He just means technically we will probably survive. Maybe.

I don’t drink or eat a lot of carbs, I am trim and lean. But I still wouldn’t dress like that simply because bare midriff doesn’t look good on men unless you’re fully trying to imitate the 80’s movie aesthetic for laughs.

if i dressed like that, she would probably injure herself laughing.

That’s not a definition of middle class at all.

Christ that’s the point of what I wrote and the point of this post. That’s some reddit-level density my friend.

If you define “middle class” as having a phone and a car and a job, then yes, there are countless middle-class families who get some form of assistance.

Middle-class, working families who live in their fuicking car.

No, you don’t.

You miss who you were when everything looked like this.

You were young, you were discovering the internet like a new frontier, every new app you tried or new album you found or new comedy website was like discovering a new country. You could while away hours without responsibility or care or trauma, or at least nearly as much. You were not cynical and jaded yet.

Nostalgia isn’t a longing for when things were simpler, it is a longing for when you were simpler.

Kind of like asking if we can stop picking up stones and rocks and using them to beat each other and instead use them to build homes.

This isn’t a new fight. There will always be people who take our tools and abuse them by using them to hurt others. That’s what we’re fighting against, people who use our tools to hurt people instead of doing good. Unfortunately, if we just let people who collect stones and sticks for hurting people be, and not push them out of our village, they will just grow in number and strength so we can’t just block it out, we can’t live and let live around those who would take your life if they grew strong enough.

If it’s tiring and annoying to see people have to always yell at the club-and-rock-wielding thugs and throw rocks back at them, you don’t have to get involved, but don’t decry those who DO have the courage to throw rocks back. If they didn’t do this, the rocks would start hitting you next.

Do you think people become more conservative with age or is it society becoming more progressive and leaving them behind?

I am getting up there in years and seeing this play out over and over.

I think every generation wants to be more progressive than the last, but we tend to carry baggage of fear and insecurity through the generations. Or more specifically, older people tend to gain the political and monetary capital needed to affect policy and shape our societal outlook and attitude. They will always be more conservative than the younger generation who will want more freedoms and personal rights, inherently, and as the ruling class will clash with newer sensibilities, over and over.

What we’re asking here, is the conservatism reflected in our elders and leadership now broadly more harmful or helpful? Are we out of the touch or is it the kids who are wrong?

I think it’s a mix but mostly it’s not our real problem. Our real problem is that no matter what our age, we have greatly misunderstood how our own existence works. Most people have been taught that they have brains designed to exercise logic and reason and that brains are the best thing ever if you use them and make them smart.

No, our brains are not logical tools. We are not a rational species. There was no “age of enlightenment.” It’s all a hoax. Our brains are tools designed to write a story to explain how you feel. And that’s it. It doesn’t even have to make sense. When we all learn how our brains actually work we will collectively make better decisions, have more compassion for each other, and likely sink into even deeper despair as we all start to realize we have no free will.

We should all be learning that we’re all children. Some of us, over time, gain a lot more baggage and issues, but that shit just layers right on top of the “child” parts so we’re all just basically children with complex problems.

The brain doesn’t “prune” itself. The brain you had when you were 12, you have that same damn brain. It doesn’t change. Stuff just gets added to it.

Almost anyone with an irrational political stance betrays their youth.

Political ideology has always captivated the passions of youth, but isn’t successfully implemented or even internalized except by people with age and experience and emotional regulation.

Bears can be trained to drive cars and communicate through various means, it’s thought they may be as smart as great apes like gorillas. This is why they were a choice circus animal for a long time.

Yes, this should be terrifying information.

Should have took a lot more.

I get involved in my local elections and city/county boards to endorse and support every policy or candidate that either leans distantly socialist, or puts any measure of power or control back in the hands of the people and workers. That alone will do far, far more realistic good for each of us than “developing revolutionary movements.” That’s still roleplaying and I don’t think the USSR’s “successes” were as meaningful as the tankies propaganda makes it out to be. But that’s not an invite for a biased history lesson.

k

The fairy dream here is thinking that America is ever going to suffer a violent uprising from a socialist/left direction.

I know if you consume all the propaganda it will feel like this is really the viable solution to so many of our problems, but every meme that proudly shows people in jumpsuits marching under a red flag, they tend to ignore the reality which is if every tankie and socialist were to topple the US government tomorrow, we would still have to live with the hundreds of millions of people who do NOT want a socialist utopia. There is no long-term planning, there is a really delusional belief with some people that actually says “Once the population sees how good it will be, they will fall in line” and I want to scream and physically shake you idiots out there who think this shit.

You can push our society towards more social policies that help more people, but this is nowhere close to a realistic time to talk about actual takeovers and coups. It’s insane and stupid and it fucking HURTS the cause advocating for better policies and social services.

You also don’t affect lasting, meaningful change with dreams of an “uprising” or other fanciful ideas spawned by stories of Cuba in the 50’s. There will be no romantic struggle here, no plucky rebels, no heartwarming finale where everyone is happy.

If you want to make the world better, work on it from within the system and learn why the system is the way it is and what power you have as an individual and as a group, THIS is how people have changed the world before.

I would delight in socialism becoming more widespread and accepted as a system to maintain population growth and happiness, I argue for it all the time, we need a number of very important safety nets before we start feeling like our tax money is going into something less abstract than “America: fuck yeah!” But I also know it takes more than cosplay theatrics and defending tyrants.

edit: the tankies are mad.

If I’m going to spend $20 - $30 for a burger and fries and a drink, I will go to a local diner and give the money to people who need it, and who care about their food, and what’s more, those burgers are almost guaranteed to be vastly superior in quality.

When I was young my friends and I would stop at a McDonald’s for value-menu snacks on the way to paintball or my family would stop there when traveling for convenience and cheap food.

Now that the “cheap” is gone, what exactly are they offering? For the price of one of their meals I can buy ground beef and make burgers for everyone. I’m so confused how institutions like this survive. Oh yeah, a population addicted to fast fixes of sugar and high-calorie carbohydrates.

i am at a loss what its about.

The only thing worse than the tech-bro’s worshiping AI like it’s the next messiah and we all must pave way for this revolutionary technology that will only seem to benefit white Americans with disposable income, are the people on the opposite end of the spectrum who are have a hysterical hatred for LLM’s because their favorite Youtube streamers are getting clicks by ranting about how bad AI is. They are not being personally impacted by AI at all but are delusional enough to think that there will be laws and regulations and that AI will be “banned” if we all “raise awareness” and it’s about as useful as the Bud Lite protests but not even remotely as entertaining.

I just sign my name “NO AI PLZ” on every interaction I do online, that will assure I retain a narrative of control in my limited human mind.

Sincerenly,

NO AI PLZ