As you get older, the thing that’s “the process” changes – dating stops being the process, and life becomes the process. Dating just gets annoying.

Idk about you but for me this turned out to be just a weird looking fear of commitment. It felt like fomo, but once I realized what it was, it … well, I didn’t stop thinking about other girls right away, but it lost its power to make me actually lose interest in the girl I was with.

I’m still with the girl I was with when I realized all this, so, imo that’s pretty meaningful.

(Fwiw I never stopped “thinking” about other girls but now it’s very unreal. I’ve been with my wife for 15 years and the idea of going back through all that intro relationship bullshit sounds like torture – plus, odds are, whoever she is won’t be better than my wife, and, of course, it would super hurt my wife’s feelings, and probably mine too, and I really like her feelings not to be hurt. Also we have kids, which raises the bar for how shitty the relationship with my wife would have to be in order to spilt up.)

WE GOT BALLISTAE FOR YOU TOO, BUDDY

Where’s the button I can press to project this comment onto the moon

One of the things that I thought of to help with this problem is, like, what if we figured out how much it costs to meet like all the basics in life - a house (not a rental!), food, soda, internet, heat/hot water - all that stuff. Then add some more, so that people could do nice stuff and enjoy their lives, save for retirement, go on vacations, etc.

Then - now here’s the crazy part - we make a law requiring that everyone in the country needs to be paid at least that much money. It would be like a “Floor Wage,” or, like, a “Minimum Salary.”

If the increase in the cost of doing business didn’t eliminate billionaires altogether, I bet people would at least stop giving a shit about billionaires and their gold piles because the rest of us aren’t living in debt while they build yachts for their yachts.

Before Obama, I could still remain quiet when people said “voting for anyone is implicit approval,” or whatever - and for the most part, they’re right - voting is a pretty low level of change.

I voted for Obama because even if he is a bit of a tool, he’s black, and now a huge group of minority kids saw someone who looks like them in the white house. I voted for him not because of the “HOPE” on his signs but literally to give black kids hope. (And yeah, for the most part, it’s false hope, just like it is for white kids, welcome to the club.) He was a positive symbol and, if it’s a symbol who is also a centrist Democrat, that’s better then a centrist Democrat that isn’t a positive symbol. And a shit ton better than Mitt Romney or whoever the other guy was.

And then Trump happened, and any respect for the “don’t vote” viewpoint drained out. If you still think both parties are the same at this point, you might want to start asking yourself what else is going on with you - because “not great” is not identical to “fucking terrible”…

Biden isn’t doing what I want him to do - health care, income inequality, corruption in Congress, etc - but the infrastructure bill isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing, we need it. We need a lot more, but 1 > 0.

For the most part, their interests align, that’s true. And it could be copium to say that many is better than one - since that’s what we have.

At least if there was only one oligarch, we could have direct communication - as it is now, all the oligarchs can just kinda shrug their shoulders and mumble something in the universal language of plausible deniability.

I would 100% spend at least one day a week as a cute young alien in a short skirt and a mod hairstyle (I didn’t watch the show enough to know their species, but, like, one of the ones that look like humans with unusual foreheads). And the other 6 days as a cute young alien in Magnum PI shorts and a tshirt (but male this time).

People who lived without all the convenience and comforts of our modern lives existed so everything’s fine, no need to progress further. Pack it in folks, we’re stopping progress here, it’s not perfect but it’s better than it ancestors had so our complaints are invalid.

Also sexy aliens

I know you didn’t ask for this rant, but that’s ok, it’s not meant to be directed at you. This is an open -carry ranting state, and this is rant is legal even though it’s unregistered because it’s from the Internet.

It is shitty to rule - setting aside corruption and greed, and imagining a world where leaders were just and smart and altruistic, etc - even then - ruling will lead to mistakes and failures and horrific results. That’s… unfortunately kind of natural.

But holding that leadership accountable - that’s normal too. That’s how you remind them what a fuck up is, and what horrific means. Our protests against their failures in leadership are there to right the ship. Our voices are a vital part of the plan.

(And, yeah, obviously things are weighted a little (a lot) unfairly due to greed and corruption - but that’s not the point. The point is: when something is wrong, it’s wrong. When leaders do wrong, you yell at them. That’s how you tell them what wrong is.)

To say that we (the USA) can’t be criticized because “omg leadership is hard” is making excuses - and if you stop telling them what wrong is, they’re going to start to forget.

Many oligarchs is better than a single oligarch. In true capitalist fashion, they are sociopathically self interested and their undermining of each other can occasionally benefit the rest of us.

And one time they almost got into a ring to fight, which was pretty funny.