Mermadon [she/her]

Sounds almost like a rental pyramid scheme

Stop living outside your means, invest and you'll be fine.

You literally can not do this when you're on such low income that you need food stamps and other assistance just to pay rent and the electricity bills

Dubs are a good thing because not everyone is particularly able to read well, from a variety of reasons from dyslexia to just illiteracy, or just being blind but still liking to listen to movies.

Don't want to post much details on this cause privacy but yesterday a salesman lied to my dad about what a product he was buying came with, opened it later and what do ya know it's a lie. So he tries to return it and at first they try to refuse so he got fucking pissed and had to clearly get super angry before they relented.

I can only imagine how many "Karen" situations online are just some asshole salesman trying to exploit for whatever reason and the shop owner just leaving out important details so that people will agree that they were the ones in the right and not the customer.

It's a far more understandable reaction than the complete sadistic violence you see from Western countries but yeah, I still think it tends to go overboard.

There also seems like there may be issues with lower level officials abusing their power and not enough top down pressure/investigations into this that could be the root of some of the more major problems that did happen.

One of the big issues with these big systems is that it's really difficult to enforce good standards everywhere and you end up with situations where some racist douche volunteers to be in charge and there just isn't any good way to figure it out.

This happens in other nations too. Hell, that whole ICE sterilization crisis here in the US was actually mainly focused around two privately run centers rather than an agency wide policy at the moment. (Not to pretend that the ICE isn't systemically abusive in other ways, just that wasn't actually one of them).

So one of the big things that the "China watchers" haven't really fulfilled is showing that these are real systemic problems encouraged by the government and not just some poorly managed asshole who accidently "loses track" of some people that got sold off into human trafficking instead.

And that's of course, assuming all those accusations are real and not just totally made up which they easily could be considering how little evidence they provide.

We have statistics that show Democrat led states have done better overall than Republican led states. Going just off that, the answer could likely be yes they would have done better.

But that also poses a question, is it the chicken or the egg? Are Democrat governers actually doing anything significantly different on their own, or is it just that their states population was more likely to wear masks and social distance and believe in Covid from the start?

Another big question there of course is whether or not the Dems would have been as hardlined on Covid if they didn't have the GOP opposition. I could totally see a lot of them fapping about going "Well we don't really know yet, don't want to disrupt people" and refusing to make up their minds if they didn't have an enemy to focus that on and paint themselves as opposites of.

Also, we've seen already that even with lockdowns people who want to ignore it will generally just ignore it. Mask mandates have the same thing, people who want to not wear one simply don't and the police (who are anti mask) wont enforce most of this same as most corporations who don't care if they expose their employees or other customers.

Now that's not to say it would have no impact, I'm sure there's quite a few Covid deniers who wear masks just because "obeying the law" is more important to them, but there's still going to be largely significant amounts who don't. Same with how lockdowns do stop people from traveling and going out for business reasons more, even if they're perfectly fine going out to their family or friends or the few open restaurants/stores without any protection or care.

So I think it would certainly be better, but probably still bad enough that we'd remain the laughing stock of the world when it comes to Covid.

Because the capitalists are super logical geniuses who would simply invent it if people wanted it

I just had a nice thin crust alfredo pineapple mushroom pizza, classic cheese pizzas are boring compared to that.

Wait let me ask the victim using my Ouija board who killed them.

What's that, it was my black neighbor who just moved in? We got them boys.

I haven't given mine away, but I'm sure it's been taken.

Well, it's up to her. Cat bird alliance might not end up so well, sorry.

My cat just isn't skilled enough at it, gotta teach her by example.

Honestly I'm against weapons for the average person too. Most people aren't out there shooting up the Bourgeoisie, they're reactionaries just hoping for a moment they can "shoot some thug" for "walking in the neighborhood all suspicious".

Inherently risky buddy. Get shit on your pants and everyone can smell, oh well guess I failed this time.

No, there may be particles that are stuck there which are too small to see but still count towards wiping. Unless you analyze it with a microscope and confirm, it's a wipe. No wipes are meant to be inherently risky, do not subvert the process.

Gosh Cuomo really needed a trump win in 2020 huh, now the house of cards is falling

Honestly I would love to see some sort of multifaceted approach that covers all of these issues at once.

Like put up posters for free cooking classes at soup kitchens, doctors offices and other support agencies and emphasize that there will be a number of different recipes tried. Give out bundles of food as a reward, if you come to our cooking class and say, try out a recipe involving spinach, then we'll give you some of the ingredients to make a meal or two on your own if you want them. Make sure to diversify what is taught. Maybe you don't like spinach no matter how it's used, but this brocolli is delicious to you and you want to learn how to mix it in with your pastas.

And slowly move people into the vegan lifestyle. Don't be afraid or against answering questions that involve incorporating vegetables into meat filled meals. A recipe that is 1 pound beef and the rest is veggies and pasta is still bad, but it's better than 2 pounds of beef and if it gets people to try out foods they wouldn't have normally and slowly move into incorporating them/eating them on their own it's a net positive at the end. That doesn't mean to teach them meat recipes at the classes, but if someone does have a question just answer.

I'd like to bring up something I've said before about Food Trauma and how it can be more difficult than you might expect for a lot of people

I’ve also seen mentioned before about things like “food trauma” wherein people being forced to eat things against their will as a child can often make it difficult for them as an adult. I have an aunt who won’t eat cake or donuts or other “celebration” foods not because she doesn’t like the taste but because she was forced into eating them to “be polite” at other parties by the same father who beat her. It’s a psychological blockage that while it might be possible to get over, is really hard and clearly makes her feel a lot of pain to tackle. And when you look at how parents often handle vegetables when it comes to children, you can probably see how this thing pops up in many adults later on. Veggies are treated as a punishment, not normal food, and you get screamed and spanked if you don’t eat them. Especially for people with other mental issues like those autistic kids (obviously not all autistic people but the ones who are like this) who can only be gotten to eat the most simple foods such as chicken nuggets or mac and cheese.

That’s not to say that we should just shrug and give up on making the world vegan, but rather that we do need to approach it with a caring and understanding attitude as to why it can be so hard for people.

Whilst there are plenty of bullshit excuses people to tend to give for this, it's not as if there isn't some level of reasoning behind people's choices. Many people nowadays don't cook their own foods, they were never taught how and they're frightened to try, so they just buy frozen meals at Walmart and microwave everything, maybe once in a while there's something they might throw into the oven as well but it's very simple instructions of "Set to 350, take off wrapping, cook for 20 minutes, eat" levels of complexity.

Or maybe they just struggle to eat new foods to begin with. I've known a few autistic people who don't try new things, whether they be vegetables or meat products or fruit or whatever. They basically have the same meals planned out every week and that's it. Maybe they can switch up the orders or whatever but for the most part it's within the same group of like 20-30 meals and that's it.

That's not to say it's impossible to get these people switched over. Grocery stores need to provide better access to fresh vegetables, we need education for cooking not just on how, but also helping people get past that initial hurdle, and we need an accepting attitude towards those who have had traumatic experiences being beaten and hit around this, and for the neurallydiverse who struggle with "just swapping over" and slowly introducing new more sustainable and healthy foods into their diets.

I think it depends on what and how much can you avoid/not avoid it. Like the concept of food on its own you have to eat and not everyone has access to a yard they can use as a garden to grow their own food, or time/travel to do it elsewhere. So even the most ethical food you can get within those constraints is still probably done with slave labor at some point of the supply chain.

In a similar sense, in order to function in a modern society you pretty much need some form of computer and smartphone. But you should try to reuse old tech as long as possible and minimize upgrading. If your phone can last 5 years keep it those five, don't just buy the newest and coolest stuff because you're lucky enough to be up in the capitalist system where you can afford to do such. The excuse of necessity doesn't travel far past the necessity part

Only if they don't have a collar! Otherwise you're stealing someone else's free range food and that's not alright.