Russia (Putin) IS a joke. But Russia is a much bigger country, so they’re not going to run out of troops anytime soon unfortunately. Russia talks a big game but their technology and strategies are shit. They’ve relied on terror tactics their whole existence because they’re not a serious country. They’re just a bunch of arrogant, belligerent bullies who think that antagonizing the world means they’re winning.

It only supports freedom from the government. It then leaves a power vacuum which is filled by the wealthiest individuals who exert their authority on everyone through the many companies they own or lobbyists they pay without any real checks on their power. Since it is much easier to gain more wealth if you already have some, that means eventually all wealth will end up accumulated in the hands of very few. At that point it will be indistinguishable from fueldalism.

I think communism could only ever work in a country that has a robust democracy rather than the dictatorships that tried it in the past. The problem is communism will usually devolve into dictatorship because whoever is in power will be able to use the communist system to never lose an election.

Communism will also never work because it has to compete with capitalism. Capitalism will always win because it doesn’t have the extra burden of taking care of the poor. Communism would never last unless every country in the world abandoned capitalism.

Pure communism or capitalism both have issues. The ideal system is somewhere in between. A flexible system that can be easily adjusted to match circumstances would be best. Democracy still needs to be held up as the most important aspect no matter the economic system.

Pretending? I’m not gonna say vaping is healthy, but it definitely isn’t as bad for you as cigarettes. I made the switch years ago just because I wanted to see if I could stop smoking cigarettes, and within the first week or two my lungs felt noticeably better. I’ve been gradually lowering the nicotine level in the juices I use and will hopefully ween myself off vaping too.

Maybe don’t rely on rt for news… zelensky’s popularity shot up after Trump and Vance’s oval office disgrace. Trump then sent people to try to convince zelensky’s opposition to push for elections, and even the opposition told them to fuck off.

My favorite joke after communion was asking for a toothpick because “I’ve got some Jesus stuck in my teeth”.

I’m not saying that the stock market will end. I’m saying that we will never be in as good of a position ever again. The post ww2 world order is being rewriten right now. We were at the top because we were more or less trustworthy and had significant influence throughout the world. We didn’t have much competition. Now that no one trusts us and our influence is being dismantled our trading partners will seek out our competitors or start their own industry creating even more competition. I hope I’m wrong, but i just don’t see how we will ever be trusted again.

Why would you think stocks will go back up? The tariffs have proven that we are an unreliable trading partner, and countries are starting to look elsewhere. In addition, the outrage from abandoning our allies has caused a large part of the world to boycott our companies. I don’t see how things could possibly go back to what they were.

It’s all because of propaganda. They live in an entirely different world that is not reality. I’m surrounded by conservative voters where I live and most of them say “I haven’t heard about that” whenever I mention a new outrage that’s in the news that I see. I think it’s their way of saying “I don’t believe you”.

When I talked to a couple of them about the zelensky oval office fiasco one response was “well I heard that zelensky called Vance a bitch in the meeting”. I pointed out that he was lied to and that the whole thing was recorded and that never happened, but I would bet money that they still believe that lie over me. Another response was the Russian propaganda that zelensky is a dictator. There is no reasoning with them. They don’t care about what reality is. They only believe in what makes them feel good and feeds their pride and ego. I’ve tried having rational discussions, but it always ends with them saying “I can’t articulate why you’re wrong, but I disagree with you”. If you can’t articulate something maybe that means you don’t understand it enough and should reevaluate your conclusions, but they won’t because it would hurt their pride. God damnit I’m am so far beyond frustrated with them.

Just change they name of it so that they would have to be specific about the policies they demand be ended instead of just saying “D.E.I. bad”.

Same with the oval office. They were saying zelensky was disrespectful. When? I watched the whole thing and was insanely impressed by his restraint. Everyone who does even the smallest favor for Vance should harass him about being thankful. His behavior was absolutely disgusting.

I’ve heard this so many times when talking to my conservative relatives. Why do they care so much about what other people do? If they want to sit and do nothing, how is that a bad thing? Why do they think they have the authority to dictate how other people live? It might even be a good thing if more people sat and did nothing. There are too many people out there doing damage to the world that it would be an improvement if they stopped. They put so much emphasis on being productive, which is good, but I don’t care if you’re not productive as long as you’re not destructive.

So where are all the western liberal democracies at? Europe? Canada? Please interfere with our elections now.

Forget all the nations and their interests. It all boils down to east vs west where the west represents liberal democracy and the east represents authoritarianism. How or why people keep siding with the east is something I have tried but will never understand.

If the axis won they would’ve ended up fighting amongst themselves. Their ideology requires scapegoats, and they will always find them. The ideology itself is counter to peace. We had 80 years of peace because we pushed it to the fringes, but now that it’s resurging I feel like I’m surrounded by people who grew up in a different world with a different history.

Then where have you been. It’s likely the biggest reason she lost. A whole bunch of people decided not to vote because they blamed Biden for Gaza. When told that Trump would be worse the response was always that it can’t get any worse. I submit that US occupation of Gaza is worse…

All in favor of changing it to “as fast as possible” show your hands. From here on the phrase shall be AFAP.

The Renaissance was a time of a vast labor shortage. This allowed workers to demand higher wages, and it also allowed leisure time to study new things and make new art.

“We’re all domestic terrorists”

What future uses might it have? I have only ever heard that crypto’s main selling point is that it’s not controlled by any government. Why is that a good thing? I can understand that sanctioned dictators and money launderers would find that useful, but what benefits are there for the average person? You might be able to make a profit off speculation if you’re lucky, but in doing so you’re also supporting those dictators and criminals. If it had any other use it might seem less like a pyramid scheme, but I am fully unaware of what those other uses might be.

I don’t even care if I’m not rewarded. I just don’t want to be punished. They have made it impossible to have a simple life.