Worse imo, you won’t even be able to tell what the email is about at a glance

It’s uncanny how relevant this is

And what do you want non-americans to do… exactly?

Thanks to you all I’m sitting here in my non-american country worrying about a potential world war. Though at least I’m trying towards increasing support for Americans refugees fleeing the fascist regime

Yes indeed. Mirror neurons are directly related to empathy I believe

I don’t know about you, but I am very reluctant to insult others, even in private conversations, even if they might deserve it

I always try to approach things constructively, because in the end, those patterns and thoughts bleed out into the world and your behaviour

And do keep in mind, even from the poster’s side of the story, it sounds pretty darn bad, and people have a tendency to downplay their side’s wrongdoings and elevate the other side’s. Chances are, it was probably quite bad

If there’s people in my life that go around talking badly about other like that, even in private… yeah, I’d want to stay the hell away from them too. It’s just a massive warming sign, and you’re going to be the target sooner or later. And you don’t want a coordinated group acting in bad faith against you

Like being mean to an NPC in a video game

I know rationally they are just a bunch of pixels and code, but as soon as they have plausible human dialogue, and I say something mean, and they act hurt… something triggers in my brain and I feel that hurt. And I immediately want to stop

I literally struggle to be mean to a bunch of pixels, just because they mimick a living creature. It’s also interesting because often it promotes a sort of dissonance, “I know this isn’t real… and yet I cannot help but feel what they feel… Even though they feel nothing”

Maybe part of it is the whole “greatest country on earth” stuff as well. In other words, a lack of humility

In the European countries I’ve lived in, pride like that wasn’t really encouraged. And if you’re too boastful or what not to the point of arrogance, you tend to get the stink eye

And this applies to patriotism as well. Here in Norway for example, despite us having a stronger claim for stuff like “greatest country”, very few people, if any, really feel like being “proud” of one’s own country is something that one should be doing, or it being honorable at all. The best I see is that people enjoy living here and, if they see another Norwegian out there or Norway mentioned, they just get happy to see a fellow Norwegian, just because we are relatively small

Honestly, most Norwegians I’ve met complain about Norway’s problems more often than not lmao, despite, all things considered, you can hardly find better countries to live in, except some other European ones depending on your own preferences

There really is just, no culture of like, arrogance. Something that I feel like is very different to the US with its super heavy emphasis on individual capitalistic success

Maybe that’s a large part of it as well. A consequence of American culture being so extremely individualistic

I remember that video when it was new, and how very uncritical veritasium was

Disappointing

We’ve gotten very uncomfortably close to a nuclear exchange multiple times in history

The only reason it didn’t happen is pure luck

Until one of them fires the nukes, that is. But sure, it might not happen

It’s like paying your rent by playing Russian roulette

Honestly I’m surprised anyone would even want to sleep with a trumper. Like, what’s the appeal? It’s not like they treat women (or anyone, really) well

I am aware it’s difficult, but my point was that you aren’t powerless

I am aware

Do people not use kitchen weights? It’s a very common thing where I live (in Europe)

Hell, I often just use a kitchen weight to measure volume of water instead of using a measuring cup, as 1 liter of water ~= 1 kilogram

So instead of fighting now you’re just going to allow yourself to get drafted later? How is that in any way preferable

I mean, if they all did it, it absolutely would make shit happen

The whole issue stems from most people wanting to just keep their heads down

They are powerless if everyone stops giving them power

The country is nothing without its workers

Of 10-20% of the population actively protested and actively tried to halt any functioning of society, you’d be surprised at how much you could get done. A that large mass of people is absolutely hell to control and subdue, and they certainly cannot arrest even a significant fraction of them. If the threat of protests of that scale were real every time they tried some fuckery, they would give in very quickly

The problem is that almost everyone thinks like you say, “what am I to do? I’m powerless”, and give up before even trying

Too many people live in willful ignorance

You can see the obvious big picture and scream from the rooftops, but everyone who is comfortable enough and in denial that things are actually that bad straight up just ignore you

It’s only now that people are starting to get their wakeup calls, like a lot of Europe, for example

But god, if it isn’t super frustrating to watch the local news in my European country and have politicians repeatedly say “nobody thought we would be standing here talking about this 4 years ago”

I did, fuckers! I did!! The fascist threat was obvious ever since the first trump presidency, and the trends could clearly be seen from even before then, however, I was a child at that time

I don’t get it. Especially because politicians are supposed to be the experts in trends like this. Is everyone just fucking clueless??

I swear most people are just so neoliberal ideology brained, and heavily struggle seeing anything outside of that. It’s been a massive failure on the part of society that political philosophy has not been a bigger part of the education curriculum. Or part of it, at all.

“Quisling” is another good one

It’s always funny to me when people call Linux complicated and in the next sentence say shit like that

As if doing registry edits and group policy stuff is acceptable for basic features and settings