It also pollutes the mind of ignorant people with misinformation. Not that that is anything new. But I do think objective truth is very important in a democratic society. It reminds me of that video that used to go around that showed Sinclair Broadcasting in like 20 some different ‘local’ broadcast news all repeating the same words verbatim. It ended with ‘This is extremely dangerous to our democracy’. With AI being added to all the search engines, it is really easy to look something and unknowingly get bombarded with false info pulled out of the dregs of internet. 90% of people don’t verify the answer to see if it is based in reality.

Underdeveloped is right there

They are the same picture meme

Do you mind sharing what company and country you when with for the VPS and why?

Walking to a friend’s house is nice as long as there’s not a big multilane highway with no pedestrian infrastructure dividing the town in between. Car dependency is a big problem in most of the US. Portland is probably a bit better than other places in that regard, but I’m sure they have still have some issues with it.

I would think this would be a good use for VOIP landlines since lots of places are probably doing away with dedicated phone wires.

Not sure, but I’d bet it’s less than flipphones / dumbphones. For the average person, smartphone and android/apple are probably synonymous.

Why can’t the people we vote for represent us?

Politicians were never meant to represent us (the people). We the people was war propaganda to revolt against the English and their king. They have, since the founding of the US, represented the business owners (landowners). And even after giving women and black people the right to vote, the system still mostly represents the interest of the business owners.

Bug report closed: System works as intended.

For the politicians to actually represent us, we the people would need to have some sort of broad agreement on what we do and do not want. But unfortunately, the people don’t have the needed experience or education to come to that agreement. So instead we get 2 different flavors of politicians serving the owners and none serving the people. Pick your favorite team, but they do not currently represent the people’s interest, instead they represent the business owners’ interests.

As a people, our job is to attempt to bend the politicians and business owners’ to our will using what we currently have at our disposal: our actions and our words. But that still won’t get anywhere without many other people backing up our actions and our words with their actions and words. It won’t be easy, but it is necessary if we want to shape our societies future. If we don’t do it, we get shadowy groups like the heritage foundation doing it for the business owners and pushing it on our leaders.

Also the politicians’ job is largely dependent upon them listening to the demands of the businesses lobbyist as of now. If they don’t follow their wishes they can expect a harder battle to keep their seat. They would get less big campaign donations and stronger primary challengers as a result of their noncompliance. This makes our job harder since it is difficult to get them to understand something when their job and salary depends upon them not understanding it.

As I learned the other day, if it wasn’t for undocumented immigrants paying taxes but not getting benefits, social security would be in a much worse financial situation.

Every working undocumented immigrant detained is one step closer to financial ruin for future grandpas and grandmas. When immigrants work jobs, they pay in, but since they are here illegally, they can’t access the benefits from working. And it sure as heck ain’t cheap to round them up and detain them either. It’s too bad the media and politicians only pretend to care about the cost if the policy is something that actually helps people.

But how much heatsink? Pea sized is surely a bit small for a whole chicken. Maybe egg sized?

I don’t think of it as an insult generally, but it reads like an insult in this context to me since you certainly weren’t using it a clinical sense and it doesn’t land as a joke imo; now you can say that’s all on me if you want but communication has 2+ parties involved. Even if it wasn’t meant as an insult, it is still ableist language in this context imo and I will call it out even if it makes people uncomfortable.

I really don’t understand why people find it acceptable to make a joke where the punchline is accusing someone of having a mental illness.

To me there is very little difference between that and putting someone down.

Why is it funny to accuse someone with making a minor correction of having OCD?

Sorry, I didn’t mean to strike a nerve. Also sorry to hear you and your spouse have some difficulties with mental and physical challenges in today’s world. I hope you can find some understanding people to cooperate with.

Intent deducing should also go both ways, I did interpret your posts in a somewhat light-hearted manner in line with the comm vibe, but it also just doesn’'t sit right with me using real disorders people have as an insult. I replied in it in the same format as you did but you seemed took offense when I did it even though you used the same format in your comment.

Anyway, I wish you good luck in your journey and thanks for reading.

Also I wonder is that spelling intentional pedant bait? Probably not, but it is in my head canon :)

^ This is a person using OCD as an insult and helping to spread ableist language.