When someone says "you are misinterpreting what I said" perhaps you should consider that you are misinterpreting what they said.

As someone with good but very expensive health insurance, any time I bring up health insurance prices, the response from people who get cheap health insurance through their employers is basically, "F* you, got mine"

Unfortunately, the block of people with stable corporate jobs also tend to have a lot of political power and are in no hurry to see their perks upended.

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/congressman-steve-scali...

It was not, however, "the worst attack on our democracy since the civil war" like Biden, other Democrats, and the media at large have claimed. [1]

[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/right-wing-erupts-af...

> that's about as useful as a story of how someone prayed and their mom's cancer went away.

All I did was comment and say, "Hey, we did this and it worked for us" and you replied with the equivalent of "Go fuck yourself, I don't want to hear it"

Of course modern birth control opens many doors, I don't think that was ever in question. It's a highly personal choice and I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

Anyway, cheers. Hope you're having a good day.

I think that's basically Trump's base to be honest. Politicians just haven't figured out how to wrangle them into something useful.

I think that's currently how the game is played. You can try to be better than that, but then the other side wins because they are still happy to play dirty.

I'm being downvoted because some subset of people here view down vote as "I disagree". I used to be bothered by it. I don't think much about it anymore.

Edit:

I'm also fairly certain I've got some followers who take it upon themselves to go through my comment history and start downvoting other posts of mine just for good measure. You know, really sticking it to the man or whatever.

It's funny that the party of "my body my choice" is so against people wanting a say over what goes into their bodies. I am personally vaccinated, but I think it's reasonable to let individuals make that choice.

Also regarding election fraud, when on election night you see charts like [1] with enormous one party spikes, it is entirely natural for people to be suspicious. Those people then asked for audits and were told to go to hell. If you want to undermine trust in the election system, that is exactly how to accomplish it.

None of this is "you aren't allowed to lie" it's "You aren't allowed to ask questions"

[1] https://s3.amazonaws.com/jo.nova/politics/us/2020/michigan-w...

The left wants to own online political discussion in the US, and they are very bothered that the right finds a ready audience when they are allowed to compete.

I think it's a bit of both. As the saying goes, "I can tolerate anyone except the outgroup" [1]. Part of that is racism, sure. A lot of it is people being uncomfortable with outsiders in general.

But also the left has found that words like racism, bigotry, xenophobia, etc. are very big sticks, and a big stick is a fun thing to hit your opponents with.

[1] https://www.slatestarcodexabridged.com/I-Can-Tolerate-Anythi...

I imagine it's a self feeding cycle. Young adults can't purchase homes, so their parents cosign and give a big down payment. Then sellers are able to ask more because wealthy parents are backing the sale, which just makes housing even more unaffordable.

I guess the point I was trying to make is more that doing these things is not impossible. It is just a matter of being properly informed (which is in itself a difficult task).

There is some truth to that, but there is also a fair amount of truth to the fact that a lot of people list things as "essential" that really aren't.

For many it's a trade off of being poor or looking poor, and they would much rather be poor than look poor.

Money isn't that different than dieting. It's a pretty simple equation.

Money in >= money out => Broke.

Money in < money out => Not broke.

With dieting, yes exercise more, but for the love of God, stop eating so damn much.

With money, yes get a better paying job, but for the love of God stop buying so much stupid shit.

My town has a general discussion Facebook page. I don't know that any of the people would recognize me on the street, but there are quite a few names I recognize now. This has been really handy since I didn't grow up here, and in small town America that often means people just won't get to know you because you "don't belong".

Also my wife is involved in several interest based groups. Mainly related to sewing and thrifting and such.

I don't know that it makes the world a better place, but it certainly can expose you to people you wouldn't otherwise ever have interacted with.

I think that has more to do with the pervasiveness of Christianity and alcoholism independent of each other.

We tried this to tame the savages [1], and I don't think people really look back kindly or positively on that choice.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_Indian_sch...