I think you’d be cutting out a significant portion of the workforce by excluding those in early adulthood.
I’m guessing their position is very much “oh they still need to work and pay taxes…and they shouldn’t expect any more support than they currently have in order to do so…but they need to figure out how to manage it all without driving, and they should be disenfranchised as well”.
There’s more than one specific topic covered in sex ed.
We teach math to children, but nobody is suggesting that you need to get your toddler into differential equations.
Also, for many areas, a vehicle is a necessity of adult life.
If you’re not letting kids drive at 16, then for that *almost-*decade until they’re 25 you’d better provide free transportation as well.
Since that’s not about to happen, leave it as it is.
While I personally agree with most of what you said, I disagree with your assertion as to the reaction you’ll get from peers.
We’ve made admitting mistakes worse than the mistake itself these days, and it’s slowly unraveling accountability.
I associate this with boomers more than kids, but that’s subjective since an old former friend I know always used to do it.
They also used “seen” instead of “saw”, as in, “I seen dark clouds so I closed the windows.” which is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Wouldn’t the combo of the first amendment and the supremacy clause pretty neatly dismantle the new Louisiana law?
Right.
Honestly for as much “woe is me” that they crammed into this piece, my takeaway was mostly just, “Hmmm…good.”
Like…I love rural PA, I’m just not wild about a lot of the people who live there. They vote against my own interests (and theirs), disproportionately influence state government, and welcome corporations that proudly destroy the environment while taking a hostile stance toward anyone not like them.
This isn’t down to every last person, of course, but broadly speaking, the ones who aren’t fitting that template are also not the ones doing most of the dying.
So the piece is reading, to me, more as, “the people most responsible for keeping the shitty aspects of Pennsylvania shitty are dying faster than they’re breeding”…which is good news for the more reasonable residents of the state.
Are you from rural PA?
So you just don’t work at all?
Knocked it out of the park with this comment.
Sincerely,
Someone originally from the same town as you, basically.
I’ll assume that I’m just missing a reference or three because the alternative is that I’m having a stroke.
Hell, in the inter-war period, mainstream America was even generally pretty comfortable with…uh…if not actual fascism, at least things that looked and sounded a lot like fascism.
Because they’ve also got the lie-a-beetus.
The Great Basilisk is displeased by your repeated misspelling of the word “falter”.
Prepare your simulated ass.
That’s double-plus ungood.
When I worked for the federal government, we had to take yearly training on how not to accept bribes/gifts.
Like…if anyone was serious about bribing my agency to get their way…and they decided that I, of all people, was the one to bribe…well they deserve to lose the value of the bribe just based on utter stupidity alone.
Well said.
The number of users here who think far left protest non-votes matter more in this election than centrists/moderates and disillusioned conservative Republicans is bordering on comical.
This election will come down to the usual suspects lately:
Moderates in PA, MI, WI, GA, NV, and AZ.
Personally, I’m predicting overall lower turnout than 2020 and it’s more a matter of which candidate motivates their centrist voters from 4 years ago in these locations to actually get out and vote again.
Given their track records, it is my prediction that centrist Biden voters from 2020 will be more likely to stay loyal and motivated than centrist Trump voters from the same time frame…who now have his trials as well as the Jan. 6th debacle, weighing on their minds. Further, I feel like the trump campaign has greater enthusiasm but among a smaller core, whereas the Biden camp has lukewarm enthusiasm among a broader set…and since a lukewarm vote has as much impact as a zealous one, the calculus favors Biden in that regard.
So both guys get fewer votes overall than they did 4 years ago…but the amount that each one loses (and where) is what decides things. And if that’s how it plays out, I think the map is going to look very similar to the last go-round. I think Biden is least safe in AZ (depending on how the conversation about the border plays out) and GA (which is just the battleground in the country right now, it seems). I think he’s safest in Michigan, and the remaining states of WI and PA I’d say lean Biden but are certainly in play. I’m not as familiar with Wisconsin, but Pennsylvania has handed Democrats more and more wins since the last time, most importantly in the midterms, when Pennsylvanians gave Democrats the majority in the state house in 2022 for the first time in ages.
So, barring any major shakeup in the campaigns, I feel like just looking at the Xs and Os, every state votes the way it did 4 years ago, except MAYBE the states Biden flipped. Of those, I feel Michigan and Pennsylvania stay blue.
If those two predictions are correct, Biden can even lose Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin, and still end up with 270 electoral votes to Trump’s 268, and still narrowly win. While I’d like a fatter margin, I feel it’s a wholly reasonable scenario that Biden carries every state Clinton did in 2016, plus two of the 5 battleground states he picked up in 2020.
Honestly I’m not on the spectrum at all (that I know of) and your SO’s half of those exchanges sounds utterly exhausting.
Like, in their shoes, I’d probably just start sharing less and less about how I feel, especially when I’m not feeling well, specifically because I wouldn’t want to have to play 20 questions every time until you finally gave up on the analysis.
Like, I totally get that you’re just trying to help because you love them…but maybe you could simplify the process (and cut to the chase and give them some more agency) simply by saying something like “Ugh, I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. Is there anything I can do for you?”
That lets them express their own thoughts/feelings/desires without having to pass a gauntlet of questions.
Again, I totally get that you mean well (I end up on your side of this exchange whenever my own SO isn’t feeling well…you just want to fix it for them), but I’ve also learned by time and experience that often my best move is to offer help, and if the answer is just needing some time and quiet, I just tell my SO what I’ll be doing nearby (but not up in their business) and if they need anything at all, just let me know and I’m happy to help.
Oh my god, there’s always a relevant xkcd.
Great job!
Almost the same age as you and I’m fairly confident I’m undiagnosed and have been since about 3rd grade as well.
My mom had such a diagnosis suggested to her multiple times but felt the stigma of a diagnosis and a medication to treat it was worse than just doing nothing. In her mind, I’d get diagnosed, given a label that would prevent me from ever getting a job or having a normal life, and drugs I’d take for the rest of my life that would make me act like I’d received a lobotomy.