Eventually every mishandled conflict becomes about the response to the conflict instead of the issue that started it. I still remember the end of OWS when no one was talking about the bailouts anymore instead talking about the difference between camping and protesting I also remember the daily reminders that some anti-war protestor in 2003 threw acid at a cop.
People have the right to make their voice heard. Governments should understand that, establish areas where they can make it heard, and do nothing to make it turn violent. Likewise protestors should make sure that they focus on the issue they care about an expel ones that start shit.
It’s weird how now the protests are labeled “pro-Palestinian” instead of “anti-war” as they always have before. In 2003 people were anti-war, not pro-Iraqi. In the '60s people were anti-war, not pro-South-Vietnamese. Some propaganda outlets are even calling today’s anti-war protesters “pro-Hamas”.
My guess would be because we aren’t at war. It could equally just be because the media has an agenda that is furthered by that, or both of these. Anyone saying pro-Hamas shouldn’t be trusted at all though.
Disruption is an essential part of protest, otherwise it can just be entirely ignored. It’s meant to force results. If there’s enough support for it, it grows as the government cracks down on it (like BLM did in 2020) and becomes a conflict of attrition. If there isn’t, then the protesters get punished and the people celebrate it (like the truckers protesting covid restrictions in Canada).
I think it is just as simple as “oh no the youths” reminder when Reagan was governor of California he cracked down on a small protest over some benign shit, it wasnt even violent until Reagan stepped in the students and administrators were in talks about the whole situation.
Old people have a suicide death grip on this country and they would rather die and be buried under the rubble of their own hubris than let the people that have an actual stake in the future change anything.
I don’t think it’s the protesting, but rather the target of the protests. For some reason Israel seems to be held in higher regard than any American interest. We can protest and shit talk our own terrible politicians all day long and nobody really bats an eye. But ask that we stop murdering innocent brown children in Gaza? Threaten economic consequences for Israel if they don’t stop the murder? For some reason that is a grave offense worthy of trampling on our first amendment rights.
Think about how wild that is - speaking out against the atrocities a foreign government is committing is worthy of taking away your freedom in the US.
The joy of a country run by religious loons that believe Israel will kickstart the Second Coming for them.
Remember, everyone: they want Israel to start a serious war in the Middle East. Because that’s the first step in all the Jews dying and those old rich white Christians being raptured up to heaven.
If anything, the only reason they don’t want it to start now is because they haven’t convinced all the Jews to go back to Israel yet.
They are afraid of being labeled anti-semitic. That is what is driving this. Allowing the protests to exist gets the uni/president labeled anti-semitic, and that is unacceptable for the universities. The universities are then asking the police to break them up by force, because violent against students is more acceptable than being labeled anti-Semitic.
This is why freedom of speech is important and why it’s important to argue specifics instead of generalities.
It’s easy to say something is “antisemitic” and get an emotional response from useful idiots. It’s a lot harder to explain why something is antisemitic and get the same response if it’s not actually antisemitic.
Why is everyone afraid of college students protesting?
Its not fear, its a show of force. This is an opportunity to unleash pent up rage and inflict callous brutality on a group of people that mass media have flogged and hated on for decades. College students are poor, weak, and exceptionally vulnerable. Teachers are poor and overworked and increasingly precarious in their employment. College campuses are hotbeds of Marxism according to your average Boomer or news hour talking head.
So this is where municipal and state officials can drop the hammer unimpeded. This is where they can really indulge in their fascist impulses. This is where they know nobody will try and stop them.
I mean this police state response goes back to before Kent State and Tianemen square no doubt.
If Tienanmen Square happened in DC today, the guy standing in front of the tank would be labeled at Tankie by the NYT Op-Ed section.
“In a statement to Reuters, Chick-fil-A said the policy change was due to challenges it foresees finding chicken supplies that “meets our rigid standards.””
So, clearly, the solution is “lower your standards”? 🤔
I mean, lowering standards is a pretty common solution. A friend of mine who was a firefighter said they wanted more female firefighters - so they lowered test standards so they were able to pass.
Not sure if you’re a sexist asshole or referring to tests that were originally made to be sexist/racist to only prefer a specific type of person, like the Jim Crow Literary tests that were purposely difficult and confusing to stop black folks from voting.
They were test to assure safety of human life, and women couldn’t pass them. So they lowered them. The biggest one was being able to carry a person of a specific mass out of an area within a specific amount of time, with all your gear on, in a smoke filled room. Few men were able to pass it, and almost no women. So they lowered the amount of weight and upped the time limit. Sometimes even just flubbed the women passing so they could reach diversity goals.
People will die because of it, but hey…women firefighters! WOO HOO!
Now the thing that’s really sexist, is denying sexual dimorphism exists within the human species and that men --in general-- can be better suited among the general populace for specific tasks when it comes to simple brute strength.
This is completely off topic, but here’s some facts for you, from someone who works at a fire department.
Those physical fitness tests were pretty arbitrary. They don’t have much basis in the job itself.
At most departments, physical fitness tests are for the application only, and a LARGE percentage of current firefighters couldn’t pass them just a few years later.
There are many, many jobs a firefighter does, and most of them do not require massive amounts of physical strength.
Firefighters deal with the public, and often in a medical capacity far more often than an extinguishing fire capacity. Having female paramedics available to run medical calls is very important for the community. This is the same for having a mix of employees from all socioeconomic groups that are in the area.
There are a LOT of fire departments that are switching to a more fair entrance criteria, and that is making the job better, not worse.
I know you’ve just kind of had a knee jerk reaction here, but I don’t think women should be restricted from that field ya know…I’m perfectly okay with it.
Honestly, same boat. Our power bill has gone up over 20% this past year like it’s insane. Our grocery costs have easily doubled in that time, too. Like I’m doing the math and seeing the numbers like I’m making more than I was 3 years ago, but I wasn’t living paycheck to paycheck then, and I’m rationing food today.
I also can’t count the number of times prices have gone up on common groceries in the last year. Every time I go in I’m spending more than I did the previous time. And the grocery stores around here have started phasing out their cost saving brands. More and more lately what used to be the expensive brand is the only one left, and I’m paying twice as much for half as much compared to what I was getting before. They’re not even trying to hide what they’re doing.
Grapes were $6/pound. It’s getting so we can’t afford produce anymore.
Are we talking regular red/black/green non-organic grapes or some of the more exotic varieties? I track grape prices myself and $2.99/lbs mark for out-of-season-domestic grapes. This is the current price a regular grocery stores right now here with the exception of warehouse clubs which have them at $2.29/lbs. The normal in-season non-warehouse price can be as low as 89c/lbs, but is usually $1.25/lbs.
Is there something special about your geography that makes it more expensive?
Is there really some kind of nation wide grape price standard? Don’t they have to add costs for transportation to places where they do not grow grapes?
Is there really some kind of nation wide grape price standard?
Not to my knowledge, no.
Don’t they have to add costs for transportation to places where they do not grow grapes?
Certainly, but with economies of scale and good logistics, the prices across the country aren’t that much different. There are some exceptions, such as pockets of the continental USA that are under served, or states like Alaska and Hawaii which don’t benefit from the continental USA logistics. That was the “geography” question I had to the poster.
The prices of grapes at my grocery stores right now are $2.99/lbs and they are imported from Chile or Argentina usually because grapes are out-of-season for the USA right now.
They’re just regular red table grapes. I have no idea what’s going on with fruit prices near me but they’re nauseating. I’m in the northeast; we should still have some late apple varieties left from fall but those are getting outrageous too.
Now I’m really curious. After reading your post, I happened to be at the grocery story this evening and our (Midwest) price for regular red grapes is $2.69/lbs. Down from the high of $2.99/lbs I saw last week.
I’m in the southern emisphere and just started eating grapes. Assuming you are in the US, consider looking for produce that is in season. Besides helping with your budget, it contributes to addressa number of other issues around shops and producers trying to focus on growing stuff that doesn’t want to grow at a particular time of the year.
I’m in this same boat. I get letters from the power company all the time about how I’m using more power than anyone around me. The heat in my place has been kept around 62 all winter, occasionally allowed to get colder. It’s a pretty modern build for a house too. I actually used my PC to heat just my bedroom over winter which should be far more power efficient the heating every room. The letters I get try selling me how I need to or could be more efficient like genius ideas like “turn down the thermostat”… its already nearly almost off, just enough to make sure pipes don’t freeze.
Only thing that really changed was they installed a new smart meter last fall, of which I had no say.
My bill also shows I use way more electricity than similar houses. My best guess is they have a heat pump or gas heat/water heater. Whereas I have forced air electric.
I recently installed an emporia energy monitor. It’s basically a kill-a-watt meter that you connect to the circuit breakers for full house monitoring. And while I see some areas that I could improve to cut my bill, no where near enough to get to what the power company is saying similar houses are using. Saving up for a heat pump now as I think that’s the best thing I can do to get my bill down. And as a plus I’d have central AC instead of having to use window units in the heat.
I’m convinced those statements are wrong in some way. Either not comparing houses of similar size or unoccupied units are skewing the numbers. Or they just tell everyone they’re doing horrible to try and sell energy efficiency stuff.
When I compare using figures from my thermostat via beestat.io my house is in the top 40% (uses less energy than 60% of similar homes in my area).
Yes that actually makes sense. Gas is used in most homes, and is considerably cheaper than resistive electric heating. Probably you can get a subsidy for the heat pump.
Living with a handgun owner particularly increased the risk of being shot to death in a domestic violence incident, and it did not provide any protection against being killed at home by a stranger, the researchers found. - Guardian Article April 7, '22
The relationship of Americans and our guns is such a weird, religious-level issue. Just bizarre people. And some of them are friends of mine. The people, not the guns.
Under the current laws on the books, federal funds can’t even be used to be study gun violence. These are the laws people are talking about changing when we call for gun policy reform. When this country talks about gun reform and idiots like you who understand exactly nothing about the laws currently on the books have a conniption, these are the kinds of laws that end up not getting changed.
Guns make every environment they are a part of less safe. You only need a gun to defend yourself if you’re a huge pussy, or you want the opportunity to accidently shoot your own family members. You don’t need a gun in the city or the country to defend yourself.
Lots of people are trying to ban guns. Plenty of campaigns and bills come up all the time.
It’s unrealistic to believe they’ll have a significant amount of support, even in the most liberal of states, but saying that nobody wants to ban guns is false.
Also, saying that there’s never a need for a gun in modern society is false. There are absolutely cases where people have legally defending themselves in situations where few people would disagree with the usage. Those cases are also very rare and the availability of guns in society is a net negative, you are significantly more likely to be harmed by a firearm if you own one.
All that being said, blanket falsehoods do not help these arguments. We do need to study firearm deaths, and amend the constitution to allow for better laws around firearms, but we don’t need to exaggerate to make that point, the facts are enough.
Stupidest reason a pro gun person ever brought up on lemmy. You know there are more convincing ones that you can make yours so at least people can take you seriously?
You think lethal violence is an appropriate response to a burglary? If you responded like that over here you’d be going to prison for far, far longer than the burglar would.
I’m not the one judging the value of their life. They are. What’s the matter with you, could you see something bad happening to you? Is this a risk you’ve took?
You’re not listening. Stay the fuck out of peoples houses, you deserve everything you get, and it ain’t the person lives there decided that, you did. “lawless shithole” sounds more like a place you can break n enter with near impunity.
“lawless shithole” sounds more like a place you can break n enter with near impunity.
We have a functional justice system where I live. Guilt and punishment is established in court in a fair trial, not by a random redneck with a gun. I know this must be a novel concept for you but I ensure you it is the civilized way to do it.
So, what you’re saying is that you value a person’s right to break into your home and do whatever they please far more than you value your person, your family and all of your property, because they might hypothetically be punished at some later date. I just hope if someone breaks into your home they’re just looking for something to steal they can turn quick for drug money and not looking to do you and yours harm.
Your redneck with a gun scenario in the US is answered by the castle doctrine - the basic premise is that if someone is invading your home you hold the right to use deadly force to stop them. It’s well known here, and it’s not like you just accidentally do a home invasion. Stay out of other people’s homes uninvited and it’s not a problem.
What i’m saying is that a human life has more value than your worthless crap.
the basic premise is that if someone is invading your home you hold the right to use deadly force to stop them
What scary is that you don’t see how fucking insane this is. Here (the Netherlands), you are only allowed to use ‘proportional violence’ in such cases. Go look up some crime statistics and compare which country is safer.
What i’m saying is that a human life has more value than your worthless crap.
If someone enters your home in a place operating under the castle doctrine, then they’re making the decision that your worthless crap is worth risking their life over. It’s not like people just accidentally a home invasion.
What scary is that you don’t see how fucking insane this is. Here (the Netherlands), you are only allowed to use ‘proportional violence’ in such cases. Go look up some crime statistics and compare which country is safer.
Crime in the US is weird. “Which country is safer” is a bad metric because most of the US is as safe or safer, but certain parts are extremely dangerous. Like there are individual neighborhoods in Chicago that have 17x as many homicides per year as the capitol city of my state and more homicides per year than my hometown has had total since the Civil War. Most of the other big urban metros have similar areas.
If someone enters your home in a place operating under the castle doctrine, then they’re making the decision that your worthless crap is worth risking their life over.
So if your neighbour, who happens to have early stage undiagnosed dementia, wanders into your home you think it’s a perfectly reasonable response to simply murder them? And no, this is not a hypothetical scenario. Plenty of people who found out they had dementia when they wandered somewhere they shouldn’t be while in a state of confusion.
Why is your first reaction to fear for your life? What happend that made you so afraid? Or are you just a coward in general?
i am sure someone in a war torn country is saying “gee it sucks my family is getting killed, but at least im not in a shithole like the united states”
calling the united states a shithole is an insult to actual countries that suck to live in, it just shows you probably dont know much about how bad it can get. there is a reason millions immigrate to the US
Clearly something that needs an investigation and lots more data
…. But this “city person” believes people in rough parts of cities are most likely demographic to be victim of gun crimes, and most of us are in more danger from guns kept as defense than in a criminal’s hands. Also, guns used for hunting are different than guns typically used in crimes or for defense. You may disagree, but that’s why better data is important
That was about an unlinked study of exclusively Californians, which skews things sufficiently so as to be almost wholly unapplicable to the rest of the country.
Jesus, penetrate my soul. Come into me and fill me with your hot white spirit. Find my holes and fill them with your power. Make my limber body bend over to your will so I may avoid these bullets. Let the only thing that go so deep inside me be your passionate love. Pull my hair a little and spit on me, Jesus.
I didn't say that, I said your citation was worthless from a national perspective. You want to complain that the gun lobby and/or red states prevent useful studies like the reported one, go for it, but please don't act like a news article about a study which can't even bother citing its source is good data just because they come to the same conclusion that we do.
The article provided the study’s author and university, so a very easy search leads right to the study. The article also specifically mentions that the study followed Californians. I don’t see how posting this article takes away or misrepresents the study or that the article presents a conclusion different from the conclusion. People who live in California really aren’t all that different from people who live in Iowa.
I’d love to hear your explanation for how it skews things sufficiently. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess you’ve never been to California or if you have never outside of LA/SF/SD
I’m an American and have lived here all my life, in more than one state, and I will never understand why people think you’re a different kind of person if you come from Vermont than if you come from Oklahoma.
I’ve heard this claim before and haven’t really been able to dig into it. One question that came up through that article related to this paragraph:
The study focused only on homicide risk and did not examine how living with a handgun owner might increase or decrease the risk of being victimized in other ways, including by nonfatal assault, home invasion, or property theft.
This sounds like something like a home invasion that would have ended in a homicide but didn’t (due to a gun or other reasons) wouldn’t be counted. The cases that are due to a gun would seem especially important.
The above is what it’s like trying to talk about gun control with people here. Most of my experience isn’t crazy gun nuts strutting around strapped because of some fucked up interpretation of the thought behind the 2A. It’s people giving reasonable, at least superficially, arguments about why their guns aren’t part of the problem. I say it’s religious because it’s all faith in the face of facts. Or fear in front of facts really.
Meco did literally the opposite of what you’re accusing them of: rather than take a claim on faith, they questioned. That’s the polar opposite of religion.
I dont understand what you are questioning, the stat is about invaders with weapons. Having a weapon does not decrease risk in those instances.
The part you quoted is talking about how handguns may decrease risk in other non fatal home invasions. Maybe I’m reading what you’re saying wrong, but the gun encounters are the ones being counted for comparison between those with or without handguns.
One caveat. The study claimed to follow people living with handgun owners. Unless I missed something, it seems to indicate, without explicitly stating, that it is not following actual gun owners.
As for the question there are a few examples I’d proffer that would not appear in this study but would be a positive indicator for “living with a gun owner”. A home invasion or attempted theft that gets repelled due to having a gun. Incidents where injuries occur but no one dies.
It was also unclear if they would count a homicide of the suspect should the “person living with a gun owner” prevail.
Keep in mind though, that there’s a LOT of bad-faith propaganda-shilling accounts right here on lemmy desperately trying to convince you that both sides are equally as bad and not to vote this year.
Best advice is to report and block them when they share their misinformation and don’t fall for it.
Please do not take this as a rejection of the necessity to fuck that bastard, but these people most likely have no connection to him. They are your own, homegrown problem that you need to deal with. And given the numbers, in a non-violent way, unless you really are into civil wars.
You got my name wrong, but that is ok. It was not Putin who voted for Trump, and not him who keeps supporting him even now. Though Putin must feel really good about them, I am sure. Anyway, keep daydreaming your country into collapse if you like. This empire must also end, as all of them.
“Fascists gonna fascist” is hardly Russian propaganda. Russia had certainly played a part but it’s foolish to imagine they bear the majority of the responsibility for what’s happening now. Homegrown fascists were putting the pieces in place long before Russia (or the Soviet Union) had an effective propaganda program.
“Fascists gonna fascist” is hardly Russian propaganda. Russia had certainly played a part but it’s foolish to imagine they bear the majority of the responsibility for what’s happening now. Homegrown fascists were putting the pieces in place long before Russia (or the Soviet Union) had an effective propaganda program.
Lol have you seen hexbear recently? They are outright rooting for Russia to steamroll Ukraine. They don’t even hide it. The whole thing is so obviously a (very stupid) Russian psyop it’s honestly a bit shocking more people can’t see it plainly.
Nope, i have the whole instance blocked - enough shit in my life without them. It is actually quite amusing how the hard right ppl in Russia and the US are somehow gravitating to each other. Given the fact that they also hate each other for being from the enemy states (they always have very strong beliefs on the subject of who is the enemy), it is puzzling how they can voluntarily be so close in other aspects.
Yep. I’ve had multiple people suggest that Biden would be just as bad when it came to the rights of queer people. The sad thing is, some people get convinced by that.
Exactly. I can hold my breath and vote for a candidate I don’t like if his opponent is a fascist. Especially one so brazen.
We didn’t get here by fascists holding their vote unless the right went right enough. They spread their ideology and encouraged people to see it as bit enough of a problem to abandon their single issue while indoctrinating enough people into their camp to gain the ability to primary in sufficiently fascist candidates.
We on the far left need to become a dependable voting block that is worth courting then start winning primaries.
Glad to help. My wife and I have been discussing how we got here lately and I think that’s an important discussion for the left to have. While we were arguing the far right gerrymandered half the country and took control of their party.
Tactics are cause agnostic. It’s a valuable lesson to learn for two reasons: your enemies will steal any tactic you use on them and you can steal any tactic they use too. Some tactics don’t work for some causes, you can’t manipulate fear and xenophobia to create a diverse society of equality and acceptance. But we can primary the shit out of anyone unwilling to deal with climate change or who isn’t fully in favor of an explicit right to privacy and bodily autonomy. We can have a left wing version of the tea party.
Someone just earlier today told me that Biden and Trump’s policies were exactly the same except maybe on abortion. They 100% believe that. I don’t know if they’re stupid, ignorant, or evil.
Sure, right wings are way way worse, yes, don’t vote for Trump, vote for (probably) Biden
But don’t fall in the trap where you just block anyone that disagrees, or you’ll find yourself becoming that which you hate, just on the other side.
Just because Biden isn’t as bad as trump, it’s a VERY low bad to cross and there is plenty to criticize. Still vote for Biden, obviously, but that doesn’t mean he should get a free pass
I have gotten a ban for reporting very obvious right wing trolls flying under the thinnest veneer of “leftist” ideology. It’s pretty clear that this is a top down issue on certain instances
Not surprised at all. I’ll bet I even know what community that happened in. I’ve had mods threaten me to stop reporting these trolls or I’d get banned.
I just don’t interact with that community anymore.
Oprah is a bullshit artist. She has always been a bullshit artist and she got rich peddling bullshit. Her efficiency promoting pseudoscience throughout her career makes her a blight on society, forever deserving scorn for the people she helped to hurt. We are collectively dumber because of her efforts, and she gets to live her life lavished by luxury and adulation as a result.
What an incredibly dumb statement to make in the comment section of an article about her literally leaving the board of a major company. “Just an entertainer” holy shit.
During the pandemic, Dr. Oz’s private cardiac clinic in the US was handing out vaccine exemption notes to anyone who paid the fee. There was no physical examination, just a questionnaire, and you didn’t need to be one of his actual patients. No referral from your family doctor was necessary either and no need to provide your medical records. It was a complete and utter scam. How do I know? Because I literally called his clinic to follow up on a bullshit exemption claim and they told me their process.
If anyone would care to read the article it’s more about companies making more high end cars and running low stocks than making cars bigger. They reduced stock during the pandemic and discovered that they can make more money selling fewer cars with maxed out specs than a lot of base models. They simply don’t have base models on stock now and people still have to buy cars so profits are soaring. Basically they made everyone depend on cars by killing public transport and are now milking it hard. Because what are you going to do? Work from home?
Good thing China isn’t ready to flood the market with millions of cheap electric cars. This short term profit is going to end up biting them in the ass real quick. Although I guess they know they’ll just get bailed out, so there’s no reason to innovate.
Cheap labor Conservatives destroyed protectionism. Part of why we’re in this giant economic mess is because offshoring wiped our middle class off the map like the Chixclub meteor.
They sell them in the EU, which has stricter safety regulations. If they set out to do it, they’ll flood the market and get the traditional manufacturers in trouble.
EU allows all sorts of stuff that isn’t allowed in the US. Believe it or not, US safety regs are generally higher than the EU (for passengers, anyway). The Ariel Atom, for example, needs some hoop jumping to make it US street legal, but can be driven without issue much of the EU.
Wow, I didn’t realize there were Chinese cars on the European market. Are the cars being received well? Are there major issues with them and if there are major issues, does price still make them worth it?
They’re surprisingly good, particularly BYD cars, in my experience.
Americans’ vehicles tend to be huge, wildly inefficient for their daily usage, and they throw off externalities like pedestrian and cyclist risks, road damage, and support for countries who use our gas spending to make the world less liberal.
VW, Honda, Toyota, and Datsun capitalized on American vehicle bloat to build massive, multinational companies with products in every segment. The Chinese are going to ruin our domestic manufacturers, once they decide to build bridgehead plants here.
Today, I’m driving an Acura that is made in Marysville, Ohio. Not assembled; it is substantively made here in the States. And, the chain reaction that led to Honda, a Japanese company, exporting profits made from American productivity in 2024, started with the Big Three making massively bloated, inefficient, expensive, poorly designed cars, leaving a gap in the market that foreign companies exploited with right-sized, efficient, affordable, reliable vehicles, starting in the ‘60s and exploding with the ‘73 oil crisis.
I don’t have time to find a link, but there have been studies that demonstrate that the exact choices being made by American manufacturers today—to not fully serve the bottom of the market—sow the seeds of their own future declines in the middle and upper markets.
I truly feel car manufacturers are doing everything in their power to make sure that I personally regret every car decision I make. I hope a new comer starts at a low price point and eventually takes their higher margin stuff as well.
My biggest worry is that once/if the Chinese make cars “good enough for the US market”, all car companies lobby for worse consumer protections since those regulations no longer keep new competitors out of the market.
I’d be OK with it, but with some caveats. Many US safety regs (and some pollution regs, as well) push things towards larger vehicles in indirect ways. Japanese Kei cars can be perfectly good for city use–not for US highways, but a lot of driving doesn’t need to go there–but they would never pass US safety regs. And you don’t need to get much bigger than a Kei to have something that works for US highways. Big is only safer for passengers, not for people outside the vehicle.
So if it comes in the context of also getting smaller cars on the road, that would be fine.
Oh hey almost exactly like the housing issue… Greedy fucking companies realized they made more making McMansions than starter houses so no one makes reasonable houses anymore and we’re all stuck trying to buy 4+ bedroom overpriced shit…
There’s no way this could be bad for society at large especially when driving is pretty much mandatory outside of cities. Nah, it couldn’t be bad because it’s good for corporations. Not that anyone cares. Externalities is just a fancy word…
Remember: can’t afford life? Move to a low cost of living area and drive 2 hours to work! …wait…
That’s going to break down when Starbucks in San Francisco/etc. can’t find workers because the cost to drive 20 miles to work is greater than what they’re being paid. That day when low-paying big city jobs disappear because no one can afford to get there and work there is coming very fast.
It’s already here. They aggressively recruited among the higher middle class urban kids and poverty kids who can use mass transit. And now they have a very stubborn union movement.
Oh hey almost exactly like the housing issue… Greedy fucking companies realized they made more making McMansions than starter houses so no one makes reasonable houses anymore and we’re all stuck trying to buy 4+ bedroom overpriced shit…
There’s no way this could be bad for society at large especially when driving is pretty much mandatory outside of cities. Nah, it couldn’t be bad because it’s good for corporations. Not that anyone cares. Externalities is just a fancy word…
Remember: can’t afford life? Move to a low cost of living area and drive 2 hours to work! …wait…
That’s a lot of words to say “Cartel”. Car…tel… get it?
I’m here all day, folks! 👍
Here’s a hint: the automakers are doing great. By essentially coordinating an industry-wide production cut, the pandemic gave manufacturers power to demand mind-boggling prices for fewer cars, leading to record profits. As consumers adjusted their expectations, executives saw an opportunity to establish a lucrative new normal. Low inventory is an “opportunity to drive strong margins”, GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, told shareholders in 2022. Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, went even further, declaring: “I want to make it extremely clear to everyone: we are going to run our business with a lower day supply than we have had in the recent past because that’s good for our company.”
Also see: collusion… market manipulation… fauxflation.
To extend and clarify a bit, if you want a base model they don’t have, you have to pay a delivery fee. At which point you might as well buy the higher trim on the lot.
Well not officially. At least not where I’ve been car shopping before. But that might explain the 2,000 dollars in dealer add ons they refuse to sell the car without.
I’ve noticed this trend in other businesses, as well.
They’ve realized it’s more profitable to screw over fewer people harder than it is to try to appease more customers with better deals. The most notable example of this to me would be the fast food industry.
It’s a win-win, because they get to expend fewer resources due to fewer customers and they make more money with each transaction.
Idgaf about the boomers who want to grow old in the homes they bought. Thats their right as a homeowner. I care about the airbnbs, unskilled flippers, and the corps trying to turn America into a “renters market”
There are so many “boomer bad”, “genx vs millenniall”, “zoomers are lazy” stories lately. Seems like they got tired of just pitting races against each other and moved onto fake generational conflict. This way we don’t notice what the billionaires are doing to all of us. Meanwhile the 5 richest billionaires doubled their net worth.
I read the disaster insurance in some states are so outrageous or even unobtainable, so private citizens can’t even get a mortgage (no insurance, no loan) anymore-assuming they could afford one to begin with. The only ones who can afford to outright buy in some places are corporations and foreign interests. It’s fucking trash.
No, just a writer with nothing to write about. This article is seriously summed up as “omg people are choosing to live in the homes they bought, wtf??!”
This sounds like the NYPD working like the Mafia, no work and no show jobs, taking jobs that they know they’re not gonna do or investigate. They’re stealing from the city to make their officers and departments richer.
You get your car stolen, or robbed and you can’t find a cop to even pretend they give a shit. But they’re happy to take $150 million off our ass.
You’re dead on. NYPD is entirely useless. I’ve had to call them before due to violent fights outside my door, they called back 3 hours later asking if the fight was still happening.
Yeah. Not just NY, either. About a decade back where I live we called the cops about a curb-stomping we witnessed living across the street from the local bar. We had our radio on. Here was the timeline.
We call and report it
Bouncer comes outside of the bar and says "I just got a call there’s a fight going on. You guys gotta break it up; the cops are coming"
Wait 5 minutes, as the victim gets told to leave and “go clean up” and the attacker walks back into the bar.
Dispatch (who has been quiet) reports on radio that somebody reported a fight in front of that bar
Wait 5 more minutes (did I mention the station is about 0.5 miles from this bar? In a small town with no traffic?)
One officer shows up, looks around without asking anyone anything
Radio back to dispatch “no fight here”
The end. We identified ourselves in our report, the officer declined to visit and question us. There were at least 5 eyewitnesses, and we live in a town that they’d probably talk… but nope.
Isn’t it absolutely asinine that new york voters literally elected a fuckin cop from the NYPD, which is well-known as being one of the most corrupt and racist police departments in the nation?
I honestly couldn’t believe it even after all the 2020 protests against American law enforcement.
Obviously the cops and prosecutors are real shitheads here, but I think some blame goes to a piece of shit principal who woukd call the police on an 11 year old.
The DA and Principal are likely related, same last name. I’d bet this isn’t the only incident between these two, with the principal setting up the targets and the DA knocking them down.
None of them should have any kind of power over others. If we ever manage to fix this system despite the dipshits that are trying to break it further, whether system comes next should have a specific focus on preventing people like this from getting power or keeping it if they manage to hide themselves until after they’ve gained power.
And also the stupid law that allows charges against children. Our system of kids under 14 not being “strafmündig” (criminally responsible) is often criticized and has other issues sometimes but at least it prevents shit like this
Imagine you wake up at 6 AM on a monday morning in May, weather is already warm, drink your coffee, take on your uniform and go to your police job. Approximately 2 hours later, you knee on the neck of a black man doing your usual racism like you did for the past years, nothing special. At 8:20 AM you notice that this time the guy is not moving anymore…
Three years later, you wake up in a prison cell, listening to the command shouted by the corrections officer, walking down the hallway and suddenly getting stabbed by someone 22 times.
That is some Butterfly-Effect shit that you didn’t saw coming when you woke up on that day in may in 2020. He must think a lot about this day. And George. For George it was an even worst day that day in May.
It wasn’t just a stranger too. They knew each other. Used to work security together at a Minneapolis nightclub called El nuevo rodeo. The club was later burned down during the protests.
I wonder if Derek is now realizing that the entire system he worked for and upheld only produces violence. It's not that he shouldn't be stabbed, but that no one in the justice system should be subject to the violence he himself subjected on others, like Floyd. Truly hosted by his own peitard.
the entire system he worked for and upheld only produces violence
They all know that already - they just think its a good thing because the pain is inflicted on those they consider the “bad kind” of person.
The reality is that when fascists are confronted by their own violence, they aren’t against the violence, they’re just against it happening to them, because they think they are the “good kind” of person.
She made that much because she’s a known fighter established within the UFC. UFC pays shit but it pays shit across the board unless you are a superstar.
She’s making 50k a year + payouts from her fights.
Assuming a 100k win bonus (it’s actually closer to 400 if you believe random books blogs and Internet rumors) even on the low side shes already made 1M in the past 5 years or so.
Again estimating in their favor let’s say 60% of that goes to get camp and taxes. 125k a year for 3 fights is more than reasonable. It’s likely she is making more than that however.
She isn’t very popular and would never be able to support her own card. She’s also used her popularity to get on network TV, and rake in a few million by getting laid. It’s not even porn shoots. It’s her own terms and partners.
I’m not going to shed a tear for her. She’s set for life with any form of reasonable money management and clearly has leveraged her popularity from UFC and done well for herself.
There’s probably a subtle difference between “exploiting yourself” and getting most of the money after OF fees, vs getting paid essentially minimum wage for a shoot which then gets repeatedly repackaged and distributed for the company that makes way more money off it than you ever did. Which on one hand is essentially the same as being any other actress, but also not remotely the same considering the material, and how many women regret being convinced to take part in it because of exposure and social backlash.
It’s just 100k people paying 10 bucks each. It sounds like a lot of money but when you think about the numbers involved it gets really quite reasonable for someone in her position to do
I’m forgetting which UK news channel it was but they had a successful OF person on, tried the “what will your kids think of you” and she replied “they can cry about it in a Ferrari”
Marketing, promotion, quality content generation - which in itself is a bucket load of work.
You’ve got actual production work, setting up a decent lighting/camera/sound system for your content, preparing everything you need to film or run a quality live stream. Post production, editing takes longer than people think.
But pre-production, there’s work to do on yourself, grooming and preparing physically, especially if you are going to be getting into anything fetish related, it adds another level of preparation (and possibly an extra level to post production clean up)
It’s also not something you can always compartmentalise, I have a friend who does some generic feet stuff, she had to quit swimming and change her entire gym routine to allow herself to shower at home, because catching athletes foot meant she’d loose income. She has to choose her socks and shoes based on protecting the physical appearance of her feet. She can’t just chuck on some thongs (flip flops) in summer because her clientele don’t like the tan lines and are vocal about it.
PR is important, you need to have time to engage with the audience, reply to messages and maintain the illusion of the parasocial relationship, to keep your subscribers keen. It can take easily take an hour a day to do if you have large enough fan base and want to maintain it.
There’s a lot to like about the “person next door” charm of a low budget, low effort approach to nudes and clips, but that’s what most people on OF are already doing, so if you want real money you have to set yourself apart from that.
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