Are you suggesting there should be a statute of limitations for statutory rape/abuse of a minor, esp from a person in a position of authority and a religious/community leader. Would you want someone with that kind of power/influence to have no kind of public accountability? Should people like that be able to just wait out the clock and get away with it? I’m not sure I’d want to have to wonder if my community leader got away with something like this due to a technicality [or because they were able to successfully intimate, bribe, or otherwise dissuade a victim from going public]. I’d want to know that the proper checks and balances are in place to keep the public safe from someone who would take advantage of a child in this way. And I’d wonder and be concerned about anyone who doesn’t want that.

Honestly, for the person I responded to, doing literally nothing would have been better. I’m not suggesting we give people cookies for changing their minds [or whatever]. I’m just saying that being unconstructively critical is actively pushing against the kind of change and progress I would assume someone taking the position they are taking would want. Unless that’s not the objective and they are in fact trying to maintain the divide. That is possible. But assuming everyone is a bot or astroturfer is no way to live. Not hitting Post is always an option.

I think community organizing is the key. Whether it is direct participation, or supporting local/independent initiatives, or trying to influence the established parties in your area. The bad actors thrive on division, misinformation, inaction, and apathy. And the common refrain is that people don’t have the resources, time or bandwidth to educate themselves or to contribute. More people need to see the redistribution of wealth upwards as a form of control. Measures that erode workers rights, equality, etc. further disempowers anyone not in the upper echelons [even those in the upper class but not in the ruling class]. We need to be willing to make sacrifices/concessions if it will benefit those with fewer advantages than ourselves specifically because they make up the foundations that allow us to exist as high up the chain as we currently are [even if that doesn’t feel very high]

Given what they said regarding disagreeing with Trump’s current actions, why did you feel like your response was the best way to engage?
After the repeated examples over the last decade, I think everyone in the world should have learned by now that shame, aggression, and shade dripping with schadenfreude doesn’t change opinions or actions.
If you are truly concerned about making things worse for others, you might want to examine the way you interact with other human beings. Because the short term dopamine isn’t worth contributing to the division that’s been made worse by targeted, algorithmic influence.
We are all being fed a curated version of reality designed to appeal to our biases and stoke fear and outrage. I think we need to learn to show some grace to people who we don’t fully agree with, who are trying to reach across the divide, and who might be coming to terms with the ways in which they may have been misled or caught up in an enticing movement.
And I’m not saying this is easy. It certainly isn’t satisfying. I love barbed and bitter witicisms. Being shitty to someone who I feel deserves it scratches this itch in my brain that I am neither proud of, nor can deny. But it’s also the definition of being selfish, since it helps no one. So idk, you do you I guess?

In this economy?

The problem with “they’re just incompetent”, is that it let’s malicious people feign stupidity. And if it is a combination, it doesn’t matter which aspects are one or the other. They are dangerous all the same and shouldn’t be allowed to continue hurting people. But a combination of apathy, indoctrination, and infiltration means they’ll likely never see any real consequences. Or if they do, they were likely expendable and their excision doesn’t accomplish anything. People need to, at a minimum, vote. And preferably get more involved. Organize. Start local.

More of them, but no plan or resources towards maintaining them

Aristocrats!

I think that way of thinking is why it is so difficult to deal with colonialism. We can commit atrocities, and as long at the people who committed them have died of old age, their descendants are free and clear. I don’t really know where ixstand on this. But I can’t not acknowledge that I have benefited from the misery of others. Whether it is slave wage labor, the crimes against indigenous peoples, patriarchy, or these proxy wars around the world. I think that pushing back against these injustices when seeing the harm it is causes makes obvious sense. But I think it also makes sense to do it selfishly. These people are making us culpable. Doesn’t matter if it was someone we voted for who made these decisions, or even if it’s someone we didn’t vote for. These decisions are being made in our names and with our money. Idk man. Shit’s complicated

And let’s not fool ourselves. I’m sure that at least some, if not most, of these signatories aren’t doing this out of some altruistic streak. Doesn’t take morals to see that we’re headed for class war. That or economic collapse. They are giving up some money/power/control so they don’t risk losing it all.

Look at the US. They thought there were all these rules restricting a variety of things relating to governmental powers. Trump ignored a bunch of them, and it turns out there weren’t laws in place to prevent or enforce repercussions. Just conventions that most politicians abided by. Now they’ve got that cluster fuck. Or more directly related, there were laws regulating the stock market. Those regulations have been eroded over time by those who would benefit. We let them, and now inequality is off the charts. Systems this big and intertwined need structure. You can argue about whether you want it centralized or decentralized, but it needs structure. Letting people decide what is right for themselves leads to what we have now. Those with money have the power, and they are free to keep taking from those at the bottom.

Because capitalism.
The less glib answer, though a bit of an over simplification, is that the current trend of neoliberalism discourages self limitation and collective collaboration. If regulation is not put in place and enforced by forces (government, social contract, etc) then people are incentivize to push and make use of any advantage available. Not doing it risks being displaced by those who do. Competition becomes toxic and self perpetuating

Defining it as a feature would dispel the myth of there being an ethical way to incarcerate/indefinitely detain people. The “bad apples” argument tries to put forward an idea that something bad is actually fine. It’s only bad in ‘this instance’ because these people are bad/immoral/incompetent.

Sounds like she could do with more bran in her diet >_>

I get what you’re saying. And might even agree with elements. But it is easy to say it’s futile to fight when you aren’t in a position to need to. Doing nothing in this case means resigning not just yourself to being under their oppression, and not even just your friends and family. It is resigning your entire culture to a slow painful death by attrition. They are losing more and more land, rights, and any hope of progress. Like… if someone is strangling you, do you fight back, or just resign yourself to it? And that’s before we even get into the fact that those complying and not fighting are still being killed. Those not fighting and wanting to leave were lured to slaughter. Not fighting is an illusory choice.

This response feels like it was written by AI. Or maybe someone who has indulged in psychedelics too much and too frequently to be able to communicate ideas in a clear or concise manner.

Some people act like non-monogamy is easy. That it’s just cheating or promiscuity disguised. But, if you’re doing it right, it requires emotional intelligence and endurance, the self knowledge to be able to set good boundaries and the maturity and empathy to respect others’. It requires a good amount of time, effort, and resources. Negotiating schedules, balancing the needs and wants of each involved, etc. Even those who do it selfishly (or worst case, abusively) would need to expend energy hiding their ways from the community at large (which honestly seems more exhausting). And it’s not like monogamy let’s you avoid those types of people.

You just gotta take that line of thought one step further. I believe in you.

I bought a soda stream and will cycle through various things to flavor it. My two go-tos are orange juice and mango juice. And I usually just put a splash of it on top. Maybe 1/10.

How do you feel about drinks like Bubly?