No doubt, I’m not saying fascism now is better by any stretch (which is why I said ‘boom tomorrow is definitely better than boom today’ in the comment that started this thread), I’m saying we should be pissed about the fact that our only choices are both fascism and do something about it.

Stopping the bomb from going off is wishful thinking, but I agree, that’s why I said 'boom tomorrow is definitely better than boom today`.

A bit, sure. But while I’m happy people can marry whoever they want, it’s not meaningful change for like 90% of Americans. It’s not economic change. What little they’ve done there in the past 30-40 years has been weak, stop-gap, pared-down versions of good progressive ideas. How’s that universal healthcare going again? Oh right, we got the ACA instead which did some good things and helped some people, no question, but it didn’t change much for most Americans.

If such a mythical creature exists then feel free to correct me, but meanwhile I’m going to wonder how they have been accurately predicting the future for 40 years and aren’t the most famous person on earth? Like you get a couple billion dollars in the bank and every motherfucker who knows how to operate a keyboard is asking your opinion on stupid shit, how is this guy not on the front page like every day? Elon Musk has only been publicly-known for like 15 years and I can’t buy a pack of smokes without hearing about his opinion on some bullshit or other, so your guy must be flying way under the radar.

Then it’s a good thing I wasn’t asking for unbiased reporting. What I asked for was more reporting, because I would like to verify it with multiple sources. Unbiased reporting doesn’t exist, but there is in fact an unbiased (or at least minimally-biased) version of the news itself, and the most reliable way to get there is to hit a subject from multiple angles. If the people who love Israel are also complaining about it then it’s safe to say it’s legit, for example.

“I don’t believe you because I’m offended by your tone” is miles away from “I don’t believe you because I haven’t seen enough evidence”.

It’s neither of those: it’s I want to believe you, but you’re the only person I’ve seen mention this and I want to make sure it’s legit by hearing it from multiple sources.

Everyone has biases

Yes, which is why I try to get my news from more than one source so that I can tell whether or not it’s just someone reading something into a thing that wasn’t actually there or if multiple people with different perspectives have seen the same thing.

I was paraphrasing, but fair enough.

shame them into doing something progressive

That’s been failing for the 30+ years during which I voted blue, why does anyone imagine it would suddenly start succeeding now?

You can avoid grossly misunderstanding the point of someone’s comment by reading the whole thing, too.

No, I did not have some good bases to build from. I built myself back up from a years-long depression in which I had firmly decided that I was definitely going to end my life. But when the moment came I discovered that, for whatever reason, I just couldn’t do it. At which point I was left with no choice but to start finding ways to make life a bit less miserable no matter what it took. I dug myself out of that hole not because I had ‘good bases to build from’ but because I had no other choice. It sucked a whole lot for a long time, but having come through the other side of it I can tell you that it was absolutely worth it to put in the effort. Also when I say rekindled curiosity I mean the kind everyone has in childhood. I lost it sometime around puberty (for a variety of reasons), and didn’t get it back until my 40s.

But if that’s the case re:running out the clock, let me ask you this - and I am by NO means suggesting a particular course of action here - why keep marking time? What do you gain from it that’s better than the alternative? There must be something, right? Figure out what it is and latch onto it like it’s the last lifeboat off the Titanic. The thing about life is that you don’t find meaning, you don’t get handed meaning by someone else, you make it yourself: you decide what is meaningful to you and what isn’t. If you’re content with the way things are then great, but if not then it’s on you to make a change.

Yeah but you’re not posting ‘Hey, how do I do X?’ followed by an example of what you intend to do with X that involves you being a dick, either.

Did you not catch this part?

which, fair enough, that describes me too

I am also biased against Israel, for what I feel ought to be some pretty self-evident reasons. Reading comprehension in the replies to my comment has been surprisingly low.

Also can’t take anyone seriously who can’t read the comment they’re replying to.

Did you not catch this part?

which, fair enough, that describes me too

I am also biased against Israel, for what I feel ought to be some pretty self-evident reasons, but a single highly biased source reporting something is not news.

Fortunately, they link to the original material.

Yeah, fair enough, I just wasn’t up for reading the ~50 page report myself to find out if what they said was true.

Did you not catch this part?

which, fair enough, that describes me too

I’m not saying the bias is a problem in general, it’s just a problem for the trustworthiness of the reporting because they could be reading stuff into the source material that isn’t there.

Power for the people in charge, and a combination of enforced stratification of society (with those who support the regime on top of course) and reduced status for, the removal of, or outright sanctioned violence against the people upon whom all of society’s ills are blamed.

I wonder the same thing. What I wonder even more, though, is why you think inconveniencing others is acceptable or funny?

This guy does not seem like he’s interested in ‘valid applications’, he’s interested in being a dick.

If this is true then that’s great news. Unfortunately the article seems to have been written by someone who is very clearly biased against Israel and not ashamed of airing that dirty laundry in public (which, fair enough, that describes me too, but I wouldn’t trust me to write an unbiased article on the subject either) so I can’t take this single source’s word on it. I’ll definitely keep an ear out in case any more reporting gets done on it from elsewhere.

Edit: To the people downvoting and replying to this: please read past the ‘biased against Israel’ part - especially to the bit where I say that I am also biased against Israel - before assuming that I’m some pro-Israel shill here.

They’re skills, they require practice like everything else.

I have been on disability and unable to work for ~14 years now, and I certainly went through a long phase of just being a big couch potato with no ambition or dream other than to do the least amount of work I could possibly get away with and still have a tolerable life. My house was a mess, I was a mess, shit fell through the cracks, etc. But it wasn’t those things that drove me out of that pit, it was boredom. I started watching youtube videos and stumbled into science-related topics and discovered that despite hating school I actually quite enjoy learning. That’s what rekindled that curiosity in me, the drive to be doing something to better myself all the time, even if it was just packing my head full of information that served no other purpose other than it being pretty fucking cool to know shit about the world. From there I got motivated to read (I used to read literally everything I could get my hands on, and stopped for various reasons), to start caring about my health, to take care of myself, etc, and from there I started wanting things again. I discovered that what I - a ~20-year veteran of network engineering and security - am passionate about is writing and politics, so now I divide most of my time between seeking out deep, serious political discussions/debates and trying to write a novel (emphasis on the ‘trying’; maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t, but in the meantime I’m writing and it’s making me happy.)

I’m not saying all this to say ‘lookit me, I’m so fuckin’ awesome’, but to say that even going from being really depressed it’s still possible to find things in the world to be interested in and if you pursue those interests you will find something you’re passionate about. If you want to.