Americans, in our typical way, have a system of economic reporting that allows those in power to sort of hide that elegant metric in a combination of other statistics.

Here, you’d have to compare the rate of change of the Consumer Price Index against wage growth. And also find some way to factor in the cost of gasoline (which has more volatile price changes and as such isn’t included in CPI figures).

improvements*

If one was attacking me, I’d certainly be worried.

Dude, I’ve seen geese shrug off a shotgun blast, wobble in the air, recover, and fly off.

There are many, many puntable animals that are dangerous, both because you’re underestimating their toughness but also their ability to avoid being punted and attack.

I’m not saying a goose or raccoon would be able to kill you, but there’s a lot of middle ground between “not dangerous” and “lethal danger”.

A rat or squirrel or groundhog could easily leave a human minus a finger without breaking a sweat. Might not be able to kill a human, but that’s still dangerous in my book.

…with multiple “pocket knives” at the end of each limb and a jaw and set of teeth specifically designed to kill fleshy opponents with a skull or trachea crush.

It also eats an all-natural diet and exercises every fucking day of its life. And has spent all of that life practicing at being really fucking good at killing things that don’t want to be dead, and spend all of their lives practicing to avoid the mountain lion.

Education actually!

Better to just hoof it instead.

Settle down there, Derek.

If that happens they can be easily redirected with a sharpie.

Seeing the sheer stupidity of most Lemmy users who proudly align themselves as leftists is making me question leftists in general.

Not trying to make a case here, just asking:

By that rationale, could Starbucks have a policy in place where if you request a more expensive non-dairy option, you get an upcharge unless you give proof of a medical condition?

Basically saying, “Look, we’re happy to accommodate specific dietary restrictions at no additional cost for those with medical needs. We’re also happy to provide these options to all other customers at an upcharge reflecting the increased cost of these ingredients to us.”

I’d say that if anything, the tall people should receive the accommodation but the overweight people should not.

I completely disagree.

I think even if he had gone more to the center, he wouldn’t have lost any significant portion of the progressive vote he did get, and I think this holds true this year as well. (And at that, a shift to the middle would likely have netted him more votes pulled from disillusioned non-MAGA moderate Republicans in 2020 than he lost far left Lemmy-user votes).

Having the name Donald Trump on the other side of the ballot is sufficiently powerful motivation for most reasonable progressives to “hold their nose and cast their ballot” for Biden. It might be a very different story if Biden were running against, say, a John Kasich or Larry Hogan, but that’s not what we’ve got. In that case, many on the left wing may see it more as a “both sides are the same so I’m voting third party to make a statement” election…but again, this isn’t that. In 2020 and now again in 2024, the choice is more accurately, “not making much ground on progressive causes” vs “regression on all fronts, combined with an attack on democracy, emboldening of fascists, racists, and militant bigots of all stripes”.

…and personally, if a progressive can look at that decision and think they’re basically the same thing…I see that as only slightly less disappointing than a loud and proud MAGA zombie.

And while he may not be as progressive as many progressives would like him to be, I feel he’s been more progressive than most ever expected him to be…which is pleasantly surprising, since it’s not a course he had to take for political reasons.

I am not a fan of the general trend of de-buttoning.

Like… isn’t the entire point to make things consistent and intuitive? Make a clickable button visually distinct!

childern*

In that case, isn’t it sad that bots are producing better content than the Lemmy community?

It has seemed like the painfully obvious solution for years to simply have both mics powered off until and unless it’s time for that candidate to speak.

If they get 30 seconds, after 30 seconds, the timer cuts the power again.

Exactly! Very well said!

Don’t make a new interest a “don’t do what interests you, do what interests me” thing.

I’m big into fishing and while people are generally pretty good to newbies, people can get ridiculously preachy over catch and release vs keeping fish, as well as safe and ethical fish handling practices.

I’m all about educating, but A) you need to do it with positivity and not guilt, B) a lot of times people get super, super anal about it…like… we’re all jamming a hook in a fish’s mouth and dragging it out of the water…in that context, laying it on some wet grass to quickly unhook it and get a picture is not the worst part of its day, and C) just because their fish handling may not be perfect doesn’t mean it’s cruel either…newbies gotta learn, and they’re going to learn better from gentle suggestion and explanation than coming at them telling them how wrong they are.

At this point, seeing behavior and responses like this in so many communities of my interests, I feel like even that gentle of an approach is still too much agenda-pushing.

Not that the agenda in question lacks for value, ethics, or good intentions, but at the end of the day, based on the newbies inquiry, it’s still some version of, “You’re wrong for wanting to explore your interest. You should do what I tell you to do instead.”

In the communities for my interests that I participate in, I try (and sometimes fail, we’re all human), to explicitly steer clear of doing anything to diminish their enthusiasm, curiosity, and desire to learn. That’s the little ember that they need to really get going, so for me, the priority is not to put that out.

Especially in a case like this where, sure, maybe a native garden is ideal…but the alternative if they get overwhelmed or shut down or forcibly redirected by the community is probably just going to be grass and weeds, or no plants at all.

I think it’s great to offer up the natives as an alternative (while explaining the benefits to both the local ecosystem as well as to the gardener), but I would also say that if you’re going to do that, one should also encourage them to get into their new interest regardless of whether they follow that suggestion or not.

If OP wants to plant tulips, fantastic, and I’ll give you any tips I can on how to do that. I may suggest natives and why they’re also a great choice, but under no circumstances will I go into negative territory in telling them they shouldn’t follow up on their interest, unless of course it’s illegal, dangerous, harmful, etc.