It was this coalition of big tech companies that blocked Texas SB2420 from going into effect on Jan 1 of this year.

Believe me my dude if they wanted your birthdate they would have gotten it before. Or more likely they already have it without this.

Okay but you could still do step 1 without revealing anything personal. Tell us: what even is a “reason to exist?”

Folks, this is coming from your government. The phone makers want nothing to do with it and are actively fighting it in court as best they can. Switching between phone makers will not help, and is not the right place to put your energy. Address your concerns to your governments.

Yes every single iPhone owner also bought those 🙄

I guess the longstanding assumption is that any media that succeeds must also succeed with porn. It’s been true for every major media technology innovation before from the printing press to VHS. However some may confuse the causal direction of this. Having porn won’t necessarily make something succeed.

Kinda like a 2 stroke engine. The fuel and the exhaust all just mix.

It’s gross, but I can’t see any reason this disqualifies it from being on the tree of life.

Okay, we’re listening. First establish some framework of “reasons to exist” so we understand what that even means, and then tell us yours. Centuries of philosophy haven’t gotten past the first step and you probably won’t either, but I won’t stop you from trying. Okay, go.

I wish capitalism was allowed to operate in its pure form so that people could truly see what things actually cost. Meat and gasoline and corn syrup are so heavily subsidized it’s ridiculous. The amount of blood and treasure we’ve wasted trying to keep gas prices low is similarly ridiculous.

We see this pretty differently. I take the fact that insurance covers chiro to be evidence that insurance doesn’t know what the fuck it’s doing. You assume insurance know what they’re doing and take them as evidence that chiro must have value.

Taking assumptions out of it, what medical literature tells us is that chiropractic can be used to help alleviate lower back pain. This is an incredibly widespread ailment with no hard fix. A chiro adjustment offers a little pain relief. A massage or hypnosis or a blow job would probably perform as well in a blind trial.

What has happened is that a whole universe of quacks has taken advantage of the fact that chiro is unregulated to get all manner of shit paid for by instance. There are chiropractors who will “cure” your allergies by adjusting you back while you hold a bag of weeds, “aligning your energy with the energy of the plant.” And a million other similar quack bullshit things.

So yes, it’s not as if there is no case ever where chiro does anything. It’s probably about half as effective as a single ibuprofen at alleviating back pain. But it has become overwhelmed by quackery and fraud. Please tell me with a straight face that there is no fraud in the medical insurance area. Because that’s kind of what you keep saying. “Well insurance pays for it so that means it must be efficacious!”

The fact that insurance does or doesn’t cover something is not evidence of medical efficaciousness.

I understand chiro quack shit the same way I understand crystals and essential oils quack shit. It’s all just quack shit.

What I don’t understand is why insurance actually pays for chiro, at least sometimes.

Wow there’s a way to prepare for it? Please share the details. I’m still on “stumble out and get blindsided by it all again.”

So swiftness is mentioned twice. I guess it must be pretty important? But if you asked 100 women to speak one adjective they do NOT want in a man, you would hear the word “quick.”

“Bad person” is like a qualification at this point. I’d take JV Dunce over this raging geriatric kleptomaniac paycho and his blitz of nonstop carnage. Seriously, Vance is weak. He will step into Trump’s shoes and promptly begin melting.

Why he gotta speak ill of the potato

Thank you. I am interested to learn more.

“Not learning lessons” is a pretty mild way to put it.

The only way it isn’t pure evil is if we allow that the alcoholic is not in control of their actions. And if we allow that, they cannot be trusted to drive, or really to even have their freedom. They are 5150, plain and simple.

I’m getting a little lost - you said both “social democracy” and “democratic socialism” there. I just want to be sure that was intentional? I’m still a little unclear what the better system’s rules are. I don’t mean to be ungrateful for the explanation, but this section in particular didn’t clear anything up for me:

people can still get rich, own companies, and buy jet skis, but they can’t take a successful company that hundreds of people have helped build and centred their lives around and hand control of it to their unqualified, arrogant, spoiled children to run into the ground

So… okay, but how is this codified in law? No inheriting?

Any reason not to just throw out these terms and talk about it as capitalism vs communism?

Thank you for breaking this down. Would it be fair to say that social democracy on a national scale can still be imperialist but social democracy on a global scale would actually be a good thing? I guess when I see social democracy equated with fascism it leaves me wondering what is actually the better path.