Just like any countries that put their economies on war footing, it is creating a bubble that would eventually burst. The Russian economy is booming because of increased government spending. But how long will it last especially with Russia being heavily sanctioned than before, and will continue to do so even if Russia wins? Even as we speak, 98% of Chinese banks refuse to lend to Russia since Chinese banks are more afraid from secondary sanctions by the more lucrative market of the United States.

It’s not allegory when both religions claim to know objectively how the earth was made and yet contradict each other. Either one of them has to be true.

Which is it then, is there only one or multiple gods? Was the earth conceived from dreams according to Australian Aboriginals, or did a deity created it by his/her own hands according to many other religions? Where is the single truth in this?

Shittiest take on this community by far.

It’s an myriad of reasons from what I can tell. Americans are conditioned to think along the status quo lines even if there is certain degree of freedom of thought. The American corporate media carves the political landscape to intentionally but subtly influence folks to pick either only Democrats or Republicans.

Another reason is that, I suppose rugged invidualism won out in the American society for better mobilisation. As you rightly pointed out, there just isn’t grassroots activism among American people (not counting civil and lgbt rights which are undoubtedly grassroots activism and successful ones at that). But this isn’t what it used to be. Before and in the early 20th century, there have been other third political parties still gaining respectable number of votes, the last one being the Socialist Party led by Eugene Debbs. He won a respectable 1 million votes as a presidential candidate while campaigning from prison during World War I.

Not sure what happened why political grassroots activism that could counter either Democratic and Republican parties died out, but my guess is that the proliferation of mass media in the 20th century may have had a hand to convince people to stick with two parties, as well as heavy emphasis on individualistic values.

Dan Schneider has not been convicted though.

I had a friend who was never christened by her atheist parents and thus never had to be drilled to believe in any religion. Welp, it was rather refreshing to hear someone’s perspective that all the proselytising just sounds nothing to a person who had never been indoctrinated since infancy. Someone from another religion might still consider the stories from other beliefs; but hearing religious story by someond who was never baptised into any religion? For that person they would just say “cool story bro”. Even for myself who is no longer a believer, I still get some pangs in my consciousness brought by early exposure to Christianity. But I am lucky that I have never been extremely indoctrinated and therefore I don’t feel any fear of an eternal damnation in hell for leaving Christianity. Some former Christians, though, essentially have PTSD by being made to feel guilty for leaving, and have existential angst of the possibility hell (the original Torah/Talmud never even mentioned hell so why should Christians believe in one?)

For me, the worst is either Batman and Robin, or the first 30 minutes of The Killing Joke where Batman fucked Batgirl (say what you will about their relationship, it is just plain weird of them to become romantically involved).

As for the Dark Knight Rises, I see where you’re coming from. I think Nolan directed the last movie in such a way so that people would not crave for another sequel. It’s not bad, but it is not titilating. A lot of directors “underperform” on their works so that the audience would not demand for another. Some movies just doesn’t deserve more sequels than needed.

Too many are accusing them already. Where there is smoke, there is fire.

I kinda realised that the less specialised you are, the more you really know. If you don’t branch out here and there, you won’t develop necessary skills that will help you in your own specialised area. For example, Albert Einstein is well known as a theoretical physicist, a highly specialised occupation. But were it not for his hobby of playing the violin and willing to work outside his main field and interest, he would not have been able to come up with solutions to some of the pressing problems in physics. He did say that imagination is more important than knowledge, and his track record speak for himself and his mindset.

Moreover, I think there is some harm not developing other skills. I find that some people in positions of power being ineffective, because they may only know their technical skills, but did not bother to learn people or time management skills. Going further beyond, a lot of people have ill-informed takes in politics or life in general, because they do not bother learning more facets.

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He’s still the pope, of course he’d say this. However, the majority of Indonesians are Muslims. As if the opinion of a Catholic leader would matter much.

I imagine it would be for older games though?

I was a huge fan of Ubisoft. I basically stopped playing any of their games after Assassins Creed 3, with the exception of AC: Black Flag, which I got from the high seas, ironically.

Maybe I am missing something with this but anarchists are hated both by communists and liberals. If they see the anarchists, they’d also gang up on the latter lol.

In fairness, it isn’t like banning one social media website (and a purveyor of misinformation and disinformation at that) will have either national security concern or threatening fundamental freedoms in Brazil. It could be why Brazil had been so bold.

I grew up with religious parents. Looking back, they restricted me from doing things, even innocuous, without explicitly stating we to why. But I know that it’s because they are afraid I “might get ideas”. Fortunately, I have been to good schools and got taught about basic sex education. Ironically, my parents sending me to good school taught me better than being “taught” by my parents who don’t want me to “get bad ideas”.

Yes, we should prepare for the coming of AI. However, we overestimated the rate of AI development. Iirc 80% of investors lost money from investing in AI companies because the technology is not up to scratch yet. I mean, how many people asked something from ChatGPT and gave you wrong answers frequently?

I mean historically Filipinos who migrated to the United States were also one of the wide users of marijuana along with Hispanics. And among those communities, the cannabis/marijuana did not have had any negative connotation until the war on drugs.

Yup. Marijuana has always had widespread use by those from formerly Spanish-colonised cultures which are Hispanics and Filipinos.

The thing is, unlike lemmy.ml users, I don’t ban anyone or block the instance.

I could block the instance, but it is more damaging to create a bubble than counter their BS if it pops up.