More people are feeling bad for the state of the world. But that doesn’t mean it’s worse than before, just that we’re more aware. There are pockets of beautiful communities all over making their own eden in the vast hell. The dinosaurs will die, the wounds will scar, and if we don’t heal before it’s too late, there’s millions of years of the earth ahead of us without humans in it.

I will never understand but always admire the ingenuity and skill required to pull off something like this.

Playing music from the playlists I make for my ttrpg games I prepare, to get inspired and write down ideas for the next game. It is like having a mental trailer about an upcoming show that we’ll see when we get together to play it.

It’s really hard to underestimate you.

Minigolf but everyone goes at the same time, taking turns hitting your own ball like in pool. Hitting other people’s balls is allowed but you always try to aim for the hole. Also, have ice cream while at it.

IEMs are great imo. I have moondrop starfield and bc of the detach I can have both cable and BT adapter depending on my need. They sound amazing and come with filter replacement and different cushions. I’ve had them for abt 5 years and they still rock. There’s a website where you can check the sound profile of different ones and I love the clear neutral style of moondrop. MDrop Blessing looks good and that’s probably my goal if I have to eventually replace them.

That pilot crashed the plane

I was born in the southern hemisphere and have lived in different countries in Europe for many many years. I speak 4 languages and remember a bit of what I learned of native (precolonial culture) from the country I was born in. Although I was born in a different country, my family is Italian on one side and Palestinian on the other. I feel from nowhere.

My take, people crave identity through whatever can give them a sense of legitimacy and belonging. Vikings are just 300 years of romanticised history, but there is certainly rich culture in it. If you find beauty in the themes and traditions of germanic scandinavia or the sápmi then great! I feel attached for no reason to some cultures and traditions because they “make sense” to me in my view of the world and my values. We do not need certificates for that.

I’m surprised by the amount of unfounded and uninformed opinions, whether for or against, that have a lot of upvotes. Then there are people who have been homeschooled, homeschool their kids, or work with homeschooled kids and commented to share information. Those have far less upvotes. Wtf. Listen to other people’s experiences.

Not to be against distinctions and clearly this administration is insane. But I agree with the rest that it is not a one time thing. The imperialism has been there for decades. Chile 73 just to give one.

What happened, from what you wrote, seems clear to me. He sabotaged the relationship with you through his own insecurities and lack of self esteem. The effort to nurture a relationship —I believe— should come naturally. This person sounds like he really needs help and he wanted you there to support him. But he is not your responsibility. He pushed you away by making every interaction an emotional drain, making it even harder to want to spend time with him.

What others have said about friendships needing to be put effort into is true, they do. But you can only give as much as you have energy for, and he should not guilt trip you about it. Sounds like he made his fears of abandonment real by unintentionally pushing you away. We have with my wife a term for people that drains energy instead of recharging you when you meet them. It’s emotional vampirism. I hope he finds people in his life who can help him stand. That “friendship” sounded more like a job.

Also, what a particular way of writing you had, putting everything in lists haha. But it felt ok to read and was well summarised.

I’ve met a person from Kiribati. It’s looking bad for them there, we’re making entire countries disappear due to climate change.

I back this up. There is a state well studied in animals called hopelessness. Animals of diverse taxa can and will develop depression-related or depression-like behaviours and even self harm, not even necessarily at an old age. The same logic OP uses to question euthanasia is the one we use to understand them and make decisions. We know they will not communicate as humans, and we know we are directly responsible for their (pets) quality of life. This creates the consensus that we have to infer their emotional state and assume them capable of suffering based on their physiology. This (through studying their physiological and behavioural responses) is how we learn for example that dysplasia can be very painful, or that lack of certain standards of care can cause immense suffering. For humans we have the big problem of Christianity, that permeates western notions and confuses morals with ethics, stating that all life is sacred and god intended your suffering for some divine purpose. So much so that suicide was considered a crime and would ban you from heaven. But in more developed places the idea of self requested euthanasia is slowly being better understood.

We don’t have a “right” to do so, we have a “responsibility” to give them the best we can provide.

In my opinion this is too large of an attempt at reasoning memes as equal to an artist made piece of art but it is full of fallacies. The same images from memes being used can be traced and attributed to its original author with ease, AI cannot. So I’d argue that AI stealing is even more blatant as it attempts to hide its origin. AI makes people think they actually did something and partook in creating the piece, which is like taking an image off the internet and saying you made it. You can edit it, but it is not the same as saying you are the creator. AI blurs the line of ownership by including an algorithm in between, but it is being used to try and heavily commercialise its output in a way that memes never had. You say in italics a fallacy on the style of “memes occasionally can be profitable, therefore it is equivalent to selling AI art”, but I think you know how different the reality of both forms is. It is exactly the intent behind the majority of AI image generation to industrialise art, while it is not the case of memes, and you see the same pushback if a company tries to use someone’s photo commercially/politically without their consent. In a meme, the image is not the main product, but the context in which it is being used, so the image can be actually replaced but not the same can be done with the text.

And true, I’d argue there’s also a component of inherent rejection of AI generated images because it is clear it “destroys art creation” in the sense that artists experience the world and create from said experience in connection with their own perception and ideas, while AI “remixes” said work without any understanding or self input and steals people’s expression that is currently being aimed explicitly for commercial purposes. Meme makers do something far better than AI. If all art would be made by AI there would be no art. The only way I’d be ok with it is if you give the neural network sensors to perceive reality and process ideas and thoughts, to then create its own interpretation and expression. I guess it would be interesting to see “art” without emotion.

You pull out of nowhere that most people against AI are not artists, but that kind of claim needs some support behind it. Similarly to how you claim that people against AI art have nothing against using other people’s work for memes without their consent. That kind of whataboutism does not contribute to the discussion, as it is just pointing to a “but they do that so I can do this” lame excuse. Sure, people should be more respectful about other people’s images, so what.

Even with all of this, I do agree that using people’s images for memes without their consent is bad. Doubt it can be stopped but I’d not be surprised if they are strongly affected by it. Empathy is scarce these days and makes me act a bit more bitter on the internet.

You might think it is normal for you as you have the habit, but I know plenty of people that do not give handshakes or any form of physical contact. So it is a possibility that she might find it awkward and unnecessary, and so it catches her off guard. As others pointed out, thinking about why that happens is pointless and though you might wonder this to be thoughtful, it’s better to just wait for her to raise the hand instead of you. If she does not, then there’s no need.

This is insane. Why is everyone redefining the feminist movement!? Why so many “this feminism but”? Feminism is the belief in and advocacy of political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.

Do you believe sexes should have equal rights in society? Yes? You’re a feminist. Don’t be afraid of the term. That means that you bought up the anti-feminist propaganda. It’s like going about saying “I’m against the genocide, but not the kind where I hate the jews or support Hamas or terrorist but I believe in not killing children but of course not the kind of belief where I’d attack israeli sold…” Like wtf is this. That’s the definition. Stop tiptoeing. Call it out when you see it. Help your fellow human beings and keep on with your life.

Not questioning it but it is interesting how it is not seen as problematic to depict and dress as fighting for the confederacy when it was in favour of keeping slaves, but Nazis are too much.

My two cents: Imo the question is deeply flawed. “Win a girl” and “being out of someone’s league” are assumptions that prevent you from reaching a rational answer. It is like asking “which color makes me look more like a french planet?” It just does not make sense. My reasoning is that (as others pointed out) a girl is not something you win, because relationships were never a game. Nobody talks like this about friends, or how to “win” your brother’s trust and friendship. It is a made up “hustler rat” mindset that has permeated through the “winner-loser” trope, and prevents people from seeing the opposite sex as a fellow human being. So then leagues are a deformation of people’s personal compatibility and preferences. Someone “out of your league” could at most be interpreted as “lack of compatible lifestyle, goals, interests, and ideals”. And even those factors in a person change over time as we grow and alter our interests. Sometimes we like calm people around us, sometimes we prefer someone that pulls us out of our comfort zone, or listens and is attentive, reflexive, or conscious about a topic we are also worried about, and so we relate to each other through our way of thinking. And then very often we even fall or become infatuated with the idea of someone that we built in our heads, which seems to happen far too often.

As some other commenters said, the more you interact and show interest and care for people, the more they will surprise you and the more likely you will find meaningful connections, maybe even a relationship. People make the relationship the goal and forget about the people, turning human contact into an empty experience.