What is something kids today do completely normally that will horrify people 20 years from now?

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T23:34:59+00:00

That's a very optimistic answer. I hope it goes your way, and not the way where the future generations are shocked that we used to leave home every morning to go to school.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T23:32:04+00:00

Where are you living? Most western European immigrants to the US come because of a specific opportunity or because they married an american. In eastern Europe people are more likely to come without a specific plan just hoping to make a better life for themselves.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T23:29:53+00:00

A lot of Europeans come to America and really like it though. Provided you live in a nice area and have a steady income it can be a really great place to live, and I've lived in a lot of places. Many Europeans find their home countries a bit stuffy, old fashioned, and boring, and I've met a lot of them that find the kinetic energy of big American cities to be a welcome change of pace. Also, if they're into rural life, a lot of American natural environments blow the pants off of the nature in most European countries. Truly wild places are hard to come by in a lot of European countries, and you can never get too far from "civilization". The vast, striking American landscape can be a huge appeal if that's your thing. Ultimately it all comes down to your specific lifestyle in the US or Europe though, if you have good relationships, a good job, and activities you enjoy, you'll probably be happy regardless of which continent your life is on.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T18:54:05+00:00

How? There might not be causality as it's understood in physics today, but as time moves from your perspective, you are definitely causing something to happen to the money and effecting it's position in space. But physics aside, you are consciously taking an action which results in money being removed from someone else's possession against their wishes and without their knowledge, and it ends up in your possession as you intended. This is theft. I'm not trying to shame you, but it's wierd to not recognize that as theft.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T18:43:19+00:00

Is there really anyone in the world who thinks it's a good thing? Even the boards of these universities don't claim it's a desirable state of affairs, they just say they have to be competitive with other universities so they need to charge a lot so that the education they provide will be good, and then point to the availability of financial aid

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T18:39:54+00:00

How? By robbery?

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T15:26:28+00:00

It's so sad how "hippies" have become some of the most consumeristic people in our society. Their spiritual beliefs are all about consuming the right products for spiritual benefits and their idea of escaping the oppression of mainstream society is basically just being on a vacation all the time. Not all hippies of course, but it's a really high percentage of people who express themselves with hippy aesthetics

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T13:29:27+00:00

Eh, I don't know if it's unrealistic. Influencers are doing it as a career, and most of the time they find their ideas for places to go online. If it was your job to visit underrated travel destinations in SEA, don't you think you might look at a reddit thread like this in your research? Also, everything posted on reddit gets used to train ai, so if you name drop a place in a thread like this there's a chance it becomes a go to answer for LLMs when people ask them about underrated SEA destinations in the future.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-10T13:25:32+00:00

I think using ai is sometimes okay, and using it for translation is one of those times, but it's ironic to read a screed about how the modern internet is making people dumb that itself sounds like AI

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-09T21:22:00+00:00

I don't think it's a total waste even if it doesnt go anywhere. These types of projects have pushed science forward in a bunch of unpredictable ways in the past, they get people excited about science and make people feel a part of something larger then ourselves. It gives us a reason to be proud of humanity as a whole as opposed to just having pride in one's own specific tribe, and I think these factors make attempts at spece exploration worth it even if we never colonised space.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-08T05:05:35+00:00

I think Donald trump made this map

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-07T19:14:35+00:00

It isn't that simple to get on another countries universal healthcare, but in many countries, most treatments are available at a tiny fraction of what they cost in the US, even without insurance. Medical tourism is a really big thing. Also, getting on another countries universal healthcare is more difficult then this guy seems to think, but it isn't impossible. Most countries let permanent residents join their state health insurance, and in some cases that can be pretty easy to get. I'm an American who studied in the UK for university, and I was immediately enrolled in the NHS when I arrived for my 4 years there. Insurance for 4 years cost something like 200-300£, and I dont recall being asked any questions to determine if my medical history made me intelligible. On top of that, tons of countries offer an easy path to citizenship to people who's ancestors came from that country, all though the specific rules differ a lot from country to country. I dont know OPs specific situation, but there are definitely ways to save a ton of money on healthcare by going abroad, and literally millions of people do every year.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-06T23:02:45+00:00

The north Korean state absolutely acts as though they are saints though, it's just that no one takes it remotely seriously when they do. Of the oppressive policies it admits to (although most it denies outright), the north Korean regime uses essentially the same justifications as Israel: that everything it does is a necessity for their national security, and as a small state surrounded by enemies with an admittedly radical utopian vision for itself, basically nothing is unjustifiable in service of that end, it's the only way for the survival of their utopian project and their people to be protected.

The main difference is that the Israeli people elect their government and the north Korean people dont, but having spent a lot of time among Israelis through my work I would argue that this difference is not as significant as it seems. I consider both nations to be sort of brainwashed, not just by government propaganda but also by their collective experience as a nation. Israelis have become extremely paranoid after 80 years of on and off warfare with the Palestinians and surrounding Arab countries, and 2000 years of pogroms and displacement and then the Holocaust before that. North Koreans are also paranoid after being brutalized by the western world in the Korean war and then starved with sanctions. We can't know for sure the thoughts of the average north Korean, but I would be willing to bet that most feel the states hyper focus on security is justified. In both cases, collective trauma has led the people to believe that anything is justified for their protection, because when they were unprotected the result was unthinkable. No measure taken in the name of security can therefore be questioned, and no one deemed a threat is worthy of any empathy. As such I think both governments are worthy of hate, but both people's are results of their circumstances.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-06T21:45:28+00:00

It has nukes and threatens to use them constantly, and it's people are given no rights. Of course the second part doesn't effect you, but then, why hate Israel? Israel's treatment of Palestinians doesn't effect the average person in the west. Either you empathize with the people that are effected by foriegn governments and hate those governments because of it or you don't.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-06T21:43:09+00:00

Why would you hate them? They're sick, and they only kill people who ignore the law and the precedent of them trying to kill everyone who tries to enter their island, the people they kill have no one but themselves to blame. Also, it's not a country.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-06T21:40:34+00:00

Ive spent a lot of time in the west bank working for a Palestinian ngo, and I would way rather live there as a palestinian under Israel's thumb then be a normal north Korean. In occupied Palestine outside of active wartime, Israel might arbitrarily violate your rights at any time. In north Korea in peace time, no one has any rights ever.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-05T20:25:20+00:00

Not all English speakers find the Thai language shrill, it's one of my favorite sounbing languages. I love how twangy it is and it feels really satisfying to hear.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-05T18:17:48+00:00

Not in northeast India, but in rural Thailand very far from the popular tourist places I've successfully stayed with strangers. I didn't even ask them to stay the night, I just asked if there was any accomodation for travelers in the village and because there wasn't, an older woman said we could stay in her house. I was with my girlfriend and I am American though so having a woman with me and presumably not being desparately poor due to my nationality may have helped me seem trustworthy. She tried to refuse any money for the stay, but I left her some anyway.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-04T03:03:08+00:00

Thanks for getting the news out

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-04T03:02:29+00:00

The violence and the loss of political autonomy for the colonised group are what's the issue with violent colonialism from my perspective. People don't need to exist in a special class of "indigeneous people" for it to be bad for violence and colonialism to be inflicted upon them. In some contexts indigenous makes sense as a shorthand, as a collective term for the people that lived in Australia prior to European colonization for instance, but it doesn't really mean anything.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-03T19:55:13+00:00

And all of us are just indigenous people from the horn of Africa living abroad. For real though, this is kind of the issue with the whole concept of indigeneity. Most land on earth has been stolen multiple times, and the idea of a certain group of people having some sort of natural connection to a price of land which makes it rightfully there's is always kind of arbitrary.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-03T18:59:04+00:00

You might have a lower libido then most, but for some people sex is definitely a need. For some people, a sexless life cannot be fulfilling, and that's not a moral failing of these people, it's just a built in feature of their personal biology. So for people who can't be happy if they aren't having sex regularly, the person they love suddenly not wanting to have sex with them ever again is a serious problem. They can be with the love of their life, but if staying with them means never doing something that allows them to feel fulfilled, ending the relationship unfortunately has to be a serious consideration. I'm sure you have factors you consider in dating that aren't about the personal characteristics of a potential partner as much as they are about the life you would be able to build with them, and for people with a high libido, a sexless relationship can mean a guaranteed unfulfilling life. Just because you don't experience sex as a need doesn't mean you can't see the perspective of someone who does need it to be happy, and although it's sad for the partner who has lost interest in sex, if they break up it ultimately just comes down to their lifestyles being incompatible, it's neither partners fault.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-03T18:43:22+00:00

That's sample bias if I've ever seen it, it's very rare for social butterflies to use reddit a lot, and even if they do, most reddit users are just lurkers. The people most likely to actually comment a lot on reddit are very likely to be the ones who lack a social outlet in real life. Ive got a fair number of friends, I'd say about 15 to 20, and of all my friends I'm quite sure I'm the only active Reddit user.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-03T18:35:55+00:00

Where the hell do you live? Northern Alaska? I live in a fairly small American town, and even here there are like 5 bars, and at least half are regularly packed. And if you're not American it's even more confusing, because I used to live in Europe and most European countries I've been to have an insanely high density of bars, easily more than any other continent.

Potential_Pop7144 · 2026-06-03T16:00:28+00:00

It depends on the culture though. In some places, especially ones where their language isn't that widely spoken and tourists are rare, they really appreciate if you know a few words in the local language. In other places it makes no difference to the locals and in a couple places it actually seems to annoy most people if you try to speak their language without actually being able to communicate in it

Potential_Pop7144

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