No such luck, I’m afraid

Would have been standard fare in Sweden until recently, but that’s obviously an outlier

Surely, this depends a lot on what market you’re in. If you’re in a very expensive area and need to take a big loan with a high fixed rate, I can see that being the case but renting the equivalent place would probably be extremely expensive too.

In Europe, when something like this happens, everyone’s on the streets and there are strikes everywhere.

This is not true, most major European countries have a growing Trump like movement and they’re steadily gaining ground. Consider France, the country most notorious for its protests, the left there does like the Americans – keep voting for their version of the Democrats only to get burned over and over in Parliament. In many spaces, European countries do not have as good protection for individual liberties and even social democratic governments are fine with doing things that are sometimes on par with the Trump regime (albeit not being as gauche, lawless and explicitly cruel about it). For instance, the EU is trying to mandate that pretty much all digital communication is put under AI based surveillance (under the guise of tracking down pedos) – the movement against this is very fringe even though it affects everyone. You should also keep in mind that European leaders, all over the spectrum, are blindly caving to Trump whenever he exerts any form of pressure.

In summary, many of us in Europe are better off in terms of not yet living under a creeping autocracy that has become void of any credible democratic influence for the populace. But it’s slipping here too, heading in the same direction, and by and large the general public is not really paying attention.

The greatest evil obviously is limiting the choices to evil – some pure satan shit right there

From an individual health perspective that makes sense, but not worrying about the extreme proliferation of plastic an unknown effects of bioaccumulation is probably really dumb on a societal level (and not worrying is clearly the path all or most developed countries have doubled down on).

What happens in 2028 exactly?

Everything that’s happened in the since around 1900 is an extreme outlier in the history of humanity. Nothing’s been normal.

If we’re strict, being right is always being right. If we’re not strict, wouldn’t that imply that being wrong “for the right reasons” is being right?

Since definitions are not facts, the word factoid itself being a factoid is a factoid

Only you are talking about inside the US.

Works two ways, incentive for SCOTUS to rule in his favor and a reason for him to ignore their decision if they don’t.

Extra judicial killings are bread and butter for US presidents, made really popular by Obama.

This is of course fucked, but there are clear precedents for presidents killing any one, including US citizens, they name a terrorist.

I didn’t even realize I was doing therapy, you inbred fucking idiot

Thank you for this thought through response. I’ve been meaning to get back to it sooner, but I have been very tired after work and not feeling I have the bandwith the matter deserves. I’m afraid this might not be the evening either, but I found it rude to not respond at all.

One caveat I’d like to enter into the wider discussion is that the distinction between “acting” and “talking” is often more tenuous than either of us have acknowledged thus far.

Either way, to the point where you say we differ most, i.e. “but first people need to realize the switch is even there”. From my perspective, what I fail to understand is when you would consider that condition met. Should action be deferred until there’s a perfect consensus or at what point do you envision that enough people have come to that realization? Do you consider people embracing ideas like this to be likely to happen, considering real world conditions? Both genuine questions, not rhetorical.

I too am a believer that it is perfectly possible for humans to live good lives outside of the (selectively available) exesses of the fossil fuel paradigm. But I also think it’s evident that paradigm will only come to an end through either a decisive and global shift of our collective lifestyles and economies or through the looming risk of societal collapse. At this rate, my frustration is that collapse will come knocking before we’re done talking. I’m not as optimistic as you, that we can figure it out, let cooler heads prevail and do things perfectly and achieve a smooth transition. I think it’s worth considering that we might stand to lose a lot, whether we commit to change or not; one thing that sometimes get glossed over about fossil fues is that they’re damn near magical in terms of what they have enabled us to do.

Maybe we mostly differ in outlook, not predominantly in what we hope for. Because I sure do hope your more optimistic takes prove right.

My apologies for the jumbled and poorly proof-read stream of concioussness, I really need to go to sleep now.

In the first panel both are, somewhat vapidly, disagreeing based on their respective perspectives on objective reality (vapid because they both fail to see that it very clearly is a curled up sperm!)

In the second panel, one has broken with reality and the other is unwavering in their obsession with an out of scope issue. Meanwhile, the third: the artist or the viewer that shares neither perspective, is alienated because the plainly visible sperm doesn’t even matter anymore.

It’s not about whether they agree about anything. It’s about sperm.

It’s 11.11 here, is that supposed to mean something?

Yeah, hoping some German can shed some light on whether those two things can be illegal to say to a cop in that context – seems wild to me.

I’ve yet to try an alcohol free wine I’ve liked, a lot more alcohol to replace than beer, I guess. Also don’t see the point with wine. Alcohol free beer is nice as a fizzy beverage that isn’t sugary.

Espresso Tonic is my favorite “cocktail”, it’s just tonic and a shot of espresso. Terrible for those that don’t like bitterness though.