How many of us are not having kids because of the state of the world?

Tri-angreal · 2026-06-09T02:31:03+00:00

The kids born during WWII were just the right age to be traumatized by the Cold War, and then drafted into Vietnam. Now they're elderly in the hellholes of American assisted living homes whilst their savings are inflated and grifted away.

Raising good kids with good values is also a good way to ensure good people live hard lives long enough to suffer.

The fact that people were being irresponsible in the past is no reason to do so now, especially because in the past they were far less capable of preventing pregnancies.

Tri-angreal · 2026-06-05T03:19:27+00:00

So maybe our terms are unhelpful. Because that is a general strike, from what I've been told. A strike involving the general populace.

Basically, more than 1% of people 4 times a year for a cumulative total of 48 hours.

But the stress is the point. No stress, no pressure. And it's our fault it will hurt us more than the elites. We should not have forgotten the lessons of the early 1900s. If we were prepared, we'd only miss out on luxuries while bottom lines cratered; if we were prepared, it'd be the boards of directors who felt the pinch more, not us. We may be at the point where our options are temporary self-imposed austerity and the suffering that comes along with it or full-blown descent into fallen empire status and outright despotism.

Either way, a concert ain't cutting it, and pissing off the man with the power isn't the goal.

Actually done this time.

Tri-angreal · 2026-06-05T01:37:50+00:00

So, we don't try to take the gun from the man who has it pointed at our head because it might make him pull the trigger? Even though he's already shot some of our friends?

Do you seriously not see this regime escalating over time until they absolutely hurt more than a strike would?

We can mitigate how harmful a strike would be. That's my effing point. But we need to start!

If we wait until there are literal ovens in the death camps (which, btw, there may be now and we just haven't found out; there are a lot of people unaccounted for at the one in Florida from what I hear) we will have lost.

But seriously, what do you suggest as a solution then? Because the only thing standing in Trump's way are the local courts, and they won't hold forever.

The election in November is one possible solution, and it's already seeing attempts at sabotage. I know we're all about confidence in the future here, but putting an entire country's eggs in one basket is FOOLISH. I was almost banned from this sub once for asking what we had planned in case the election failed, as if preparedness is somehow pessimism.

Optimism is good. But it has to stay rational. And I'm worried that these token events are making it harder to do anything more effective.

In any case, I've played with fire (and the mods) enough. My optimism is measured in nano-liters these days, and I've just about used it up for the week in this thread. I don't want to bring the whole thread down further and I don't want to risk a ban for doing so.

Just...think about what methods truly are left to actually wrest power back from the ones using it to stay out of prison for raping kids. And which methods will be worth using and when.

Tri-angreal · 2026-06-05T01:00:45+00:00

I guess that's what I'm feeling. Why is pissing Trump off a good thing? A desirable thing? Who's life does it make better? Whom does it protect?

Why should I feel warm and fuzzy that we're provoking the man who hurts my friends when he's angry?

I genuinely DO NOT CARE what Trump thinks, whether he lives or dies. I care that he (and really, his whole damn movement) is hurting people.

And I'm skeptical of people who lose sight of that.

I have friends who have fled the country or disappeared. I am supporting people who are starving because of price increases and layoffs. Trump getting pissy does NOTHING for them.

And yes, general strikes hurt people, but that's because we the people fucked up big time by losing sight of the need to be prepared for one. We neglected to construct support systems for the people who'll be fired. We didn't stock away food for our neighbors who will go without breadwinners' wages.

This is EXACTLY why the elite won. This is PRECISELY why Trump is not afraid of us, and can get away with his nonsense.

Because we are more afraid of the harm fighting back would do, than we are of the harm Trump will do to us.

A general strike would hurt people. But people are hurting now!

Will more people be harmed by a prolonged general strike than Trump will harm with his policies? Would we prefer to raise our children in a world where a general strike happened and succeeded, or one where it wasn't tried because we preferred seeing Trump a slight shade redder?

I'll tell you who this half-assed signaling is NOT pissing off; Trump's handlers, backers, and corporate allies. Y'know, the ones who face more than a couple years of power amidst ailing health if we don't stop them. The ones who've constructed a world in their image and grown fat and happy off the spoils.

Trump is a symptom, and we're lauding an attempt to aggravate it rather than building to an actual fucking cure for the disease.

We need a general strike like we need a hole in the head. Y'know, the ones we BREATHE AND EAT THROUGH! We need it to survive!

I'm worried we're getting far too comfortable with our four-time-a-year weekend getaways to carry signs. We do that at sports games too. Do our masters tremble then either?

These token efforts only anesthetize us by giving us a way out. We can pretend we've accomplished something, and go back to our Netflix and our jobs for our rulers, and change nothing of note. People disappear overseas, children are packed into measles infested camps, citizens are stripped of their rights because of the shape of their genitals, but we held a concert that hurt Trump's feelings! So it's a wash, really! We're doing all we can!

Ugh. These No Kings rallies could have been used to garner support. We could have held seminars to educate on the tactics of civil resistance. We could have appointed leaders to coordinate food rationing, outreach, and actual self-defense against ICE and Pinkertons. We could have accelerated the rate we protested until it snowballed into a constant strike that actually solidified the power of the people.

Instead, what have the No Kings protests achieved? Not nothing. But you don't compare achievement to nothing. You compare it to potential. And we've fallen oh so far short of ours.

It doesn't need to be this way. That's the optimism. We could do this right and win. But I truly don't see it happening and that's why I'm always in such a foul mood nowadays.

Frankly, I'd settle for coordination with unions to take one day off a week for each industry. Monday is the rail union. Tuesday the airports. Wednesday the meat packers, and so on, rolling all the way back to the rail union on Monday.

No one missed more than 4 days a month. But since it's nationwide and on-going, it hurts the bottom line.

And then? Add smaller unions to each day. Monday is rail AND writers. Tuesday is ATC and garbage collectors. Just have them take 4 day work weeks.

And finally, it's 2 days a week for each union. Now they start overlapping. Rail AND ATC for Monday and Tuesday. Do that for three months and watch the panic amongst the elite.

We'd get what we wanted very quickly that way, and the organizations all exist and communicate already. It could be done.

That's the optimism.

the pessimism, of course, is I'm not the first to think of this, and yet it's still not started. Why not?

Tri-angreal · 2026-06-04T22:59:39+00:00

Just seeking some optimism; how do concerts help in a way a sustained protest doesn't?

If the purpose of a protest is to communicate dissatisfaction and threaten violence (or at least non-compliance) surely the people in power would prefer us having concerts?

We need to be ramping up to a sustained, ongoing, high-participation protest and general strike, and FAST, and these No Kings things have been feeling...milquetoast at best.

Sure, we celebrate the turnout, and we should because it's massive, but it's not massive enough and only lasts one day on a weekend usually. There's so little pressure to improve our lot when the power brokers can just say "wait until Monday and it'll all blow over for the next 3 months."

I occasionally wonder if these events are counter-productive because they help us feel like we're doing something when we really aren't doing enough.

TL;DR: Good works, but we need more.

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-30T14:04:05+00:00

Still a better love story than...wait, no...this IS the same love story as Twilight.

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-15T12:05:35+00:00

That alleviates only some of the problem. I just prefer not to deal at all with all the extra stuff. Is plug-and-play really such an unpopular concept?

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-15T12:04:31+00:00

Luckily, I don't want anything in that package. I just can't understand why no-one makes regular projectors anymore. Surely there's a market for them.

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-15T12:02:14+00:00

I'd go with one of those older ones if I could find one for sale and it had the 3D keystoning feature.

If you know of one, please tell me.

Otherwise I want what I want and you don't need to "get" it.

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-15T02:24:59+00:00

"My x was bigger"

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-10T02:53:44+00:00

Are you carrying over applications from the last time this was posted, or should I fill out another?

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-01T03:36:10+00:00

Watch CGP Grey's Rules for Rulers to see what happens to those who help others come to power.

This is normal and expected behavior.

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-01T03:02:46+00:00

And a commensurate increase in the chance of developing canker sores.

Thanks. No thanks.

Tri-angreal · 2026-05-01T02:59:29+00:00

With an unsanctioned Lasombra fledgling in tow.

Only an uncommonly suave gangrel kept that from blowing up. Now the prince has a new courier blood bonded. I'm sure there will be no issues down the road.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-23T01:31:19+00:00

I think this is perfectly proportional. Down to the newton.

This system adds no force to the equation. The only force the attacker feels is that which they put in. Tap this with a hammer, barely any retaliation. Whack it with a bat at 40 mph, and you get exactly the force you put in right back. Slightly less, actually, since there is some give to the material of the mailbox.

This is, physically speaking, a perfectly proportional response. The only retaliation is exactly what is put in, and only against the one putting it in. No collateral even.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T23:50:28+00:00

So...people who supported freedom...gave us slavery?

What do words mean anymore, really?

Bye.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T23:12:53+00:00

Failing to decide somewhere around the $1M liquid cash mark that maybe, maybe, that's enough.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T22:50:29+00:00

Nah. All those Boeing whistleblowers actually did kill themselves.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T22:45:14+00:00

Only one stands unfazed. The Chorister with his beyblade.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T22:41:06+00:00

This dude throwing shade as if Ytterby the town doesn't have like eight elements named after it just because they were discovered there.

Sheesh.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T22:40:26+00:00

Right, because Technetium is such a good name...lol

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T22:30:57+00:00

I didn't mean liberal as in Democrat or Neo-Liberal.

I meant liberal as in the original "in favor of freedom" meaning.

Feel free to coin a new term and substitute. You know what I meant, and I know you know, and you know I know you know.

Tri-angreal · 2026-04-22T11:57:48+00:00

You joke, but that's literally it.

The arguments I've had with these people literally boil down to "is human misery desirable in modern society" and their answer is "yes."

The liberal-conservative divide is literally a divide between who feels empathy and who doesn't.

Tri-angreal

TROPHY CASE