I disagree that it’s an issue. I believe vast majority of people understand what a tax is, even if they feel taxes are shitty and respond with blame-y frustration. All words will be misunderstood by some people. Sometimes more and sometimes fewer. If we kept changing the name of things because a vocal minority of people can’t read a dictionary, then we will end up with a handful of generic words that don’t actually mean anything. I believe a better solution is to envest in education more broadly.

What do you think he’s doing on his tour?

Agreed. It may be someone spouting propaganda and ultimately a stupid point in context, but it’s still comment with the structure of an argument rather than a plain statement. Draft and not allowing certain demographics to leave are topics worth debating, even if it seems obviously acceptable in this kind of defensive existential situation.

If we want this to be a forum for healthy discussion and debate, it should be moderated in a way that is hopeful for that ideal rather than so fearful of bad actors that it undermines the ideal outright. But I’m not the moderator, maybe they just want a safe space for pro-Ukraine content, which people are in their right to create.

So you would have taken the offer to leave the country for safety and handed the country over Putin, got it.

As a Canadian who generally fits this category, i am fairly privileged, have all my basic needs met and some security for the future under status quo conditions. I have my struggles, but they have not so much to with marginalization or oppression. But it depends on who you are. Indigenous women are still going missing, racists are still gonna racist, billionaires are still exploiting people struggling with food and housing security, etc. same goes for the USA. For millions of Americans who are upper-middle/upper class, heteronormative, and white, life is continuing on just fine, feeling safe and experiencing a government that functions as well as it ever has from their perspective. They’re too busy living their lives to get caught up in the “noise of angry squabbling of childish politicians”. Maybe expenses have gone up, but they can still sustain all their expectations out of life. He’ll you can imagine there are a not insignificant proportion of the Russian population are like this.

Wheels.

That’s 31.6% of eligible voters 46% of eligible voters may not have actively wanted it, but they were okay enough with it to not bother voting against it.

I know that the people who love you will miss you.

Yes… that’s why they use the word “could”. This is how research works and what reasonable science reporting looks like. There were no promises or wild claims made in the article.

It’s hyperbole for effect.

It’s like “fuck”, it means several different things depending on context.

For example, there’s also the meaning of lamenting that people seem too cavalier, ignorant, or dismissive of something you feel is important.

But you’re right, the meaning in context is sometimes unclear and there are better ways to communicate your feelings.

As for responses, you could always go with a polite “What do you mean?”

Oh it’s a complete ghost town. Absolutely useless as actual social media. I suppose you could try starring/favoriting all your friends lol…

Sometimes the “realism” critique is certainly pedantic and unproductive, but other times what’s really meant is contradiction. Situations should make sense within the fictional world. And in the fictional world of DC, norms around politics and economics are portrayed to be analogous to western neoliberalism with capitalism assumed and unquestioned. So with the Wayne family being a relatively well-regarded billionaire family like the Gates or the Buffets, there is still the issue that it is clear under the current system and that portrayed in DC universe that such wealth cannot be accumulated and sustained without massive exploitation of working class people somewhere along the line. So billionaire + “good guy” starts to become more of a glaring contradiction even in DC. But sure, we can explain it away as fiction with magically ethical capitalists. The interesting thing about the billionaire Wayne discussion though, is when people apply this fictional view of capitalism to how they interpret the real world. And now we’re back to propaganda.

What I would say that sets West Wing and B99 apart is sometimes there’s a tonal difference or way in which certain themes are handled/portrayed that signals to the viewer that the writers acknowledge this isn’t what real life is like but we hope one day we can get there. And it’s a spectrum right. Some do this to varying degrees, other more propagandistic media do not.

I tend to lump it in with The West Wing as idealistic wish fulfilment of how we’d like things to be, or a picture of our human potential.

Exactly, if we let more people die during the pandemic, workers would have more jobs to choose from and less family to take care of. /SARCASM

How was DEI not politicized from the very beginning? It was literally born out of the civil rights movement.

The other option is “women”

Assuming you’re coming from a place of arguing in good faith, you raise an important point. We must always scrutinize the alignment of our means with the ideals of our ends. And in war, even with a just cause of repelling invaders and securing a people’s future, there is a spectrum of injustice against their people that leaders must weigh against achieving these goals. Conscription is a good example of this. War makes monsters of even the most well intentioned. However, we must consider the alternatives that appeal most to us with equal scrutiny, using history as our guide. If Zelensky surrendered at the very outset, it would have avoided this particular bloody war, but what injustice would it have incurred for the Ukranian people? If Zelensky sued for peace terms and conceded territory 2 years ago instead of leaning into conscription, what harms does it risk for the Ukranian people and their long term security using Crimea as an example? I am not qualified to say what are better choices. I just know that when a superior force invades you, the grim situation that results means that any choice you make as a leader will involve harm to your people.

Yes, we are in agreement on the outlook. As they’ve been saying in Ukraine, “The situation is grim”. My point was more about continuing to fight on all fronts, including the political/legislative fronts.

There are people in Congress who want that and are exactly working towards that. It isn’t lost yet, and they are not giving it up without a fight.