You don’t vote for a political party in the hopes that you might be able to push them to represent your interests, you vote for a party who WILL represent your interests.

In a true democracy, yes. That is what you would do.

In a false democracy, like Russia, you would ignore the rigged elections entirely and focus on agitating for the implementation of democracy.

But in a flawed democracy, you have a system where the elections are not exactly rigged, but where you do not have truly proportional representation.

In such a system, your primary focus should be on fixing the system. The closer to a true democracy this is, the easier it will be to accomplish via reform, although one should not discount direct action. However, when an opportunity to vote arises, you should take it. You can’t afford to spend all your effort on elections, but ignoring your opportunity to do some harm reduction would be ineffective.

Damn. I don’t know where you live but I live in VA and my pcp just refills my prescription every month. We check in via what are basically text mesages and I do telehealth visits every 3 months.

IF you’re going to delete your comments (which I don’t think is necessarily a good thing, though it could be good for you individually) you should leave a message about why you left in their place. Make it into a protest.

Technically every organization needs a leader or director of some kind. Not that I trust this particular CEO, but if a small local charity calls their director a “CEO” I wouldn’t think the title itself makes that person bad.

Are they also my opposite in how they are good or evil, or just opposite in quantity?

For example, if I’m an antisocial asshole with positive ideals, does this mean my opposite is an extremely friendly and polite business major?

I don’t find that surprising at all.

Me too. I’m literally Iron IV, so you can’t get worse than me!

I could see myself playing Poppy too, but I haven’t tried her out yet.

I think it’s ok in team chat, but I wouldn’t say it in all chat.

Please do! It’s one of the best examples of how violating a taboo can be more traumatic than the thing itself because of what it represents.

Sorry I never responded to this, but thank you for posting the link. That’s absolutely dystopian… and exactly on brand for this administration, I’m afraid.

If you didn’t see the other comment, you really should check out the fanfic “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.” It’s almost 2,000 pages, extremely well written, and (to give you an idea of how the story feels) one of the first things Harry does when he visits Gringotts for the first time is realize that since the wizarding world uses a precious-metals-based currency, a competent hedge fund manager could be the richest person in the wizarding world in about a week.

https://hpmor.com/

Thank you for posting this! I spent a whole day off reading it and even forgot to go to bed on time 😅

(Those kinds of) protests aren’t for convincing the average person. The point of a protest is to tell the people in power “there are a lot of us, and you can’t afford to ignore us.”

Narrator: they certainly are

But the person replying isn’t saying that Caitlyn ought to be referred to by her former name. In fact, they aren’t actually using it to refer to her at all. They’re merely mentioning that it exists, which is appropriate in some contexts.

If I were going over medical records with my doctor, she would be fine to ask if (deadname) was my name, because it’s for a necessary purpose. That’s different from using it to refer to me.

Also, if Caitlyn is offended by seeing that name, she’s going to have an awfully rude awakening coming under the current administration. I think the time for subtlety is past on that front.

Would I say “Trump only sees you as a cotton-picking n----r” to a black Trump supporter? Yeah, if the context was right (like it is in the example). Hard r and all. Because it’s true - that is what Trump thinks, even if he’s smart enough not to say it (often).

That’s not the same as me calling them the n-word, I’m stating what someone else thinks.

Of course I wouldn’t call a black person the n-word. Not because I’m afraid of the word itself, but because I genuinely don’t believe in the image of black people that word was meant to create.

But Trump absolutely does. And it’s ok to call a spade a spade. Important, even.

“There is currently an ongoing genocide against trans people in the United States. I am begging you to take this seriously, even if you’re going to joke about it. Especially if you’re going to joke about it, because humor is powerful and words have consequences.”

I agree… which is why I think this tweet is actually spot on. Sometimes it’s actually more important to say the n-word, hard r and all, because to soften it would be to soften the danger.

When we talk about the Holocaust, we don’t say Hitler “unalived people” or “put them to sleep.” We show them the pile of shoes. We describe the evil in detail, because that’s going to galvanize people.

That’s not the same thing as disrespecting trans people. It’s recognizing the danger and not coddling the people who are facing that danger. Yes, words hurt, but the kind of stuff Trump has in store for people like us will hurt a whole lot more than if you called me by my birth name. It doesn’t help anyone to sugarcoat it.

It has happened before, so it isn’t impossible. But it would be so difficult that impossible is pretty much the only word that comes close.

Or maybe we get rid of the “wages = living” bit.

We could all negotiate for the full value of our labor a lot better if we didn’t have a noose around our neck forcing us to work.