And yet, it has proven to be an adaptation that has greatly increased their success as a species. In the end, it doesn’t matter to the plant whether it is eaten or not as long as it gets to reproduce - and we’ve spread it around the world.

Calm down Cruel, you just didn’t get the joke

Oh, I know there are none currently, but that doesn’t mean we as a society can’t decide to have something akin to a community centre where people could meet and do stuff for free. It would also probably boost birth rates while helping people be less lonely and I think it would be more effective than trying to ban birth control and abortion, so it would also make sense for Western nations to fund this if politicians actually cared about these sorts of things

We should make some places where people go to flirt and meet new people. It isn’t healthy for society as a whole not to have any place where it is appropriate to approach each other. That used to be bars for older generations but that seems to have changed and GenZ also consumes much less alcohol than older generations.

“20 Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property."

Exodus 21:20-21

Don’t forget the AMOC shutting down and sending most of Europe spiralling into the opposite problem as the rest of the world boils!

Agreed for wow, but for Runescape, many of the quests are just so arcane that I never in a million years would have guessed what to do for them

Even if most every day people would lower their carbon footprint as much as possible, corporations would simply say “Neat, we can pollute more, we’re within target emissions”, and they would

Everything ends, nothing matters. Be happy for the little things and don’t screw it up for others

Yup, there’s plenty of time to have fun if you don’t have to manage lil’ ones. Not saying people who want kids shouldn’t get them, but moreso that people who don’t necessarily want them and just see it as something people have to do should consider a childless lifestyle. It’s better for everyone that way.

Oh, that’s very interesting. Where I live there are only upper speed limits on most roads except highways. On other roads you can drive as slowly as you want, though everyone will overtake you if they can or honk at you if you don’t.

I’ve never understood why people pick on drivers under the speed limit. It’s called a limit, why do we expect people to be over it?

As long as they don’t use exactly the same words in the book, yeah, as I understand it.

I think your last paragraph encompasses the essence of what people hate about this decision. I haven’t seen any outrage at companies that have never celebrated Pride. On the other hand, having celebrated it before and then deciding not to - especially when the event was ready to go and just needed approval - well, imo that’s even more of a politically motivated decision than simply having Pride

I’m not saying it isn’t - but so is Pride. Why would you place a subculture celebration - Christmas (since not everyone celebrates), over another subculture’s celebration - Pride (which also isn’t celebrated by everyone)

I don’t see why we can’t have both. Just ignore the one you don’t like and let others have their fun too

The fact that business engage in Christmas celebrations instead of, say, Ramadan, is itself a political decision - it places value on Christmas over the celebrations of other religions.

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be Christmas events in games - quite contrary, I think having as many events from as many cultures would be a smart business decision and it would make a larger number of players happy. But the fact is it would be a double standard to be fine with that and not with Pride.

The issue is that under our current economic model consumption always has increase because revenue and growth for businesses is essential and CEOs are mandated by law to increase shareholder value as much as possible. While the number of people will and is decreasing, the ammount each individual will consume will have to rise so much as to increase overall despite the smaller number of consumers.

That, or the system, as it currently stands, will collapse - degrowth means recession and our society isn’t built to embrace recession yet.

There should be at least a reading comprehension test for people to qualify to vote. Even better would be a media literacy and critical thinking test before election season even starts

This! We had a very cool unit in Linguistics on this back in college, it seems the academic consensus is that the first language you learn - i.e, your native language, can stop being the primary language that you use and hence, in time, it can be forgotten.

Our professor gave us an interesting example as to why the term “native” language is no longer as relevant: her daughter, whose primary language was Romanian, had moved to Germany and met her husband there, whose primary language was German. They later lived in the US for a while, both using English as their primary language for close to a decade and then moving to Japan, where they have had their son. In essence, the kid doesn’t really have a “native” language - at home, they speak English, when they visit Europe they speak Romanian or German, and everywhere else in his life he uses Japanese - which is also his primary language, as that is the one he uses most often and is most proficient in.

Europe is facing population decline. Houses should get cheaper, not more expensive, and the fact that prices keep rising means that they are artificially inflated.