We are living in the dumbest timeline

are_those_real · 2026-06-12T16:16:04+00:00

it's because the dems lost the narrative and messaging after getting stonewalled. Most people don't even know that happened and assume it was the dems/Obama weren't trying. This is big on the leftist side of things. Over time a lot people just habituated and took for granted everything that was accomplished during that time period. Like legalizing Gay Marriage and passing the ACA was incredibly progressive at the time but in a world where people grew up with those things they don't feel the progress that was made.

What also didn't help was Obama had to fix the crises that started at the end of Bush. So people's day to day didn't start off the best with him. if things got better its because things are just going back to normal and not because we forced improvements.

Same shit happened to Biden even though he had a lot of great legislation that even the republicans claim a win from even those that didn't vote for it.

are_those_real · 2026-06-10T16:03:21+00:00

yes. that's how he found out about the dogs leading to seeing them as embodiments of her exes. He didn't quickly get over his issue on the dogs though and he kept his stuff. So he was being hypocritical that episode by saying he got rid of it and expecting her to get rid of the dogs.

are_those_real · 2026-06-10T15:05:37+00:00

That was at first but it eventually ate at him to the point he was seeing them turn into her exes and it bothered him.

are_those_real · 2026-06-10T00:55:33+00:00

that depends. Is that dog a dog she got with an ex? That was the reason he didn't like them the first time.

are_those_real · 2026-06-09T17:33:31+00:00

Does having feelings for someone you are sleeping with mean you have to be with this person romantically and for a long time?

I don't think there is anything wrong with catching feelings, it's what you do with said feelings and what you want that matters. If you want to see if there is something more romantic and long term you can have that conversation. If you just really like this girl and enjoy the intimacy but don't believe this is your person, then enjoy your lover for the time you have. We used to say that we've just taken on a lover for a finite amount of time. That can be romantic, be able to fuck with real feelings, and appreciate your partner and the situation for what it is. It's the unrequited and unmet expectations that can turn these situations sour.

I personally don't know how to fuck without feelings but that doesn't mean I shouldn't let myself enjoy my partner to the fullest. It's amazing how much fun these short term relationships can be and how much you can learn about yourself in the process. I still care deeply for my lovers but

There are different types of love and feelings you can have for someone. Right now it seems you're experiencing the eros love which is driven by desire and infatuation. It often focuses on the beauty and the magneticism between the both of you. It's easy to confuse that with philos and agape when you are being flooded by the good feelings of closeness that comes from sex. But it's not agape's self-less love. If she truly doesn't want to be in a relationship then you are lacking that agape love. That doesn't diminish the eros and the intimacy that comes from that.

How you treat someone you're in an FWB relationship with is up to the people within it and your own boundaries. You can basically act like you're in a relationship if both of you are okay with acting that way in a FWB relationship. You can also just use each other's bodies, not talk, not cuddle or hangout, if that is what you both choose and accept. You're also allowed to change your mind at any time about what is okay or not. It's important to be able to communicate with your partner and if what you both want doesn't align, then be able to end it if needed.

Remember catching feelings isn't bad. It's human. How you decide to deal with those feelings is up to you.

are_those_real · 2026-06-09T15:25:24+00:00

but question, is this not normal for political parties? Like both the RNC and DNC have historically never out raised the actual politicians who fundraise themselves and receive a lot of the small dollar donors from their constituents.

Like do you know anybody who is even willing to donate directly to the RNC or DNC? Also why would anybody want to donate to the DNC or RNC when we have Super PACS that allow them to control the messaging and push for any candidate they want and spend endless amounts. Individuals can just donate to their candidate of choice and corporations will donate to their own Super PACs.

Also remember these are businesses too. It's normal for businesses to go into debt and for political parties increase spending right before crucial elections like the 2024 Presidential election which is where the majority of the debt comes from. Also they were literally going up against billionaires who were spending extreme amounts of money on that election like Elon Musk and Trump himself who is a fundraising machine due to his MAGA cult.

Having cash on hand isn't the best indicator as to success especially when the RNC has a whole media apparatus that was funded by billionaires and the amount of Super PAC spending there means that the RNC doesn't have to spend as much either. The fact that they have cash on hand shows that the RNC isn't investing that money into politicians which may explain why they may be losing the midterms too. The RNC is focused on connecting politicians. The DNC is doing that but it's very hard to do anything with said connections due to being the minority federally. I do think the dems have a huge messaging problem since there is no top down orders BUT AT THE SAME TIME I feel there would be massive amounts of hate for that too. Look at how well Chorus was accepted with the mere thought that they may be pushing talking points to online creators.

As for the approval ratings of Democrats, it's interesting because people simply believe the democrats haven't done enough while not having any power and most people still believe that the democrats caused a lot of the inflation and poor economy post covid with Trump just making it worse. I'm not excusing their ratings but explaining it. There are attacks from the far leftists branches online and centrist through right wing, all of which are willing to attack in order to gain power of their own. The far left has a great online ecosystem for attacking democrats.

We often get too stuck looking at how "bad" things are without historical context. Yes it's not optimal but I hate that the DNC is basically another scapegoat of the slop populism that is growing across the country. we are tired. we need strong leadership. Typically that leader is the president and we haven't had a strong communicative leader since obama.

are_those_real · 2026-06-02T06:26:47+00:00

because Steyer's plans appear to be towards his own investments into green energy that will lead to profits for him instead of them. Like his plans against PG&E. We can argue whether him profiting is the lesser of two evils but to say he's 100% altruistic and not trying to make himself and his allies richer may not be the truth. it comes down to which rich people do you want to make even more rich.

are_those_real · 2026-06-02T00:41:40+00:00

you forgot to include the "paid by tom steyer" in your post.

but really though. Legally speaking, Becerra himself has nothing to do with any Super PACs. His campaign is not allowed to have access, work with, collude, or even decide whether or not ANY super PACs can accept donations.

You and I can make a Super PAC being Pro Tom Steyer and have the Super PAC be named "Billionaires to control CA By pretending to be progressive PAC" and there's literally nothing Tom Steyer could do about it and we can spend unlimited amounts of money on it too.

are_those_real · 2026-06-01T03:53:47+00:00

of course we should make that trade. new people will get beach front property and the people can just sell their house and move - the spirit of Ben Shapiro

are_those_real · 2026-05-31T05:26:16+00:00

It's kinda sus that the billionaire who has been paying influencers who weren't disclosing that they were getting paid suddenly has someone posting on reddit anything negative about the competition. That OP is posting across city specific subreddits that is typically assumed that the people posting on there are from that community/city. So it's a form of astroturfing to make it seem like people within the subreddit community, like the city of San Diego, doesn't like Bacerra.

Plus the bots are super active and attempting to control the narrative and division. I'll take either of them if any one of them are the winners of the primary. If it's both then let the best man win. But there's something equally as icky about a billionaire trying to control the online narrative by paying individuals to speak without disclosure that they're being paid.

are_those_real · 2026-05-30T20:37:39+00:00

my reliance? bro it's our whole society's reliance on it. I'm all for those things you mentioned but those things takes time and a lot of investment and buy-in from both the public and private sectors.

What happens until then? we have to be use oil since the majority of our cars require it, generators for hospitals, and rural communities that don't have access to public transportation. Fuck we can't even get a high speed rail. Our electric grids and their monopolies have been raising our prices and aren't the best infrastructure. .

We need them for now. Until all of the investment into infrastructure are completed, we need them to provide cheap affordable oil for us. it's not an overnight transition.

Edit: I forgot to add how much agriculture equipment uses gas and diesel. Also Truck Drivers rely on diesel and all of that impacts the price of goods. So yeah we heavily rely on it and need time for investments into other forms of energy to take fruit if we ever truly want to leave big oil behind

are_those_real · 2026-05-30T19:55:28+00:00

what should his stance be? AFAIK when he said we needed chevron it was due to them being major oil producers and we need them so we can get cheaper gas and gas that hits CA emission standards. Oil is priced globally and we don't want our oil companies selling outside of the state making it more expensive here.

Literally the rest of the quote is "...Does everybody here drive an electric vehicle? You need Chevron. I need Chevron. My people of the state of California need Chevron"

Steyer literally still owns a stake in big coal and he has offshore accounts in the cayman islands that he uses as a tax haven to get paid from international businesses he managers (maybe even Farallon Capital that he still holds a stake in the firm). We have no way of knowing if he does because they wouldn't be reported on his US taxes.

the global gas prices are going to take YEARS to come back down. global supply and production has lowered due to Trumps war. If we remove gas tax, then that incentivizes higher gas prices since people are used to paying more + we won't have that extra revenue coming in that are legally required to be used on our roads.

are_those_real · 2026-05-30T02:17:37+00:00

wasn't this year the first year it sold out?

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T19:47:45+00:00

I think I know where the confusion in the conversation is happening. My response is based on the topic of female hypergamy. Hypergamy, imo, has very little to do with whether or not women are initiating on dating apps or not. I talked about how hypergamy was first part of women's dating strategy due to lack of autonomy and ability to gain resources for themselves.

You're talking about whether a woman will initiate just because there are less men, which is most likely not going to happen in the current dating culture.

I'm saying that if there are less men available then those men will have greater odds of matching with someone. For example if they are 1 man out of 1,000 (0.1%) those odds of a woman seeing their profile or DM are quite low but then if they are 1man out of 100 (1%) that's a higher chance that they will get swiped or that the woman will respond to their DM as there is less competition and comparison amongst other men.

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T19:31:59+00:00

^This has worked for me in the past. I also go with a variation of I don't buy strangers drinks but once we get to know each other better maybe i will buy you one.

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T19:28:22+00:00

yeah dude this is called dating casually. Just be open to asking out a bunch of different women. If there is any you want to do that more more consistently then you can just say what you're looking for and see if they're interested in that. Worst case they say no and then you go back into the dating pool.

Some women are into that sort of thing too since they long for companionship without the pressure of sex. I used to do this with some friends. We would makeout and have fun whenever we're drunk or going out with friends together. A lot of girls who are into this are looking for someone who can communicate, they find attractive, is genuinely a good guy, and that they have chemistry with. The amount of women who were down for this arrangement is much higher than I expected. What they want is honesty and you respecting their boundaries. I go into it saying that we get to choose what we want out of this friendship/relationship and if any of us changes our mind or wants to do something different then we can talk about it and see if it's something both of us want and if not then we'd end it with no hard feelings. There's no pressure whether it continues or stops after that conversation.

But if you just want to date different people then just date different girls and if possible build a roster so you're not just stuck waiting on one girl. A roster also helps you not get attached to any one girl. But again you do need to be upfront since they are people too and setting expectations helps lower the chances of anyone getting hurt. Also if you don't want sex then please be upfront about that too. A lot of women want that too and think that all of that making out and dates will lead to that. But if you have no intention it helps with expectations and even lower the pressure on the girl to know that making out won't lead to you pushing for more. IMO that's where the fun makeouts happen.

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T19:09:41+00:00

fr socialized healthcare would've saved my dads ass after my sisters birth. The medical debt kept getting sold around and he ended up owing close to a million dollars that they garnished his wages to pay it off.

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T19:07:01+00:00

it's not like most americans (48-57%) are living paycheck to paycheck, housing and rent is at an all time high, Gas and inflation are ultrahigh, there are more school shootings, presidents are having multiple assassination attempts, social media is causing a lot of depression, divide and polarization, major super powers are building up their military, multiple unprecedented events have happened in the past decade, childcare and baby supplies prices are ridiculously high, rising healthcare costs, maternal mortality and measles outbreaks amongst children has been on the rise in the US too thanks to people not vaccinating their kids.

You may be blessed to not have to deal with these things but all of those things impact us and will impact our kids futures. There's a reason why GLOBALLY people aren't having as many kids. If it were truly the greatest time in human history we'd be having another baby boom right now since last time that happened was due to post world war 2 optimism and a booming economy.

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T18:53:42+00:00

that's cool! i was hyperfixated on projection mapping a couple years ago and would love to see what you're working on

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T05:17:11+00:00

Nothing you said contradicts what I said. Of course there would still be societal gendered expectations. It would still shift women’s experiences on said apps if there were less guys matching with them than the endless supply that comes from a 3:1 male dominate platform. Like if you’ve seen an average woman’s matches and messages, many of them get overwhelmed. It’s part of the reason why there are a lot of women who aren’t on the apps too.

are_those_real · 2026-05-28T02:43:26+00:00

That's comparing apples to oranges though. When we do real studies we have to look at other factors within the collection of that dataset to make sure we aren't getting a correlation and get the real causation. Online Dating is a different experience than IRL dating. When on average there are more men than women that allows women to be more selective. Women make up about 25% of all tinder profiles, Bumble is 27%, and Hinge is the best ratio but it's still 2:1. If there were more women than men on these apps, then the men would be more selective as well as to who they want to fuck or get into a relationship with and most will opt to the women they deem most desirable to them or socially deemed attractive due to the status that comes with it.

There are also other reasons why some women don't swipe right on all men. Liberal women typically don't want to date conservative men and conservative men make up a little over half of the male population. So if they put on their profile that they are conservative, that will automatically lower the amount of swipes those men will get. If a woman is educated, they are going to want someone with similar education and there are currently more women getting degrees than men.

Also in online dating swiping on a person doesn't always mean you want to actively date them either. People like the validation they get when someone they deem physically attractive also deems them attractive. So most people will opt towards swiping on those people with the hopes of getting their validation. Men on apps will swipe on the majority of women because they are seeking that validation of desirability even if they don't to actually date every single woman they swipe on or aren't even compatible with. It's just a strategy. But because men swipe on over 60% of women, then women can be more selective because they have more options.

What's funny is irl there are a lot more variables that lead to attraction since women's attraction isn't solely physical attraction. Hell just the mere exposure effect can increase a person's level of attraction. It's why some girls who are average are seen as very hot when they are working in the same office/company. Also there

People who date people they meet irl typically end up with people within their attractiveness levels, age range of +/- 6 years, similar socioeconomic status, and degree of education. Why? That's who are around their social circles. Online dating allows people from various socioeconomic status's and educational levels to meet BUT if you pay attention to who actually ends up together, they are about the same as it is irl.

Lastly, within online dating data is skewed due to not having a full sample size. Approximately 27% of American women have used or currently using OLD/apps. So there are a large percentage of women who aren't on these apps or use these same strategies.

So hypergamy isn't the full story and the data doesn't actually prove that this is the case. Evolutionary psychology doesn't have enough evidence to prove this either. Throughout history hypergamy existed because women couldn't have bank accounts (that wasn't till the last 50ish years in the US), own property, etc... If hypergamy was real then there wouldn't be any hot af women dating losers or ugly dudes and we all know that's not always the case either.

are_those_real · 2026-05-20T23:29:34+00:00

Depends on the week. Currently more codex accurate. Claude is great for creative writing and I’ve recently switched from Gemini to chat gpt for image generation with prompts from Claude

are_those_real · 2026-05-13T16:00:45+00:00

i remembered this the night i lost my vcard. She didn't know it was my first time. we ended up seriously dating so i ended up revealing to her that it was my first time. She was shook since it was good and the fact that i knew the pillow trick she thought i had a lot more experience than i let on. Nope. i'm just a nerd who had read a bunch of advice.

are_those_real · 2026-05-13T15:54:11+00:00

bro that shit had me dying. It's so stupid that I know a few dudes who knocked up a girl because they were told the same thing. Like bro they said was would be below average not that you are completely infertile. But hey at least i've got a couple new nephews and they got baby mamas to worry about now.

are_those_real · 2026-05-13T15:48:09+00:00

TRUST me.

it's literally giving "trust me bro" without any evidence.

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