Whoops, you’re right. Sorry, my Canadian is showing. Tbf, American politics has always been a necessary thing to know about here.

Anyone think it’s weird the Republicans would choose an animal associated with Africa and the Indian subcontinent?

The Broligarchy: “Everything.”

Me: Squints Pours glowing demon tanning lotion on ground

Trump: “You dare dispute my rule?! And you would have these… mongrels… come here to die?”

Open Source Metaverse online. Launching Anti-StarLink missiles…

Warning. FOSS Metaverse alternative launch detected.

The Broligarchy: “This was not how it was supposed to be…”

Me: “Times change. But war, war never changes.”

…

“We will never be slaves. But we WILL be online. For the Open Source Metaverse we deserve!”

Anyway, hopefully that’s the real future in some sense. The metaverse is, technologically, in a state resembling 1995’s World Wide Web. We can stop the changes that made social media happen the first time, but that comes at a grave cost of it’s own… Zero tolerance for interference with the FOSS paradigm. This means no censorship even for the most vile of content, and no government authority over online activity ever again. It also means we have less than 150 years to become immortal because having children inherently puts kids at risk of sexual exploitation, so everyone - literally everyone - must be made infertile permanently to make that impossible.

Life extension is actually plausible, and omnispermicide would make denying it a war crime. That is the only fix I can see, but all of you would never pay it. That is why I stopped writing; every goddamn story and society at large championed “anti-escapism” in 2017 and onwards, and I will NEVER forgive you all for that. Fuck reality. I Have No Truth and I Must Dream. I want to die because I hate you all.

Eh, I’ll take it if we’re talking about actual donkeys and not the Republican party of the US. Did you that, in lieu of a dog, a donkey is a perfect way to protect livestock?

I’m serious, a predator should think twice; A donkey can grab a cougar’s tail and literally beat it to death by using the wildcat as a living flail. Very protective.

That’s fair, just realize some of us are tired of online pessimism to such a degree that an AI - telling me there are in fact potential solutions and to keep trying - is actually good for our mental health. I only use Perplexity for research and musings that I sometimes post here to be discussed, not to completely replace human interaction on the Fediverse.

Fortunately, no. But they will probably eat the harmless giant grasshopper-things (wela) that also live in New Zealand backyards.

There’s also giant crickets in Africa, and several giant beetles in Japan. I swear I don’t remember where I learned all this, I’ve never even been to New Zealand or Australia or any of the other places (aside from South America).

Fair enough, but if you’re on the internet post-2017 looking to reduce your stress, you’re in the wrong parts of the internet. Find a forum that’s been around since well before then on your hobbies (niche hobbies like old fandoms tend to have the best results), other than that social media killed the internet.

If they did, this is a f-ing miracle. Imma do it next time I sign up for a service that doesn’t require confirmation emails to change the address (they’re rare but there’s a few, lemmy/kbin instances are sometimes among them).

What about “Our Lives Matter Too” (OTM2)? You’re trying to fight oppression, appealing to empathy should have been the first resort. I know it feels good to prove being black or dark-skinned doesn’t mean you need help, I’ve been there because I have autism and have encountered ableism from people who are supposed to be doctors or nurses, I’m just saying that once the few white people in the civil rights movement left, it lost steam because the opponent was more willing to get other people’s assistance (in bad ways, but they still succeeded and that should have been countered).

For what it’s worth, if a cop pointed a gun at a kid, I’d die to put myself between them before I let him pull the trigger, and if I would be too late, I’d f-ing kill the bastard. Fortunately, I’ve never met a cop willing to do that. I honestly hate it that your country has cops who are willing to do that in the open.

Isn’t that what they did? At least between consenting adults.

Technically, yes. And for a time, it was good.

Then Roe vs. Wade was overturned for no good reason and Trump stole the election last year. The (federal) laws towards gay/lesbian(/etc?) marriage hasn’t changed afaik, but it would surprise me if that is how it is in practice under Teflon Don.

Not bashing anyone, does LGBTQ as an acronym even matter as a whole for marriages as much as for self-expression and mental health? Not in a “LGBTQ is lesser” way, but think about it logically. Asexuals (well, aromantic asexuals) aren’t getting married, they don’t want to. Getting married as transgender should absolutely be legal and legitimate, it’s just that in a marriage, you’re either male or female or (in rare cases) hermaphroditic in a biological, body-focused sense, so your marriage can be gay or lesbian or straight but whether you started out as the gender you currently are should be irrelevant to marriage status as long as the government acknowledges you are your current gender regardless of if you changed your gender.

If you want to normalize this stuff, the best way to do it is to at least recognize nuance and definitions. There are edge cases, those can and should be considered legal too, but as a single asexual person with opinions that contradict both partisan political extremes, if it looks like a fashion statement instead of a call for peace or a demand for true equality, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Of course, now there are bigger issues. Probably better to force Trump off his throne and then never let up the pressure on improving from there.

I mean, you’re both kind of right. I’m no doctor but it seems like something doctors (good doctors, anyway) would seriously consider in regards to this. On the one hand, they’re leaving people to the wolves. On the other, there is nothing you can do in the US if it gets that far that will outweigh the good you can do elsewhere. But then, is that actually true? This isn’t the literal same as WWII, it’s just extremely similar, a pattern we are able to recognize this time around because it happened before and was well-documented. It’s possible that this time, leaving would in fact cause more harm than good. But if you have a family… Well, I can’t blame you for protecting your own kids over your patients and their kids, as long as you don’t throw someone else under the bus.

It’s complicated. When there’s that many variables, all you can do is trust your gut. No one can predict the future that well, if at all.

The giant spiders are Australian. I mean, it’s Australia, everything has two health bars. That said, there is a harmless but creepy-crawly-looking giant grasshopper-looking thing called a giant wētā that - like actual grasshoppers - likes to live in and lay its’ eggs in people’s backyards. Here, educate yourself!

If you hate bugs, I’d recommend heading to South America (make sure to check local political stability of each of the nations) and staying in a city, or heading to northern Canada and buying a tiny shack to ride this all out away from everyone else. Japan is a possibility but… fucking murder hornets. Literally in Tokyo suburbs.

I literally refuse to buy from Wal-Mart because of that shit. Lied to their workers nobody was getting fired or laid off, bullshit.

OG iGeneration, a.k.a “Class of 2008” got fucked harder. Just FYI, since they call us Millennials now for some inexplicable reason.