A lot of culture, is irrational and or superstitious. Tibetan culture has a lot of that, Chinese culture as well and American culture is also no exception.
You may find that disagreeable and not worth preserving, and I'm even inclined to agree with that on many occasions. But who is to decide which parts of ones own culture can be done away with, if not the people practicing that culture?
Can I decide which parts of your culture don't agree with MY values and take that away from you?
It was more of a rhethorical question and I wanted to imply, that it's not a significant number. But data (even if it's somewhat poorly presented) is always appreciated.
I'm surprised to see that there are more catholics than I'd have guessed and one could argue that the pope is a religious icon whose word matters to many even if they're not part of his specific denomination.
But on the other hand, a lot of people who represent as catholics may have been raised catholic but we don't know how much of a role that plays in their life and their political views or how much they really follow religious authority. I was raised catholic myself and for loads of people who are part of that church, the word of the pope isn't really their law to live by.
And then there's also cognitive dissonance, that I imagine to play a big role with MAGA-hats.
All in all, I'd say the pope's influence is fairly limited there.
The planet will be fine with it. Life will adapt to it. Even humans will survive it, as a species.
But our modern inustrialized civilizations will collapse.
The paradoxical thing is, that those greedy, wealthy elites who are mostly responsible don't care, because they think they're the ones to survive, when in reality, their wealth and power relies the most on the status quo of the rules of society.
It's not 'just' about plants and algae dying, it's about the tipping point for the climate. Oceans are a huge carbon sink, considering all the carbonates that Coral Reefs, Clam Shells and stuff like that are made of. The more acidic it becomes, the more those carbonates will react to become carbon dioxide, that will end up in the atmosphere, thus still enhancing the greenhouse effect.
Not American portions, but for a dish that is centered around pasta. Usually with a light tomatoe sauce, aglio e olio or something like that. And I like to have a second helping, so that's included.
If you're going for a casserolle or something else with lots of Cheese, a thick and creamy sauce, or relevant amounts of meat and/or vegetables to go with it, you'll need less than that.
Telegram's owners are at odds with the Russian government though, hence the move to another country.
There's plenty of problems with Telegram without having to resort to Russophobia already.
For example their chats aren't even E2E-encrypted by default and afaik there's no way to have encrypted group chats either.
I am happy to criticise the US system at any point, but the notion that it's a democracy only on paper is a misrepresentation of reality.
They managed to vote Trump out of office, and back in. Something that wouldn't have been possible if it were not a democracy.
Now the system of course has loads of difficulties and is suffering from extreme economic inequality, that leads to an immense influence of rich people over the undereducated masses, but they still have to spend their money for massive propaganda campaigns to win votes for their side, so the fundamental processes are still democratic.
We're gonna see if that remains the case by the end of Trump's second term, though.
How do you come to that conclusion? He was a guy in a full on latex-BDSM suit on a leash, that they kept in a box in the basement.
We don't learn much about his character or mental ability in the movie. It is much more likely, that he was called a gimp in the BDSM sense, that is also mentioned in the Wiktionary entry that was linked here.
Thanks for putting the work in, to coin such a well-rounded response on a topic that is usually easily derailed.
You seriously exceeded my expectations.
I cannot read through that whole review right now, but it was an interesting read already for as far as I got, taking into account a lot of nuance to the topic, that one doesn't usually find in public debates. (Or at least, I wouldn't expect to find on a taboo topic like this. It's not like that's something I regularly discuss, just something I had thoughts about when reading comments under a random meme.
I guess I have nothing to add. You clearly understood my meaning very well and as the paper states, there's probably more research needed. I'd hypothesize, that engaging with such material can lead to both outcomes, just as it can for depictions of other illegal activities.
The case might be warped however, because people who are exclusively attracted to children, have no way of acting out on that with a real person, whithout it being illegal and immoral, while people who are (also) attracted to adults have a plethora of possibilities. (And can live out some of their sexuality at least, even if they have trouble finding a partner that consensually takes part in their most extreme kinks)
So yeah, complex issue. Thanks for your valuable contribution.
And what everyone seemed to omit: the reality of peoples' wildly uncalibrated monitors/phone screens.