Hi! I am from Canada. A large portion of our taxpayers hate public servants and describe them as lazy, entitled, and incompetent. I have worked in both the public and private sector. My impression is that the public service is mostly filled with idealistic, dedicated people who could make more money in the private sector but choose to work for the public service because they believe in good government. Many of them work very hard, even without pressure from their supervisors. There are, as you say, rotten apples - but they are a small minority.

I think that attacks on the public service are right-wing attempts to undermine faith in government - they are trying to promote privatization (which benefits private corporations at the expense of the public) and cuts to social programs (in order to reduce the tax burden of the rich).

Please, no! Right now it just says “Hooray, Trump is fucking …”

I am embroidering a banner that says “Hooray! Trump is fucking dead!!!” I have several days of work to go, so please hold on until Tuesday, Donnie.

Detective Stringer doesn’t watch the news.

Key facts, sure. If you don’t know geography, no amount of reflection can provide you with the location of Hong Kong.

However, i can figure out anything on the 12x12 timestable in a few seconds, no memorization needed. I don’t even need the landmark numbers that i mentioned because multiplication is just repeated addition. The only things i had to memorize were the numerals and the operators.

I also just work it out in my head. There are certain “landmark” numbers and tricks that I use to save time. For example, 9 times any number is easy: multiply by 10 and subtract once. x11 is similar. Same with anything close to a perfect square. (7 x 8 = 7 x 7 + 7)

I think that memorization was important to achieve speed before phones/calculators. Nowadays, I would consider memorization an obstacle to understanding.

GenX here. I wanted to reassure you that it didn’t come naturally to me and i grew up when this was still taught in school. The real answer is practice. Read a clock several times a day for a few weeks. Take a moment to think about the mintue hand. Is it about 2/5 of the way to the next digit? 3/5? After a while, you won’t have to think. You will just recognize.

Right? In a way, though, i do kinda care: if Putin says it is bad, it’s probably good.

Every word is made up. The fact that, centuries ago, the word solipsism was brand new did not detract from its value.

Having personally felt the sensation that is now called sonder, i am happy that someone coined a word to describe it. Like solipsism, sonder relates to theory of mind, and now theorists in that field have a concise tool to refer to something that used to take a couple of sentences to describe.

Without neologisms, a language is dead.

It’s like they asked the surgeon to align their looks with their inner beauty. If that was the objective, the surgery was a perfect success.

Yeah, really. He’s not fit to chair a bake sale committee.

If I am not in a position to give i look the person in the eye, smile apologetically and say, “no, sorry.” I try not to ignore them and i am never rude. No one has ever reacted badly.

It used to be the people’s responsibility to hold politicians to account. Nixon didn’t resign because he felt bad - he resigned because his support collapsed. If you voted for a congressman or senator who refused to impeach Trump, you voted for making politicians above the law.

Phew. Good thing Trump won and the genocide ended.

Truly. It’s like having to choose between a punch in the mouth or having your skin shredded off with a cheese grater.

Like, i don’t want either of those things. Someone please choose for me.

How naive do you have to be to think that a kick in the pants is the same as an atomic explosion?

Yes, democrats favor the rich. Where were the prison camps under Biden? How many universities did Biden bully into silence? How many media corporations did Biden sue into obedience? How many allies did Biden actively threaten? How many bribes did Biden openly and publicly accept? How many women did Biden sexually assault (or brag about assaulting)?

Get the fuck out of here with your both sides bullshit. If you know how to use a dictionary, look up “manichaen” and think about how it applies to your politics, you absolute idiot.

So you go to the pharmacy and they give you a pile of adderal and, like $2000? Way better than socialism.

If y’all thought you had an illegal immigrant problem before, lemme tell ya…

Dear Daily Beast:

Please pause all Trump Approval Rating articles until his approval hits Ceaucescu levels.

Then, by all means, loop me in! Live coverage would be best.

Sincerely, Every person who didn’t vote for Trump

This is crazy, but i read the news on paper. I have a couple of subscriptions to magazines with good reporting, but you could also hit up your library to read for free. For one thing, print journalism is a lot more in-depth and balanced than the outrage-mill crap i find online.

On Lemmy i read headlines only in case something happens that i stay current, but i rarely read a whole article. This contains my news consumption to a small portion of my day.

Plus, Trump says 64 stupid lthings a week. I read all 64 in 1 hour each week and get it over with, instead of poisoning myself with it several times a day.

Canada, too. For the last two years, Canada has entrusted sensitive statistical information to Microsoft. We should be treating MS with the same skepticism we currently reserve for Huawei.