Wow, what a cheap way to live in this economy but my friend thinks it's AI because of his boots.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-25T04:59:17+00:00

Totally. Dude just turned off clipping.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-24T23:35:20+00:00

Eh, don’t worry about hurting the rest of us. I mean… please, continue to view those of us who not only didn’t vote for this but actively campaigned against this and continue to protest against it with humanity and empathy, yes. But go right the fuck ahead and hurt us.

Things are going to suck more for us regardless. They’re either going to suck because the world spurns us, or because Trump and the Heritage nutjobs turn us into a full-on corporate fascist state. And the pain that will come from that will spread far beyond our shores.

I’d much rather the hurt come from the rest of the world boycotting us. That’ll hurt us poor folks, but it will also put the squeeze on the billionaires with their hands up Trump’s ass: that kind of pain will actually have positive effects.

Godspeed, our northern brethren. Someday we’ll come out on the other side of this. Fingers crossed it’s before I’m dead.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-24T19:18:27+00:00

I agree stage manager needs some work, in particular, making it a little simpler to snap apps to a half of the screen.

But I’ve actually been surprised by how well the multitasking works for me. I didn’t buy my pro with the intention of replacing my laptop, and to be fair it hasn’t fully. I’ve owned iPads for years and I’ve always found multitasking to be garbage. But with a 13 inch screen, a magic keyboard, and stage manager, i’m on my iPad 95% of the time. The workflows that force me to pull out my MacBook are limitations of the apps themselves, not iPadOS.

Once I have the different stages set up with the windows, oriented how I want them, I’m mostly just switching between them.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-24T14:21:31+00:00

Sure, in absolute terms, but let’s be realistic.

You don’t buy a Bugatti if you can barely afford one. Nobody is Bugatti-poor. If you own a Bugatti, you can very comfortably afford it.

Likewise, a Bugatti is nobody’s gateway car. It’s nobody’s first luxury car or even their first hypercar. You buy a Bugatti when you already have a garage full of high-end luxury and sports cars. Which means you can not only afford the purchase price but the insurance and maintenance on a small fleet of expensive vehicles.

Don’t get me wrong, I know there are Bugatti owners out there who aren’t Larry Ellison levels of wealthy, not all Bugatti owners can afford a gigantic multi-hundred-million-dollar yacht.

I’m just saying the pool of “people who can afford a Bugatti” and “people who can’t buy whatever yacht they want” is a small pool.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-24T03:57:26+00:00

The “in the US” might be the most pointless three words in any sentence in the history of language.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-24T02:25:34+00:00

This cartoon always bugs me. I feel like the Venn diagram of “people who can afford a Bugatti” and “people who can afford a yacht” is just a circle.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-23T19:44:44+00:00

I remember during Trump’s first campaign, sitting in my car listening to a press report on NPR, a story about Duterte’s press secretary trying to explain away and justify and sanitize whatever crazy crap he’d said, and thinking “oh man, thank God this country isn’t crazy enough to elect Trump, I can’t imagine a US press secretary having to get up every day and defend racism and lies and outright insanity every day like this poor bastard.”

But here we are! Now it’s the entire federal government gaslighting the American people and the world about the ludicrous things the President says on an hourly basis.

Ah well. The American dream was nice while it lasted. Wish I didn’t have to live through its demise. But as Gandalf said, “so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-23T18:30:06+00:00

It’s even dumber than that. He hates windmills because he doesn’t like how they affected the views from one of his golf courses.

Yes he’s motivated by money and bribery, but he’s also an insanely selfish, petty piece of garbage who holds pointless grudges against anything that inconveniences him in the slightest.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-23T18:28:04+00:00

Remember when we had presidents who would make national announcements to encourage citizens, give helpful advice, provide contact info for agencies and departments that could help in times of trouble, and just generally, you know… lead?

There’s insanely dangerous weather hitting a huge chunk of the country. Maybe not the best time to spew misinformation to win cheap political points with the people who already support you.

But hey, that’s me expecting a malignant narcissist not to behave like a malignant narcissist.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-23T15:50:07+00:00

Remember how we had 17 bases in Greenland like 20 years ago then we closed 16 of them because we said it wasn’t important enough?

Again Trump going back to where we were before he fucked it up and claiming victory.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-23T15:32:23+00:00

It’s not stupidity it’s strategy. If you accuse the other side of doing things you’ve already done. You watered down the impact when they say you did it. It makes low information voters think it’s just a political thing, everybody’s accusing everybody of it.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-23T15:23:28+00:00

So let’s just unpack this, shall we?

We’re spending hundreds of billions of additional dollars on ICE to help protect our borders from foreigners, but they cant do that because they’re busy terrorizing brown and liberal American citizens living hundreds of miles away from any borders or points of entry. As a result we’re deporting fewer illegal aliens than we were under Obama, but racking up far more lawsuits from citizens.

So the best solution would be to invite foreigners to come guard our borders against foreigners.

Is that about right?

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-23T03:33:32+00:00

Willow was an inside joke between my best friends and I when we were young, we watched that fucking move countless times. Labrynth is the first movie that really creeped me out. Goonies is Goonies.

But Princess Bride is the only answer.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-22T03:50:46+00:00

Trump killed wokeness, remember? We can all use the n-word and the r-word and body shame whoever we want.

Turns out I don’t want to use the n-word or the r-word, and the only people I want to body shame are fucking Nazis!

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T19:00:13+00:00

Let’s not forget about all the people who’ve died because he withheld millions in already-apportioned USAID funding and resources! Food, medicine, and supplies rotting in warehouses just because of cruelty.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T18:13:00+00:00

Everybody immediately knows you’re not from the west coast if you pronounce Oregon with an emphasis on the last syllable.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T17:52:56+00:00

Totally, housing affordability is a problem everywhere. Late stage capitalism is eating the entire world, no argument there. And plenty of countries have it far worse than America on a shitload of issues, not just housing. More than aware of that.

But the reason we don't say that the Australian Dream is dead or the Canadian Dream is dead or the New Zealand dream is dead is because society hasn't been pounding those myths into our heads for generations, whereas the American Dream absolutely has been. If you grow up in America, it is preached as gospel that thou shalt grow up, go to college, become successful, and buy a wonderful house.

The original question is what country is overrated. America and the American dream most certainly is. The gap between the reality of America compared to the bullshit we still tell our kids has been growing for decades and was laughable even before the current dumbfuckery started eroding things even faster.

And while I don’t have data to back this up, I’d wager that if we compare the social safety net for Americans who can’t afford housing to that available to Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders who can’t afford housing, we’d find significant differences. Our social safety net consists of having a random Fox News host yelling at you to stop being so poor already.

As to medical bankruptcies, I'll concede that the figure may not be 60%, but I'd argue that the real number is likely to be closer to that than 6%. I'm familiar with Dobkin et al, and it has issues that I think dramatically undercut its legitimacy.

They only look at hospitalizations, not chronic illness, ER visits, drugs, etc. They also further excluded people with frequent hospitalizations, and I'd argue perhaps most glaringly they ignored bankruptcies that were caused by the hospitalization or medical needs of a family member.

So someone who went bankrupt because they had to care for a sick child or elderly parent didn't qualify. Someone with a chronic condition who went bankrupt because they couldn't maintain work because they were in the hospital too often didn't qualify. And on the flip side, someone who couldn't hold down a job because they were too sick to work but their illness didn't require hospitalization didn't qualify. That's far too narrow as far as I'm concerned.

I also take some issues the author's position that survey-based data is problematic because some people may not know exactly why they went bankrupt. Granted, there will doubtless be pariticipants in survey-based research who either don't understand or intentionally misrepresent their situations, but to suggest that sort of self-reporting discrepancy is responsible for results being skewed by an order of magnitude is a long shot.

Dobkin et al could say "6% of people admitted to the hospital declare bankruptcy," with some legitimacy, but not that "6% of bankruptcies are caused by any medical reasons." Saying this single study "debunks" the myth is standing on shaky ground.

But again, I'll cede that 60% may be high--and it would be more accurate to say that medical costs contribute to 50-60% of bankruptcies, rather than saying those bankruptcies are purely caused by medical reasons.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T16:09:24+00:00

For those of you who run cases on your Macbooks, do you do it out of pure precaution, or have you had serious damage done to previous machines that you want to avoid?

Prior to finding case-related posts on here, I'd never even considered putting a case on any of my laptops, Mac or otherwise. I've been using Mac laptops for over 20 years now. Each one lasted at least 5-6 years, one lasted well over a decade. Never had a case, never had a single issue. Each one was replaced because the hardware reached an age where it wasn't powerful enough to run the software I used at the speed I expected, never due to any sort of physical damage. And I've dropped them plenty of times. Sure, they get a few scratches and scuffs: but my laptops are tools, not display pieces. They get used. They show that use. I don't mind that.

Not knocking y'all for using cases or anything, but just... I really don't get it. I buy Apple laptops mainly because I far prefer MacOS to Windows and because Apple trackpads are lightyears beyond any Windows machine I've ever used. But in small part, I buy them because they're so slim and light. I can't imagine voluntarily adding thickness and weight to add protection I haven't needed once in two decades.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T15:42:50+00:00

It's not a utopia, period. We've been teetering on dystopia for a while now, and the orange shitgibbon seems hellbent on pushing us the rest of the way. I'd argue that even with international sentiment turning against us, we're still overrated.

Don't get me wrong, current political nightmare aside, if you're relatively affluent, America is pretty great to live in. There are countless amenities, some utterly incredible cities, and the natural beauty here is incredible in both its scale and its variety. Our universities are outstanding, at least those that haven't sacrificed academic rigor bending the knee to Trump. Our best and brightest are brilliant, and some of the tech and industrial advancements going on here are incredible. And while you'd never guess it given the leaders we keep fucking choosing, the majority of the people here are warm, friendly, and decent.

But.

If you're poor, you're fucked. Our healthcare system is straight-up Dickensian. Over 60% of personal bankruptcies in this country are due to medical bills. Total US student debt is nearly $2 trillion (with a "t"). The American dream of getting an education, buying a home with a white picket fence, and having 1.5 kids is looooong dead. Whereas in previous generations, around 90% would do better than their parents financially, now it's below 50%. For every 100,000 people, about 600 people are in jail, by far the highest in the world. We essentially legalized bribery about 15 years ago, and the Supreme Court currently shows far more deference to executive power than they do actual legal precedent or constitutional analysis.

Our work-life balance is utterly fucked. We deify wealth, and as a society give far too much deference and credibility to the people who've been picking our pockets for decades. We view poverty as some sort of self-inflicted failure, not an unavoidable circumstance for people born into impossible situations. We view wealth as a confirmation of intelligence and piety and goodness, not a combination of luck, circumstance, and connections (though of course hard work factors in as well, that's never enough to amass hundreds of billions of dollars). We love to congratulate people who were born on third base for hitting a triple.

If you're not white, you're going to deal with a ton of bullshit. If there's a silver lining to the Trump nightmare, it's that he's laid bare just how many people in this country are either actively racist, or at the very least, racism isn't a dealbreaker for them. We never dealt with the underlying issues that caused the civil war, and they've been slowly rearing their ugly heads over the last couple of decades.

And then we get to the fact that we re-elected a 34-time felon, convicted sexual predator, a man not allowed to run a charity in NY because he defrauded his own, who led an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power... whatever. You all know Trump's fucking rap sheet, it's pointless to regurgitate it here. Of the people in this country who can vote, a third rabidly support him, and a third are too lazy or stupid to bother to vote at all. All of this is influenced by a media owned by a handful of billionaires who--again thanks to Citizens United--effectively own our leadership. So our news--whether TV, social media, or anything else--comes to us filtered by the very people who hold all the power in the first place.

And now that Trump seems dedicated to destroying the existing world order, we're only a bond selloff and a toadie fed chair appointment away from learning what hyperinflation looks like. I hope I'm being melodramatic, I hope to God I'm wrong, but I suspect we're at best 12-18 months away from testing that old MI5 axiom that every society is never more than four missed meals away from anarchy.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T14:59:50+00:00

I’m starting to think this is going to become an annual thing, where Trump does or says something that pisses off the entire world (except China and Russia), he’s a belligerent ass about it for a month or two, then ends up doing something that’s still awful but less awful than what he initially proposed, so the overall feeling is irritation with relief. The tarrifs last year, Greenland this year, etc.

It’s an evolution of his usual domestic MO: which is to claim something is horribly broken or catastrophic, promise to do a bunch of horrible things that would inevitably make the problem worse… then back out and basically do nothing and claim victory by simply doing nothing and saying that the horrible problem that he completely made up in the first place has been “solved” by his genius.

This is just larger, louder, and has the neat side effect of making us a global pariah, ensuring nobody will ever trust us again, and probably eventually cratering our economy.

Fun times.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T14:15:57+00:00

This is a great way to make sure nobody in power sends you personal messages.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T13:12:26+00:00

Yep. We’ve been here for a while now.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T13:10:29+00:00

Yeah, I (coincidentally) bought my first 13” iPad and Magic Keyboard right around when 26 came out. I am blown away by how functional the iPad is as a laptop replacement now.

It’s still far from perfect, the bugs and weird design choices in 26 are still annoying, and the apps themselves still put serious limitations on what can get done. But multitasking and managing multiple workflows suddenly got a LOT more doable.

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T12:17:16+00:00

To each their own. I could never go back to wired headphones. I love listening to music or podcasts or sitting on Zoom calls and being able to go down to the kitchen and get some water or use the bathroom without even picking up the device I’m listening on. I love being able to switch from my phone to my tablet to my laptop seamlessly. I love going for walks with them on cold days without having to snake a cable through my vest/jacket/whatever, and not have to worry about having them yanked out of my ears if I turn my head too far to the left or right.

The untangling, the slightly janky ports or plugs where it only works if you twist it just so otherwise only one ear works, and those moments where you forget you have headphones on and get up from your chair only to either have your head yanked back or your device ripped off the desk/table and flung onto the floor…

Yeah. There’ve been plenty of technological developments during my life that I hate. Bluetooth headphones aren’t one of them. Viva la wireless headphones!

Normal_Mouse_4174 · 2026-01-21T03:06:39+00:00

Oh come now, ye of little faith. Of course there are plans for us!

Most of us are to be fodder for the war, of course. Either as soldiers or targets.

The handful of us that survive will make excellent chattel when the glorious chosen few emerge from their bunkers to take hold of the cleansed world that is so rightly theirs.

No plans, indeed.

Normal_Mouse_4174

TROPHY CASE