I kind of get it in cases where no one has commented yet, and the OP realizes a mistake or how stupid a question it is. But once there’s engagement, I wish the OP would leave it up.

I’ve noticed this a lot lately: I’ll comment, my comment will get engagement, so I’ll check the thread again to reply or read other comments, do that, then come back later to follow up again, and it’s all been deleted. Like, even if the original post was stupid or embarrassing, the fact that there was genuine engagement, to me, means it shouldn’t be deleted.

But again, I understand the anxiety of leaving your own stupid words up if they really bother you, so I won’t lose sleep over this.

Yeah, I wouldn’t say he’s a pressing problem, but he’s also not part of any active solutions or any meaningful movements so it’s time for him to go.

I totally agree that term limits would solve many of these issues.

It’s about damn time. This guy is one of the least compelling Democratic senators and has been way too comfortable with his incumbency. It’s a good sign that he finally sees the writing on the wall. I hope more of the geriatric ruling class is able to recognize reality like this, and step aside before being primaried by younger more competent candidates who are actually willing to fight.

That’s great, really. But I still find it a bit ironic for federal prosecutors to take a stand on refusing to admit something they don’t want to admit, when that’s what they force most of the people they prosecute to do. Plea or rot in jail is their go-to strategy…

Still the right decision, but these are not heroes…just people who made the right call for a change.

You’re not paranoid, it’s a real pattern, and that pattern is racism. Some white people, in their wildest dreams, can’t imagine how a person of color might get a role instead of a white person. It’s not about skill, it’s not about creativity, it’s not about the quality of the film. It’s just blatant racism.

Remember how the little mermaid live action movie started getting shit before it was even released? That was because the lead actor was black, and peoples’ imaginations are so underdeveloped that they couldn’t see that she is legitimately an amazing talent who played the role just as well if not better than any white lady could have. Now, live action Disney remakes are stupid, so maybe that’s not the best example, but it’s all just racism.

Oh, we must.

If I had to choose between those options, I’d eat them slowly throughout the day.

But in reality, it’s two sittings: one row in the afternoon, and the rest at the unhealthiest of times, around 9pm.

Yeah, I hate the interfaces, but especially the super-loud non-mutable beeps which seem to be common on every model I’ve seen. My two-burner induction setup has analog knobs for temp control, which is awesome, but it stills beep when you turn them, with every single temperature increase. Drives me crazy.

I’ll never go back to gas though. My new apartment came with a gorgeous brand new gas range, and it absolutely sucks compared to my $50 countertop induction.

I think you are underestimating the power of empathy. I mean this constructively, not as an attack. In my opinion, it’s the single most important emotion for leading a fulfilling life, maintaining healthy relationships, and contributing to and living in a healthy society. The cool thing about empathy is that almost everyone can learn how to do it, even if it doesn’t come naturally. Think of it like a muscle you need to exercise. If you don’t use it regularly, your abilities can atrophy.

You’ve already recognized that you’re not great at empathy, which shows that you are capable of self-awareness, which is huge! The next step is just to find a way to turn that awareness inside out and put yourself in other peoples’ shoes.

The fact that you’re wrestling with the issues you bring up, shows me that you do care about these things. So I think it could be valuable to interrogate what specific things you do and don’t care about when it comes to all the things you mentioned. If you do that with empathy for others always in mind, I think most of your concerns will resolve themselves.

Cultivating Empathy

I’ve earnestly answered some of your other questions, when it was quite clear you were either trolling or incredibly stubborn, and this additional question (which purposefully ignores the basic answers I gave you weeks ago) makes it obvious you don’t actually want to learn anything. Stop asking questions if you don’t intend to genuinely engage with the people who are taking the time to respond.

It’s so interesting to think about how certain word choices become the norm. These were Palestinian hostages taken by Israel. The vast majority of Palestinians in Israeli detention are there without being charged for any kind of crime. They were picked up off the street and thrown in a cell to be tortured, starved, and sexually assaulted, without even a suspicion of having done anything other than being Palestinian. They are hostages. This was a hostage swap.

Since this community is for any kind of question, I’ll answer, but I get the vague sense that you don’t really want a genuine answer, based on the inherent bias you included in the question (calling someone older than 20 a hag is pretty uncool, for example).

But here goes: people have different tastes. Different things turn on different people, and your lack of experience being aroused by older women says nothing about the legitimacy of those who are. Also being 21 for example, is still considered very young by most people. Your question presumes that everybody in the world must only be attracted to very young women, and frankly that’s a bit strange and just not how the world works.

Try to put yourself in some other people’s shoes, and I think this question would answer itself. Your sexual preferences are not everyone’s preferences.

Huh, you know what also delays the start of smoking? Never starting.

Bernie has compromised on some issues, like a good politician should. Nearly everybody else has compromised their integrity and the offices they hold with corrupt behavior. There’s a huge difference.

Effective politics/government doesn’t exist without compromise. America was founded on compromises, some of which were morally reprehensible, some of which were just about the structure of the nation and its government. A huge caveat of course, is that compromise only works when there are at least two groups equally willing to concede something big enough to reach a resolution.

Without the ability to compromise all we’re left with is tyranny.

To clarify, this is because the arbitrary deadline for feds to accept the “offer” is Thursday, and there are a lot of frightened people out there who think this might be their best option. I’ve spoken to a number of federal employees about this, and none of them are convinced there’s any reason OPM will actually honor the severance pay promised in the email, so they’re just going to wait to be fired and potentially lose out on a ton of severance pay. I think that’s the right call though, at least for those who can afford it.

There was no legal foundation for this “fork,” but agencies can’t reject it since it came from their HR overlords. All the communications about this “offer” have been extremely vague with no specific instructions, guidance, or guarantees. I’m willing to bet they’ll renege on the deal (why wouldn’t they?) and everyone will have to wait and see what the Supreme Court ultimately says about it months after the damage has already been done and careers and livelihoods have been ruined.

I was responding to the comment above (and lots of other chatter like this), which said “people voted for Musk” which is just not true. And like you said, the people don’t vote for the cabinet, they vote for the person who nominates cabinet members. It’s useful to point out because these distinctions have real-world consequences. Musk is a what’s called a “Special Government Employee,” which is an unelected position.

I don’t want to be pedantic, but okay I will. Musk wasn’t on any ballot. Not a single person voted for an individual named Elon Musk. It wasn’t an option. Enough people voted for Trump and Vance for them to win, but they were the only two on the ballot. It may seem like a distinction without a difference, because Musk functionally has an insane amount of power and influence, but that power was delegated to him by the person that people actually voted for, which is how our government works. People might have voted for Trump hoping he would use Musk in this way, but they still only voted for Trump.

I feel silly writing all that out, but these kinds of distinctions matter imo.

This is a pretty big disappointment imo, and shows that the party didn’t really listen to its voters or learn from the election in any meaningful way. He was the least interesting and compelling candidate. I wish they had gone for someone with an actual ideology and values that they’ve lived and acted on for years—like Faiz Shakir. This role is very important, and it would have been a great way to show us that Dems actually care about us, and not just the money. But nope, they’ve taken yet another opportunity to give power to a bland vanilla fundraiser who almost nobody has heard of.

The race hinged more on the candidates’ organizing and fundraising resumes than on their postures regarding the ideological soul of the party, as it did in 2017, after President Donald Trump’s previous election win.

It’s true she draws from other sources, but it’s an aggregation vs. Drop Site’s original reporting. I always prefer the original reporting over an extra layer of remixing, but I probably overreacted.

Here is the original Drop Site News article. There’s no reason to circumvent the actual source.

It’s a pattern of behavior. If a user spends their time nitpicking every minor detail of a comment, but seems to be incapable of understanding that other people have different ideas, or worse purposefully parses someone’s language incorrectly just to continue an argument back and forth without any progress or even a desire to see a resolution, only wanting to have the last word, I consider that to be trolling. Nobody has benefited from the interaction, and everybody leaves frustrated, annoyed, and only further entrenched in their original position.

I think people have pretty different ideas of what behavior counts as trolling, but simply disagreeing with a user or not liking their posts doesn’t make them a troll.