But if you wanted to do something about it: these weapons come from this country and they have to get there in trucks traveling on roads to ports that load them on ships.

We are discussing voting, though. That’s a bit tangential, because you can vote or not vote and still commit acts of… resistance…

And it’s not like there’s not a value to making genocide come with electoral consequences…

If you otherwise would have voted Dem against the Republicans, who are as bad or worse when it comes to the specific issue you’re punishing the Dems for, you are hurting one group committing genocide by helping one who commits and wants to commit even more genocide.

All under the mistaken belief that by refusing to vote for the group you would otherwise vote for, you will get them to move Left. But if the Dems lose to the VERY right wing party, if the voting shows that Americans favor more right-leaning policies, they would move to gain the votes of the people who actually voted.

The reality is, refusing to vote is still a choice. As long as you are an adult who can legally vote in the US election, you are partly responsible for the results of the election. You don’t get to wash your hands of it. Choosing to abstain because you don’t want to partipate out of moral self-righteousness is saying your soapbox is more important than the lives affected by your choices, from the Palestinians to the Ukrainians, immigrants to LGBTQ. Nobody is more important than your ability to say “I didn’t vote for a party that commit genocide.”

So what are the other choices?

Just a reminder to those “Biden and Harris are participating in genocide, it’s not like Trump could be any worse” crowd.

It can always get worse.

Do you need to be an -ian? Like, if you like the teachings of Ghandi, or Socrates, or Marcus Aurelius, you don’t have to call yourself a Ghandian, or a Socratian, or an Aurelian. You just agree with their teachings.

I feel like you’re just making a dig on Christians, and it’s not like a lot of them don’t deserve it, but what you’re talking about isn’t a religion. You don’t need an -ian to like a philosophy.

I’m going to let you in on some insight from a 40-something millenial:

I feel like being a adult is just lying about how much you have your shit together to people who also lie about having their shit together.

It starts off that way a bit, and you’re expected to at least put forward the impression you have your shit together before you do. But then the pretending gets easier and easier until you realize you’re just paying your bills, getting your laundry done, and doing what you need to do while feeling like you’re failing at the new, added responsibility in your life (like big career changes, kids, projects taken on, kids, taking care of family or friends, more kids). But that’s with anything new you take on. If you aren’t struggling at least a little, you’re not growing.

After we got out of college, we are just going to sit in front of a computer like the generations before us for the rest of our life, with the only difference of be paided less then them.

If you choose that. I can’t speak to the pay, because y’all are getting fucked… so far. I’ll speak more on that in a second, but I was the store manager of a restaurant for a few years before moving to New York from Seattle on a whim, worked customer service at a phone center for a cable company, and then joined the Coast Guard in my mid-to-late 20s, and drove boats until going into aviation and flying in helicopters, living in various places throughout the country, saving a few lives, flying in really cool places, and when I retire I can go do something else. People who stay in a job behind a desk their whole work life either love that job or are complacent in it. You are absolutely not chained to it.

And as for the shitty pay and everything, what I have seen of the Gen Z folks that have come through the Coast Guard is that they advocate for themselves and get things that we millenials are embarrassed to hear requested, much less think to ask for ourselves. And look to all the labor movements going on to push back at those pay drops. Keep the momentum, keep up the fight, don’t get complacent like my generation or Gen X.

not one of us could have imagined the entire generation having a mid-life crisis at the age of 18.

That’s not a mid-life crisis, that’s just the normal fear of entering the world for real, and it’s been that way for a long, long time. The crises come when you start feeling how little time you have (quarter-life realization you just don’t have enough lifespan to do everything you hope to do, mid-life realization of how little time you really have). Your thing is simply the fear of embarking into the unknown, and your doomscrolling has made your future look bleak. Put the phone down. Take opportunities when you can. Enjoy what you can out of life.

The whole thing is daunting, I totally get it. But going in with the approach you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m a bit more confused, because when you me tion it referring to an ideology that focuses on social injustice and advocates for change, and reference MLK’s efforts, it seems like you support the general idea. And I would agree!

I guess I’m just confused on the “personal responsibility” portion. It’s my understanding that most of the “woke” issues are gay and trans rights and police reform (and combating systemic racism in policing). So other than demanding change, protesting, and voting, I’m not sure where the “personal responsibility” would come in.

Can you define the “woke movement” and “woke” in general, in the context of what you’re saying?

I’m asking because I’ve seen “woke” used for a video game that happens to have one gay character in it, which doesn’t seem relevant for what you’re talking about (for example). Or any number of things that are simply people existing. And other times it’s used for referencing social justice issues. It seems fairly amorphous, and entirely dependent on the person mentioning it, so without some context I can’t nail down what you mean unless you define it for you.

Does anybody know what this said?! I’m having the same problem!

Edit: nevermind, I figured it out.

My parents were wonderful, so I have no real complaints, but my father had a weird quirk. Tools, equipment, whatever that he had interest and purchased himself were “his.” I mean, obviously, but he would use the possessive when referring to those things.

“You have to prime my lawnmower first before you try to start it.” “Go and get my ladder.” Never the ladder, always my ladder. I never questioned it (because I didn’t care), but when I was a teenager I started noticing it and it was odd. Like he was establishing that the lawn mower or the ladder or whatever didn’t belong to the household, they were his. And nothing seemed to get him worked up more than a neighbor borrowing something and taking more than a day or so to return it.

I bought a laptop backpack a loooooooong time ago, and still use it constantly. It’s been through 3 laptops, and I’m not the type to upgrade until it is absolutely necessary.

Me at my house:

Daughter: “I don’t know where my phone is”

Me: I don’t say it.

Daughter: “DAD, I can’t find my phone!”

Me: I still don’t say it.

Daughter: Daaaaaad, do you know where my phone is?!"

Me: deep breath

He has a bunch of random songs about random stuff. One of my other favorites is “I don’t work here” and it’s all about people assuming he works where he’s at (grocery store, lifeguard post…) and it gets more and more absurd as the song goes on.

I’d recommend his YouTube channel, most of his stuff is pretty good.

Tom Cardy - Active Perception Check

It gets stuck in my head a lot and I end up just putting it on.

Also maybe Skrillex - Bangarang

Because my go-to thing is when I’m in the kitchen with my wife and daughter I’ll yell “ALEXA! PLAY BANGARANG!” And everyone groans. And then we listen to EDM for as long as it takes for them to leave me to work in the kitchen alone.

How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy.

I watched the first one on a ferry, and just hearing the title made me think it was going to be some nonsense. And then it was amazing.

Then they announced a second, and I was thinking what do they expect to do with this and then they gave something intensely heartwarming and heart wrenching. I found it better and deeper than the first.

And then the third. I don’t think it was as clean as the other two, but it closed it off so beautifully I was bawling at the end. Absolutely perfect.

Seriously, the part about him coming in to ask her when a project was finished and eventually yelling that he needs a date sounds like she was waffling, waffling, waffling, and he was asking for a simple answer he could work with.

“I need to know an estimate of when you’ll have this portion of the project completed.”

“Well, there’s this thing that’s having problems with this, and we’re working through this. This other thing…”

“I understand, but I need a timeline so we can give the other team an idea when to expect it.”

“So the thing is, there’s this portion of the project…”

“For the… I NEED A DATE! A DATE!”

“That’s sexual harassment.”

Kind of limits their upward mobility, I would imagine.

And I absolutely intended the double entendre, because I can see how that could limit the ability to get into more executive positions, if the ceo or vp is required to come to the ground floor in order to talk to them, instead of two doors down the hall.

I’m a man, and that’s how I feel about boxers and being nude. I don’t like that dangle feel of uncontrolled swaying on a sensitive part.

Trans Exclusive Radical Feminist. The main example is J.K. Rowling, who thinks shitting on trans women is in service to feminism, instead of harming some women in order to pretend to protect others.

Basically feminist but only for cis women.

Especially hot sauce. I missed that the cap wasn’t closed on some… I think Sriracha, and ended up pepper spraying myself. The waitress was very concerned.

BTW, actually getting pepper sprayed is MUCH worse. Getting bear sprayed is worse and also disgusting, because on top of the pain and misery, it also has a really gross musk stank. It took A LOT of washes with vinegar to get the smell out of the clothes I was wearing.

Do not recommend getting spicy stuff of any kind in the eyes.

Oh, no, I get that, I’m just saying those things make him annoying. It gives lots of opportunity for character development, but he’s still annoying until he develops.