Well, the liberals got in last election based on voting reform (at least in part), and they didn’t do shit. The conservatives certainly won’t implement it… There’s just, a lot to process with how fucked the current voting and government system is.

At the end of the day, all politicians are owned by one corporate interest or another… That’s not going to change.

We simply need too many people to decide to vote differently all at once to get someone else in there.

I recognize that I’m part of the problem.

Good idea.

My area went to the conservatives, but it wasn’t close. Especially in times where it’s important to win, vs business as usual, I tend to vote with whatever party is polling highest in my area that isn’t conservative.

I’m sure the liberal party won’t do a stellar job, but they’re often trending above NDP in most areas I’ve lived in. I don’t want to have my vote invalidated by vote splitting.

I’d like to think we have three or four parties actually competing for leadership but the truth of it is, the left leaning folks are divided, while the right is (mostly, or at least more than the left) united under one banner. Therein lies the strategic failing of everyone on the left.

This just makes me reflect on how many Americans, even Trump voters, are basically screaming from the rooftops that Trump is doing real harm to them, and maybe, just maybe, that message will actually be heard.

Then I remember that he’s replaced just about everyone who can get into earshot of him with an echo chamber of what-the-fuckary. Absolute useless humans, who will shield Trump from hearing about any negatives from the decisions he’s making.

Everything they’re saying to the public is spin. It might be based in fact, somewhere in the background, but it’s so far divulged from that truth that it’s difficult to even tell what true thing was spun this hard to generate the things they’re saying. There’s a nontrivial amount of it that’s just outright fabrications.

I’m not an American and I couldn’t vote in the US election. I’m your neighbor to the North and all I could do was watch, in horror, as the vote went to the orange party.

As a Canadian, we might just build a border wall… Mainly to keep the crazy out of our country.

I’ve been witness to the great cat distribution system.

Our current cat has moved house with us twice. The first house at lived at, we were on the ground floor of the place and this furball just waltzed in and took over. Much to the dismay of the cat we already had.

The preexisting cat was similar. She would hang out at a bus stop that my SO would frequent to get to work, didn’t take long before she followed my SO home. She was a shit, but she was cute enough to get away with it. Rest in peace Zora.

Anyways, I would submit that the only reason we haven’t had more cats distributed to us is that we lived on the fifth floor of an apartment for a long while. We recently moved into a house so that might change.

This is a mood.

You will not find any disagreement by me.

So much better!

If you perish, life will never improve. Self fulfilling prophecy.

The brave thing to do is to try to change for the better. Your life is yours to make into whatever you want it to be.

Anyone with ideations of self harm, please, I beg you, on behalf of everyone who loves you, live. Find someone to talk to, work through, around, over, under, whatever, but get around it somehow. Find a way. You are valued.

You’d hope so (I do too), but history tells a different story.

I literally just clocked in.

Guess what I’m doing. Not working, I’ll tell you that much.

All good points.

I would, 100% of the time, rather live under a social triage of conditions, where those who have the most need, get the most and most immediate care. If I’m not going to die from my medical issues, I can wait.

From your description and what I understand of it, American medical triage is less about who needs the most care, and more about who has the most money.

I’m a first aid trained person. Changing the way people get triaged for what their issue is… That’s a good way to get people killed.

And as a Canadian, I hear Americans talking about how we wait so long for care.

We do, but not for anything that is life threatening.

I don’t mind waiting for an x-ray for something routine if some kid needs an x-ray to figure out if his skull is cracked or something.

I like this. Thank you for sharing.

Not trying to carry water for anyone. I’m just not sure supporting destruction of someone else’s property is the move here.

This is just a discussion, and nobody needs to agree with me. Clearly there’s plenty of opinions here and mine is one of them. I’m not going to say anyone should agree with me.

For clarity, the subset of cybertruck owners I have any sympathy for is a small group. The most significant argument I have, mostly to myself, is that I don’t know who owns what vehicle, so personally, I would not partake in any vandalism because though it’s likely that the person who owns the vehicle is by all definitions a shit head, the possibility that they’re not is enough for me to refrain for getting involved.

But make no mistake, if I was proof positive that some Elon loving nazibro was the owner of the vehicle, no holds barred. Fuck that guy and the cybertruck he rode in on.

Clearly, many people are convinced that anyone who owns a cybertruck is a nazibro, shithead, who agrees with Elon and his fuckary.

Believe what you want. I believe in realistic freedom, not the “freedom” that’s being pedaled by the chronies doing damage in Washington, where their version of freedom strips reproductive Rights away from women. As such, you are and should be free to express your opinion in whatever way you feel. I’ll fight anyone who tries to say otherwise.

A bit, yeah.

By and large the market for the Tesla cybertruck is going to be people with more money than sense. Those people I can’t really have any sympathy for. My advice to them is to park the truck in your garage and drive literally anything else that you own from what is sure to be a selection of different cars.

For those that purchased a CT at the end of their finances, and could only barely afford to justify it, I feel for them. They can’t easily buy something else to drive, and the contract forbids them from selling anytime soon. They put in their orders long before Musk was actively demonstrating how much of a shit head he really is. These people are just regular folks who wanted a truck, bought the Tesla branded sales pitch, and thought it was a good investment over alternatives like rivian. IMO, they’re victims just as much as the government employees that used to work in DEIA departments, and USAID.

Then people are taking out their frustration and causing material harm to those duped by the world’s richest man… Double jeopardy.

None of what Elon did is their fault. People are causing them material harm. You’re not hurting Elon with these shenanigans, and you don’t know that the person who is suffering is a part of the same club that Elon is. Err on the safe side and leave people’s property alone, please.

I don’t like Elon, and I don’t like Tesla. I have no sympathy for either if they go down in flames. I do, however, feel bad for all those who are being materially harmed by all this horse shit. They didn’t ask for this, they just wanted an electric car that goes vroom on batteries.

Edit: seems like a lot of people disagree, that’s fair. I want to clarify that the subset of people who own a cybertruck that I have any sympathy for, is a pretty small group.

The fact that some of them have my sympathy, does not, and should not imply that I agree with Elon, support his supporters, or think every person who owns a cybertruck is “good underneath it all”. Absolutely not. The vast majority of them are either rich assholes that deserve what they get (eat the rich!) or those that have thoroughly invested into whatever Elon says being the way things should be. In both cases, these are people with no socially redeeming qualities, and 100% deserve what they get. This easily covers 90%+ of owners. The small percentile that went through with their purchase, who are just average Joe’s trying to make their way in the world, who thought a battery electric truck is a good idea; those who just happened to land on cybertruck as the result of their decision, and have no horse in this race otherwise… Which again, is a very small number of purchasers, those people I have some sympathy for.

If you disagree with that, then I’ll happily hear your opinions on the matter. Please feel free to comment. You’re entitled to have an opinion as a free person, and you can express that in whatever way you feel is appropriate.

No matter what, I wish all of you a good day.

I live in a rural area. Like 15 minute drive to anywhere. Any less driving puts you in the middle of farmland. Not super remote, but enough.

Where I am, if it’s not in-town, you generally need to get there by motor vehicle. I only recently moved here, but I don’t think that’s super relevant.

I will always acknowledge exceptions to every rule. When you’re as rural, or more rural than I am, driving is an extremely useful tool to simply get anywhere. The utility of it, in my mind, is not really in question.

For the majority of people, who either live in, or near metropolitan areas, driving has an entirely different dynamic. It’s entirely unnecessary for anything that’s “in city”, which is going to be about 90% of what you’ll want to do. Apart from driving long distances to go on vacation or see family, a vehicle is entirely unnecessary. It can save time (at a cost) and it can be helpful when transporting items from one place to another, eg, when moving house; but again, they’re exceptions, not the rule.

Please forgive my terse initial comment. I usually find terse comments have more legs. There’s always more to any story, and exceptions are expected.

To bring this all back together, the number of people who will be in a rural situation, requiring a vehicle to travel anywhere in a reasonable timeframe, is, by the definition of rural, going to be fewer people than those who are included in my original statement, who live in a city or metro area where the population density is higher and there are more services in walking/biking distance. You and I, my friend, are the exception. Not the rule.

Wow, what an incredible take with zero supporting information, either information I’ve seen published, ever, or information provided by you, the poster.

Thanks for this, DrDickHandler, it’s really helping this conversation evolve into something better!

(/s for anyone too tired to see it)