WideningGyro [any]

That book made a lot of things click about modern liberalism, for sure. Losurdo doesn’t miss.

The ones in my family (Scandinavia) are, yes. It’s all surface-level “at least she’s not an old white man” vibes. My experience is that our society is so Trump-brained, that most people would welcome literally anyone else.

EDIT: When I say “excited”, I do mean relative to their lack of enthusiasm for Biden (although they were still certain he was way better than Trump, of course). It’s worth remembering that a lot of people to the immediate left of centre here celebrated Obama as if it was some massive victory for them in 2008 (myself included, but I was just a dumbass kid).

Unfortunately, for the average left-leaning lib/succdem, symbolic victories and vibes are all politics consists of. I recently made the mistake of airing some doomerism about the state of EU politics to my overwhelmingly succdem family, essentially just saying that I believe fascism will continue to gather support in Europe as long as the “left” continues its strategy of moving right to counter the right, after which (surprise) the right says “thanks” and moves further right.

This was met with a) astonishment at where I got these “conspiracy theories” from, b) concern trolling (“are you doing all right? I get worried about you when you say these things”) and c) vibes (“I have to believe things are getting better!”).

All participants in this conversation are people I would call above-average in terms of political literacy among libs/succdems. And even they are just completely checked-out. They are also all quite excited for Kamala Harris

Thanks! In awe of the level of detail on the architecture

Wow, know the medium? Oil on canvas?

Kevin Spacey definitely has repressed het energy

Where I’m from in Europe I think most people sort of think of it as just basic common courtesy, especially for older/disabled/people carrying stuff. At least, that’s what’s taught, but I wouldn’t speculate on how often it actually happens here vs. the US. I did also once have a colleague from the US who was extremely (almost performatively, I would say) friendly about those kinds of small, polite gestures. So what do I know.

Thanks a lot, really hope you find something else (or a different way to do it that is less crushing). I don’t know anything about your background, location, safety net etc. so it would be irresponsible/unserious to say “just quit”, but all I can say is that it felt really good to walk out, even knowing I was walking into some uncertainty (had no idea what I wanted to do instead at the time). Felt like something got lifted off my shoulders.

Wait, you can like “hold” a door open? What, with your hand? I’m European and I’ve literally never heard about that. I thought slamming doors straight in other people’s faces was a universal thing. Learn a new thing every day.

I kid, of course. But for real, what makes you think of door-holding as a uniquely American thing?

I wasn’t in quite the same field, but I dealt with a lot of the same shit you’re describing. I quit last year and are trying to get a childcare degree (pedagogy it’s called here, not sure if that translates). Thinking it will be a line of work where I get out, do something relatively meaningful for someone else, even if it is hopelessly undervalued and paid here. But with social anxiety, I don’t know if that’s an option, depends how you feel around kids, I guess.

Team Seen Been or team Shawn Bawn? That is the real “if a giraffe could wear a tie…” question

Fair point

Isn’t aggression a hallmark symptom of dementia? I seem to recall everyone being super happy and relieved that my grandma was only forgetting our names, but generally being chill and cheerful in spite of it all.

they do X and Y

Goes to any forum for landlords: “How can I avoid doing X and Y for my tenants?” “Is there any way I can force my tenants to do X and Y or pay for them?”

Ah, I see. Thanks!

I’m a bit OOTL on the Winnie the Pooh thing. I always just assumed it was just a bunch of redditors making a racist effigy out of a fake news story, but googling it does give a bunch of (western) news outles, wikipedia pages etc. saying the character was censored/banned. Can someone pill me on this/direct me to a less brainwormed place than wikipedia for learning more?

Ew, reddit is leaking

Even my lib dad could see this bullshit for what it was. It’s a super transparent attempt to manufacture crisis support.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but does Obama have a lot of sway still? Is there good reason to think that his support is a strong indicator that Biden won’t get canned?