and when people like me say things like this, inevitably someone like you comes along to tell them they are dangerous for saying it out loud. In fact, the government was actively censoring people from being able to express this on social media.

I also had covid this year, zero boosters, had a mild fever and sniffle for two days. not sure what you are demonstrating with this anecdote. or what goalposts you think I moved. the "milder symptom" stuff all came long after it was obvious that the covid shots were not doing what had been promised. that is what I would call moving the goalposts

it was incredibly destructive for trust in the medical establishment to oversell / mandate it and market aggressively as "safe and effective". while most vaccine risks are in the 10s per 100k or 1M, nearly everybody knows somebody else who had an adverse reaction to one of the covid shots.

nearly everybody observed that you still get and spread covid anyway. that is disconnected from the aggressive messaging from the CDC and the fear and shame campaign from the last US administration.

criticism of a specific vaccine or policy does not make someone an anti-vaxxer that moves goalposts. the establishment is responsible for the skepticism it engendered against itself by its hubris

Apropos, I had chronic pain throughout this experience. I thought it was just aging, irreversible, and something that compounded my hopelessness. It's very surprising to be 10 years older now but feel 20 years younger. Books like "The Body Keeps the Score" or "Healing Back Pain" used to seem woo to me, but now I am convicted that health comes from within as much or more than it does from without.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFKx8nCl1Vw

It is hard for me to distinguish between the functional simplicity of desktop computing in that era, with the overall excitement that the explosion of connectivity brought to the world. The internet was a lot of fun and had so many surprising corners. Practically all of it was personal, niche, or experimental content for awhile.

I wonder if Windows 9X was really all that exceptional, or if it was just what people remember driving with as they navigated the new world.

The best modern equivalent to that desktop paradigm I've found is LXQt, although when I use it I find I kind of miss some of the accouterments of the modern desktops.

https://18f.gsa.gov/our-work/

https://www.govtech.com/civic/what-is-18f.html

Key Projects:

Beta.FEC.gov: Revamped the Federal Election Commission's website for easier record access.

MyUSCIS: Simplified the immigration process for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

USCIS ICAM Development: Developed a login and identity verification system for USCIS users.

eRegulations Platform: Made regulations more accessible and understandable.

College Scorecard: Provided clear data on college costs, graduation rates, debt, and post-college earnings.

Cloud.gov: Offers a platform for government teams to develop and manage web applications efficiently.

U.S. Web Design Standards: Created open-source UI components for consistent federal website experiences16.

people who perform well on intelligence tests may not present as generally intelligent

I am sharing my personal opinion

The opposition will always employ fear tactics like socialist, marxist, fascist, science denier etc

The question is to what degree. I am saying there's no analytical argument for 2%.

I think most people would agree that 10% or 50% inflation would be bad. But why is 2% better than 1% or 0%?. Why is 1% better than -1%? it depends on the time horizon. higher inflation today will cause more economic activity, higher inflation in the long run encourages debt and misallocation of resources.

there is deflation that comes from shrinking of the monetary base and there is deflation that arises out of productivity gains

often the "deflation" observed in bad economies is a symptom rather than the cause E.g. there were a few months of official deflation in the US following the global financial crisis, but this followed from the crash rather than caused it.

We welcome and celebrate deflation in technological goods (cars, electronics), apparel but are constantly warned about the dangers of deflation and why "some" inflation is good.

What is the argument for why 1-2% _deflation_ in housing, education, and healthcare would be bad?

Prettiest horse in the glue factory

would it be bad if the cost of college education, housing, or healthcare decreased?

why would it be bad if the cost of groceries fell to what it used to be (deflation)?