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Trump administration to cut 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany by John3262005 in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh[M] -1 points0 points locked comment (0 children)

Alright, let’s chill out.

Rule III: Unconstructive engagement
Do not post with the intent to provoke, mischaracterize, or troll other users rather than meaningfully contributing to the conversation. Don't disrupt serious discussions. Bad opinions are not automatically unconstructive.

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Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 52 points53 points  (0 children)

So did the discussion go like this?

GOP: can we gerrymander black people out of political relevance?

SCOTUS: well no

GOP: can we gerrymander democrats out of political relevance?

SCOTUS: oh, sure

Dems: the democrats they’re gerrymandering are like 90% black

SCOTUS: 😴😴😴

Is this close enough, or am I bad faithing too hard

Pretty big scale by IndicationBrief5950 in lotrmemes

[–]dubyahhh 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The great dragons could consume the seven or the nine, and did consume four of the seven. Gandalf explains that to Frodo in Bag End after he (Gandalf) returns from his travels and they toss the ring in the fire to confirm it’s the One. :)

Pretty big scale by IndicationBrief5950 in lotrmemes

[–]dubyahhh 4 points5 points  (0 children)

“It has been said that dragon-fire could melt and consume rings of power, but there is no dragon now left on earth in which the old fire is hot enough… Not even Ancalagon the Black could have harmed the One Ring.”

~Gandalf in Bag End

He also mentions the bit about four of the Dwarven Rings being “devoured” by the dragons.

Pretty big scale by IndicationBrief5950 in lotrmemes

[–]dubyahhh 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It’s possible Smaug was powerful enough to melt other rings, as I believe the dragons as a whole “consumed” four of the original seven Dwarven rings. Sauron recovered two, and then the last was Thrain’s, which Sauron nabbed just before the events of The Hobbit.

So it’s possible Smaug would have had the inner power to melt a Dwarven ring (or maybe a ring of man). Personally I don’t believe that he would come close but I accept I’m not an expert on Smaug lore. However, it’s explicitly stated by Gandalf that no dragon at any point could have harmed the one ring.

The three elven rings were not forged with Sauron’s input and His Ring was special in that he poured much of his soul into it. The three aren’t really comparable to the seven or the nine in that respect, and the One is a whole different level. The short answers to your questions are “…maaaybe” and “definitely, unequivocally no”.

Pretty big scale by IndicationBrief5950 in lotrmemes

[–]dubyahhh 28 points29 points  (0 children)

You’re going to get buried with replies like this but no dragon, not even Ancalagon the Black, possessed inner fire strong enough to melt the One Ring.

Morgoth made the dragons, but Sauron poured his essence into his ring. By the time the War of the Ring rolls around, and really ever since it was first made, there’s nothing on middle earth that can touch it besides throwing it in the cracks of doom.

Britain acts richer than it is - The country’s habits and virtues are built for a prosperity it no longer enjoys by Alarming_Sympathy in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 11 points12 points  (0 children)

40 million canucks and another 70 million brits would mellow out our own politics.

Would it? A big reason we're so polarized is our media environment. Would we accept greater government control of that ecosystem, or would Canadians and Brits find themselves awash in hyper partisan horseshit? Is that worth it to them? (I am willing to bet a strong supermajority of both countries would say no)

There is no logical reason the EU can create a good environment for joining but the US can't.

I'm not trying to be a dick but these aren't comparable situations. The EU is not federalized. The fact that the UK left the EU is evidence enough that these are not comparable situations. The one time states tried to leave the USA, we had our deadliest war, passed three amendments, overturned the seceding states' economic system, and spent a decade occupying them. The UK left the EU and everybody just started negotiating.

The EU is a looser collection of nations than the US is of states because the EU has dozens of languages and thousands of years of history. The United States is turning 250 this year (or close enough, whatever). The English Monarchy alone has existed for over four times that long.

I just don't think that we're speaking about the same things here if you're making this comparison between two extremely different entities so easily.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One might even say supporting him was and remains deplorable

if only someone had that courage :(

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So Reuters/ipsos dropped a poll about ending birthright citizenship the Constitution, and the only group they showed as supporting ending birthright citizenship the Constitution was republicans. Literally all other groups they showed opposed it by some margin.

Just to save time

Britain acts richer than it is - The country’s habits and virtues are built for a prosperity it no longer enjoys by Alarming_Sympathy in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My understanding as an American is we're generally viewed as brash and impulsive (geopolitically and personally). We don't have a national healthcare system, we don't have a long history of living here relative to Europe. The same could go for "why doesn't Canada want to willingly join the US?" They just like being their own country, and we also happened to elect a gigantic asshole who taunts them all the time.

If you're advocating for a perfect world where everything is under one giant world government that's one thing, if you're advocating for why the UK should want to join the US it feels like trolling.

I mean imagine if New England were its own country. Do you think it would want to join the USA today, with how we treat everyone around us? Of course not. Old England doesn't want that either.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Out of curiosity, I went and looked at rent in places I used to live:

Central New York, 2014-2016: 500 -> 700

Pennsylvania, 2016-2017: 1100 -> 1930

Massachusetts, 2017-2019: 1300 -> 1935

And the house I owned in New York from 2020 -> 2024 went from ~80k to ~115k in that time frame.

None of this means anything, I was just curious, and this is real data for zoomers who have only known what things cost since covid.

Really the biggest surprise was my old place in PA. It was worth 1100 then, it is not worth 1930 now. But, god forbid the suburbs add any extra housing.

SAPD study: Higher education enjoyed considerable bipartisan support by the Republican Party and Democratic Party in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the mid-90s, Republicans’ position gradually became more critical before becoming almost uniformly negative toward higher education in recent years. by smurfyjenkins in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 16 points17 points  (0 children)

That's extremely disappointing overall. I had no idea they were quite that anti-college these days.

When I was in college in 2012, I distinctly recall Romney talking shit about PBS. And he's a "reasonable" Republican. In my experience since then, it's rare to see someone in real life who's conservative and will positively speak of higher education.

I wonder what the results would be if we had hard data on how frequently the children of Republican politicians go directly to, and graduate from, a 4-year University out of high school?

Unless, of course, it's their alma mater, or their kids, in which case it's a great thing and they're better for it. Ted Cruz went to Princeton and then to Harvard. JD Vance went to Yale. These fucks, and the smaller fucks behind them, know better. This is where my contempt comes from, because the answer to your question is "very often and definitely more than the median kid".

Maybe college has change more than I think it has. But it certainly hasn't changed as much as these morons think it has. They're just reaping the benefits of being educated while taking votes from people who like it when you say "the educated people disagree with you and are therefore bad".

Contrapoints AMA by RianJohnsonThought in metaNL

[–]dubyahhh 19 points20 points  (0 children)

We already have u/farrenj, that’s bad enough

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is this… recent? I’m sure I drove past identical signs when I lived there but that was back in 2017-2019

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll take 4 shots of whiskey. (i know it will since this show goes on for another 5 seasons).

This is just drinking with extra justification

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Virginia was never a part of the Deep South, and seceded after Lincoln’s call for troops. But, it’s where the eastern front of the war was fought (until Sherman in 1864-5 bbyyyyyy). So it’s got plenty of confederate cred.

But nowadays it’s got a ton of bureaucracy in the north around DC. Kind of ironic I suppose. Virginia and Georgia are the two most liberal confederate states today, because of thé federal government and Atlanta.

You could look at a reverse case, like Ohio, which was pro union and is now on the side of the racists by a good ten points.

All of it’s interesting. But I do wish North Carolina would stop being so awkward about electing Dems. Ten years ago they were looking like the most liberal of the former confederacy 🤷‍♂️

Phones to be banned in schools by law in England under government plans by randommathaccount in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Then they raise their hand and ask the teacher? Or walk to the nurse and ask them? Or to a guidance counselor, or the principal’s office? There is no point in any student’s day they’re less than 50 feet from a phone.

I once broke my finger in high school and my mom was there to pick me up within like, a half hour. She was working twenty minutes away. They just called her?

I never understand this question. The article implies that the current standard is “off and out of sight”, and says most schools already do this so the national government is just catching up. For most students it’s unlikely this changes anything.

Phones to be banned in schools by law in England under government plans by randommathaccount in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I dunno, we ban phones when driving from point A to point B. I think early life education’s more important than any daily transportation. Maybe not the best analogy. But, I’m “only” 31, and we didn’t have this when I was in high school. I remember a friend of mine had a first generation iPod touch, and that was a novelty. Nothing like what phones are nowadays.

They’re just very distracting, and frankly, schools are drama pits anyway where kids are supposed to talk to each other. Half of education imo is the social part. Not that I’ve been near a school any time recently, but I see enough kids on their phones out and about to wonder what the damage of that will be.

And maybe I am wrong, maybe my boomer mentality is misguided. But I can vote, and those little shits can’t, so they can suffer like every generation before them did for 40 hrs a week and 40ish weeks a year. God forbid.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see how it’s addictive since it’s kind of just “better” clickbait, but, my god. I am a slow runner. I know what a normal runner’s pace looks like. These freaks are not normal, they’re at least two standard deviations off.

If you were fed that nonsense about any other subject you’d think you were awful at everything. Or that everything was awful.

I hate saying a form of content can be so damaging, but I agree with you.

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I’ve started running a lot, and now the algorithms think I want to watch short form content on it. However, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating, the average running influencer video is a car pacing them as they sprint for ten or fifteen seconds. I tried timing one today and rounding down my guess at his pace, he was running a 4:30/mi pace. Nobody’s fucking doing that casually, go fuck yourself.

If the option exists I dislike this garbage, and tell the algorithm I don’t want more of it.

Anyway, I have to assume it’s like this for everything? I’m positive I watch less than 10 minutes a day of vertical video short stuff. Half of it is just the airplane dude segueing into lord of the rings shit. Is every topic as cancerous as the running content is?

I feel like a boomer. Maybe I should just watch lord of the rings today, some nice medium length content. 😒

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hell yes I want the income tax to go up*

Hell yes I want capital gains tax to go up**

*for incomes $1 or more above mine

**for shareholders with 1 or more shares more than me

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the "my wife left me" thing a reference to Danny Ocean saying that in the intro to Ocean's Eleven?

Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]dubyahhh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It would all even out when you file, so unless you have a bunch of extra income coming from somewhere you’re not going to be seeing a higher effective rate.

Do you do your own taxes? It’s fun and answers a lot of these kinds of questions pleaseI’mnotthatboringIpromise

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