I disagree. If we sent 100 personnel with an air defense group to Ukraine, shit would get pretty real pretty fast. Sending people is a whole different commitment to sending weapons.
I had an old instructor who liked to say “when it comes to breakfast, what’s the difference between the chicken and the pig? The chicken made a contribution, the pig made a commitment.”
Sending our own troops stops being a contribution and starts being a commitment.
The worst were always the first of Depressing Comic Week, because you don’t expect it. It starts out normal and ends up shockingly depressing and says something like “welcome to Depressing Comics Week!”
Oh, wow, I had always thought that shooting a horse with a broken leg was an act of brutal expedience, not mercy.
When life gives you oranges, don’t make orange juice. Make life take the oranges back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn oranges, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Anon oranges! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down! With the oranges! I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible orange that burns your house down!
If you want slicey-dicey, get a super-sharp katana or a saber. If you want fast and pokey, get a rapier. If you want a beating stick that’s 80% sharp edge, grab a broadsword.
I don’t consider it a defense, exactly. It’s more clarification. Just saying “no kids” might suggest he doesn’t want kids ever, which would reduce the potential partners unnecessarily (and if he does want kids eventually, being paired with someone specifically because they don’t want kids would just create problems later). Saying “no kids yet” sets them up with someone who doesn’t have kids but might in the future.
I’m a bit more confused, because when you me tion it referring to an ideology that focuses on social injustice and advocates for change, and reference MLK’s efforts, it seems like you support the general idea. And I would agree!
I guess I’m just confused on the “personal responsibility” portion. It’s my understanding that most of the “woke” issues are gay and trans rights and police reform (and combating systemic racism in policing). So other than demanding change, protesting, and voting, I’m not sure where the “personal responsibility” would come in.
Can you define the “woke movement” and “woke” in general, in the context of what you’re saying?
I’m asking because I’ve seen “woke” used for a video game that happens to have one gay character in it, which doesn’t seem relevant for what you’re talking about (for example). Or any number of things that are simply people existing. And other times it’s used for referencing social justice issues. It seems fairly amorphous, and entirely dependent on the person mentioning it, so without some context I can’t nail down what you mean unless you define it for you.
There are more appropriate ways to say this:
"Nobody with kids. I might want kids some day, but I’m not ready yet, and it feels like there would be too much pressure to either be involved with her kids or be cut out of a major portion of her life until we’re really serious. And again, not ready.
And somebody athletic, since I’m into biking and hiking and other activities that require a certain level of fitness.
And… well, somebody who isn’t into the whole casual sex thing, honestly. I think sex is special and, for me, requires a strong emotional connection. I want someone who has similar views on sex."
See, I feel like it changes it when you’re not focusing on the other person, but yourself. I’m not ready for kids, I’m into fitness, I’m a demisexual. It sets up the same thing without disparaging people who aren’t what you’re looking for.
There’s another part to this, and the renowned surgeon makes it a bad metaphor.
It’s more like: “You have a choice for your surgery. On one hand, we have a trained surgeon, on the other hand is a circus clown.”
“What are the surgeon’s credentials and record?”
“Well… they have a reasonably good record in other kinds of surgery, but and they’ve shadowed a surgeon who has done your surgery before. I won’t lie to you and say their record is perfect, though, and some of the practices and techniques they use draw serious criticism from various world health organizations.”
“And the clown?”
“They have more experience with these surgeries, but the vast majority of the people who underwent these surgeries have died. In fact, he shows flagrant disregard for even the most basic and accepted sanitary standards in the medical community.”
“But some people did live, right? So he can’t be all bad.”
“Occasionally he was part of a surgical team, and in those cases the rest of the team managed to keep the patient alive. And again, your other option is a trained surgeon.”
“But a shitty surgeon with no experience.”
“A questionable surgeon with limited experience. Or a clown who kills those he commits surgery on more often than not.”
“I can’t believe these are my only two options. When you said I had a choice, I thought it was a real choice, but it sounds like you’re just trying to force your surgeon on me. I think I’ll wait until another round of surgeons is available.”
“You will probably die before the next round of surgeons is available.”
“Honestly, I don’t trust your judgement over what’s best for me. I’m sitting this one out.”
Undecided doesn’t always mean who you vote for, sometimes it means whether you vote.
Still dumb not to vote, though.
Now do it with average households with college degrees, since that’s a more reasonable comparison.
Heelys have wheels built in, so once pushing off, you glide along the ground. Thus, they glide up to the door (instead of walking).
“God makes an exception for you and your group, specifically.”
Back before I lived on an island with two stop lights, I regularly used Google Maps for places I already knew how to get to, purely because I wanted the most efficient route.
Took a few decades, but i eventually realized I want the second one more than the first. So my friendships are dependent on how comfortable they are with not talking for at least a month at a time.
you can take a day or some time off to support your local business
Now who’s being entitled?
I bought a laptop backpack a loooooooong time ago, and still use it constantly. It’s been through 3 laptops, and I’m not the type to upgrade until it is absolutely necessary.
I’m going to let you in on some insight from a 40-something millenial:
It starts off that way a bit, and you’re expected to at least put forward the impression you have your shit together before you do. But then the pretending gets easier and easier until you realize you’re just paying your bills, getting your laundry done, and doing what you need to do while feeling like you’re failing at the new, added responsibility in your life (like big career changes, kids, projects taken on, kids, taking care of family or friends, more kids). But that’s with anything new you take on. If you aren’t struggling at least a little, you’re not growing.
If you choose that. I can’t speak to the pay, because y’all are getting fucked… so far. I’ll speak more on that in a second, but I was the store manager of a restaurant for a few years before moving to New York from Seattle on a whim, worked customer service at a phone center for a cable company, and then joined the Coast Guard in my mid-to-late 20s, and drove boats until going into aviation and flying in helicopters, living in various places throughout the country, saving a few lives, flying in really cool places, and when I retire I can go do something else. People who stay in a job behind a desk their whole work life either love that job or are complacent in it. You are absolutely not chained to it.
And as for the shitty pay and everything, what I have seen of the Gen Z folks that have come through the Coast Guard is that they advocate for themselves and get things that we millenials are embarrassed to hear requested, much less think to ask for ourselves. And look to all the labor movements going on to push back at those pay drops. Keep the momentum, keep up the fight, don’t get complacent like my generation or Gen X.
That’s not a mid-life crisis, that’s just the normal fear of entering the world for real, and it’s been that way for a long, long time. The crises come when you start feeling how little time you have (quarter-life realization you just don’t have enough lifespan to do everything you hope to do, mid-life realization of how little time you really have). Your thing is simply the fear of embarking into the unknown, and your doomscrolling has made your future look bleak. Put the phone down. Take opportunities when you can. Enjoy what you can out of life.
The whole thing is daunting, I totally get it. But going in with the approach you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy.