The police running into the crowd are violent, certainly; as is the white mob. The response to a movement being violent doesn’t make the movement violent, any more than getting mugged makes the victim violent.

I understood US Civil Rights movement to be peaceful, as in the people in the movement did not instigate violence. Calling a protest violent because those in power struck back violently seems nonsensical to me.

Think I missed something - what’s the thing with orcas and billionaires?

I’m just noticing that the / is next to the . on my keyboard…

Did this just start out as a typo?

I don’t! I’m down for storytime!

The problem I see is that I can think of 3 paths forward when 30-40% of the population thinks this way:

1. we can eliminate them from the population through violence, deportation, jail, whatever. That’s the same sort of genocidal behavior we’re objecting to from them, and is a nonstarter

2. we can override their votes, and work hard for generations to keep them suppressed. While more humane than 1, this likely isn’t feasible, and is likely to radicalize them

3. we turn them. Convince them that they were wrong, and bring them around to our way of thinking. This is hard work, but it’s the only stable and humane option I can think of.

So yes, much as it may suck, anything that brings about option 3 is the best action I can see. Including treating MAGA far better than they treat us.

People do unexpected things sometimes, especially kids. Why is anyone allowed to operate a multiton pile of metal when they don’t have a clear view of the space around them?

Lemme try - you drive one of these things up to a streetlight, with a crosswalk. Busy downtown street, large number of pedestrians on the sidewalks. It’s a red light, so you stop and wait for your turn. Plenty of pedestrians make use of the crosswalk.

Now the light turns green. How can you be certain everyone’s cleared the crosswalk, and there’s nobody in front of you? After all, you can’t see the ground for several yards in front of your truck! Can you be certain nobody slipped and fell? No kids got away from their parents? Nobody in a wheelchair is struggling with a pothole? You might be pretty sure you’ve accounted for everyone, but you’re literally risking someone else’s life on this “pretty sure” every time you go through one of these lights!

It’s usually for the kid’s safety. Little kids especially run off sometimes; and while it’d be nice to be able to be a continuously attentive parent, sometimes you need to get shit done out and about while they’re with you. Sometimes they’re fine with just being carried or sitting in a shopping cart, but if not, a leash & harness (usually just integrated into a backpack) lets them wander safely while you take care of what you’re there to do.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid older than 4 or so in one.

Polyamory sounds close; if you presume that the other people would be allowed multiple marriages as well.

Nice, thanks!

It sounds utopian…

Could also just call their character out in whatever post you create, if they can be trusted to stay out then.

I mean, they do keep coming back.

Though in my case, I run a game for a few family members. They have to come back!

I’m curious how old you were when Covid hit? I noticed a similar change somewhere in my early to mid 20s.

Seconding both of those - getting older and having kids both have independently made me more responsive to emotional scenes.

And Bluey and all the Pixar films are good!

Probably due to how I grew up, I don’t often feel like it’s… right? Reasonable? for me to cry for personal things. But I can cry for others, for whatever reason. Showed my kids Pixar’s Up for the first time the other day, and we got to the scene near the end where Carl finds some of the messages his wife left him. My kids are still fairly young, and were trying to figure out what was going on in that scene. They also didn’t understand at first why my voice sounded so weird…

I feel like there’s a term for it, but I can’t recall it now - it seems like after you have kids, emotional impacts in media can also start to hit a lot harder. I’m not sure if there’s some empathetic response that tends to get strengthened or what, but my wife and I both have things we either can’t watch anymore or don’t process the same way. Like, I decided to start rewatching Star Trek: DS9 a few years ago (a year or two into fatherhood) and got wrecked by the scenes in the first episode where the captain relives losing his wife.

It’s not that we don’t want robots doing it - honestly that’d be pretty cool. It’s that we want to be sure the people that are being replaced are being taken care of.

There will always be some jobs. That’s no guarantee that there will be enough jobs for everyone to live modest lives on.