I don’t give a shit what you should or shouldn’t care about.

90% lol you can’t even get 50% to vote

I’ve joked with European friends about how far does the US have to fall before I can claim refugee status. It feels bittersweet to see the joke become a real question.

Next you’re gonna tell me a constitutional monarchy isn’t a centralized government.

Who would have thought a government created in model of a constitutional monarchy would do this?

Oh right, all the people who opposed the US constitution. People forget the Anti Federalists every time.

Really, what don’t those people melt down over. They’re reactionaries, they by essence have to melt down over everything.

That’s not exactly true. While yes, the car isn’t required but there are zoning restrictions on density of housing and mixed use spaces making the car needed to accommodate.

Ironically the ability to not have a car is also flex on wealth in the US because you would have to be able to afford to live and work in a region that is incredibly limited and expensive. In most of the US cars aren’t luxury toys, they’re a needed appliance and many employers will refuse to hire you without one.

Then the laugh track tells you to know it was funny

Ah yes, the American dream.

IQ is a useless data point anyway as even IQ point values have shifted over the past 100-ish years. An average IQ now used to be genius level IQ in the past and it mostly comes down to basic education and not starving.

I’m not in academia, but I’m pretty sure research papers are usually part of the job for many professors, and they are paid for those jobs. Research students get stipends (money) to live off of while doing research and publishing their work. So, money is supporting those efforts as well, right?

You don’t get paid for your research papers being published, it’s required in may fields but it isn’t something you get paid for. Stipends are not money to live off, in most cases you barely get by. So no, money is not supporting those efforts, it’s literally corporations taking the labor of researchers and making money off it.

I’m not in support of having to pay for quality information being the way, but it is the way right now. There are people that refuse to pay for journalism, some saying because it restricts access to quality information to those that can’t afford it, but I posit boycotting paying for journalism is having a net negative effect on quality information getting into anyone’s hands, including those that don’t have the means to pay for it.

Who are you shadowboxing here? I’m simply agreeing that information SHOULD be free and you clearly agree.

That doesn’t really address their point, that’s simply a motte and bailey. Limiting access to information (knowledge/education) on a basis of payment is a hindrance of lower classes not upper classes. We especially see this with academic publishing and the people writing those papers aren’t even paid for it usually.

You shouldn’t have to pay for the journalist or the transmission, similarly to education it is best for a society (especially a democracy) if information is freely accessible regardless of one’s finances.

You might. 🏴‍☠️

United Health has the highest claim denial rate in the US and denies over 30% of claims by people trying to be healthy.

They don’t have to go on lemmy to defend, they just do it and they have let thousands of people die.

I don’t really think it will happen either, it feels like a really poor decision but I thought the same thing about Russia invading Ukraine and that shit still happened.

I’m not sure gallium, germanium, or antimony will play much of a role in inflation as they are not generally in consumer purchases. US inflation is almost entirely from inelastic goods like housing, medical, education, and food. Sure, these will get worse with tariffs but China would have to ban the exportation of their manufactured goods to really impact US prices.

https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/germanium-oxides-and-zirconium-dioxide https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/antimony https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/gallium-germanium-hafnium-indium-niobium-columbium-rhenium-and-vanadium-articles-thereof-unwrought-including-waste-and-scrap-powders

China exported less than a billion dollars worth combined of all these metals, even if you quintupled the price it would still not be enough to meaningfully impact US inflation. Meanwhile, the US imported 8.3 billion dollars worth of steel and mostly from Canada, a country that is being threatened with annexation if it doesn’t make that steel significantly more expensive for US buyers.

Because they voted away the problem in the past right? Hell, it doesn’t even matter that a third of American’s didn’t vote because most of them live in like 4 states. You say that as if it has any real measurable weight when in reality it is a handful of states that had maybe a million or two combined not participate. The type of base you could inspire instead of parading around you’re endorsed by a war criminal.

This has been common for so long and 2020 was a fluke with voter turnout. You’re totally right here, people did just not vote but it’s also a result of not giving people incentives that get them to vote. Voting isn’t really easy in much of the US, especially for those working long hours at the start of the holiday season. Biden ran on stimmy checks and student loan forgiveness, Harris ran on small business tax incentives and building a wall. Just like with plastics, it’s easy to look at individual blame here and get upset with the people who didn’t vote but it’s the system that made them not want to vote.

There’s also the reverse effect where kernel level anticheats provide the illusion of no cheaters so people can cheat more openly without being reported or kicked from the lobby/server like the old days.