey you pay for my travel, my food & lodging, and pay me $200K (or whatever they can afford) and I’ll make slightly stale baguettes rain down from the fucking sky and they’ll gladly take you up on that offer. If they’re smart.

World hunger, solved. Deserts covered with multiple feet of fertile, composted bread-soil. And as others have said, French toast & other foods forever. Plus if you work it right, you could get paid to travel the world & enrich the nations with your talent.

If you claim to be someone’s friend, there is a small obligation & duty to try & keep them from embarrassment. I have tried. 🫠

I am serious, this man is 33. I have in the most friendly of ways stopped our private conversation (no one else was around), and I said very pointedly: “You keep saying Pacific. You mean to say specific.” I think I’ve even done it on two separate occasions. He sheepishly smiles and says, “Uh, yeah” and we continue talking because I’m not going to be a total dick about it.

The man hasn’t ever claimed to be much of a scholar (he isn’t), and he’s got depth of knowledge on other things & he’s my friend. But every time he randomly says Pacific instead of specific my brain goes fuuuuuuuuuuck, dude, whyyyyyyyy? Thankfully that word doesn’t come up much organically; he said it a week & a half ago. Before that it’s been many months. A small price to pay for a lovely friendship.

I know someone that says ‘Pacific’ instead of ‘specific’. The man has his talents & his place in the world, food man, but yes that is infuriating.

I think that applies more to commercial boycotts & inner dealings, idk.

They can’t force you to purchase & drink any bottled water (nor do I recommend drinking bottled water). Especially when alternatives abound. Look at Bud Light, perfect example. The consumer determines what sells & what stays on the shelf. Which, again looking at Bud Light, really hurts the company when the product doesn’t move. It’s time to Bud Light Nestlé.

I’m going to start by saying fuck Nestlé, they’re so fucked up, they don’t believe water & access to water is a human right, they go to towns & give them like $5 to suck up & process, bottle all the water in a region. They don’t want people to be able to have private wells; they think water should be entirely managed, controlled, and sold by corporations. For these reasons, no one should ever buy Nestlé water.

Moving on…yes, corporations do dumb things, and sometimes those corporations are so terribly big it would be silly to try & look up, boycott every little thing they do. But if Nestlé didn’t sell a single bottle of water, and they wondered why, and they come to realize they’re dumb AF, evil, and they mismanage everyone’s water while producing plastic waste…they’d surely stop stealing everybody’s water for bottling. If it isn’t profitable, they wouldn’t do it.

I want people to understand what a boycott entails. The main purpose of a boycott is to have a negative impact on their business, either because you just fucking hate them or they’re actively engaging in behavior, choices you don’t approve of.

In this way, people who have already bought a product & then “boycott” it is kind of silly. Boycott Tesla? You have a Tesla. Best you can do is either sell, or de-badge, or throw on a virtue signalling bumper sticker if you wish. But the money has already changed hands, they profited off you. They just won’t in the future.

In the same way, if you like a boycott product (but “you gotta have it” and there are no substitutes), there are acceptable workarounds. 🙂 Buying it used doesn’t give them money. eBay, Facebook Marketplace, thrift stores. Or just go without…if you can. Idk how many things we actually, truly need. Choosing to boycott is a personal test of your will, your depth of knowledge, and your creativity.

I quietly boycott things all the damn time, I just don’t make a big show about it. I adopt a smaller, simpler life. I also don’t go crazy checking every single label at a store, no big corporation is getting rich off of my $13 purchase. I tend to go without, or I buy things that are sooooo so so much better that I almost certainly know have no connection to any dumb shit. The internet is your friend, as are the many small family-owned businesses for your basic needs. 🙂

Not that I condone incest, but yeah…the main purposes behind incest laws are: protecting minors/kids from sexual predators and preventing births of fucked-up babies, with genetic disorders. Some incest babies are almost entirely normal, others are severely retarded and/or have lives of pure pain. It’s a roll of the dice, very irresponsible, and that’s why we forbid it.

Gay fucking doesn’t result in children. And if the gay fucking is between two consenting adults…well…I don’t really want to hear about it, ever, but it’s a relationship that doesn’t negatively impact anyone besides the two people in the relationship. 🥴

“I see myself in you, son.” 🥴

Wool socks are better.

Merino is good for the average man, more affordable. Darn Tough Merino wool socks have a lifetime warranty. Alpaca & buffalo wool are some of the absolute best. I go buffalo.

Correct. 🙂 Reminds me of when I wanted new tires & I was complaining about how some tires were rated for a criminally short life. I wondered which ones lasted the longest.

The mechanic then remarked that sure, they can make tires that last a hell of a long time & never puncture. But the ride would be so terrible because the tires would be tough, stiff, would work your suspension harder, and it would cost a fortune to boot. It’s not worth it. There are multiple material, usage considerations when making a product. Really makes you appreciate the experts in their various fields.

Upvoted, also torn. Because even if this person or any individual wants to “stand against” assholes so “they don’t give them all the power”, effects will probably be minimal but the effort expended won’t be.

I had some people giving me shit when I was in my young to mid-twenties. My dad’s advice: “Prove them wrong! Do x, do y, do z…” So…do all these things & live your life…to gain the approval of assholes, people who don’t really matter, people you don’t like? Nah. I’m going to do what I want.

I know my personal experience doesn’t map perfectly on your conversation & points, but idk I think it’s similar. I think they have the power because they’re assholes, because they seek out power over others. Perhaps the best course of action is to ignore the assholes & not give them any more of your time, consideration than is absolutely necessary. Live your life the way you want to live it.

Back to the main convo, idk. Personally, I find myself becoming more anti-natal. Have strong prevention game. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

… … …

Nooooooooooooooooooobody cares.

The question was: “Why does it seem most people, mainly conservatives, against Trans people? Unless I am wrong I never heard of one shooting up a school church or whatever. The ones I have met have been pretty cool.”

I carefully listed off all the conservative talking points about why they’re anti-trans. Which answers the question. This…is what…conservatives…think.

I never claimed to be an expert on any of this bullshit; I’ve got better things to do with my life. Goodbye.