I have never been able to read a book on a computer. It just feels completely unnatural, even though I read a ton of articles, forum posts, manuals, etc. on my phone or computer. Not a peasant because they could historically usually not read let alone afford a book, but I do love actual physical books.

Selective hearing probably

Thanks for the insight, grok

Pay and conditions were not destroyed because of immigrants, but are a side effect of globalization. Production facilities were offshored, leading to a collapse of local manufacturing and low skill jobs (where no prior education is required, low skill jobs can and sometimes do require a lot of skill). Reshoring those jobs is incredibly difficult because it also means reconfiguring the supply lines. For urban areas this is not a huge issue, as those can switch to a service based economy, but for small towns this often meant that the main economic driver of the town left and people lost jobs.

Anyway, not caused by immigration. As a matter of fact, immigrants are a significant driver of economic activity and partly offset that.

I’m very patient

I would play that

I always thought those scifi stories where companies basically rule everything were overblown, but you just see it changing to that in real time.

That’s an EU regulation, not a corporate measure. And it has drastically decreased the amount of littered bottle caps, so a good thing.

I think you have lost all sense of how much a billion is from it being thrown around so much. 5.5 billion is an enormous sum of money. Think of how much 1 million is, then imagine spending that 5500 times. It’s an obscene amount. Sure, some people have more wealth than that, but it’s still an absurdly large amount.

You pronounce it as “flet” because it’s a combination of f, L, t and E. And if you think that’s ridiculous, wait until you hear about the British Imperial system.

Dolphins will get high on poisonous fish and pass those around like a blunt.

We have blackbirds in our garden and I swear that I have seen the females shout at their lazy ass husband several times. They will tweet angrily, fly after them, hop after them, pull feathers from their tails and whatnot. True drama every time.

The cries for violence here are quite disgusting. I understand our American friends are frustrated, but violence is only going to get you killed. The police in the US have been receiving military gear for decades now. If you want violence, you will get it.

Then there are some major misconceptions about the 3.5% rule. That is for persistent non-violent protests. Week in, week out, for months at a time, before this yields results. Violent protests drive away many of the people you need on board to achieve genuine change and make it exponentially harder to get to your 3.5%. Try getting a grandma or a family with kids to join when molotov cocktails are being thrown around.

So for everyone here calling for violence, you are idiots and you won’t achieve a damn thing.

There will never be a time where truth does not matter, whether you believe it does or not.

4 as my shoulder and neck hurt a bit.

The front of my car is pretty splattered with bug remains.