But your “fair and balanced” puts all the onus of clean up on the next person. Kind of like how parking far to one side of a parking spot puts all onus of creating enough space for people to get out of their car on the next person.

It’s passing the buck because you can’t be bothered to clean up after yourself.

You’re the kind of person who parks all the way on the passenger side of a parking spot, aren’t you?

As someone who used to take care of office supplies (I was in accounting, btw) because everyone in the office is lazy and doesn’t wanna deal with complex things like grounds and filters.

Tobias getting around.

Life is unfair, but unless we acknowledge our own failings it will never get better.

You want to walk through life blaming everyone else for everything that goes wrong in your life and take no responsibility for your own actions? Feel free. But just know nothing will ever get better for you.

I even acknowledge, multiple times, that it is not solely the fault of the person. But that does not mean they have no will of their own, no ability to change their circumstances. Sometimes that freedom is not enough, but unless you do something to take charge of your own life, again, nothing will ever change.

Failure often comes at multiple points, it doesn’t just fail at one. It’s a failure of education, of social pressures, of lack of positive environments, and yes of choice. The problem with free will is that you have the chance to choose wrong. You can blame everyone in the world, but if you don’t take accountability for your own actions and choices, nothing will change.

There has never been a time with as much access to information as now. While there as much, likely more, misinformation… that does not mean individuals have no culpability for their own lack of knowledge or understanding.

That doesn’t mean it’s exclusively their fault, or even anywhere near a majority. But that does not mean they lose all free will for their own actions. It does not mean they have no ability to be better.

Should we place the weight of the world on their shoulders? Absolutely not, that is liable to break them. But we also shouldn’t hide them from the burden of their own free will. That only weakens them.

That sounds like an emotional chain of logic, we must dispose of it immediately.

The problem is it’s not the last resort, far from it. We still have some semblance of democracy, no matter how often people are screaming that it’s all lost already (like yourself). We still have options, just because so many people choose not to consider them doesn’t mean they don’t exist, it just means it takes more effort than lighting a bottle of alcohol with a rag in it on fire and tossing it at the people you blame for all your inconveniences.

Yes, we have a problem at the federal level, and yes it’s going to be hard to fix it. But it’s not the only thing that matters, and treating it like it is is how we’ve lost so much ground already. People gave up long ago because everyone keeps telling them their thoughts don’t matter, that everything is already broken and there’s no way to fix it. Not because it’s true, because it’s the easiest way to get people to stop resisting effectively.

You want people to do something meaningful? Stop backing them into a corner by telling them they have no options left. Cause as we’ve seen already it just means they give up.

That we think in absolutes, and either are hyper violent or apathetic, both of which lead to no real resolution? Yeah, definitely a real problem.

If you organize that many people you can get what you want without resorting to a form of violence that will really only create a power vacuum, not a better future.

Violence is just cheap and easy, as long as you don’t have to think about the consequences of your actions.

Some people also wear a label as a badge of honor, or as an excuse for their malign actions. Elon has little to lose with his claims, and so much to excuse.

The only reason to believe it would be better with less people is delusional fantasy.

The problem isn’t population, it’s policy.

Because they’re not communist. At best they’re state capitalism, at worst they’re dictatorships, which is just capitalism with less steps.

Cities aren’t generally overcrowded because they have no other choice, they’re overcrowded because cities typically offer the best opportunities. If the population were to drop three quarters overnight, people would flock to cities.

Land use is also about want, not need. We don’t have to do it to sustain our population and its growth, it’s just the cheapest (re: most profitable) option.

No, but it does help with the flow of the joke. If you have to make that kind of leap for the joke to land, it’s a bit arcane and won’t reach quite as many people.

You know they dont remove the testicle during a vasectomy… right?

The odds are 1000:0 that they won’t, and I still wouldn’t take that bet.

I think the popular idea is that Mentos reacts with Diet Coke, not regular Coke, but apparently people mainly use diet because it doesn’t leave as much of a sticky mess afterwards.

Egger suits are expensive these days.

That was the assumption that was subverted, yes.