Whoops, you’re right. Sorry, my Canadian is showing. Tbf, American politics has always been a necessary thing to know about here.

Anyone think it’s weird the Republicans would choose an animal associated with Africa and the Indian subcontinent?

Well, it’s exactly that in technical terms, yes. Somehow, “complementary games included (subject to limited-time redeemability on a monthly basis) each month you subscribe” is not as marketable from Amazon as from Humble Bundle. Privacy is becoming serious business now that things outside the gaming industry are becoming… a game of chance? Eh, whatever, I’m not here for politics and this seems like an okay way to buy GOG titles.

Eh, I’ll take it if we’re talking about actual donkeys and not the Republican party of the US. Did you that, in lieu of a dog, a donkey is a perfect way to protect livestock?

I’m serious, a predator should think twice; A donkey can grab a cougar’s tail and literally beat it to death by using the wildcat as a living flail. Very protective.

That’s fair, just realize some of us are tired of online pessimism to such a degree that an AI - telling me there are in fact potential solutions and to keep trying - is actually good for our mental health. I only use Perplexity for research and musings that I sometimes post here to be discussed, not to completely replace human interaction on the Fediverse.

Fortunately, no. But they will probably eat the harmless giant grasshopper-things (wela) that also live in New Zealand backyards.

There’s also giant crickets in Africa, and several giant beetles in Japan. I swear I don’t remember where I learned all this, I’ve never even been to New Zealand or Australia or any of the other places (aside from South America).

Fair enough, but if you’re on the internet post-2017 looking to reduce your stress, you’re in the wrong parts of the internet. Find a forum that’s been around since well before then on your hobbies (niche hobbies like old fandoms tend to have the best results), other than that social media killed the internet.

If they did, this is a f-ing miracle. Imma do it next time I sign up for a service that doesn’t require confirmation emails to change the address (they’re rare but there’s a few, lemmy/kbin instances are sometimes among them).

What about “Our Lives Matter Too” (OTM2)? You’re trying to fight oppression, appealing to empathy should have been the first resort. I know it feels good to prove being black or dark-skinned doesn’t mean you need help, I’ve been there because I have autism and have encountered ableism from people who are supposed to be doctors or nurses, I’m just saying that once the few white people in the civil rights movement left, it lost steam because the opponent was more willing to get other people’s assistance (in bad ways, but they still succeeded and that should have been countered).

For what it’s worth, if a cop pointed a gun at a kid, I’d die to put myself between them before I let him pull the trigger, and if I would be too late, I’d f-ing kill the bastard. Fortunately, I’ve never met a cop willing to do that. I honestly hate it that your country has cops who are willing to do that in the open.

Isn’t that what they did? At least between consenting adults.

Technically, yes. And for a time, it was good.

Then Roe vs. Wade was overturned for no good reason and Trump stole the election last year. The (federal) laws towards gay/lesbian(/etc?) marriage hasn’t changed afaik, but it would surprise me if that is how it is in practice under Teflon Don.

Not bashing anyone, does LGBTQ as an acronym even matter as a whole for marriages as much as for self-expression and mental health? Not in a “LGBTQ is lesser” way, but think about it logically. Asexuals (well, aromantic asexuals) aren’t getting married, they don’t want to. Getting married as transgender should absolutely be legal and legitimate, it’s just that in a marriage, you’re either male or female or (in rare cases) hermaphroditic in a biological, body-focused sense, so your marriage can be gay or lesbian or straight but whether you started out as the gender you currently are should be irrelevant to marriage status as long as the government acknowledges you are your current gender regardless of if you changed your gender.

If you want to normalize this stuff, the best way to do it is to at least recognize nuance and definitions. There are edge cases, those can and should be considered legal too, but as a single asexual person with opinions that contradict both partisan political extremes, if it looks like a fashion statement instead of a call for peace or a demand for true equality, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Of course, now there are bigger issues. Probably better to force Trump off his throne and then never let up the pressure on improving from there.

I mean, you’re both kind of right. I’m no doctor but it seems like something doctors (good doctors, anyway) would seriously consider in regards to this. On the one hand, they’re leaving people to the wolves. On the other, there is nothing you can do in the US if it gets that far that will outweigh the good you can do elsewhere. But then, is that actually true? This isn’t the literal same as WWII, it’s just extremely similar, a pattern we are able to recognize this time around because it happened before and was well-documented. It’s possible that this time, leaving would in fact cause more harm than good. But if you have a family… Well, I can’t blame you for protecting your own kids over your patients and their kids, as long as you don’t throw someone else under the bus.

It’s complicated. When there’s that many variables, all you can do is trust your gut. No one can predict the future that well, if at all.

The giant spiders are Australian. I mean, it’s Australia, everything has two health bars. That said, there is a harmless but creepy-crawly-looking giant grasshopper-looking thing called a giant wētā that - like actual grasshoppers - likes to live in and lay its’ eggs in people’s backyards. Here, educate yourself!

If you hate bugs, I’d recommend heading to South America (make sure to check local political stability of each of the nations) and staying in a city, or heading to northern Canada and buying a tiny shack to ride this all out away from everyone else. Japan is a possibility but… fucking murder hornets. Literally in Tokyo suburbs.

He’s 10, and even though psychopaths can start that early, psychopaths can’t feel or fake regret. Are you going to send an 11 year old to prison over a boy recklessly grabbing a gun owned by his parents? Even as an adult, that’s manslaughter but not murder. Even if he could potentially be a sociopath (who can fake empathy), what proof do you have that’s the case? Are you willing to send a 11 year old to prison for life on the coin flip he might be a sociopath? Are you willing to do so if it was your son?

This is something that should be watched very closely. If he can be deported or imprisoned, you can.

I literally refuse to buy from Wal-Mart because of that shit. Lied to their workers nobody was getting fired or laid off, bullshit.

“And the Inner Party was safe.”

“War. War never changes.”

“Back home, you guys were the Nazis.” “Maybe so, but does hating me make you any better?”

“People! Soylent Green is PEOPLE!”

“What is he going to find out there?” “His destiny.”

Context always matters.

I don’t know what AI these assholes are using but I only trust perplexity to research for me, I still check the answers and at least glance at sources.

If you’re a parent, the number one thing your child needs to have is knowing how to question things and think for themselves.

Beyond that, point them to a research AI such as - but obviously not exclusive to - Perplexity. The AI you choose needs to be able to fact-check things well. So far I only know of Perplexity but I’m not some spokesperson so I welcome other suggestions.

If you can get the former, they’ll live. If they get both, they’ll succeed. If they only get the latter, they’re doomed. AI will not fix this, only enhance the solution.

You can stop the Trolley at any time but the switch is on the tip of Mt. Everest

Fixed.

You can refer to the post where I explain that I filed a restraining order (well, threatened to) against the city’s only bylaw officer and it actually prevented them from harassing a homeless Native Canadian friend who we wanted to give shelter to. Fuck you, hypocrite.

Cops can’t do so except in plainclothes, it’s illegal for government employees to protest in uniform because it presents a conflict of interest if a government agency or department (or here, instead of departments, ministries).

Also, do you have any idea how much corruption in police forces can be solved just by disallowing investigation from within? Every corrupt cop hates when they can’t commit a crime and get away with it because every cop in the country is subject to 3rd party review. I don’t know for sure if we use that here, but I’ve asked cops what they think of the kinds of situations pointed out in counterarguments, and they admit it’s not a perfect system and that there’s only so much one person can do so it is unlikely to be solved.

According to your logic, policing is unacceptable. If you’re discriminated against, the US has a long history of criminalizing minorities at every level of the judicial system, yes. That doesn’t mean cops are unhindered in corruption here. Judges here prefer rehabilitation, or if the person committed a crime like assault or murder then they actually consider “is this person sane” a valid question.

There is discrimination in Canada against natives. In my experience, I’ve personally seen my dad’s Salish friend be kicked out of our house by City Hall. By a bylaw officer.

You think I did nothing? Oh no. I immediately walked to City Hall and fucking told them “I am filing a restraining order against your bylaw officer”. Grand Forks was too small to have another bylaw officer, and the one that they had was part of their inner circle, that effectively meant they could not administrate my family, which meant we were able to fight back against City Hall as if City Hall didn’t have a say.

We never saw them discriminate against my dad’s friend ever again. Beat that, you goddamn hypocrite.

I think you’re a human being, and that not one of the people commenting in this thread seem to care that blanket statements don’t help, so why am I not also entitled to make blanket statements like “humans are stubbornly unaccepting to the point of cruelty”?

Nobody is. If you’re going to call the kettle black, fucking admit you’re the pot. Nobody is doing anything about your fucking situation because nobody can.

You know that, right? Trump didn’t get elected. He stole it, and the reason nobody stopped him is because you let capitalism get to a point that the supposed result that he won seemed plausible. And Russian interference is probably what got him in, because bomb threats to voting stations? Record voting turnout, but lowest participation in recent years? Someone must have taken and destroyed a lot of votes…

But by the time that was known, Trump had already taken office.

You know Germany was a democracy before Hitler took power, not just after, right? Plus, even then they tricked people into supporting them because nobody yet knew the word “Holocaust”.

Nobody supports Trump except a few rich assholes betting the farm on his monstrosity. This problem was inevitable the moment WWII ended, because capitalism without regulation grows like cancer. By now, it doesn’t matter what anyone wants unless you have the money to buy the entire industry behind it.