spidermanchild @ spidermanchild @sh.itjust.works

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1 yr. ago

Saying cars aren't improving in reliability, safety, and efficiency anymore is a bit of a simplification given the massive upheaval underway as the industry electrifies. BEVs are a massive step change in efficiency. My takeaway is just that shortages during COVID increased prices, coupled with inflation and high interest rates making the payments mind boggingly stupid as people are squeezed financially. I wish it was people driving less and riding ebikes more, but not sure any data points to that.

I'm not trying to convince you, I'm offering a counterpoint to the other 3 people that might read this and otherwise think your strategy goes without question. I just don't understand how you can support a bunch of progressives that largely, if not exclusively, vote for Biden/Hillary as needed, seemingly agreeing with them in everything except this critical point where they make obviously correct choices to vote for least harm. Why wouldn't you just listen to their reasoning? What makes you think you're right on this?

The reason things get shittier is because shitty people like Bush and Trump get elected. The way to defeat them is to actually defeat them, not let them win and hope for a progressive uprising. I don't see how moving backwards helps you move forwards, that's all.

Being a Bernie voter isn't an insult and that was certainly not my intent, I voted for him too in the primaries. But being a Bernie voter/progressive and then completely ignoring his advice to vote for the actual Dem candidate (Hillary/Biden) becuase you have a super secret strategy that involves effectively not voting, is what I would describe as a gibberish strategy. Pretty sure he understands the stakes and strategies much better than you. The game I'm referring to is our highly imperfect first past the post system, and you're not playing it.

The part I don't understand is why you some folks feel their vote is so sacred that they can't compromise for someone like Biden given the stakes. It's just a vote, I give them out like candy to whoever is better. It's super simple, it's not a marriage vow and it doesn't define you as a human. Real, actual harm will come to our allies with Trump and your thinking implies they're an acceptable sacrifice. Women are literally dying because Trump appointed 3 dog shit SCOTUS justices. Bernie doesn't agree with your strategy, AOC doesn't, but you seem to think you know something special that progressive leadership doesn't.

I'm guessing you would have/did vote for him though. Good luck with your strategy of not even playing the same game

Who did Bernie Sanders endorse and vote for since 2016? Did he follow your strategy, or something smarter?

Why don't you tell us who Bernie supported and voted for for president the last few cycles, and then tell us why you think you're smarter than him.

Maybe the garbage brands. Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita, etc are very well made, and significantly more powerful than they were 5-10 years ago.

Why is the price you put on a full water glass dependent on whether you got an expensive steak vs a cheaper pasta dish though? This is why percentages are so dumb.

This feels like semantics. There is "bad", and there is an option that is "better". I don't know why folks feel like they need to use "bad" and "worse", other than to build pessimism. The things people are upset about can't easily fixed by presidents anyway - we need a large base of like minded representatives to do things like housing policy and universal healthcare and education reform and climate change. It's a lot easier to break things than to improve peoples lives, which is why it's critical not to elect people intent on breaking things.

I appreciate your lived experience, but at the same time the rest of us will seek answers in basic physics concepts, none of which help explain such phenomenon. Is it possible you just got stronger or subconsciously tried harder because you wanted the heavy bike to be faster? Did you add weight but also make sure your bike was well tuned? Tire pressure and a greased chain go a long way. I certainly agree that the weight weenies can go way overboard though.

I'm not sure how you've decided to arbitrarily normalize "performance" but normal people are experiencing price drops in many categories. Here's a bunch of other stuff that has dropped in price. Lots of things have been commoditized and benefited from economies of scale, leading to lower prices over time.

https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-or-century-7/

It's not hard to find examples of products where prices have gone down. Prices for literally all electronic goods have been decreasing for a long time, for example.

Wat? The law of conservation of energy tends to disagree. Commuters are generally starting and ending at the same elevation so there's no trick. We're not going to convince anyone to carry heavy loads on bikes by saying "pedal more downhill to smooth out the power requirements if you hate grinding it out on uphills", the answer is just ebikes.

It's in the job description for president, so yeah in theory. We just all know, based on years of actions and rhetoric, that Trump has no intention of representing anyone other than himself. He doesn't even care about his own supporters. Don't let that cloud what the job is supposed to entail though.

Are we just going to ignore the millions of acres of vast grasslands that supported like 50 million buffalo in the US 200 year ago? Healthy grassland ecosystems and ruminants are a thing.

The real issue is one of attribution. "Traced to" isn't the same as "responsible for". I have a hard time blaming Saudi Aramco for massive volume of oil consumption in the US. Yes the oil companies are eco terrorists too but the binary take is absurd.

One part of the answer is enforcement. Ticket the shit out of dangerous behavior and people will do it less. I literally never see anyone pulled over for traffic violations anymore, whereas it was common 10-20 years ago. What happened to traffic cops, and why don't we have cameras that detect this shit? In Colorado people don't even bother to renew their tags and there are no repercussions. It's like fucking Mad Max out there, I hate it so much. Obviously making the world less car reliant is critical, but the lack of any visible enforcement is absurd too.

I recently picked up a Lenovo 7i 2-in-1 (I got the Intel Evo version due to a nice sale, but wanted AMD) and am currently dual booting with it. No issues with Ubuntu at all that I've encountered.

I don't have anything useful to add other than Steve Huffman is a greedy pig boy.

And who's to blame here? Have you considered blaming the invading force, or does it have to be the west for your sensibilities? Everything would be great if we all just rolled over when invaders arrive at the gates!