Oh yeah. Barely check it for baseball news these days, but never even go on /r/all anymore.
When they killed their API they lost me as a user. I would never use their cancerous app or give them a dollop of revenue.
That's a fantastic take on VTubers and may well be the piece of it I didn't understand.
People want escapism -- but celebrities revealed themselves to be vapid and out of touch to the normies. Something we have all known was suddenly laid bare for all to see. So, fake celebrities were the next best thing. A pure fantasy to get that same escapism.
I still think the whole thing is/was weird and cringey -- especially the kind of stuff you saw on /r/all for a long time in 21 and 22. But at least this helps me understand some theory as to why it came about.
Thanks!
This is what communities used to be built on: I will respect you and you will respect me.
The US government has basically herded us into this hellscape where we don't know our neighbors -- and they don't respect their own property (because it was probably given to them or government subsidized). Why in the hell would they respect yours? Why the hell should you respect theirs?
This is an important point that I feel is too often overlooked.
No one in their right mind is going to argue that pollution is good or even neutral. I grew up next to a steel mill -- I know very well what those emissions do to a neighborhood. I very much appreciate the gains we made in efficiency over the past half century. I would applaud further gains to maybe someday reduce pollution to negligible levels.
But you can't just snap your fingers and declare it to be so. If the technology isn't ready, you just end up hamstringing yourself to no benefit, because your competitors (China) will just steal all your profit and pollute all that pollution for you.
These things take time.
In any case, I would take environmentalists much more seriously if they gave a shit about the massive amounts of waste that are built into the system for consumers' comfort.
Instead of virtue signaling by giving me a worthless paper straw, why not encourage restaurants to cut down on the hundreds of pounds of food waste they generate every day. And that is just one example out of a thousand.
We could actually make some progress towards climate cultists' goals if they would ever inconvenience themselves for the greater good. But they won't. And they will turn a blind eye to all the rich fucks scooting off on private jets to pontificate about how climate change is the impending apocalypse.
And that is why I discount literally every word they utter... because they are lazy, short-sighted hypocrites who demand instant gratification, even if it is superficial virtue signaling.
The Dixie Whores rebranded themselves as just "The Chicks" years ago -- I only mention this because its fitting.
They fucked with their own brand because of their white guilt and... no one gives a fuck.
Hollywood hasn't been original in so long... they thought they had the formula figured out. They actually thought that an IP by itself drove profits - and it did, for a time.
But now that they are stuck in this lazy cycle they can't get out. And the writers and actors want more?
Cool, I hope their whole little world collapses.
You know what scenario makes sense?
The higher ups across the West realize the game is up, their time is limited, and it's all over -- so they're just looting the system through absolutely naked corruption before it collapses and they vanish to their islands and tax havens.
The Irish strike me as a perfect patsy to have swallowed the bullshit, but also one of the first groups that will push back.
Even the lefty Irish tend to have more ethnic pride than a lot of western groups -- with pushes to preserve their language and culture.
Don't disagree that it's surprising, but maybe less so than you think.
The Destruction of Everything is well underway and will continue unabated until we talk about the real issue.
But talking about the real issues requires accountability from women who have fucked up generations with their hypergamy and horrendous decisions. And that is a non-starter.
So we will keep throwing money at problems spawned from our familial disintegration and never once lay blame where it belongs. And at this point with women being a majority of the electorate I just don't know how you get there.
Yeah, actually. What I proposed is supposed to be the eventual compromise position.
If you make colleges publish their ROI and forgive everything above that number -- women with dumbfuck degrees make out like bandits. But you have to understand women always make out like bandits; it's the natural way of things. You would probably have more pushback if you didn't disproportionately take care of women anyway.
But with women making out like bandits a lot of people get a monkey off their back, and universities have to reckon with the fact they took millions of federally guaranteed loans and intentionally ruined that investment. They get punished, and probably reformed.
It's a very idealistic scenario, I grant you that... but that is how we could theoretically address the debt crisis and not punish the taxpayers or the students to an extreme degree
They know they can't turn it back on. Everyone will default.
I just want the universities to pay. They wrecked the system, nuked their own value, and lined their pockets along the way.
There are certainly more elegant solutions, and I think you are on to something in noticing how those old conversations just disappeared.
Just spitballing -- what if we made universities actually publish their ROI for all programs receiving financial aid? And then discharged the debt to the universities for failing to hold up their end of the bargain? I promise you the problem in universities would clean itself up overnight.
My mom does the same thing. She was a good, classical liberal... taught me all the right things about free speech and tolerating those we don't agree with.
This is not the Democrat party she believes in -- I know it and she knows it... but every time I throw evidence at her she just shuts down and stares into the abyss.
In wider society? Yes MtF is more common.
In schools and university? It is mostly driven by females. I saw a report last year that said females reporting gender dysphoria was up 600% in schools (or something like that).
That part of it is definitely a social contagion that is trickling down into wider culture.
You would be amazed at how quickly they would flee back to their homeland as soon as they saw any serious pushback.
Same for the border. One day of live rounds and the shit would stop forever.
Nina Turner is the epitome of "room temperature IQ."
Seriously dumb twat -- I have gone back and forth a couple times with her.
But she certainly plays the role of "media lapdog/race-baiting useful idiot" well.
To put it bluntly:
All of these programs are centered around the idea that you can spend your way out of this problem -- but its impossible.
I saw some bullshit article recently where increased welfare benefits in California found that the benefit to kids was like $48 for every $1 spent.
Instead of tearing apart their methodology (which I don't care about) -- I just wonder what the benefit of having two supportive parents and a supportive community around you is. Could you even put a number on it? I am sure it's magnitudes higher than 48:1, especially because it doesn't require any monetary spending whatsoever.
But that requires either side to address the root cause: a rotten fucking culture.
MLB turned down their pride shit immensely -- telling teams to stop wearing themed jerseys.
The LA Dodgers fiasco woke a lot of people up. Not many people want to come to the defense of blasphemers.
I have never really read SCOTUS opinions before last year... I highly suggest reading them. They are NOT dry. They are highly intellectual catfights and I love it.
Not anything the three dissenters say -- that is all "BUT MY FEEEEELINGS"
This may shock you, but sometimes people can have really abhorrent opinions and not-so-bad opinions.
I respected her mind, even though I disagreed with how she used it.
I will save the pissing to you, my friend.
You are right.
Until I read this particular dissent I should watch my tongue because I know how dumb Sotomayor is too (I vaguely recall what you refer to as well).
I mean, she's done that several times.
I have respect for nearly every Supreme Court Justice -- yes, even RBG. There were times through the years when I saw her use solid jurisprudence, even if I disagree. I still hold the Scalia-RBG friendship as a great example of friendship over ideological lines.
I can't say the same for Brown. She's clearly deeply out of her depth and I imagine there's more than one Justice who dislikes her because she's just not... qualified.
Hit the nail on the head like a master carpenter.
I have a distinct memory of college and some girl being so upset Republicans won an election that she was crying. "How can people vote for evil?" I remember her wailing.
Even then, as a dumb little 19 year old, I remember thinking "people aren't evil just because I disagree with them..."
We all have to understand that it doesn't matter. They are the good guys in their little fairy tale. They have already convinced themselves of their own virtue, and everyone who doesn't see it their way is evil.
You can't win.
Let them burn in their own shit heap. Most of them won't even get it when it literally hits them upside the head. Think of that 'anarchist baker' who was on this page recently. She was killed for her stupid beliefs. She didn't have any "aha" moment. Most of them never will.
And the ones that do will voiciferously deny they ever believed it.
As someone who grew up in one of these unbelieveably cucked churches (United Church of Christ) -- this is right on the nose.
They got rid of all the rituals and vows and oaths -- everything that helped make a community a community. By the time I came around it was just an empty husk falling over one liberal bullshit scheme after another.
Turns out I am not an atheist, I could just recognize a hall that God had long abandoned.