Instigate

The illusion… YOU’RE QUEER AS FUCK Do I want to be her, or be with her? …of free choice.

I mean, he’s a technocrat through and through. Always has been. Sometimes you need a stint of a technocrat to get into the nitty gritty.

Then again, he’s not my PM so I’m probably talking out my arse about the situation. I’m far less clued into domestic Canadian politics than the average Canadian.

From an Australian perspective: I agree. I was a foster care case manager for a fair while and whenever I was looking after kids in public I was hyperaware of being accused of something, but I never was. Not even weird looks or glances or anything like that. On the contrary, random women would often compliment me on being a good guardian for the kids because I’d love to muck around and play with them rather than just watch while they played.I slowly deconstructed that fear over time and am in a much better place with it now.

They ain’t monkeys.

Very well put.

The Paradox of Tolerance

This is the correct response. Social media, as a construct, is not evil and dos not do harm to anyone. The commodification and commercialisation of social media by capitalistic companies is what has caused the harm we see today.

All of the harms and evils of social media can be boiled down to a single concept: the algorithm. Because algorithmic recommendation of content wants to encourage people to stay on a platform (for capitalistic reasons), and the most enticing and attention-grabbing content is hate-content, these companies have forced hate-inducing concepts down the throats of people in an endeavour to make more money and destroyed individuals and families/friends in the process.

If we regulate the algorithms, we regulate the harm without disempowering anyone. We can, and we should, regulate algorithms on social media to turn it back into what it was 20-odd years ago - a measure to keep in touch with people you know or care about.

I had like four false starts where I barely left White Orchard, but then I was in just the right headspace and spent the next few months completing every single quest and DLC in the game. It just suddenly ‘clicked’ for me. It may do so for you at some point.

Honestly, while Booking.com acted shittily here, I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who buys a home and does short-term rentals. Every investment vehicle has risks, and this woman copped the short end of the stick when it came to the risk associated with her investment choice. She chose to purchase a basic human need and try to maximise her profit from it at the expense of the average person trying to buy or rent a house and, if she didn’t want the risk of this happening, she should’ve chosen a less risky investment like bonds or a term deposit.

Landlords are bad; fuckwits who own short-stay rentals are far worse. The market distortion they create hurts so many people in so many ways. Frankly, I hope she takes this as a sign she should just sell the property and move on to something else.

As an Australian I had no idea how ubiquitous WhatsApp had become elsewhere before travelling. I downloaded it for the first time on a trip to Europe because I literally couldn’t contact certain providers otherwise and the only other time I’ve ever used it was when I was in India and was faced with the same dilemma. It was a real culture shock.

I, and everyone I’m linked in with here in Australia, only use WhatsApp to communicate with relatives overseas or don’t use it at all. We all just tend to use SMS or regular phone calls here.

Care to point to any reports that other nations are viewing those other Western countries poorly as a result of Trump’s actions?

Securing the Strait of Hormuz seems to be self-interested actions by those nations; an attempt to reduce the impact of higher oil prices on their own economies. It’s a far cry from the Western world following the USA into Iraq with boots on the ground 20-odd years ago.

Trump is eroding the idea of a USA-led Western bloc. Canada’s PM Carney is leading the charge to create new middle-power blocs to establish credibility outside of the USA’s influence. I’m yet to see reports that those measures are being viewed in a negative fashion by the rest of the world, but I’m happy to be corrected.

I sincerely doubt that’s her. Apparently she still posts on reddit (that I’ve heard; haven’t been back to that cesspool in over two years) and this person’s comment history contains nary a single poem.

Yes, and the vast majority of these memes referenced fall into the former category and not the latter. Obsession and compulsion over concepts like ordering can be a clinical symptom; preferring order is a pretty basic human condition.

This is why posts on brainrot platforms like TikTok have so many people believing that they’re neurodivergent for having preferences when they’re confusing having preferences for conditions that cause immense psychological anguish and dysfunction.

It’s like the classic situation where someone says “yeah I’m pretty OCD when it comes to _” when they have NO FUCKING CLUE what it’s actually like to live with such a disorder that impacts every aspect of your life in a quite debilitating way.