Hey OP, you wanna go ahead and go to any neighborhood that’s been raided by ICE and tell them how the Dems are exactly just as bad as the GOP?

I’ll tell you.

This shit was already happening. Yes, it’s taken another step under Trump, but the incrementalism occurred with Democratic fascists as well. What Trump is able to do now would be impossible if Democrats hadn’t seized on the illegal powers dreamed up by Clinton and Dubya and ran with them.

Clinton, while fucking his interns, invented ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ and did nothing about persecution of gay people, and in fact, he was the one who signed DOMA. He invented “peacekeeping actions” so he could make war without calling it that, and he did just that. He cut the social safety net wholesale, making Americans poorer, and doubled down on poverty with his ‘free trade’ policies that helped usher in the era of companies moving offshore and killing US jobs. Oh, and he was a regular on Epstein’s island and the Lolita Express.

Obama let police run roughshod in Ferguson and New York City, brutalizing victims of police violence and people who lost their homes and decided to participate in Occupy. He appointed Tom Homan and put kids in cages. He made torture explicitly extra-legal. He walked into Flint and performatively drank a glass of water. He dropped 26,000 bombs in the last year of his presidency and left office with American wars brewing in seven countries. We also learned under Obama that police departments in the US have black sites and his presidency was kidnapping renditioning people to black sites in foreign countries. He also ordered drone bombings that killed American citizens.

We knew Biden was going to be shit when, in a time people wanted federal police reform, he mocked the change people wanted in his State of the Union address by calling for greater police militarization, and his presidency gave rise to ‘cop cities’. Even worse, it’s now possible for cops to hang out in a school that’s getting shot up, on camera, with zero consequences. After January 6 he did nothing meaningful to slow the evident rise of domestic fascism, showing a greater interest in keeping his scumbag son out of prison. He deported undocumented immigrants by the millions and continued the policy of caging kids. Biden earned the moniker ‘Genocide Joe’ for aiding and abetting the genocide in Israel, even when Israel escalated it into a manufactured famine, which is a war crime. Then he ran for president knowing he had dementia, paving the way for Trump’s second term, prioritizing his own ego over the country’s well-being.

This isn’t a ‘Democrats are better’ scenario. Most people just haven’t really paid attention to what Democrats do or have the short-term memory of a goldfish.

And before you try to argue they were powerless, consider that all three of these men had the presidency and control of Congress, just like Trump. They had all the power they needed to make real change. They just didn’t care.

And yet, still true.

Yeah, it’s interesting having lived in the time when friendships actually just poofed.

I run an online D&D game with people I don’t know IRL, and I just kinda accept that one day I’m probably going to have a heart attack and disappear, and that’s okay.

I’m saving and investing every dollar I possibly can, and when I hit my number, I will retire.

It is just a job. I’m lucky to have a good one that I don’t dread doing every day, but I will quit the moment I hit my number and I don’t understand people who fetishize work when they could be retired in peace.

Yup.

The teachings of Christianity don’t make any fucking sense. (Unless you’re willing to gaslight yourself for a lifetime.)

Skeptical Enquirer

Yeah, mine was an alcoholic for 25 years but inexplicably quit cold turkey one day when I was a teen.

I think it’s just a ton of undiagnosed, untreated mental illness. My mom’s mother was abusive and her loving father died when she was a teen. My dad’s dad died when he was eleven and he became the breadwinner for his mom and siblings, and didn’t stop working for another sixty-five years. (Well, he drives for DoorDash now, so I suppose he’s still working, but it’s a far cry from roofing.)

I actually feel a little bad for my dad. He worked his ass off his whole life and has almost nothing to show for it, but somehow, could never put his foot down when it came to my mom and adding more kids to the family. In most other countries his lifetime of work and owning a business would have meant a comfortable retirement, but not here. In America, no one gives a fuck.

Yes.

I have a home, a good job, and am able to save enough that it’s possible I may be able to retire in my fifties.

The only responsible decision my parents made was to pay off their house. They had over a dozen kids and my dad literally roofed houses until he couldn’t anymore physically. They’re now in their 80’s and driving for DoorDash, in a car they’ve “borrowed” from me for almost a year, that I’m certain I’m never getting back.

And, somehow, despite having no mortgage or car payment, they still aren’t paying their bills on time. (But, to be fair, that’s also a referendum on the US economy and capitalism in general, and none of us can get actual progressives elected.)

Yup.

They do not, as evidence by the last two decades of “progressive” politics here in the US.

That progressive people should prioritize economic equality ahead of social issues.

Depends on how many investment transactions I have and the dollar amount they represent. I didn’t make very many sell trades last year, so not having to wait for 1099’s meant I have already filed mine.

Love definitely hits different in your 20’s. Though, the plus side is when something ends I don’t obsess over it like I did as a young man.

I remember in the mid-2010’s when Guns n Roses decided to reunite and tour, and my first thought was: “Why would I want to watch Axl Rose now that he’s old and fat?” That was a sign.

At age 30, I noticed I couldn’t skimp on sleep anymore and hangovers were much worse than in my 20’s.

In my mid-30’s my eyesight started to blur and I had to start wearing glasses.

At 40, my digestion isn’t as good as it used to be and I take supplements. Also, it’s harder to memorize things now, and I no longer have the option of missing workouts or daily stretching, because I notice it much more if I haven’t done these things.

I wouldn’t say ‘often’, but I definitely do. My work has a quarterly process meeting where we talk through new things everyone has learned and figure out ways we can add to our procedures and put those thoughts and methods down on paper. It’s not my favorite to talk through things, TBH, but I always learn new things when we have those roundtables.

This might sound a bit simplistic, but try different things. Different people process info in different ways, and you’ll never figure out what you don’t know that you don’t know if you don’t consider different perspectives and techniques.

I have several teammates at work that process information better by having meetings and talking through various projects and concepts whereas I need to throw on headphones, become dead to the world, and focus to achieve my best state for thinking through things. I retain information better by typing or writing it out by hand, which I attribute to growing up with video games.

They’re still there.

But irrelevant.

Man, so many things.

They fully remodeled it in 2016, and by virtue of being stupid rich, left it fully furnished and equipped. To them it was just a line on their balance sheet that they wanted liquidated. To me, it was an extra $10,000 I didn’t have to spend on furniture and appliances.

All of them.

I love the bachelor life.