When conservatives say they want small government and small spending, they are lying. They want the parts they don’t like to be small, and the parts they do like to be big big big. I don’t know which are malicious, which are stupid, and which are just mislead, but none of them should be allowed to make decisions of import. They are worse than children. I would rather have a toddler make policy and budget decisions than a republican.
Heh. Maybe “the trump line” should become slang, like the mendoza line
Every accusation is a confession
Seems like rich territory for jokes about saint Luigi
I remember ICQ being better in every way I cared about, except I couldn’t get people to use it. (offline messaging, you could change your display name without making a new account, other stuff I forget). Kind of like trying to get people to use fediverse stuff now, I guess.
Do tacky people generally know that they’re tacky, or is part of tackiness being unaware?
I think it’s really a failure (or sabotage) of public education. People just don’t know things, and sometimes because no one told them. Or didn’t show them in a way that resonates emotionally.
Like, you can tell people that there was polio but that’s just like your opinion man.
I partly blame YouTube et al for letting garbage proliferate on their platforms, too.
because from there, you either drown, or turn around, lift yourself up, and get help.
Seems like most Americans would rather drown
Many people are just scared all the time. No one’s smart when they’re scared. The body doesn’t let you. They think the police will protect them.
Right wing media is largely to blame. And segregation and under funded education, public spaces. And suburbs + car culture isolating everyone.
Pretty much every right wing idea is bad.
I think when you entered a channel you didn’t get any of its history.
Have you tried explaining something to someone lately? A lot of people don’t care and don’t understand. About anything
I think it’s important to remember there are a lot of stupid people. Like Patrick in the wallet meme. I don’t know how to fix that.
Apparently about 40% of adults get insufficient sleep, if the CDC is to be trusted. That’s pretty bad.
I started setting an alarm for myself to go to bed. Now I have better sleep habits. I used to stay up too late, but then I’d be in a brain fog the next day and it sucked. An extra hour of video game isn’t worth the following day and its video games sucking.
Some of the leadership is getting a lot of wealth, true. The majority seem to be losing more. Loss of government programs (eg: Medicare). Return of preventable diseases (eg: measles). Pollution and climate change.
Every accusation is a confession, right? That’s how conservatives work. They’re unimaginative people with poor empathy. They think about what they would do and assume that’s what everyone else would do, too. They are trash. Failures. Disappointments.
When people talk about their income they usually talk about gross, which is pre-tax. When someone says “I make $100k a year” they don’t typically mean they take home net $100k.
Investments are typically also only taxed when you realize the gains, so if you have $3mm and “earn” $300k, you only pay taxes if you sell some of that. Other interest, like from a high yield savings, is taxed as income.
Health insurance is a nightmare, but there are options in this hellscape for buying it. Many poor people are also just uninsured, so you’re not much worse off than them in this scenario.
Did you have any details you wanted to talk about, or did you just want to try to be pithy?
It is kind of fucked up that if you’re even mildly rich, you essentially get basic income.
If you have $1 million, a fairly conservative investment strategy will get you $100k per year. That’s about the median income for NYC. You’ll probably get closer to $150k, since vanguard usually gets about 15% returns. That’s just sticking the money in Vanguard and doing nothing else. Sit at home playing final fantasy and “earn” more than a teacher.
If you’re richer, but not even mega-rich, say $3 million, you can put it in an *insured high yield savings and take home $135,000 a year. Or diversify, put some in vanguard, some in bonds, and some in high yield savings. You’ll “earn” more than many people do at their jobs.
You could then just do what you want with your days. Write a book. Finish your backlog of games. Start a band. Whatever you want. You’d be free.
I want everyone to have basic income, not just the rich.
I imagine early intervention helps, but right-wing (ie: authoritarian) people don’t want to invest in quality education. Not the kind with a good teacher-student ratio and time spent on social skills.
Is authoritarianism also cluster b? There are a lot of people who seem to get off on being part of the group. Like, it brings them chemical joy to be screaming in a crowd about how that other group of people need to die. Those people kind of suck, too.
I don’t think every maga hat is a narcissist, but a lot of them are trash humans who value their in-group feelings of solidarity over everything else.
You gotta be pretty oblivious to think the current system is working for most people.