<Good luck with that vote.>
I know plenty of people who won't vote because of an attitude like this, this is one of the reasons we, in America, are in the political nightmare we're in. yes, we only get one vote apiece, but that vote must be cast to defeat the poisonous stain that has infected the GOP. If you disagree, at least vote for the Constitution.
I've copied all the responses I can for later reading, so I hope I'm not rehashing. I think it's because a lot of people suck. I'm very happy and have little or no family issues. But with politics and the over all attitude of most that it's easier to gripe instead of making things better or just trying to make things better, it's not worth socializing as perhaps it once was. I admit, I've always defaulted to being a loner type, but with all the general anger in society, I'm still good with that.
Read it again, this time slower. I'm saying that most people are mean spirited and don't care about anyone, besides themselves. Reality is bent to have a meaning, socially, that is meant to distort facts and create narratives that refute logic. And a lot of people want to argue as a result. Just look at what's happening in America these days.
Interpreting facts always involves argument, so that's not evidence of mean spirits. Do you include yourself in 'most people'? If not, why assume you're the exception?
This is quite bleak but relatable. I used to strive to be a 'connector' type and the only thing that kept me going was my optimism and trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. That broke around COVID. The sad truth is there's a lot of shitty people :( A better long term strategy is to try to identify and avoid these people as their attitude will chip at you and bring you down.
Much easier to sustain a positive attitude and disposition when you surround yourself by people who are also investing in the friendship / relationship or who are likely to pay it forward with others.
This is essentially what held old world cultures together before the rise of capitalism and it's individualistic attitudes.
"encrypted, chunk-level deduplicated, GFS-rotated, point-in-time archived, cloud, 3-2-1 backup solution" is now my newest password, no commas. (Don't tell anyone!)
I worked at the AA maintenance base in Tulsa and retired after thirty years. Although I worked in the power plant and was not an A&P mechanic, over the years I had the pleasure of working around some of the thousands of plane mechanics employed on the base. I even had an ex brother-in-law who was a dock crew chief on one of the 737 lines.
I was always impressed by how seriously they took their jobs and how they were quick to tell anyone that they knew people's live could be at stake. The complexity of the work made experienced and long career hands absolutely necessary. The gravity of the job always weighs heavy on new hires and the help they received can't be measured. The online and classroom training that all receive during the length of their careers is extensive.
In all the many different trades at the base, two jokes were always told and I guarantee they're still being told today: Classroom training taught me how to drink coffee. And they wouldn't fly on AA because they knew the guys who worked on the planes. (The first one is absolutely true. The second was is not, especially after the company started flying to New Zealand!)
< entertainment as opposed to something more heated like war.>
As an avid sports fan, I've always thought this. All the emotion and anguish I feel during the seasons for the teams I support is sort of cathartic. But I can't help wonder what the effect legal online gambling will have. Yes, I know gambling and sports has been around since Methuselah, but now regular "Joe's" are in the act, who would have never gambled in the past because of the legal aspect. The heated like war will most likely become heated like costly regret.
We’ve had the public gambling on sports off-and-on since Roman chariot racing.
People don’t have to feel any certain way, but I find many of the comments seem detached from the fact there’s millennia of history about sports, gambling, etc; with many of the same concerns articulated by contemporary authors preceding you by that vast time.
I’m just glad sports mobs don’t burn cities as often as they did in Rome — but I don’t have nearly the panic that more of the same will be the downfall of humanity or civilization.
I've always thought, easily, we humans were our own worst enemy. But that's nothing new, it's been known for many different eras. What gets me is we don't seem to care. Obviously many do, but why not enough?
Egomaniacs seem to always be the problem, but when one pops up in a country, the people, whether they have a choice or not, protect/ignore them. Your disposable remark, to me, is the key. Most need to wake to this fact and at least talk about it. (As for Hal Lindsay, he's just like any other nutjob author who uses grains of some truth to create fear and anxiety to promote his narrative.)
And there it is, we're keeping competition out of the states to protect our auto industry, instead of giving we consumers other options. I've rented cars in Aus/New Zealand, if I lived there I'd own an EV, hands down.
The only way to make our auto makers change is to "make" them change by competition. Consumers want this change, why else do we buy so many Japanese cars? (Beside the fact they are superior.)
So true! My Ram 1500 was purchased to pull our travel trailer. It has the tow package and is factory raised up some. I'm kind of old, so I keep a three-step ladder in the bed so I can easily climb into it.
Because of the poor gas mileage, I always wonder at why people drive these gas guzzlers as their main transport. But each to his own. (BTW, some claim safety, but it's probably fashion.)
