As another commenter alluded to, inflicting trauma and depression on perceived enemies is an intentional tactic of oppressors. Therefore any moments of joy are acts of resistance against oppression. Depression is a valid response, but it isn’t always helpful to yourself or others. So trying to find ways to cope can improve your situation.

Two things I find helpful for coping are being in community with people who share my values and volunteering to try to improve my corner of the world. I find both of these things through my Unitarian Universalist church. There’s no expectation to believe any specific scripture, just a shared set of values. The first principle being all humans have inherent worth and dignity. Our congregation has people who identify as atheist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, several types of pagan, etc. Our music program is also a big bonus. Find a congregation near you, they can vary based on the local membership and many stream services so you can check out the vibe before going in person.

My money is on Detroit for the first one

Recommend this City Nerd video on downtowns with the best and worst parking lots

Not strictly about boundaries, but I think you’d like the Evolving Self by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It goes a lot into how to consider your priorities in life and what you want to spend your time on

Agreed. There’s plenty of suffering that happens in life just because. Purposeful suffering doesn’t seem like a good thing in most cases.

But there’s also the issue of the definition of suffering. Minor suffering like tolerating a colder thermostat setting in the winter, it saves money and energy, seems rather subjective on where the line could be drawn on bad vs good.

Check out your local recycling center, they often do tours!

Hmm I wonder which power source may be best suited for dry and sunny areas with abundant land available

There was news today that the Senate is considering cutting Medicare in addition to Medicaid, as well as news of major changes to how science funding is sent out to researchers. Also the travel bans for foreign nationals from certain countries.

This is why. Republicans in Congress are planning to take “at least” $880 Billion over ten years out of Medicare and Medicaid to pay for extending tax cuts for the wealthy. There are also ads in the opposite direction raising alarm about this. They say they’ll make the cuts without reducing benefits, and by that they generally mean they’re going to pay doctors even less for caring for those patients.

The Coalition to Strengthen Healthcare has some resources to facilitate grass roots advocacy if you’re interested!

Plants are actually pretty sensitive to soil compaction, which can take a lot of time to reverse. the composition clay/sand in the soil can changed the time it takes to resettle, and it might even just erode down to rock.

Our Shark brand vacuum has been a world of difference with dog hair in the carpet, compared to our previous vacuum. They have several models in your price range

Echoing that the Hyundai Ioniqs are fantastic EVs with plenty of actual buttons in the console as well as fast charging speeds (the chargers themselves are the limiting factor)

What’s wrong with frogs?!

They’ve recently awoken from hibernation in my neighborhood and you can hear them at night. Frog season is great! 🐸

You can either start with a general Internet search for doctors and read their reviews and check if they accept your insurance. Or start with your insurance company’s list of providers (which may be out of date) and then go read reviews for doctors. If possible, I highly recommend non-profit/university-affiliated doctors offices, and especially stay away from anything owned by private equity…they try to squeeze as much money out of patients and their employees as possible.

In the US, doctors aren’t allowed to share info about their patients with anyone without the patient’s permission. However, there are lists out there for people who try to circumvent controlled substance laws.

Wicca/paganism/Earth-based traditions tend to be matriarchal and use names like Earth Mother, Ancient Mother, Gaia, etc to describe the most powerful deity.

A lot of things marketed as soaps these days are really detergents that contain sulfates and can be very harmful if swallowed.

Stick to FDA approved medicines. Medicine like tums use this strategy to decrease the acidity. Other medications block the stomach’s ability to become acidic.

If you have heart burn that won’t go away or chronic acid reflux, see a doctor

The City Nerd channel on YouTube and Nebula discusses this issue a LOT. Trains are by far the most cost effective method of transporting large numbers of people and goods.

Here’s a video discussing costs of car use

Here’s one on the cities with the most affordable housing and transportation costs. As he explains housing and transportation costs are directly linked to each other.

Agreed! I get this with my Unitarian Universalist church community. UUs don’t require anyone to believe a certain scripture, but we have a shared set of principles, like valuing democracy, science, and nature. The community aspect and music program are great by themselves, and our minister’s sermons have been a great source of motivation to keep fighting for what we believe in.

Depends on your demographics a bit. Dictatorships like to scapegoat ethnic minorities or other out groups (see Pinochet’s, Mao’s, Pol Pot’s, etc extermination of scientists and educators) for society’s problems. These groups of people tend to experience much greater intensity of oppression under dictatorships than already present in the US. This tends to change culture on a fundamental level because most people actively try to fit in with the in group to avoid becoming a target themselves.

While present to some degree in our current system, another core characteristic of dictatorships is that self enrichment for those in power is the primary driving factor for decision making. Dictators don’t need to pay lip service to making decisions for the greater good. You see this especially prominently in dictatorships in developing countries with valuable resources… The dictators and their close friends take all of the wealth from resource extraction for themselves and everyone else lives in extreme poverty. Yes we have wealth inequality already, but it would be accelerated even more. You could see even highly skilled professionals having a hard time making ends meet (or in jail for being too smart and having “ideas”), and even more homelessness, potentially even wide scale famine.

In terms of geopolitics… Our relationship with allies would become about how the relationship personally benefits those in power.

Why are you interested in the keto diet? Are there specific goals you’re trying to accomplish? It’s a tricky diet that is best done with medical supervision.

I highly recommend Harvard’s Nutrition Source for science-based nutrition information. They use accessible language and have recipes too!

Dig Down by Muse