Technically, we don't know that he isn't. That kind of money likely means an assassination would be heavily planned out and need to look like natural causes because if was obvious he'd potentially put a target on his own back from other billionaires.
Not the differences you imagine like NJ vs California vs Texas, much more
Dude, Texans fucking hate Californians and and East Coasters.
They share the same citizenship and language but they almost certainly hate each other more than a typical European country hates it's neighbors because of core value differences.
UK+EU members might hate each other for historical reasons but generally they all hold similar core values. Good ones BTW. Democracy is good.
I live in the midwestern US and if I could I'd have it's culture swallowed up by the east coast's culture (except maybe the food) because its pretty fucking boring and backwards in many respects anyway. The only reason I still live here is because I'm poor but I kind of hate midwestern culture.
Diversity is scientifically and provably good for creativity that in turn is good for everything humans do
Diversity is good, smoking is bad. So are Texas's anti-abortion and anti-trans bills, which is fueled by Texas's reactionary culture which diverges from Cali and NJ. Including unhealthy or even straight up death cult ideas as a form of "diversity" seems... ill advised.
My point is, sometimes things are just bad and serve no beneficial purpose and can't be justified on the basis of "diversity". Smoking culture is one.
I get what you mean but accurate understanding of reality matters in terms of survival, there is a reason the most elderly groups actually shifted left in 2024 compared to 2020, Covid killed a lot of rightwing anti-mask elderly people.
Further, one's ability and proclivity to vote can also be impacted by their financial situation. And people who ignore reality are perpetually at risk of losing their wealth due to poor planning, bad investments, or even outright scams. Seeing as we are about to hit a major economic disaster this is also going to effect elections in the future.
No. They buy Apple & Nintendo because of brand loyalty and their social significance.
Have you not seen how deranged they get about those companies products? Nintendo fans lose their minds if someone dare criticize a Mario, Metroid, and especially Zelda games.
Apple fanatics think every new product is a revolution even though some other company or organization has usually already beat them to the punch.
Further, Windows, PS5, & Xbox are are not their only competition. And even then, they are enshitiffied now but that doesn't explain Nintendo and Apple fans behavior before those competitors became this way.
I enjoy Sudoku, but that is something I learned. There is no “enjoy sudoko” element within me that I did not put there myself.
You didn't enjoy learning Sudoku in the first place? Did you have to force yourself? Did someone teach you how to enjoy sodoku after you learned how to actually play?
Maybe there isn't a specific Sudoku drive in human beings but that's not what intrinsically means. There is an intrinsic drive to follow your natural intellectual and physical interests that do not have to be taught. They are variable depending on the person's personal inclinations, but you are not "trained" to enjoy something. Even as seemingly fundamental like reading. You might have to learn how to read first, but that's not being "trained to enjoy" reading. Whether you enjoy it depends on the type of person you are.
Like, if I saw someone doing something that looks fun or interesting, I'd want to participate intrinsically.
If someone offered me money to participate I would be extrinsically motivated.
They did. Everyone I knew back in the Windows 3.1 days already had computers. Most of those people didn’t have Windows, and used standalone applications. The increase in ownership came when hardware prices finally fell enough for them to be affordable. Windows development was a result of that uptick, not the cause.
I mean, maybe, price is obviously a compelling aspect here. Its hard to separate correlation and causation, though I'll hand you that price was probably more compelling.
That said, the people you knew who already owned computers were part of a minority, only about 15% of American households had a computer when Windows 3.1 released.
Dude, in a previous job I had a superior aggressively refuse to let me teach him how to do some extremely basic things on his computer (he'd just call me over to do it whenever he needed it done) and told me he did not know what an internet browser was (he used one everyday).
Now, I did not understand his thought process, but he exists. There are 100% people who understand the basics but experience intense cognitive stress at the mere sight of a command line.
TBH sometimes being on the internet is self harm.