I’ll never buy a Samsung again absolutely irritating phones. I’ve had 2 nearly flawless pixel phones. Even if this doesn’t last 5 years, I’m not going back to endless bloatware programs that enshitify the Samsung. If I leave pixel it would be for something like fairphone.

I got mine around release, which means it’s 3 years 2 months, no issues so far.

Most places had some type of shelter in place orders for a period of time that was difficult for people to handle. I never thought your comment was anti-vax.

Here’s the thing, it was a global pandemic, any decision a government made was only going to mitigate disaster, not prevent it entirely. Either a lot of people died or a lot of people had a really difficult time. I tend to think preventing deaths comes first. If your argument is NZ wasn’t flawless in their handling of the pandemic response, sure, no one was. But they did a better job than almost any other country. Zero countries had a satisfied populous after the pandemic. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. You’ll learn from it and hopefully do even better next time.

Here’s some perspective, in the US we had more people die in the pandemic than any other single event in American history. More than WWII, more than the Spanish flu, more than the civil war, etc. The damage to our psyche from all that death, far exceeds 4 months in lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Over 1 million dead here, be grateful your country at least sought to keep you alive.

a lot of harm to society

You mean one of the lowest per capita death rates of any country with transparent reporting? Explain to me how saving tens of thousands of lives in New Zealand was bad without sounding like a dickhead…

Sadly as I get older I game less hours, so most of my games on this list are older. LoL, wow, Dota 2, modern warfare 2 (2009), Wingspan(online boardgame), PubG battlegrounds, counter strike 2, terraria. I haven’t played fps, wow, or dota for years, but they still dominate this list. It’s funny because if I made a list of my favorite games, it would include almost none of these, except terraria.

I said I was a gun owner because it directly contradicted your moronic binary thinking were people can only fit in one of 2 boxes.

instead they could open the NICS to people who sell guns for free

Okay go ahead…

And how do gun safety courses ban private sales?

Common criminals are not the only gun deaths. For crimes of passion, requiring a short term barrier to ownership usually leaves time for that passion to subside. For suicide, requiring a short term barrier is often insurmountable for someone that is depressed. But most importantly, for gun safety, a lot of dip shits with guns have zero idea what they are doing and are a danger to everyone even if they don’t intend to be. The same people that will argue up and down that mandatory gun safety is too far, will also argue that gun safety courses make guns safer and we should allow all guns because good people with guns train themselves and take it seriously. It’s usually just the mandatory part that bothers them.

I agree with the entire second half of your comment, from “pay teachers” to “end qualified immunity”. They aren’t mutually exclusive though.

I think simple minded people can only differentiate pro or anti when most issues are nuanced. Stop being simple minded. I’ve owned a gun for most of my life, I also think some of the gun laws need to change. That doesn’t make me anti gun, it just means I understand some regulation could save lives.

Things like universal background checks, and mandatory gun safety courses (resulting in a gun license), could both reduce gun violence while still allowing most citizens to own guns. That doesn’t make me anti gun, it just means I think we can do things to reduce violence by gun.

The Commonwealth still owns land in Australia (and 14 other countries ) and still heads the government all be it with limited powers. Literally, they are still colonizers. Fuck em.

Voting is a small part of political change, it needs to be done but that’s not where the work is. Getting involved in your community and pushing for changes is far more productive, activism of all types.

I would start by getting on mailing lists for things you care about and email for local city council meeting minutes. You might be surprised by some of the meeting times of local orgs. Some events are evening, but you can still learn about what is needed if you are staying engaged with local things. I can’t tell you what will work, but I reiterate I would start by getting on mailing lists for things you care about and take opportunities when they come.

Edit: and don’t be so hard on yourself, you can only do what you can do. Take your wins when they come and focus on those.

One more thing I might suggest is to start attending some of your town/city council meetings. You can also ask the clerk to put you on their mailing list for meeting minutes. Some have a sign up on their website. Just getting a feel for what your locality is dealing with can help you to understand what the local issues are. Local politics are often more accessible to change.

Pick an issue, or a few, you care about. Find the local or regional group that is already fighting for that issue. Join their newsletter. When they have events or meetings near you, go. Meet people and network. Someday you will find a way you can help in a way that fits your skill set, say yes.

It really is that easy to get involved, and these organizations need volunteers way more than they need money. People make the world move forward, not money, not votes. I mean voting and giving helps too, but giving your time is often way more important with activism.

They can live anywhere, when the usa collapses, they all just leave to go fuck up somewhere else.

I’m not for millions of immigrants suffering just to teach conservatives a lesson.

The article implies that this is a reaction to specifically conservative men. So I think there is nuance there that the article is choosing not to define. But until women get autonomy over their reproductive health, having sex with any men, conservative or not, comes with increased risk. So it has a certain logic to it even if they are truly swearing off literally all men.

I’ll believe it when I see it, there is too much money to be made by selling division and overblown narratives.

Democratic party aside, Bernie couldn’t get the votes. I actually think the news media has been a much much bigger problem with someone like Bernie getting power. They always try to paint someone like him as being radical, when anywhere else in the world he would be a normal person on the left.

I thought they die because they can no longer support their weight either because they can’t digest enough or hunt enough food to sustain their size?

It’s these bad faith arguments that caused the thread to turn against you. Gender isn’t a cat, and it certainly isn’t anything at all. You claim you wanted earnest conversation, but you undermined that with snide comments you knew would result in negative reaction.

Ask yourself if he would have said that comment to a white Christian. If not, then you have your answer.

Would he have mentioned a beeper if the recipient was a white Christian? It hasn’t lost any of it’s meaning it’s just that some people are incapable or unwilling to recognize it unless it’s backed by a nazi symbol, white hoods, or overt calls for racial violence. Your inability to recognize reality does not mean reality ceases to exist.