They make that kind of wild shit up about us already. It’s not helping.

that attracts garbage articles and clickbaits.

So it is clickbait. I understand that it’s our fault for being filthy numbskulls who want quick solutions. But we agree it is clickbait.

While you’re right that these things happen over time, there are often sudden watershed moments where the change becomes much more obvious than before, and those can precipitate more sudden actions to follow. Not everything is a slow forever burn with slovenly people like me yawning on the sidelines crying “borrring!”

I’ve been hearing about how Russia is about to collapse economically, lose the war, and watch Putin die from cancer for… years now. It’s just clickbait at this point.

deleted by creator

Hello Nebula

We could do more than we are, but when the nuclear sabre rattling inevitably comes, we realize we have more to lose than Russia does.

If that is the explanation, it sure isn’t made clear by this shit article.

Yes, so you’d think that reopening the strait should help. Maybe they just mean not right away? It’s unclear.

This is a really shoddily written article. Bad. Basically he’s saying that fuel costs will remain high and from a business standpoint the risk doesn’t go to zero just because Trump says everything is rainbows. Therefore shipping faces increased costs, which raises prices for consumers, which hurts demand, which lowers shipping volume. And that systemic slowdown doesn’t disappear overnight because Trump says yippee.

I think. If the article weren’t total shit, maybe it would be clearer.

Because China’s government knows the last thing it needs is a bunch of unemployed people.

It’s so weird how single-party rule can sometimes be more responsive to the people. Because there’s no illusion: if the people get unhappy enough, CCP is gone.

Meanwhile the US we live with these bizarre illusions about how the people are truly in power, while our government is driven into the ground by plutocrats and their pet priests.

I’m actually with you - I don’t believe any one president can just wave a magic wand and do away with regulatory capture forever. I’m not sure what I said specifically that made you think I put that all on the president.

However it would be equally fallacious to say he can do nothing. It is still a very relevant question, which no one seems to want to answer: what CAN the next president DO to restore trust? Not necessarily restore it ALL but begin to heal the situation? No colorful metaphors. Actual actions that are within the power of the office. This is a real question.

That’s a list of problems. I guess I just have to keep bringing you back to “what should the next president do?” You know, about them.

But if I ask you that are you going to compare me to a bully harming someone? That’s my WTF here.

What? I’m literally asking what the next leader should do to start improving the situation, not asking anyone’s forgiveness. If you can’t name one actual concrete thing, just admit it.

It’ll take decades to make up for completely but what can the next president do to regain some trust?

This makes sense. What never makes sense to me is when people worry about viruses from ice cores that are a billion years old. Because it works both ways: viruses have to be pretty well adapted to you in order to harm you. There are no such viruses long before humans even existed. I’m sure there are exception, as with viruses that manage to jump species, but I wouldn’t worry much about viruses from before the time of mammals, yet some people freak out MORE the older the ice core is. They’ve seen too many movies about ancient evil escaping old crypts.

I suppose you’re thinking of Europe and the Nazis there and not the firebombing of the city of Tokyo, or the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’m aware of the usual excuses that these were defensive acts, but seriously, give me a fucking break.

The more you know, the more there is for you to possibly worry about. Ignorance is bliss! Here’s a fun anecdote to calm your jitters.

Once upon a time I was trying to reassure my coworker who had an upcoming appointment. “I’m scared! I want to do it but I’m scared of the pain! It’s going to hurt!” she groaned.

I asked “where on your body are you getting the work?”

“On my stomach,” she said.

“Oh,” I said, “that’s a good place. It won’t hurt that much. You have a lot of fat on your stomach.”

She just frowned at me. One of the other cooks walked in and she shouted “He just called me fat!”

“The rhetorical ‘you!’” I tried to explain, to no avail. I never heard the end of that one from her.

This is a good example of how the past doesn’t go anywhere. Those drugs are still around as much as they ever were, or in even greater numbers. But we all know what they are now and what they do. There’s nothing to talk about so their names drop off the cultural airwaves. They’ve settled into the culture. You don’t hear about them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not around. The past doesn’t go anywhere. The future is just laid on top of it.

Well, that’s what a rhetorical question is. You’re making a statement, not a query, but the best way to couch your statement happens to be with a question mark at the end of it. I’m not sure this is the best example of one, but at least they made an attempt to label it as such.