8-Ball for president, fuck it

This gives me Wes Anderson vibes.

Ahh, I see. Well, it’s natural to congregate to groups you’re similar to - no one likes feeling uncomfortable. But a couple months of being uncomfortable is what it takes. Find some sort of common ground and work from there. Even if you remove any biases of your own, there are those who won’t do the same for you. It isn’t right, but it’s understandable. If someone doesn’t reciprocate any meaningful interest, move on to the next person. It just takes persistence and the desire to interact with other cultures. As I mentioned in my post, building stigmas and unconscious biases down the road often happen because there’s little to no real personal interaction with other groups. Not saying you will, just something I’ve noticed in people through the years, no matter how well-intentioned they may be.

Sure! It will be uncomfortable at first, and you will face some difficulties at first. The hardest thing is to build a friendship. But once you’re actually friends with someone, that’s your chance to fully dive in. Just be sure to learn and recognize any of your own unconscious biases and leave them at the door. Can’t realistically expect anyone else to accept you if you don’t do that first (this is for everyone. We all have these, which is why it’s important to recognize them and lose them)

I understand not all locales have this advantage, but I was fortunate that Boston often had festivals organized by these communities. If your city has any, go to them. Go to concerts, bars, community events, religious gatherings if you’re into it, or any other event where you can more easily interact with people. All it takes is to build one meaningful connection and then your network will naturally grow.

Posting my reply to someone else.

I was born in the US, in Mississippi, but moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young adult. I am mixed from white and pacific islander - I look mostly white, just with Asian features - but a significant portion of my friends were black as a child, and then I fell in with an international community of Haitian-, Nigerian-, and Latin-Americans when I moved to South Boston.

As with anywhere, most people are nice if you express interest in them and their cultures. There will be preconceived notions for some people towards you, and it’s important to understand that most stigmas stem from an absence of interaction. It can be surprisingly easy to break those barriers if you just make any sort of effort. It can sometimes be hard, but it’s so worth it. The kindest people I have met have been from these communities, mostly I think because they’ve worked so hard to build a better life for themselves and their families and friends.

Few things are as rewarding as being accepted into different communities. You learn and experience so much that you wouldn’t otherwise. My favorite experiences have been meeting the families of friends, being invited to cookouts with traditional foods and drink you have never had, and having an incredibly reliable community to lean on in times of hardship - we all help each other because we’re all in the rat race together. All it takes is some humility and a willingness to learn.

I was born in the US, in Mississippi, but moved to Boston, Massachusetts, as a young adult. A significant portion of my friends were black as a child, and then I fell in with an international community of Haitian-, Nigerian-, and Latin-Americans when I moved to South Boston.

As with anywhere, most people are nice if you express interest in them and their cultures. There will be preconceived notions for some people towards you, and it’s important to understand that most stigmas stem from an absence of interaction. It can be surprisingly easy to break those barriers if you just make any sort of effort. It can sometimes be hard, but it’s so worth it. The kindest people I have met have been from these communities, mostly I think because they’ve worked so hard to build a better life for themselves and their families and friends.

Few things are as rewarding as being accepted into different communities. You learn and experience so much that you wouldn’t otherwise. My favorite experiences have been meeting the families of friends, being invited to cookouts with traditional foods and drink you have never had, and having an incredibly reliable community to lean on in times of hardship - we all help each other because we’re all in the rat race together. All it takes is some humility and a willingness to learn.

Here’s an Ent that only appears for a total of 30 pages, let me write his entire family’s history for an additional 50

Edit: fucking love me some LOTR, though

Don’t say never - it can find you at the most unexpected time and place. It can be different for everyone, but generally you feel and know that this other person would do almost anything to help you. Regardless of what you go through, you know that everything will be fine since you have each other. Being loved means you have an advocate and someone who validates you, despite all your flaws and shortcomings. It means you can be brutally honest with them, and vice versa, because you want the best for them.

Being in love means you can fight and argue, but find some sort of common ground and go from there - because they’re interested in your perspective and you in theirs, even if you disagree with it. At the end of the day, they’re your rock and your fire.

Another person shouldn’t give you purpose or meaning - everyone has to make that for themselves, and it will likely change through time. But it does mean you have someone to stand alongside you in that journey, excited and eager to share and experience the journey.

Gungi! It’s even mentioned in TCW series and Bad Batch that, while incredibly rare, there have been several accounts of Wookie force users through the millenia. Would love to see a series set 100yrs or so after the OT of Gungi helping to re-establish or expand a new galactic Jedi Order as a threat from the Void threatens the stability of the galaxy - with the wisdom of Yoda but without the complacency due to his experience coming of age in TCW and the Galactic Civil War

Do you live to argue? Did you even read what I wrote, or do you only cherry pick? You’re resorting to whataboutism. And for the record no, because Russia is a full-blown oligarchy that holds farce “presidential” elections. The fact Trump, the leader at the time, lost shows we’re doing better than Russia is.

We both support progressive candidates and ideologies. I hate Biden, but I live in a state where I’ll have to vote for him. But since you don’t want to have an actual conversation, we’re done here. Talk like this is why Republicans are doing so well despite over half of the US hating their guts.

I agree, tbh, and my career is involved with economics lol. But, as with climate change, I do what I can with what’s available and try to improve what I can when possible.

Do I see it getting better? Not anytime soon. But I sure as hell don’t want to hasten the outcome.

Alright, you’re just arguing for the sake of it at this point and putting words in my mouth lol. While we’re technically in a capitalistic oligarchy, we do have some democratic processes at play. I don’t like it, and you don’t either. Which is weird because you’re seemingly arguing against the only candidate that is actively trying to maintain that semblance of democracy. Trump has actively tried to undermine this semblance of democracy in each of the recent elections, even in the election he won.

Let’s circle back for you. Biden is the lesser evil of the two. When these are your only realistic choices in our current system, there’s only one that’s obvious. Campaign for structural reform and for politicians that want to reform and improve the system we have.

You’re talking about primaries and I’m talking about presidential generals. I voted Bernie each time in the primaries because I think the DNC establishment is too far right. I personally think Bernie isn’t progressive enough, but this is the US.

We’re literally in agreement on this part, and I said Biden was morally dubious. Guy’s a terrible person and a horrible politician, don’t get me wrong. But I’ll take Biden over Trump any day, because at least Biden has never incited an insurrection

One evil respects democracy and at least wants to better the lives of most the people in the country. Morally dubious, but has helped more people than harmed.

The other respects only himself and wants to better the life of only himself while using anyone and anything he can to achieve that - remember the time he claimed the election was stolen before it was even concluded? The guy literally has a psychologist in his family who detailed how awful he really is, and was before he became president.

And then there’s RFK Jr. who had a worm starve to death inside his brain. He isn’t necessarily evil, just horribly stupid

Love seeing Blue’s progress! Happy to know they’re doing well and that they have such a good owner

Good? If they can’t adapt to these externalities, which will only increase, then more efficient plants / companies should take their places

You’re just like the people Op is talking about.

Either you weren’t contributing for decades, or you literally only contributed $10-$20/mo for ~30 years. If your job provides a 401k option, with tax write-offs and everything else you should have been contributing a lot more to maximize its future utility. This is assuming your employer wasn’t even matching.

Either you aren’t telling us the full details, or you haven’t fully been contributing for decades.

Not everyone has the ability or capability to leave their home.

Love to see these guys getting some recognition! Please check out “Kai Tangata” if you haven’t heard it. It’s not as heavy as some of their works - and I prefer heavier forms of metal - but that’s probably my favorite song of theirs.