you’re still butthurt about your downvotes? no one cares lol.

Not as garbage as your critical thinking abilities it would seem.

Identifying with the term “carbrain” is a choice.

One can have no choice due to lack of walkable, bikeable, or public transit infrastructure and also be annoyed about it. The would not make one a carbrain, but someone who is probably going to advocate for change.

Carbrain means you are so indoctrinated by the private vehicle industry that you can’t consider other options, get annoyed by bicyclists and pedestrians, and can’t possibly fathom taking public transit. That’s the entire argument.

Fuckcars also doesn’t mean we are literally sticking our dicks in tailpipes, but since you’re not big on reading between the lines I guess I’ll clarify that for you as well.

I certainly love hearing their speaker systems and modified exhausts from thousands of feet away.

Maybe don’t identify with the demographic the term applies to since it’s entirely by choice and such a stupid thing to base your identity around.

I’m white and I don’t feel comfortable saying it/typing it. It’s antiquated and weird.

Fuck man. I’m coming to Germany next year because it’s not the USA. Can you fucking not?

There is a vast frontier of knowledge and value to be gained in renewable energy, fusion technologies, CRISPR/medical science, systems integrations and automation, environmental cleanup, food science, etc.

These all take hard work and knowledge and aren’t quick fixes, so of course it seems like all the low hanging fruit is gone.

There are a ton of problems that need solving. It’s not the dog eat dog universe you say it is.

I used to be nihilistic and cynical for a time as well. Then I went through a divorce, went deeply into debt, became an alcoholic, lived in my car for a while and got sober and got my shit together. Not to say I recommend it, but the survival instinct is strong, and a wife and kids are a wonderful thing to wake up to every day.

I hope you can get some distance from the drugs and you might also get some perspective.

Your story is at least interesting, and if true, it sounds like you at least have the resources to improve your mindset and lot in life.

Well naturally, but I was and still am a dumb hick from Appalachia, so I didn’t understand that at the time. I’m a senior engineer now who does system integrations. I was speaking of the cliché advice given to people without marketable skills in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way.

Is it not work to make connections? Is there no value in learning to learn? I think this is a pretty short sighted way to go about life.

You seem like you’re younger than me and also not from the USA, so I can’t understand the exact realities of your situation without more info.

I got straight A’s in school (1992-2005) and found later in life that I was learning what other kids already inherently knew or learned way earlier. My “AP Calculus” was algebra I for the kids in the larger/wealthier cities in the state. Once I got to college/university I made up the difference somewhat, but I still felt very out of place.

Grades are not the end all be all, but learning to learn is important and it shouldn’t be reduced to just “testing once or twice”. How will you pass the test if you don’t know how to study or have at least some underlying knowledge of the test subject? Maybe I’m misunderstanding your meaning.

I may regret engaging, but I can say as someone who grew up in Harlan County, KY (one of the poorest places in the USA), hard work and education absolutely do still make a difference. You can get educated in a variety of ways, and you can meet people and lean on those connections even if your family isn’t born with them.

Raging about the world on the internet won’t fix your problems even if it does provide catharsis for a brief time. You’ve got to do some work. Whether that’s learning to grow a garden and giving produce to your neighbors, or learning music to join a band and connecting to others through songs you write. Those things take work. People want to connect with others who have skills, even outside of a capitalist system.

Anecdotally, I “LeArNeD tO cOdE” instead of bitching that all the mines closed, and it’s worked well for me. Wrapping my head around coding concepts when I objectively got one of the worst educations available in this country has been hard work and I’m proud to be where I am. I hope you find something you can work towards.

I think it’s a start. I’ve seen more and more from the feds and local governments about the infrastructure/walkability issue. It moves at a snail’s pace but that’s the government in general. My guess is that if you can align the people making federal policy to allocate federal money for public transit projects and high speed trains and such, you can incentivize local governments to use more dense mixed-use zoning laws and drum up local support for public transit projects where people aren’t stuck in a car all day.

I lived in Nashville when Barry proposed and mulled over their now doomed spoke and hub suburban train project between bang sessions with her security detail at the graveyard. It was frustrating that local businesses bitched and moaned and doomed the city to be another shitty Atlanta, so we have to understand the hurdles and the politics involved. Fortunately I have some faith that Buttigieg does but it’s admittedly frustrating when everything related to climate change is already too little too late and it’s moving so slowly to the point that we are only in the early stages.

So many cultural things have to change too. Penalizing big truck and SUV manufacturers is a start. Nobody needs one of those damn things.

Job: Software Dev

Internal stakeholder or C-Suite: presents nebulous idea for workflow/product/feature with no actual end goal

“We have a CRITICAL need for this product. It will REVOLUTIONIZE everything we do here. The stakes could not be higher. THIS MUST BE COMPLETED ASAP”

My boss: Okay. We will move heaven and Earth to get this done for you.

Me: Works 60 hours a week for two months to ensure the new product is successful

Also me: checking usage statistics six months later…last used by me during go live testing

I hate my life.

A former prosecutor selecting AOC also suggests a semblance of growth on the part of the prosecutor.

Yes, she put away a lot of people on drug crimes and I’m sure other BS. The conservatives are already circulating memes with a collage of black faces she put in prison. As if they give a fuck about black people in any capacity outside of when it’s politically expedient. They’ll be in the camps with the rest of us if Trump wins.

Someone like AOC diffuses some of the Israel and ACAB criticism. Or it could be turned to say AOC is a sellout, which I think is a hard argument to make. No one saying that should really be taken seriously given her record.

In this political climate of violence, it’s basically also a giant “fuck you” to the right. You’ll get this centrist woman, or you’ll get this left leaning woman. It hints where a Kamala Harris admin is wanting to take the country in the future and could also serve to finally motivate the youth vote.

AOC seems to understand realpolitik better than the many on the left, and I think she’ll eventually save us all. I know she probably won’t be on the ticket, but manifestation is a thing right?

No it doesn’t, but there’s a reason that Gordon Ramsay can’t make a fucking grilled cheese and loses his mind every time a black woman from the states fries him a piece of chicken.

We do.

“If something goes down over the weekend, fewer people see it” - my leadership team.

I guess Asia can report the problem on Sunday and I’ll get a nastygram and fix it that afternoon.

I can use a plunger and knock a turd loose in less than 10 seconds. Getting a bucket and filling it with hot water is at least a few minutes of effort.

OP be like, “You have to start slow and work your way up to the girthier toys.”

And what happens if Joe dies in his sleep before election day? No one is talking about this as a liability but given the speed of his cognitive decline and the stress of the job and schedule, why is it outside the realm of possibility? Trump will of course live to be 180 years old since he’s literally a conglomerate of McDonalds microplastics and literally one of the worst pieces of shit to walk the earth in the post modern era. Why would anyone want Trump over Kamala outside of being an impotent right wing Russia cuck?

Kamala sucks but she’s the contingency plan. She’s part of his admin that passed the IRA, CHIPS, etc. and trying to put forth executive action that would seemingly be beneficial for the American people. Presumably she’d continue many of the same policies as her predecessor. There is no perfect candidate in a FPTP two-party system.

So because I’m in a first past the post system over here, how does that work? You will still have other parties that can form a coalition against the right at that point? Assuming they don’t get 50+% of the vote, correct? The courts here are already fascist and preparing for the takeover due to Trump’s judge appointments during his term. Congress is deadlocked and useless as usual, and Biden is circling the drain figuratively and literally. There is no run off here. No coalitions to be had. Trump gets 47%, Biden 46%, and Kennedy 7%? Trump becomes president even though over half the country doesn’t want him. What’s worse is that he only needs percentages of the electoral college and not actual votes.

Germany, at least from my outsider perspective, seems to understand its history enough to be minimizing the right wing to its true proportions. But yeah, I’m well aware the developed world is going to shit. I’m not really sure what to do about it or where to go. The USA feels like ground zero for this shit due to Trump being in Russia’s pocket. That propaganda op worked better than anything they’ve ever done in the past. Even they probably can’t believe how successful they’ve been.

We looked at Spain, but ultimately the salaries are so low that we wouldn’t be able to afford to fly home to visit relatives and friends assuming we can still do that post Trump. I guess I’m not writing off the US entirely just yet but it’s not looking too great.

Thanks for your advice and well wishes. I hope to vote against AfD if/when I get there.