I mean same for photography, tv, film and even artistic renderings. They probably consumed a lot of media and can draw parallels and contrasts just from those.

This makes some sense. Clearly the friend is a bit of a conspiracy theorist, or trolling. There’s a decent chance they are younger too. That being said you’re the only person with a reasonable feasible explanation that might get through to the friend.

Okay, but the context of this meme is people making arguments that “children” shouldn’t be protected from pedophiles because they are potentially biologically “capable” of bearing young.

Every adult person on some basic level does know the difference between biological capability, age and status as an adult.

To obfuscate that in a search for “clarity” only allows wrongdoers to work their way out of bad situations.

Of course there may be some fringe circumstance that is so fucked, confusing and bizarre that it may in fact need some kind of understanding deeper than a basic moral or legal understanding. However rich, powerful, informed, adults intentionally engaging with minors in sexual, intimate and private ways is not one of them.

I understand you yourself are not attempting to protect pedophiles, but please understand that you need to specifically make that clear before you make such a comment or argument. That discourse is valid, but needs to be properly contextualized.

Depravity? Like moral depravity? Like swinger cruises or concert cruises with lots of drugs? Or just indulgence in general and a lack of care on environmental and local economic impacts?

I think the disconnect here is between objective and subjective meaning. In an infinite multiverse, ‘reality’ isn’t a singular objective truth—it’s a collection of subjective experiences. But that doesn’t erase meaning; it just means meaning is something we assign, not something inherent.

You’re right that if every possible outcome exists, no single timeline is ‘objectively’ special. But in fiction (and arguably in reality), what matters is the perspective we focus on. A story isn’t weakened by the existence of other timelines—it’s strengthened by the fact that, out of infinite possibilities, this particular one is being told. The act of choosing a narrative is what gives it weight.

It’s the difference between nihilism (‘nothing matters, so why care?’) and absurdism (‘nothing matters* inherently, so we get to decide what does’). A multiverse doesn’t have to make things meaningless—it can highlight how rare and significant certain choices are, precisely because most versions of a person might not make them (e.g., Invincible).

I get the sense you’re resistant to this because it feels like it undermines objective meaning. But what if meaning was never objective to begin with?

Ah yes, the galaxy-brain take: ‘Vote count alone determines legitimacy.’ By that logic, the Electoral College is fake news, GOP voter suppression doesn’t matter, and Russia’s 2016 interference was irrelevant because ‘Trump got more votes in the right states.’ But sure, pretend the DNC’s thumb on the scale had zero effect on turnout, messaging, or voter access. Totally normal democracy.

Imagine a kids’ boxcar race where one competitor had:

• A professional engineer for a dad who designed the car
• Custom CNC-machined parts and high-end materials
• A team of adults helping them at every step

Meanwhile, the other kid:

• Built their car alone with basic tools
• Was actively discouraged from getting outside help
• Had race officials constantly changing rules to favor the first kid

Then, when the second kid lost, people said: ‘Well, the first kid just built a faster car, we don’t see a problem here.’

That’s what the 2016 primary was like. The DNC didn’t stuff ballots, but they rigged the game long before voting started. Through media collusion, debate manipulation, and voter suppression. And when sued, their lawyers literally argued, ‘We have no obligation to run a fair primary.’

So yes, Clinton got more votes. AFTER the DNC tilted the scales. Pretending that’s ‘democracy’ is like saying the boxcar race was fair because they allowed to poor kid to participate to begin with.

You’re either incapable of grasping systemic bias or pretending it doesn’t exist to ‘win’ an argument. Either way, I’ve already explained why ‘Clinton got more votes’ doesn’t absolve the DNC’s misconduct. Repeating yourself won’t change that. Have a day.

The DNC didn’t ‘rig’ the primary in the sense of changing vote totals, but they did actively tilt the scales through media collusion (leaked emails showed DNC officials mocking Sanders and strategizing against him), debate scheduling (minimizing exposure), and voter suppression tactics (e.g., purging independents in closed primaries). The lawsuit revealed the DNC’s lawyers openly argued in court that they had no obligation to run a fair process.

That said, yes, Clinton won more votes, but the system was structurally biased from the start. The real question is whether a truly neutral primary would have had a different outcome, given Sanders’ momentum and Clinton’s weaknesses (which absolutely contributed to Trump’s win).

Bernie lost, he wasn’t popular enough. Get over it.

Telling people to ‘get over it’ ignores why this still matters. The DNC’s actions in 2016 (and again in 2020, with the sudden coalescence around Biden after South Carolina) reinforced the perception that the party prioritizes control over democracy. That disillusionment cost them key voters in swing states. Which is how we got Trump.

Wow, that’s an incredibly insightful answer. I suppose I never considered the scale of it. Most are fairly bare bones, but you are right, there are so many users and repeat users that it would scale very poorly.

You’re also right on the social media part of it. There kindof needs to be secondary engagement thing to attract and support the community.

Always felt that dating apps were a little too ?accesible? That is to say that they are exceedingly easily flooded by no or low effort profiles, abandoned and duplicate profiles. Especially by desperate men who are completely undiscerning and undereducated (consent, sex, sexuality, etc…).

I feel like there should be engagement/social/education tiers that grant more access to more features. Like literally give points if you can pass tests on consent, relationships, kink, whatever. Get social points from good engagement and behavior. These don’t show your profile more or less, but like if the medium has NSFW features, forums, criteria/location filtering it gives access to them based on community trust and such. Maybe offer a paid shortcut, but have that declared on their profile somehow.

Could be nice. But I’d also probably have the swiping style app be accessory to a more traditional forum.

I’m just confused as to how there isn’t a dating app that is better.

Lol. Maybe if we couch 911 calls with the fact that the person claimed their an ICE agent to help with the police not killing them on sight.

I’m just so fucking pissed that Trump keeps pulling his fucking punches. He’s made so many missteps only to walk them back at the last minute. Still fucking horrible, still hurting people, but avoiding the vast majority of the actual impact and lethality of his decisions.

Tariffs being example A, B, C and D.

I do NOT want prices to skyrocket, I do not want people to suffer, I do not want a fucking civil war. But holy shit. You can’t play stupid chicken as the president and continuously get away with saying “oops” sorry someone else ruined the sick flip I was going to do over and over.

If he’d been forced to commit, he’d likely already be dead or out of office.

I’m so fucking exhausted.

Employee value index?

I wonder [not to give him any credit] if DJT would be a better president if he were surrounded by actual decent people that were earnest/honest. It feels like it could be in the realm of possibility that he’s treating the Ukraine/Russia conflict the way he has simply because the people around him are only giving him a specific narrative surrounding it. Either intentionally, incidentally, due to incompetence or sycophantic attempts to “please” trump.

Maybe this is the first time getting it from Ukraine’s point of view, unfiltered.

Doesn’t change/nor justify his shitty behavior, but… it makes a kind of sense.

They are working with a team that is also working to recreate fallout 1. They are sharing resources. Vault 13 it’s called

Well you can also do what I do which is select the most expensive options. Figure out everything then copy the details onto a free file option and never pay them.

My retirement plan is a heroine overdose. I’ll try to do better than that, but I’m not expecting much.

I think we need staggered term limits. Make it so you can only serve up to two terms in a row and then you are forced to take a term off. No lifetime appointments.

That and approval voting from federal to local elections.

Nah. That’s why I use an android. Extensions go burrr on android firefox.