To add to Wolf’s really well thought out and written post, as kids a ringing phone was something you were expected to answer. Voice mail and caller ID were common by 2000 to the point of being essentially everywhere, but not everybody had it before then and that meant that if the phone rang, you HAD to pick it up. The only way to avoid it was to not be home.

Then when cell phones happened, as Wolf already said, Millennials had them so parents could keep track of you even when you weren’t at home and calls were pricey enough that they were really for emergencies only, not for talking with friends, so they were just another leash for helicopter parents to control their kids with, like putting gps trackers on kids’ cars nowadays. They weren’t even smart phones at that point, so all they could really do was call or text.

And then jobs started expecting you to be available in your off time. You know the meme about Americans being available out of the office by cell phone during surgery? That exists because there was a period where bosses everywhere expected to be able to call you at all hours of the day to check your email or answer questions and work unpaid. It’s gotten better now to some degree, but it’s still definitely a cultural thing. I’ve heard plenty of people complaining about getting a call from their boss asking them to come in on their day off.

There was a short period of time where phones were cool and people did stuff like make custom ringtones, but I’ve had enough spam calls wake me up at 4am, people calling and “ruining the mood” with a gf or whatever, and even getting called by a parent who threatened to call 911 on me because I didn’t respond to their text within 10 minutes that a ringing phone does nothing but piss me off now. I’ve heard that Gen Z/Alpha just permanently leave their phones on silent, and I completely get it. The act of privacy of simply being unreachable is lost in today’s world.

One can only hope. I’m sure some people will happily sign up thinking that the leopards won’t eat their faces.

Funny, I remember Florida running into a similar issue a few years ago when DeSantis passed that law making it illegal for migrant workers/immigrants to drive or for US citizens to drive them.

Houses left to rot as workers fled the state and supply chains disrupted as freight trucks refused to enter the state and simply dumped their loads at the border.

I never did hear how that worked out for them, but I imagine they quietly walked back that law and pretended that it never happened.

My bet’s on Long COVID. It’s been connected to so many other random medical issues popping up (including diabetes, low sperm counts, and early onset Alzheimers IIRC) that it may as well be connected to ass cancer as well.

I’ve never used it myself, I use UBO as well, but I’ve heard about it before and brought it up because it sounds like it does what the OP was talking about but for ads instead of social media.

That’s the one, thanks.

You guys are watching ads?

Sounds like that alternative to Ublock that I can’t think of the name of right now that not only blocks ads but also gives a click-through input to every single one, poisoning any ad metrics for the ads as well as any targeted ad profiling on you.

A plastic shell could be even worse, too. Using plastic and glass for shrapnel (I think ceramic as well?) is considered a war crime because they don’t show up on x-rays, which makes it very hard to find - practically impossible in the case of small glass shards.

It’s a word, with a specific meaning. It was created to describe the sexist act of a man explaining something to a woman who either already knows, or is an expert in that field, as if she isn’t smart enough to understand the subject. And frequently when a man is confidently wrong on the subject in question.

Without that sexist connotation, it’s not “mansplaining.” It’s just being condescending. Like you.

Since you have the help of a therapist, you should use them as a resource to help formulate any plans and put them into motion. Therapists aren’t just there to talk to, they’re good for sound boarding ideas like this off of because they have access to resources that other people might not necessarily have. A therapist’s word or signature can get you access to medical care or services that would otherwise be more difficult to get, and they know the ins and outs of systems like social security or aid programs. Their job is to help you, and by telling them straight up that you need help getting a plan together to get out of your living situation they can focus on that.

In the short term, I would recommend putting together a “bug out” bag that you can stash somewhere safe in case you need to leave quickly. Ideally, you should have copies of important documents such as social security cards and stuff that you might not be able to go back for later, but it should at least be just enough stuff to get you by for a couple of days if you need to drop everything and leave. Stuff like a change of clothes, a water bottle, and some cash.

Did you just assume their gender over a comment explaining the details of an attempted smear campaign that many people have probably forgotten about?

So much for the tolerant left.

I really think the argument that “people who go into stores are the reason the store is open” is kind of dumb.

The reason the store is open is because the owners want to make more money, and they think they can do that by staying open.

Okay, hear me out. I know this sounds crazy, but if the owner wants to make money, they do so when people come into the store and purchase things.

So if people didn’t come into the store, then they wouldn’t purchase things, right?

So if there’s nobody purchasing things, the store isn’t making money. Which means that if there’s a reason that people aren’t coming into the store and spending money, the owners of the stores will possibly try to avoid wasting money by being open. Not instantly, of course, but over time - say, the course of a year - a pattern showing a lack of customers because of a specific cause will make a business reconsider their policy if it impacts their bottom line.

I grew up in a tourist town, and outside of 3 months of the year 50% of businesses were closed. And probably 25% reduced the hours that they’re open. Because no tourists meant fewer customers and who cares about the locals. It was cheaper to close and for the owners to go to their second houses in Florida for the winter than stay open all year. But I knew of 1 restaurant that expected the entire staff to be there regardless of the weather - rain, snow, or shine. One time the owner was going to let his staff go home because of a blizzard so bad that the state declared a state of emergency and was closing down the roads, and some guy came in for dinner. And this was in New England, so we’re talking snow accumulation measured in inches per hour and whiteout conditions - not some southern state where an inch of snow grinds everything to a halt. The entire staff had to risk being snowed in at work and unable to get home until the state got the snow cleared because 1 guy decided to go out in a once in a decade winter storm.

This isn’t a “grrr, Russians r bad and evil 😡 USA number 1! 😲🥵🍆💦” statement, it’s a “we know he’s on one payroll, but just exactly how many is he really on” statement. Because it’s been known for ages that he has connections to Russian organized crime. The FBI has been trying to get charges to stick on it since the 80s.

They own a lot of Trump property and he’s been given tons of “gifts” by them over the years - including boats, airplanes, and cars. It’s believed that a lot of his failed businesses were money laundering schemes for Russian crime syndicates (every single one of his businesses except his father’s real estate empire have gone bankrupt). How else do you explain bankrupting not just one, but two casinos? They’re practically designed to print money! And then there was the whole “Trump Beauty Pageant” thing. You know, the one where he would fly around the country in his private jet, just him and a bunch of underage girls. Oh, and Jeffrey Epstein. I almost forgot that he went along for the rides, too. Can’t forget that his favorite part was “when he would open the door on the girls while they were in the dressing room getting ready.”

Anyway, getting a bit off topic there. Not only would it benefit Russia to have an egomaniac leading the country (don’t correct your enemy while they’re making a mistake and all that), but it would be of great use to have a man willing to smuggle confidential documents to Mar A Lago and sell them for the right price in that seat.

The one thing that I disagree with is that most people don’t care about AI being shoved into everything. Studies are consistently showing that the vast majority of people don’t use/hate AI being shoved into everything. 80% of phones users in one study, 90% on another study for DuckDuckGo IIRC, etc.

Guns McGee, who has a bed made of 10,000 AK-47s with 20 more hidden underneath it, is a statistical outlier and should not have been counted.

The average American owns roughly 1.5 guns, with 40-50% of all households owning at least one gun. Of those households, those who own 2 or more guns account for about 89% of all guns in the US. (Fucking absurd)

Too bad the half of Americans with too many guns and not enough common sense are the ones who love fascism. Of course, if they had more common sense, they’d probably have less guns. A real catch-22 there…

Transgender rights

You mean the rights that largely don’t exist in half of the US?

As of July 2025, 40.1% or 120,400 trans youth aged 13-17 are living in the 27 states that have passed bans on gender-affirming care. This includes 2,300 youth living in the two states–Arkansas and Montana–where bans are currently on hold or blocked from enforcement through court orders.

While our map focuses solely on high school-aged youth (age 13-17), some states, such as Oklahoma, Texas, and South Carolina, have considered banning care for transgender people up to 26 years of age. Additionally, several states prohibit public funds from being used to provide transgender health care for anyone, so adults are also unable to access critical health services if they receive their healthcare through Medicaid, if they work in the public sector, or are incarcerated.

Trans people were already reporting their identifying documents like passports, birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and social security cards were being confiscated in the period after the election and before Trump got into office.

We haven’t “won” trans rights, we’ve only had them because the fascists hadn’t yet gotten around to destroying them. Violence in one form or another is a requirement for successful change, whether that violence be economic or otherwise. The oppressor isn’t going to give you justice simply because you demand it. It wasn’t until after MLK was murdered and billions of dollars in property damage were done that Civil Rights were drafted, voted on, and signed into law - one week of rioting after his death.

So it’s like the Meta-verse, but somehow even worse.

I’ve heard basically the same story before from a local incident, but with the added bonus of the other side: they used a metal bat and the kid dislocated his arm and was almost pulled right out of the car.

Can they, though? How many of them actually changed, and how many simply went into hiding?

One of the biggest issues that led us to this point was the tolerance of the racist uncle, the antisemitic grandfather just because “he’s from a different time” or whatever. Many of these people never changed, we just started accepting it when it was couched in the right social rules.

It’s well known that Trump grew up around former Nazis and active white supremacists. His family’s culture growing up was steeped in it.

One of the things about cults is that followers fall into a sunk cost fallacy that means that the longer they’ve been a member and the deeper in they are, the harder they are to get out until there’s a line beyond which it becomes basically impossible. Because to admit they were wrong is to admit that their beliefs were wrong, that their actions weren’t justified, and that they’re not the good person that they think they are.