Yeah. Feel this is a slippery slope. First it’s supposedly luxury extras like heated seats and remote starts. Next something more critical when folks are habituated to the practice? Enpoopification all around.

Yeah. I totally get it. It does take effort to preserve any wonder and stave off cynicism. Especially in these days of ever growing inequality and tougher material conditions for folks in general. When I was growing up there sure seemed more cause for optimism. Now, folks who look squarely at reality find it tough to muster, what with stagnated wages, an erosion of personal ties, a generally lousy work/life balance for most.

Still, I try to look to and look after my friends, my community. It’s not much, but it’s what I can do. I’ve seen hardship, illness, betrayal, personal devaluation, loss. But I’d rather not become a bitter, old bastard like so many I see in this region.

(purporpoise reasons)

Since pizza was classed a vegetable, all bets are off.

Just assumed he was incognito at a “wizards only fools” sort of place.

This is important. I notice a big push here in Trump country to distance him from it. Lots of ardent followers posting sharing stuff that suggests Project 2025 is nothing more than a “conservative wish list” that comes out every cycle. Nothing to see here! And that it has nothing to do with official policy. I suppose we’re to ignore the recent egregious decisions handed down by SCOTUS and Trump himself repeatedly saying he’d be a dictator on day 1 -specifically to enact these goals?

Heard someone assert that MBA’s have ruined the world. Seemed a hyperbolic statement at the time. Though casting my eyes around an ever more enpoopified landscape, it’s tough to disagree.

Living in a very economically depressed and propagandized region of the U.S. I really feel this. Have often said, the big problem is that so few people have your back here should you wish to protest in any meaningful way. Ironically, it is a place that once fought hard and bloody battles for labor. If you bring this up, they reckon it is totally unrelated to our present crises.

My first realization about this problem with reddit came about a decade ago when it became undeniable that shills flooded the discourse the moment Monsanto was mentioned.

There was a young man that said “damn”

For it certainly seems that I am

A creature that moves in determinate grooves

I’m not even a bus, I’m a tram

The Norwegian Blue prefers kipping on its back -and sometimes taking surveillance photos. Beautiful plumage.

That sounds very cool. I’m totally ignorant of the hardware requirements. What sort of minimum setup would such an install take?

It’s also sometimes used as shorthand for crypto-orchidism -undescended testicles.

To me, it felt like there was some cultural turning point with the absurd denials of the GWB administration. It set some nasty precedents that have only escalated the scale of bad faith in politics and discourse. Now there seems to be positively no shame in having no shame at all.

Normally pretty much an anarchist in my policy predilections. But there are folks I went to school with that I wouldn’t trust with a power drill, much less a rifle. Seems they’re just the ones that make the biggest deal over having guns -and least likely to use them in any responsible way. The role these sorts of badass-looking firearms play now is to make powerless Americans feel like they have some agency. Likely dangerous when these misinformed, utterly propagandized serfs feel extra pressed and attribute their low quality of life to all the wrong reasons/people.

Long-time offgridder here. Would love to have a reasonable alternative to lead-acid or lithium. Opted for lead-acid again on the last battery swap around 5 years ago. Squeezed about 12 years out of the last set -though they were pretty degraded by that time. This bank is depreciating faster, probably because of increased use.

Same goes for headlamps and their sketchy durability. Could scarcely get one to last more than a year before some switch or battery door failure. Sung the praises of Thrunite when I found them. Terribly disappointed at the discontinuation of the TH-20 design. Taking either 14500/AA batteries was just great.

Not to mention “gouge”.

Metalhead.

The goal is surely to capture every human need and package them as obnoxious subscriptions.