This is a method that my non-confrontational midwestern mind can work with! Being exceptionally interested and kind to the point that they might realize you’re f-ing with them and don’t actually care at all. Whether or not they realize doesn’t matter because you know.

Similar to when we say “oh that’s interesting,” but actually mean that we don’t give a crap about what you’re saying but don’t want to be rude to your face.

“Common sense is a flower that does not grow in everyone’s garden”

Fair enough. I’m out of the loop these days.

That’s assuming the country providing the “security guarantee” will actually do what they say they will when worse comes to worst. These days, that’s a BIG assumption.

I know that you likely meant “sweety” at the end there, but I really, really enjoyed that it said “sweaty” instead. It just tickled me in the best way.

I had been planning on deleting my… I think 15 year old account? that I haven’t touched since baconreader stopped working but hadn’t pulled the trigger yet because I put so much work into those years of posts. But, you make a good point. I may need it for a thing someday.

They know that we know that they know that we know!

#2. 100%

Tired or not, you’re absolutely right.

Yeah, a LOT of Americans are treating this as business as usual, and it most certainly is not usual. Just because bad leadership has blown over in the past doesn’t mean this is the same thing.

People are not panicking anywhere near the level they should because we need to take care of this NOW. Like now, now. I can’t believe it ever got this far to begin with, but you are 100% right in saying that 4 years is far too long, and by then, it will be too late.

I think it’s more like a sibling that you grew up with who was taught the same moral code as you. They were living a healthy, normal life for a while but got offered a very high paying job that is at odds with those childhood morals. They decided to take it, and at first, they did just a few unethical things. Then, they realized that they could make more money by being more unethical and the people who were supposed to be chastising them were not very good at punishing people with money and were really easy to manipulate, so they leaned in to the lack of ethics.

They know what their doing is hurting people, and they don’t care because they want to drive their Lamborghini to family Christmas and bring an ostentatiously expensive bottle of wine so that people can praise and fawn over them. But, if you call them on their bad behavior, they become enemies because how dare you?! Now we’re the sibling who is powerful but has completely gone awry due to that same power.

I’m hoping we gave a nice family reunion someday where my country has learned the error of its ways and can once again be accepted by its lovely Canadian relatives.

Yeah, me too. I just started on that med, and I found that I have to schedule my meals with reminders and then force myself to eat some of them, or I will go the entire day not remembering/wanting to eat.

My understanding is that when they bite you, they also inject a bit of anticoagulant to prevent clotting as they suck blood out. The foreign material creates an allergic reaction that itches.

I don’t think there would be much of an evolutionary advantage to irritating your victim until they start a pesticidal war against you and your kind.

And in my hair, promptly ripping a chunk of it out of my ponytail.

You’re right; I don’t have to be offended or take it personally. As such, I am neither offended, nor am I taking any of the comments in this thread personally. This is mostly because I’m addressing the issue at hand, not the person involved, so there is nothing to be offended by or about.

My point is that, you’re attacking the person, not their ideas. I get that it’s irritating to have someone question or throw a wrench into a post that was just supposed to be a good-old offensive time. Like I said, I’m no Musk lover, and I enjoy hating on him too - above bar or otherwise. But, OP brings up a good point by saying we should focus on the issues at hand as opposed to attacking what the person looks like. Also, since this is a public thread on Lemmy, if a person is willing to comment, it is obviously assumed that said comment then becomes the business of everyone on Lemmy (and, quite honestly, the entirety of the internet). Otherwise, why post at all? Is discourse not the point of this entire platform?

I don’t think OP is a “fuck head” simply because they want to draw attention to the actual issues instead of being focused on circle-jerking about peoples’ unspecified hate for Musk. I don’t think they are offended by the post, just that we should be a bit better about the focus of our discontent. I get where you’re coming from though, it’s a shitpost community, and circle-jerk hate is very satisfying. As said, I, personally, do enjoy it, but I’m not the greatest human being, and I sometimes like to give in to that less reasonable part of myself. If that’s the kind of thing that you want to post about, that’s fine. Do it! Just don’t be surprised when other people call you out on your logical fallacy. Otherwise, if you think there is no fallacy at play, then you may not actually have any counter-arguments to the ideas and claims that Musk makes, and that is where OP’s concern lies.

You seem like an intelligent person, so I doubt your only reasons for disliking Musk are simply corporeal. I think you should continue to have fun with shitposts like this while OP should continue to draw attention to the fact that, while this feels good, it’s not the actual issue that we’re dealing with, nor does it provide a solution.

I think it’s more about the ad hominem attack. I don’t love Elon Musk by any stretch of the imagination, but I don’t like him because of his ideas, beliefs, and the impact he’s having on my country. It has little to do with how he looks or the shape of his body. It’s his ideas and their implementation that people disagree with in actuality.

Attacking how he looks is just a lazy way of attacking someone without putting in the effort to refute the beliefs and ideas he has. Sensitivity isn’t what is bothering OP. It’s that we’re missing the point by focusing on blind dislike instead of attacking the reasons that generated the dislike.

Americans tend to misunderstand what our version of “free speech” actually means and how it came to be part of our Bill of Rights. People see it as an excuse or opportunity to say whatever they want, but it was created specifically because people in Europe were often imprisoned for speaking out against a king. So it really only applies to the government. You can’t be imprisoned for speaking out against the government unless you are actively threatening imminent harm against specific government officials or spaces. People forget that there are real-world implications to their speech from groups that are not connected to the government. That said, I do see the erosion and dilution of these rights happening through the control of government enterprises and corporate decision-making.

I would also like to believe that unrestricted free speech is great no matter where or how it occurs and no matter who it is directed at. But, as you’ve said, and as I’ve experienced in my lifetime, completely unregulated speech often ends in a lot of undeserved hate toward “unwanted” groups with a lack of thoughtful discussion. I’m still not sure if this is because some groups end up being “louder” in terms of their reach, whether it’s through censorship, popularity, or monetary worth, or if people actually agree at the core of their selves. Either way, hate is a form of control. How dare you be different than the rest of the accepted group?

Truly free speech can only work in a place where the populace is fully educated to the best of their ability and are knowledgable enough to be able to appreciate the struggles of people who come from different circumstances. This is along with the understanding of objective research and its importance. So, I struggle with the concept also. I’m big on the idea that no one should be restricted from access to knowledge and learning, so it’s difficult to simultaneously agree with a lack of acceptance for full expression of the truth as you see it.

Fully free speech can only occur successfully in a place where everyone has equivalent access to opportunities for growth, education, and financial success. In an educated society, free speech should not need indoctrination, control, lies, or exploitation of any group to have an effective discourse. But, I doubt personal self-interest would allow the rise of ideals like this to occur in actuality. There’s always someone who is constantly looking out for what they can gain, control, and manipulate in order to amass as much power as possible. Power is a heady drug, and some people are more susceptible to its charms than others.

So I, too, am on the fence about this issue. I don’t know that we will ever be able to come to a consensus on how to manage it since it is incredibly difficult to weed out the self-interested players. Our solutions thus far have been too simplistic for such a nuanced issue. Atrocities or no atrocities, American concepts of free speech are based in situational history, and due to the understandable skepticism of the colonials, it is metaphorically written in stone in our country. As such, it is both amazing for giving us the ability to condemn and chastise governmental decisions and changes directly and without fear, but it is also terrible because it allows people to use this loophole to exploit their fellow man (i.e. creating said atrocities for money and hiding it under the guise of freedom). Unless the speech meets a very strict and difficult-to-reach specificity or you have little to no money, you basically can get away with whatever.

Society is often caught up in the whirlwind of others’ opinions, and those opinions come from a place with an obvious connection to personal self-interest, so I agree that it should not be the determining factor in this discussion. Inherently, society is going to pick whatever benefits are presented to them directly in the short term, especially if everyone involved is on board. What is good for all doesn’t matter at that point. I appreciate that some still believe in our concept of free speech, but in reality, we’re not reaching the goal that others may think we are. We continue to have the same struggles as we slog through figuring out what free speech truly means in practice.

Please don’t give too much credit to our concept of free speech. Is a beautiful idea that covers up exactly what you forecasted: we are headed down the very road we feared. Hopefully, our constitution can withstand the onslaught, but I don’t have a lot of hope left anymore in our ability to do what’s best for ourselves nationally, locally, or personally. I hope that someday we reach the ideal, but as you said, I’m not sure if it’ll ever be settled.

I think it looks legit. I’ve had several different cheeses that look like this, especially aged ones. Usually, I don’t buy that big of a chunk of the wheel, but it looks right to me.