While the Old West goes back a few centuries, I’d say the “gunslingers era” isn’t until the first Colt revolver becomes available in the mid 1830s. It took a bit of digging to find pirates that would have definitely been around late enough into the 1800s that they’d be contemporary with gunslingers and samurai (class abolished in 1870), but old school river piracy lasted, even in just the US, into at least the late 1870s, so I guess that all checks out, as long as you weren’t expecting Blackbeard or anything.

Coke was originally among many other “tonics” pushed back in the day, but it also wasn’t marketed under the name Coca-Cola while it was sold as a patent medicine tonic. It also was only was sold in that form for a few months before being made nonalcoholic and marketed as a beverage later that same year. Sales were initially poor and only picked up with aggressive advertising campaigns, which I suppose is a strategy that Coke never left behind and leads us to the world where we are today.

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One common tenant of direct action is decentralization. It’s a lot harder to squash direct action when the people doing this stuff are just groups of 2-5+ friends (it’s called an affinity group) who believe in the same stuff and have no common leader. Sometimes direct action is as simple as smashing up some windows in the dead of night and running away.

I might add that masking up is a good idea even if you plan on doing nothing but observing. Sometimes rightwing media personalities will photograph unmasked people at protests in an attempt to send online harassment their way regardless of whether they’ve done anything wrong. Additionally, there have been instances where innocent individuals have been charged with actions that other people in the crowd did, so even if you plan on being good, you could still get in trouble for the actions of others. A mask would add another layer of protection from identification and hopefully prevent you from getting wrongfully charged. I expect this administration to be particularly vindictive against protesters.

I remember this photo. Unforgettable, really.

Salem, Oregon, during the massive 2020 wildfires. No filters on this photo, the light really was that blood red in some places due to the light filtering through super thick clouds of smoke above.

I’d recommend you don’t sign anything at a protest, ever. No petitions, no signing up for orgs, not even if a goth baddie asks you to sign their tits. Do that stuff offsite before or after a protest on your own time where’s it’s a lot less likely to be an informational gathering tactic. You don’t want a record of which protests you’ve been to, especially if they’re the spicier kind where direct action might be happening.

Mask up and bloc up.

There’s a reason they call that the “crotch” of the tree

I blocked them, but the moth memes keep coming! Make it stop! 😭

If your piss is blue or purple, you probably have porphyria. It also means you need to go see a doctor.

This article is expressly anti voting at home, written by a conservative with an agenda to push and a book to sell, and is published by a rag that spawned out of the Heritage Foundation, which created Project 2025.

I’m sure the guy who wrote “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections.” is going to have some very balanced and fair views on making it easier for people to vote, right?

Max Stirner and Max Payne: will break your fingers if they feel like it

The first thing I’ll say is to consider putting it off until you’re older.

That being said, if you don’t know anyone who smokes, you might find it difficult to get some yourself. Your best bet would be to make friends who already have those connections. Many dealers won’t respond if you can’t name a customer that referred you. That might be the biggest hurdle to start with if you aren’t willing to start conversations. Ask classmates about the stoners around school if you can’t think of anyone.

If you manage to make those friends who connect you, though, the actual exchange with a dealer is usually pretty chill. You meet at an agreed upon spot (perhaps a park or something, maybe their house, etc.), and you hand over the money and they hand over the weed. Then you go home. You can show up with a friend if you want, but it’s best practice to let the dealer know that before you show up. A first text might go something like, “Hey, my name is ___. Would it be cool if I bought a dime ($10 worth, often 1 gram)/dub ($20)? I got your number from ___. Would you be down to meet sometime soon?” Some more advanced dealers will offer things like dab cartridges and edibles. Weed smells, and so does paraphernalia, so be sure to keep it in an air-tight container. Don’t front money for drugs, ever. Also, be sure not to let it become too much of a habit. Limit yourself to a couple times a month, or only the weekends, etc.

A marijuana high lasts about 2-3 hours, so if you know you’ll have much more time than that, you’ll be ok. You can also go out to meet up with a friend for awhile, then both go to smoke elsewhere if their house isn’t an option. Most high-schoolers find a nearby, secluded place in some forested area to smoke in, at least where I live. Walking there and back (even while baked) is usually no big deal, unless it’s super far or something. If you don’t have a place like that nearby, any other little hidden spots you can find will probably do if they aren’t too high-key. Just be sure to clean up after yourself. Pack it in, pack it out. You might be able to smoke outside your house after your parents go to bed if you can manage your coughing. If you’re worried about the smell after smoking, smoke outside, change your clothes/put on a top layer first, and brush your teeth.

As for how to smoke, you have some options. Probably the cheapest, easiest, most concealable option would be a small pipe (I’d recommend glass). You can find cheap ones online that can be delivered to your door on websites like dhgate, if you aren’t worried about your parents opening your mail for you. There’s also bongs, joints, and vapes, which each have their own pros and cons. I’m sure there’s a million youtube tutorials for each of those options. When smoking, I think the key is to inhale properly and deeply, which may be difficult starting out. You often hear that people can’t get high their first time smoking weed, but I think this is due to improper smoking technique. I know my first time I definitely wasn’t doing it right.

This was my first thought when I saw your meme lol. Only other major destination might be Chicago

I’m sure that’s true for many people. When European tourists visit the US, however, how many are actually going deep into the interior of the US? Most tourists, I’d imagine, would be staying somewhat near one of the coasts and mainly sticking to the major cities. I doubt many Europeans have anywhere in Nebraska on their itineraries. Probably not a ton of European tourists in the US right now anyway, but I mean in the recent past at times of relative political normalcy.

It makes sense, though. Most people who are travelling don’t have the time or money to spend months seeing all the highlights of a place as large as Europe or the US. Even just these countries offer a ton to see, whether its the cities or the countryside. I can’t speak for how well-traveled Europeans are, but very few people in the US, even those who have lived long lives here, are able to say they’ve even visited every state, let alone seen the whole country. I bet that’s probably true of Europe for Europeans, too.

I myself don’t have much money for travelling, so I’ve only been to 11 states (and never even left the country), and I certainly did not see everything those states had to offer. Some states are often called “fly-over” states and, frankly, aren’t usually considered worthwhile places to visit anyway (even by Americans), so you can be forgiven for skipping those. I’m sure Europe has its equivalents, too.

Seems insane to me to not even say where it was found, that’s like a critical piece of the story. It would give important context as to why it took so long to find. Was it in someone’s personal collection? Was it just randomly dumped in some hidden alley or something?

War of the Worlds was written by H.G. Wells, not Orson Welles. Orson did, however, do that famous radio performance of War of the Worlds in the 30s that ostensibly (but probably not actually according to more modern analysis) caused widespread panic among its listeners.

I always get these two and George Orwell confused. On top of the somewhat similar names, the fact that Orson Welles/H.G. Wells both have that War of the Worlds connection and H.G. Wells/George Orwell both being famous authors doesn’t help, either.

I also want to add that evolution is a species-wide phenomenon over hundreds or thousands of generations, it’s not done individually.

Wow, what a thorough answer, thank you! The summation was almost poetic, in a beautiful and somewhat horrifying way. The whole system laid out like that almost seems a bit dark and dystopian in kind of an indescribable way. It sounds like a sentient, Lovecraftian rat’s-nest of wires running the whole world.

Those fabrics are made of plastic, which is derived from oil, which forms over long periods of time from buried decaying plant and animal matter. 70% of the Earth’s oil is from the Mesozoic Era, which encompassed the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods, so formed during a time when dinosaurs lived and jokes about oil being made of dinosaurs are common. Oil is actually made of plankton rather than dinosaurs, though.