One quote I remember regarding "civility" was something like "We need to make civility a pejorative."
If you're acting "civilly" it means you have the privilege of doing so. You're on the "winning side" or perceive yourself to be. For those being actively threatened or attacked the expectation shouldn't be to behave "civilly."
This is like the least illegal thing this week
I wonder if Russians and those in former USSR and Yugoslavian states are getting a sort of sick enjoyment from seeing America just putting a gun to its own head everyday. "Ah, now it's your turn to have your life expectancy cut by decades and all hope for the future crushed."
It really sucks when you know something is gonna happen, but you hope it doesn't, and then it's happening. Germans probably got a word that means all of that and it's at least 20 characters long.
China, you announce this after you've arrested the CEO. 🤦
You know the correct way to deal with people who attempt coups? You don't put the mfers in prison that's for sure.
Lula knows what he must do. He won't. But it would be so goddamn funny
I just hope the autopsy can explain his head:face ratio. I've never seen anything that crazy in my life.
Slave markets in Libya... hmm I wonder which country killed the previous multi decade leader throwing it into destabilization
Kinda hilariously ironic to bring that up when trying to deflect blame from Europeans for slavery
You should pursue university if you have any aspirations at all of working within science, tech, etc. The undergraduate degree is basically just "high school 2.0" at this point (in the US). Almost meaningless as far as education goes, but required to move on to master's and PhD programs.
No matter how shitty things get (and they will absolutely continue to get shittier for as long as Americans remain as reactionary as "we" are) education should always be emphasized above all else for young people. For everyone really, but especially the young.
All leftist movements of note have had academics, thinkers, educated people in their core who went on to be leaders. This education doesn't have to formal, although speaking anecdotally, I find it far easier to learn "tough" subjects (science, maths) within the confines of a university-type system. Other things can be learned on my own by reading and interacting with others who have read the same material.
The people for which it becomes a "question" in my mind would be those unsure of their vocational desires. If everything was free, I would 100% say "send everyone to get undergrad degrees!" However, reality being what it is, I think there should be hesitancy considering the lifelong consequences of massive debt. Unfortunately these are both individual decisions and, in my opinion, decisions impossible for a 16-18 year old to make. Yet our society forces them to make them regardless and holds them personally responsible... for the rest of their lives.
Even with the massive debt issue looming, I always lean towards "Fuck it! Education is always good!" Even just a generic liberal arts education or pursuing something like philosophy. You do gain a lot of experience and perspective you'd otherwise be denied just by being in a university with other students from all over. Even if you try to remain a recluse or focus on only studies, you will be forced almost by accident to learn something new about other people (which is of course a big reason conservatives have always hated universities. Not for "being liberal or leftist." They hate people connecting on a human level and learning that we're all the same.)
There is always the option of learning a trade skill. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc. Not glamorous jobs, but absolutely necessary for the existence of society as we know it, and often well-paid once you get some experience. Impossible to automate or just "delete" away as well. They're also traditionally unionized more heavily (well, not HVAC). Who knows, maybe you could help unionize a non-unionized company.
I can say as someone who has chosen both paths (well "chosen" isn't the word... "lack of making a choice" leading to "well, guess this is what I'll do then...") that I wish I had known what I wanted in HS and had pursued university right away. But that also just isn't who I was or am. While it's easy to think "that's the most efficient path to "success"" (meaning highest compensation) it also wasn't realistic for me. I've always loved learning new stuff, anything from hands-on to book learning. I enjoyed learning how compressors work, and I enjoyed repairing/replacing them (among many other things, of course). I enjoyed learning electrical theory and then working on troubleshooting and repairing circuits all the way from small devices up to industrial sized cooling systems. I loved calculus, biology, chemistry (I majored in biology for my undergrad... much later in life than most students). I love learning but get incredibly bored once it goes from learning to working (terrible combo for most jobs).
I don't know what to tell young people who are like I was. People with the capacity to go on and learn anything pretty much but ultimately lacking any real motivation or "reason" to do... anything at all. I want to say "it'll work out." "Just do whatever makes you happy at the time." I don't know if that's true though... it did "work out" for me. Yet I know a solid dozen people not too much unlike myself for whom it did not work out. I think that's why I lean towards "just go to university if you can." It's the least risky of the gambles. Unless you know for a fact that you want to work in something like plumbing, which of course I encourage all young people to learn all the trade skills that you can, just get a taste of it and see what you think. But if you don't want to do that, and you want the best chance at a decent paying job later down the line, university, getting a degree, getting more degrees on your degrees, is the path as things stand currently.
So is Putin just chilling waiting for Jan 20th so Trump will come in and end shipments of weapons and deauthorize attacks into Russia?
What a fucking insane, shitty fucking system btw. As painful as it is to say... the US presidents should swap out as quickly as the Brits swap PMs. Like you lost? Gone next day. I know their PMs aren't democratically elected and all that (technically neither is the president...) and the winner/loser is known faster, just saying that 2 1/2 months of a "lame duck" president with the power to wage wars and everything at his fingertips... what a dogshit system.
Btw, if Trump comes in and ends the bullshit in Ukraine, regardless of whatever hamfisted agreement he gets pushed through, it's going to be a W on his record that the democrats can't tarnish. "Ahh but we wanted thermonuclear war! Putler!!!" I mean god only knows what his hog-ass has been discussing with Netanyahu regarding the West Bank, Gaza, southern Lebanon, but also forcing something there that resembles the situation pre-Oct 7 2023 will also be seen as a W for casual observers who just wanted to stop seeing exploding kids on their feeds every day. The fact that Biden has allowed both of these atrocities to continue endlessly, and seemingly would love to keep going if he could, like who the actual fuck wants this shit besides the most decrepit, 90 year old zombies like him and the executives at Raytheon, etc.?
If I'm totally honest, while obviously this shit shouldn't be allowed, do you trust a corporation to remove Nazi content and not then "both sides" it by removing allllll the "plausibly communist" stuff they can find? Because I don't trust them. They'd be nuking shit about Stalin or even Lenin.
Somehow Cuba is always, and I do mean always, on the right side of every world issue since the Revolution. I hope in my lifetime a truly unchained Cuba is witnessed.
Real question:
Anyone know which phone brands/manufactures are made 100% in China for Chinese population consumption primarily and 1) work in NA and 2) are easily set to English as the UI language?
I figure it may be better to just accept whatever possibility of backdoors Chinese intelligence may build into their electronics as opposed to western (mainly Israeli and US) intelligence backdoors.
I've seen some brand recommendations in the past but figured some of you nerds might have some knowledge on such things. My understanding is it's sometimes difficult to get the phones connected on NA (US) providers.