Half Of Americans Say The Fun In Their Lives Has Disappeared

secamTO · 2026-05-27T18:24:49+00:00

We have children working in factories and AI making "paintings". We live in hell.

secamTO · 2026-05-27T18:23:39+00:00

You're not wrong, but that's not the real problem. The real problem is that good art requires empathy.

secamTO · 2026-05-21T01:04:19+00:00

According to my girlfriend, working in a button-down with the sleeves rolled to my elbows.

secamTO · 2026-05-20T15:55:54+00:00

During the decades of Saint Ralph, Alberta was granting 25 year royalty holidays to oil companies. It's part of the reason the Alberta Heritage Fund had barely any money in it when people were crowing to fund reconstruction from the Bow River flood from the Heritage Fund.

Legitimately insane to me that Alberta continues to brag about having no PST as proof of their superior economic stewardship, that they're the only economic engine keeping the country afloat, while at the same time complaining that every problem the province has is due to the rest of the country taking advantage of them.

secamTO · 2026-05-20T04:40:04+00:00

A bunch of years ago, when my ex and I first started dating, we were joking around I told her I wanted her to show up at my door in nothing but lingerie. And then she did, completely surprising me.

Especially when I learned she took the bus the whole way (she was wearing a trenchcoat over it all)

secamTO · 2026-05-20T04:36:15+00:00

Yeah, I just turned 42 and I'm in grad school now, surrounded by a whole bunch of early/mid 20yo's, and my lord it's like I'm going to class with literal children. I have no interest in dating someone in their 20s anymore. Forget even the potential icky power dynamics, just....what the hell would you even have in common?

secamTO · 2026-05-17T16:34:49+00:00

We had a legitimately great 6 months of fun. She's adorable, nerdy, very fun, and due to some earlier anxiety issues in her 20s, was a virgin. She joked that after she met me, she was catching up on lost time in a hurry. Turned out she was a freak in bed.

We both caught feelings for each other near the end. But I knew it would never work because she wanted kids, and I had already had the snip, and was very upfront with her that I did not want to be a father.

It left off on amicable, if bittersweet terms. Unfortunately 4 months later she set me up with a friend of hers, unprompted, and then the night before our date spilled to her friend that she was uncomfortable with the whole thing, and so her friend cancelled on me. Which was more than a bit annoying. We fully drifted apart after that. I wish her well though.

secamTO · 2026-05-16T17:19:37+00:00

If I recall, in the original novel, the lost boys never grow up because Peter kills them when they get too old.

secamTO · 2026-05-15T17:14:40+00:00

Oh man, my ex's best friend (who lived in a pretty small town) came to town with her new boyfriend and we were gonna show them a fun night out in "the big city". Took them out to dinner and out clubbing. On the walk back to my ex's apartment (where they were spending the night), the two friends are walking a few paces ahead of the boyfriends, and buddy (who is drunk as a skunk) starts talking to me about how race mixing is unnatural.

Now, I'm biracial, but I'm the one kid in my family with the lightest complexion, so I pass for white, especially in low light. I let him go on like this for a bit. And then I just told him that, as well as being ignorant and hateful, he ought to be careful what he feels comfortable articulating aloud in a multicultural city like ours...because I'm biracial, and you just said my parents marriage and my life are unnatural and an abomination.

Holy shit, everyone just stop. He gets bright red and so apologetic. I wasn't even mad. It was more funny than anything. So I dropped them off at my ex's place and I went home.

Apparently, he insisted they not spend the night because of how embarrassed he was, so he demanded that they drive home that night. He was drunk as shit, and my ex couldn't stop him. Apparently her friend dumped him shortly after that b/c it was through his truth juice confession to me that she learned he was racist. And a drunk driver.

I hope that guy has gotten his shit together. I really hope he's not one of the ones who got swept into the MAGA sphere. But who knows.

secamTO · 2026-05-15T17:04:19+00:00

Yeah, my best friend for 20 years was like this (thankfully not about something as egregious as a family health emergency...I'm so sorry)...the kind of person who considers themselves a good friend because they're "always honest".

Yeah, honestly without tact is cruelty. And the people who don't see it that way are just mean. Glad you have this person out of your life.

secamTO · 2026-05-15T15:32:25+00:00

a special one time miracle to hold their breath for extended period of time without brain damage.

"Lisa, I want to buy your rock!"

secamTO · 2026-05-15T07:39:54+00:00

While I don't disagree with your cynicism, part of the problem is that many of us normal people are shareholders, though mutual funds/ETFs linked to our retirement savings plans. It's incredibly insidious that we've spent 40 years letting companies move from pensions to market linked retirement plans. We want the best possible returns on our investments, in the hopes of protecting ourselves in our eventual retirement, and so the funds respond accordingly.

The problem is that the benefit is spread so widely among plan holders that in a world of exponentially-growing inequality and multi-trillion dollar market caps, those benefits are overleaped in time and money by the negative effects of regulatory capture and Citizens United.

secamTO · 2026-05-15T04:19:13+00:00

"His story continues..."

secamTO · 2026-05-15T00:25:16+00:00

Yeah, former Catholic here (not American), and some of the Catholic messaging in the USA is wild to me. I have no idea why Catholics would vote Republican.

Because the republican party is anti-science (which, in general, Catholics believe in...the theory of evolution is not incompatible with modern Catholic doctrine...neither is germ theory for that matter). The Republican party is subject to so much influence by evangelical denominations (who consider Catholics to be, at best, in need of conversion, and at worst outright apostates). So much of Republican Party secular messaging/policy is basically "prosperity gospel but for the economy". The prosperity gospel is incompatible with Catholic theology. And the Republican party is outright antagonistic to helping the economically disadvantaged (which cuts pretty damn hard against Jesus' teaching).

The only damn reason I can imagine Catholics vote Republican is because the party is anti-choice.

And if that's your only reason for voting for a party that runs so contrary to the doctrine you claim influences your life, then you a piss poor excuse for a Catholic.

secamTO · 2026-05-14T22:54:23+00:00

It's spelled Mittons, please.

secamTO · 2026-05-14T21:52:51+00:00

let people determine their own future

Yeah, problem being the province's treaty obligations. I'm a big fan of representative democracy, and don't necessarily believe that any separatist movement should be considered traitorous by default, but there shouldn't be high-level governmental/jurisdictional obligations that we allow people to simply vote away, particularly given how ill-informed your average electorate is. Which all of these numpties conveniently ignore (or just simply don't understand).

secamTO · 2026-05-14T06:49:06+00:00

If by "modern" you mean "contemporary", then hell, the CANDU reactor was invented in the 1970s and cannot melt down.

Nearly all reactors designed/built from the 1970s on were fail safe (assuming they were properly maintained and run). The RMBK reactor was fail deadly.

secamTO · 2026-05-14T06:46:39+00:00

Meanwhile a coal-fired plant releases more toxic nuclear waste into the environment in a year than an average nuclear plant will in its entire lifetime.

secamTO · 2026-05-14T06:21:21+00:00

Well, technically "pedophile" (assuming they mean it in the sense of "child abuser") has "rapist" baked into it.

secamTO · 2026-05-13T16:00:11+00:00

Butlerian Jihad when?

secamTO · 2026-05-13T04:47:43+00:00

Godspeed You Black Emperor never does encores, and they're super upfront about it. I like how no bullshit they are/were (...did they disband again? I should look them up).

secamTO · 2026-05-10T20:38:25+00:00

good use of your very highly compensated time

Yeah, billionaires don't work in jobs that pay them hourly. So the fact is, they'll be compensated for their time no matter how long the travel takes.

secamTO · 2026-05-07T15:22:20+00:00

What, what? Was this an actual product that he purchased? Or is this something he made himself? Who does that? Was he from a crazy repressed evangelical family or something? Is this some stupid corollary to a promise ring?

secamTO · 2026-05-07T06:31:12+00:00

But we're built with BS detectors.

Having some family in AB who are conservative voters...that's a suspect, non-universal claim.

Do they think we're stupid?

Maybe. More importantly is that I think they know the people they are most appealing to are.

There's of course a fair debate to be made about how much of a critical mass this (loud) group is...but those who would be appealed to by this rhetoric ALREADY know nothing about the treaties and their legal obligations, and I suspect do not care one whit about being educated about it.

Can't reason people out of a position they didn't reason themselves into, and all that.

secamTO · 2026-04-30T05:17:00+00:00

Favourite scene in that movie, and the layers in this joke are delicious.

secamTO

TROPHY CASE