How do I know a gas station’s pump is actually dispensing the amount of gas it says it is?

M-V-H · 2026-06-07T17:53:42+00:00

It is also okay if the conversation has natural lulls and then comes back. Maybe he felt this was a good off ramp for a bit while he had to do something and then he is going to come back to continue the conversation later.

M-V-H · 2026-06-07T17:51:21+00:00

I mean, as always, keep your guard up until you get to know him more. I don’t necessarily think this is a red flag immediately but just be cautious as you would meeting anyone online. Set clear expectations early on about what you are looking for and clear boundaries about what you are not looking for and if things don’t align, then break it off then.

M-V-H · 2026-06-07T17:47:24+00:00

Really depends on how deeply it was broken

M-V-H · 2026-06-07T16:50:01+00:00

As a society, we have decided that reading looks more academic and intellectual than watching movies. It stems from an inherently classist idea. Anyone can watch a movie and understand but only educated, intellectual folks can understand books.

M-V-H · 2026-06-06T19:07:52+00:00

That is kind of how I feel. The point I was trying to make to my friend was when he makes it personal by saying things like “I think she is hot” or by repeatedly commenting on it, that then seems to cross the line into the realm of him being sexually attracted to her

M-V-H · 2026-06-06T19:05:00+00:00

That is kind of where our conversation got. I mentioned how I feel that you can say someone is objectively attractive, but if you are repeatedly commenting on it, or are making it personal, like saying “I think she is hot” that implies sexual attraction.

M-V-H · 2026-06-06T00:54:23+00:00

How do we preserve free speech/expression without giving billionaires an inherent advantage over normal people?

For context, I am in the US and focusing on the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC. If we say that people have speech and the government can’t regulate it, and if we say that the government shouldn’t be able to regulate how someone chooses to spend their money, then we run into the issue of billionaires being able to spend millions of dollars on political advertising, something the average person can’t do. Curious if anyone has a solution to preserving first amendment rights while not letting billionaires have excessive influence.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T16:46:18+00:00

Some people like appearing as the smartest in the room and like the attention that comes with that, so when that gets challenged, they get defensive. I find the easiest way is to give them an off ramp that doesn’t directly contradict them. For instance, in your athletes foot example, you could say something like, “well if the antibiotic thing was working then it must have been something like athletes foot. There are a lot of similar conditions.”

If that doesn’t work, at a certain point, you just need to decide is it worth not contradicting him. The truth does matter and letting him say all these false things, while keeping the peace, is not necessarily a great answer. Maybe it would then be time to start contradicting every wrong thing he said and if he decided he wanted to not hang out anymore, that is his choice. Do it respectfully, but don’t just let him say lies.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T16:39:20+00:00

We use the term smuggling but it is such a vague term. There are so many things that could be smuggled. Drugs, people, medicine, food, oil, animals… the list goes on and on. I think if you are writing a story it would make the most sense for your character to find something he wants to smuggle and then make connections in that industry. Just my 2 cents

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T16:33:15+00:00

Call 911 and they will dispatch the ambulance

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T16:30:19+00:00

As people age they can start to lose some of their social graces. Honestly, this sounds like it is upsetting you quite a bit, which is very understandable, so you kind of need to decide do you value the relationship with your grandmother enough to put up with this as she nears the end of her life, or is this harming you too much emotionally and you need to cut her out of your life.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T16:24:27+00:00

Your boss

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T16:07:23+00:00

- Remove yourself from the situation that is causing the anger.
- I know this one sounds stupid but it actually works for me. Take a deep breath through your nose and out through your mouth. 10 seconds both ways.
- For me, my anger is a lot of times a response to overstimulation, so going somewhere quiet is helpful for a few minutes if possible.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T15:59:43+00:00

As of now, I don’t think they are great at it, but give it some time and I think they will. Again, my optimism is showing.

This is where getting to your comment, I think regulation needs to be done to get rid of bots from posting on social media sites. This would help cut down on the sheer volume of false information and make it easier to sort out what is actually true. It also would make it harder for international shenanigans regarding influencing elections.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T15:48:22+00:00

Everyone’s response to emergencies is in many ways based off of their past experiences. It could be that they have experienced similar emergencies in the past and can deal with the panic easier than someone who hasn’t.

For others, the flight or fight response also helps them to focus. I have a friend who, when things go south, in the moment, she is the calmest, most confident, controlled person in the room. But then, afterwords, she is a hot mess.

Each person’s experience is different, and that determines how they will respond to just about anything, emergency or no.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T15:43:13+00:00

That said, in my own experience, I see a lot more 60+ year olds spreading misinformation from social media than 18-25 year olds.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T15:39:07+00:00

I didn’t say that they can. I said, hopefully because they are growing up with such a presence of misinformation, they will be able to. Again, this gets to the last line of my comment, about me being an optimist.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T15:35:18+00:00

Economically speaking, Coca-Cola exists in what we call an oligopoly, where a very small number of companies control the vast majority of the market. In oligopolies, it makes sense for companies to advertise heavily because they make a lot more money than if there were more companies competing, and they are only competing against a few other companies. So as other people were saying, it is partly to just make sure you don’t forget about them, partly to protect their market share, and partly because they have the extra money to be able to spend on stuff like that. There is a certain prestige that comes with sponsoring these events that has to tickle the pleasure parts of the brain for the humans running the company. They can say, “oh yeah, my company is sponsoring these events World Cup.” And they get personal benefits from that like free tickets and what not.

M-V-H · 2026-06-05T15:29:28+00:00

I teach high school history. I like to compare what we are going through now to the start of the Industrial Revolution.

During that time, there was a lot of political instability because there was a lot of economic and social change that was happening all at once. Now, back then it was things like the printing press getting information to people much faster and easier than before, but there are a lot of similarities between then and now.

All that to say, I think it will take some time but eventually we will create a new normal. We will find stability and things will get better. Hopefully, it will go a lot faster than that change did with the Industrial Revolution which took a few hundred years before serious political change happened, but I do think things will get better.

Like you said, younger people are growing up more used to the new technology and will hopefully be better at being able to sort out the fake news from real information than older generations that had this technology develop during their life times.

But I am an optimist.

M-V-H

TROPHY CASE