u/jhymesba — TheHiddenCatboy

Message to Europeans from an American.

It's time to start looking for other trading partners. Canada and Mexico come to mind. So does South America and Africa as a whole. Be ready for us to shit the bed in epic fashion, and make sure you're not in the poo position. And don't be afraid to punish us for our BS. Just be strategic with the payback and don't copy our fails.

That'll hurt us, but it needs to happen. And targeted boycotts of Red State stuff for extra 'FAFO' energy.

Dealing with Trump is a daily example of 'like playing Chess with a pigeon -- the bird shits on the board and struts around like it won the game.' Canadians need to tell the USA to fuck off.

I know this is in jest, but it's definitely something the shitheads would push. And my answer goes thusly:

No. The Economy hasn't done a damn thing for me, and it's done less for my wife. I'm treading water, unable to afford a house or a car on what was once an unfathomable sum of money when I was younger. It has done less for my wife, who relies on my job to keep a roof over her head. You want us to have kids? Reassure us that our kids will have a better life, and stop vampire-squidding us and sucking down every loose dollar.

There's this possible ending in Cyberpunk 2077 that I think speaks to how Billionaires view the world. The leader of the Japanese megacorp Arasaka is arguably the most powerful man in Japan, more-so than even the Japanese emperor. His company's security forces includes an aircraft carrier, not to mention endless drones and faceless goons equipped with ... if not the best technology on the planet, then the second best. And they've unlocked the technology of digitising a person's consciousness and storing it.

The CEO's son is a bit of a rebel, trying to undermine his father. He eventually gets very hands-on (integral part of the plot that your character witnesses first-hand early in the game) and bumps his father off and takes over Arasaka. And if you play the game a certain way, you reach an ending where the daughter of the CEO assists her dead father in ... coopting the son's body, displacing his consciousness, and 'reincarnating' in the son's body, to continue his centuries of ownership of Arasaka.

This is fiction, but Cyberpunk is all about assuming the worst of our corporate overlords. I don't think it's an overreach.

My wife and I made the same decision. We joke that Octomom had our kids.

8 billion people call Earth home. As another commentor has said, we probably should have half that. Your choice and our choice not to have kids enables that, even if only stupid people reproduce. With how the world is turning out right now, I think we both made the right choice.

Exactly. Any half-way competent Russian commander would steamroll Ukraine because Russia has roughly 10x the GDP as Ukraine (or it did before the invasion, at least), and roughly 4x the population. That Russia has only managed to take a sliver of land on the west side of Ukraine and not the whole country suggests that Russia has dropped the ball in an epic way AND Ukraine has gotten crazy lucky. This war should have been over a long time ago if Russia was 1/10th what we thought it was back in early 2021 before the invasion. That it's not and not only has Ukraine managed to hold Russia off but actually take over Russian territory puts the lie to Russian propaganda that they deserve a seat at the same table as the US and China. As the Infographics Show likes to put it, we thought Russia was the second strongest military in the world. Now we know it's the second strongest military in Ukraine...

No. He's saying that 100% of the personnel ***they had at the start of the war*** are wounded or dead. Bit of a difference! We know Putin has plenty of bodies to throw in this meatgrinder.

I suspect reactionality would prefer that servers be paid like they're paid in Europe and New Zealand and other places -- a living wage without having to rely on the generosity of the customer. And that pay, of course, will be taxed, because taxes are the payment for your government services, and Europeans in particular tend to prefer to have good government services, unlike Americans.

Then you missed an opportunity to justify that opinion.

Germany isn't perfect. Nobody is. But there is no lie that the USA no longer is the bastion of freedom it claimed to be, but is a lot more like 1930s Germany than today's Germany is. Let's talk some facts.

Germany scores 40/40 in terms of political rights, and 55/60 on Civil Liberties. This score matched their 2023 score, and while the 2024 report isn't done yet, we can get a look at 2023's view. Germany collected all available points on the political side of the equation, for its Mixed Proportional Representation system, vibrant political parties, and good political system balance. The areas it gets dinged on include:

• Women are underrepresented in government.

• Non-Native Residents find it hard to become citizens.

• There are concerns about the retention and analysis of data, including possible retributory use that could impact free speech.

• Politically motivated crimes are on the rise.

• While Germany overall is doing a good job on equal rights, Roma and Senti people face discrimination, and women still show an 18% underpayment compared to men.

Perhaps you take exception to 'gave rise to Fascism' and 'unleashed two world wars'? I get you. From a pure factuality standpoint, this statement leaves something to be desired. Germany didn't give rise to Fascism. IMO, that 'honour' goes to Italy. And World War 1 was mostly started by Austria. but let's be clear here. Germany viewed the fight between Austria and Bosnia to be just the opening it needed to take on Russia and France. And World War 2? 100% started by Germany, in their quest to find lebensraum, or living space, while they displaced undesirables like Jews and Slavs. While Italy started Fascism, it was Germany that objectively planned to bring its own brand of fascism globally. Maybe you'd prefer: "The nation that fanned the flames of both world wars, starting one and enlarging the other, and was the largest force for the spread of the toxic ideology of Fascism, has become a global model of democracy"?

I agree with the rest of it, too. The USA has fallen to becoming what we fought against in the 1940s. And Germany may well become what has to fight against to us in the 2030s...

https://youtu.be/UnyBJJI2eqs

Heh, I'm noticing that. For clarification, I'm in the USA.

Man, wouldn't it be nice if our courts would do the same for our far-right leaders?

In the 1930s and 1940s, the previous followers of this blighted ideology made 5 million+ people die in horrifying ways. I'm not keen on finding out how many this current batch of assholes is willing to kill. You try to abduct me or someone I care about, you get a face full of pepper spray, at a minimum. And I'm sure not going to look down on an immigrant or minority shooting down a masked secret police officer or 5. Maybe if they have to put their bodies on the line, the assholes will be less keen on trying to abduct people.

I'm not so sure the alternative of being disappeared into an El Salvedor prison is much better. Besides, it's time for the Fascists to feel the pain. I'm not a firearm carrying sort myself but I do carry a can of pepper gel with me. A gift for anyone who is trying to molest me.

There are also other ways you can resist a Fascist. I have a can of pepper gel I keep on me at all times. Anyone who tries to abduct me and put me in the back of a van, secret police or just random crook, is getting that sprayed in their eyes and mouth. Apply liberally to the face of the leopard trying to eat your face then run.

I advise everyone who is here on a Student Visa or similar circumstance to start carrying, whether it be mace or a firearm. But keep in mind the firearm salesman notes above. They are good ones.

If I were in charge, that's exactly what I would do. "US ICE agents are detaining Canadian citizens at the border. Until and unless US agents stop detaining Canadians at the border and return those they have detained, we are advising Canadian citizens to not travel to the USA." Post it right next to all other Canadian travel advisories.