I’ve got a private chat with a small group of friends. That’s my primary social media. We share news and discuss ideas.

I’m a self-employed independent contractor because I don’t like employer-employee relationships, so I agree with you concerning aspects of our current system. A better world is where workers are self-employed and own their own operations and everything that can work on a smaller scale does operate on a smaller scale. I’m not opposed to larger operations having democratic processes and would be happy to see labor unions buy up enough shares of the companies the workers work for to own the board of directors and make decisions for themselves.

I also agree that the commodification of everything is a problem. Take abortion, for example. There’s an entire industry around promoting and earning revenue from commodifying the lives of these unborn children. We also need to stop defining success by career aspiration or income or other metrics that create a cultural desire for abortion of “inconvenient” babies.

That said, the big changes in family life did not happen because of capitalism. Families survived capitalism. It was some other change that happened. It was a change in the underlying religious and philosophical values of our society. The change was Vatican II and the modern rite Mass.

Vatican II and the modern rite Mass did not do anything to civil rights. My country had long been capitalist. I see no reason why 1962 would be a breaking point for capitalism to cause all these changes.

Vatican II and the modern rite were pushed by the same people who raped little boys. I do not see any evidence that there were a significant number of marriages that broke-up because of physical abuse.

Does it slow your response time or impare your decisions? A question from someone with zero experience.

We didn’t suddenly become capitalist in 1962.

You may not have noticed but, other than Nixon opening China and the presidents since him accelerating the export of jobs, everything else I mentioned was non-political or on the margins of politics. People need to stop thinking of politics like a religion. There’s a whole lot that happens outside the question of who the president is or what party is more popular. This stuff was going to happen no matter who was the president and no matter who ran congress. Virtually all these problems happened at the same time outside of the United States too, especially the western world. The problems opened-up because the effects of Vatican II and the modern-rite Mass. These were the restraints on moral relativism and modernism that had been pushing for a new way since the 1880’s. Once the restraint was gone, the people acted without regard to an authority that no longer existed in their minds.

At risk of being downvoted, I am a conservative. I am a conservative for moral/social reasons. I consider our going off-course was a consequence of WW2 as those who fought would go home and seek a different way forward. That different way took a few years to brew but really came to light in the 1960’s. Religiously, we had Vatican II council and the modern-rite Mass that gave the appearance the Church was throwing out her traditions and moral teachings. Socially, we had the introduction of “the pill” quickly followed by no-fault divorce and widespread legal abortion. Like these changes or hate them, there is no denying that these would have a HUGE effect on average family dynamics. Then Nixon opened China to the world and began the process of exporting industry to China. It started slow but continued to pick-up steam, hitting maximum industrial transfer during the Clinton administration. I was born after all these things. The effect is children being raised by only one parent, fewer children, men who cannot provide for their families without having a working spouse, and a whole host of trickle-down-effects like the fact that we now need 2x the housing to accommodate families of divorce.

Smart phones, AI, 9-11, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and everything else people my age cite … these are peanuts compared to the destruction of the family unit that happened by destruction of our religion, promotion of anti-natalism, dividing families, destroying jobs that are key to young people starting families, and creating an artificial housing crisis by doubling the number of houses needed per family.

IMO, Iran was expecting an Israeli response on par with what Iran actually hit in Israel and not what Iran targeted. Iran expected Israel to hit some rocks in the desert. Israel hit actual military targets and Iran is outraged. Iran cannot win this game.

Sounds like you need a zip line! 😂

Am I the only one on here using Budgie. I just feel more comfortable with the workflow using Budgie.

I walk or bike to about 90% of the places I need to go. That said, I also recently bought a vehicle for $1200. Works fine except the fuel gauge is broke so I have to just keep it topped off. My neighbor is trying to sell his Kia Rio for $1500. Works fine. It’ll last at least another 3 or 4 years. Likely more. I have a friend whose son totaled out his car. He wanted another. I recommended a car that was in the $1000 to $2000 price range. He didn’t want it. He took out a loan and got a very nice, very sporty car. Then he got in another wreck and totaled it out too. So then he goes and gets himself another expensive car. I just don’t understand.

I would 1000% add temporary containers to that list. Wish I could get it on Android too!

Why do they call themselves the “Communist Party of China,” then?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Communist_Party

Says I’m 10%. BMI says I’m 22.5. I think that’s a big difference? I’m very tall, thin, but have solid muscle and work out about two hours per day.

This is not new and it has previously been used against anti-abortion activists, tracking locations and even being used to record religious confessions. People on both sides of the abortion issue can oppose this type of monitoring.

My comment above is literally a summary from a presentation by the Cardinal Kung Foundation. For decades it was illegal to be Catholic in China and the priests and bishops operated clandestine at great risk of being caught. In place of the Catholic Church the Chinese Communist Party created the Patriotic Association to operate like the Catholic Church using priests and bishops who would break communion with Rome in favor of the local communist government. The “deal” between the Vatican and the CCP attempted to reconcile the two groups to each other in a way that was favorable to both but it did not work out that way.

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You think college food service companies are going to suddenly care about quality?

Catering companies, in search of greater profits, will assume this means loads more high fructose corn syrup and “vegetable based” saturated fats. More garbage, more obesity.