Oh, we have the military superpower. We're constantly putting it on display. We're basically a giant weapons and war factory. When we go down, it won't come from the outside (except in the form of cyber attacks and misinformation campaigns).
Though I could see it in a few decades. Russia was a powerful body full of rot. We're a powerful body with an infection. If the authoritarians win, they'll replace competent people in key positions with unqualified party-loyal yes men, and that will start the rot.
Do you need to be an -ian? Like, if you like the teachings of Ghandi, or Socrates, or Marcus Aurelius, you don't have to call yourself a Ghandian, or a Socratian, or an Aurelian. You just agree with their teachings.
I feel like you're just making a dig on Christians, and it's not like a lot of them don't deserve it, but what you're talking about isn't a religion. You don't need an -ian to like a philosophy.
Flying a confederate flag in Pennsylvania is about the most ridiculous thing I can think of off-hand. In the south, they're all about "it's not about racism, it's about heritage!" People flying it in the north are, like, "Nope, racism! I don't have any heritage with this, except its heritage of racism!"
There are people undecided on whether they will be voters. Plenty of people who would vote Republican who could not bring themselves to vote Democrat even against fascism, or a candidate with dementia, or a felon, might be convinced to just stay home. And plenty left-leaning types who can't be assed to go to a ballot box might find the motivation when they have someone that actually seems presidential, who they might want to have as a president (when apparently the threat of fascism wasn't enough of a motivation).
I'm going to let you in on some insight from a 40-something millenial:
I feel like being a adult is just lying about how much you have your shit together to people who also lie about having their shit together.
It starts off that way a bit, and you're expected to at least put forward the impression you have your shit together before you do. But then the pretending gets easier and easier until you realize you're just paying your bills, getting your laundry done, and doing what you need to do while feeling like you're failing at the new, added responsibility in your life (like big career changes, kids, projects taken on, kids, taking care of family or friends, more kids). But that's with anything new you take on. If you aren't struggling at least a little, you're not growing.
After we got out of college, we are just going to sit in front of a computer like the generations before us for the rest of our life, with the only difference of be paided less then them.
If you choose that. I can't speak to the pay, because y'all are getting fucked... so far. I'll speak more on that in a second, but I was the store manager of a restaurant for a few years before moving to New York from Seattle on a whim, worked customer service at a phone center for a cable company, and then joined the Coast Guard in my mid-to-late 20s, and drove boats until going into aviation and flying in helicopters, living in various places throughout the country, saving a few lives, flying in really cool places, and when I retire I can go do something else. People who stay in a job behind a desk their whole work life either love that job or are complacent in it. You are absolutely not chained to it.
And as for the shitty pay and everything, what I have seen of the Gen Z folks that have come through the Coast Guard is that they advocate for themselves and get things that we millenials are embarrassed to hear requested, much less think to ask for ourselves. And look to all the labor movements going on to push back at those pay drops. Keep the momentum, keep up the fight, don't get complacent like my generation or Gen X.
not one of us could have imagined the entire generation having a mid-life crisis at the age of 18.
That's not a mid-life crisis, that's just the normal fear of entering the world for real, and it's been that way for a long, long time. The crises come when you start feeling how little time you have (quarter-life realization you just don't have enough lifespan to do everything you hope to do, mid-life realization of how little time you really have). Your thing is simply the fear of embarking into the unknown, and your doomscrolling has made your future look bleak. Put the phone down. Take opportunities when you can. Enjoy what you can out of life.
The whole thing is daunting, I totally get it. But going in with the approach you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I wish it were required that both parties agree to the lawsuit being dropped for it not to continue. I'd love to see this frivolous bullshit forced into a courtroom against the plaintiffs will by the defendants.
I disagree. If we sent 100 personnel with an air defense group to Ukraine, shit would get pretty real pretty fast. Sending people is a whole different commitment to sending weapons.
I had an old instructor who liked to say "when it comes to breakfast, what's the difference between the chicken and the pig? The chicken made a contribution, the pig made a commitment."
Sending our own troops stops being a contribution and starts being a commitment.
Them absolutely rioting over a small increase in retirement age made me feel shame as an American. I love how willing the French are to remind their government of what happens when it gets out of line. Like, "don't make us break out the guillotines."
If you want slicey-dicey, get a super-sharp katana or a saber. If you want fast and pokey, get a rapier. If you want a beating stick that's 80% sharp edge, grab a broadsword.
Even if that were true, which is truly ridiculous, new factions would pop up. If it swayed so far left that the Democrats always won, all the further left people would demand all the things they've been left without just to keep fascists from winning.
Basically, it would just be a leftward shift of the Overton window, which is LONNNG overdue. But it certainly wouldn't be the end of elections, that's stupid.
I'm a bit more confused, because when you me tion it referring to an ideology that focuses on social injustice and advocates for change, and reference MLK's efforts, it seems like you support the general idea. And I would agree!
I guess I'm just confused on the "personal responsibility" portion. It's my understanding that most of the "woke" issues are gay and trans rights and police reform (and combating systemic racism in policing). So other than demanding change, protesting, and voting, I'm not sure where the "personal responsibility" would come in.
Can you define the "woke movement" and "woke" in general, in the context of what you're saying?
I'm asking because I've seen "woke" used for a video game that happens to have one gay character in it, which doesn't seem relevant for what you're talking about (for example). Or any number of things that are simply people existing. And other times it's used for referencing social justice issues. It seems fairly amorphous, and entirely dependent on the person mentioning it, so without some context I can't nail down what you mean unless you define it for you.
There's another part to this, and the renowned surgeon makes it a bad metaphor.
It's more like:
"You have a choice for your surgery. On one hand, we have a trained surgeon, on the other hand is a circus clown."
"What are the surgeon's credentials and record?"
"Well... they have a reasonably good record in other kinds of surgery, but and they've shadowed a surgeon who has done your surgery before. I won't lie to you and say their record is perfect, though, and some of the practices and techniques they use draw serious criticism from various world health organizations."
"And the clown?"
"They have more experience with these surgeries, but the vast majority of the people who underwent these surgeries have died. In fact, he shows flagrant disregard for even the most basic and accepted sanitary standards in the medical community."
"But some people did live, right? So he can't be all bad."
"Occasionally he was part of a surgical team, and in those cases the rest of the team managed to keep the patient alive. And again, your other option is a trained surgeon."
"But a shitty surgeon with no experience."
"A questionable surgeon with limited experience. Or a clown who kills those he commits surgery on more often than not."
"I can't believe these are my only two options. When you said I had a choice, I thought it was a real choice, but it sounds like you're just trying to force your surgeon on me. I think I'll wait until another round of surgeons is available."
"You will probably die before the next round of surgeons is available."
"Honestly, I don't trust your judgement over what's best for me. I'm sitting this one out."
Undecided doesn't always mean who you vote for, sometimes it means whether you vote.
Oh, we have the military superpower. We're constantly putting it on display. We're basically a giant weapons and war factory. When we go down, it won't come from the outside (except in the form of cyber attacks and misinformation campaigns).
Though I could see it in a few decades. Russia was a powerful body full of rot. We're a powerful body with an infection. If the authoritarians win, they'll replace competent people in key positions with unqualified party-loyal yes men, and that will start the rot.