Every single country on the planet has the same shitty people that vote shitty. There are lots of really stupid people. At the end of the day, people can be seriously disappointing. This is the same all over the planet. American voters aren’t any worse than the voters of any other country. So then, if 40% of any country would be willing to put someone like Trump into power over a more sane candidate, what does that mean?

Well, first off, it means no place is truly safe from the most batshit crazy people getting into power. Italy has Giorgia Meloni, France almost had Marine Le Pen, the AfD is getting a lot of support in Germany, etc.

But it also means that the system itself has problems. That’s what ultimately allowed Trump to get into power. We have a government by the billionaires, for the billionaires. The wealth of billionaires in itself has grown out of control. It is impossible to successfully run for a major office without being insanely wealthy. Bribery is a central part of US politics. Corporations can make unlimited donations to political candidates. All of the safeguards against crazy have been dismantled. Party leadership silences anyone that tries to make a positive change. The media is filled with propaganda. AI has figured out how to manipulate people on a personal level. The list keeps going on. People will vote for the worst candidates all over the world. But in the US, at this point, the system is broken in a way that has enabled the worst candidate to not only be moderately bad, but some of the worst people on the planet.

It will take a while for a full on replacement to be viable. People need move to this kind of stuff with friends and small groups for now. As time goes on, the infrastructure and community momentum will build out and make moving feasible for larger groups, though. That’s to say, if you’ve got a massive Discord server with 10 thousand people, 100 different channels, and complex bots, you can’t simply knee jerk move it overnight without destroying the community. Number one, the community has to want to move. A switch of that nature starts with people using other options alongside Discord. When there’s enough people using something else, there needs to be a good plan laid out for how to build out the new server and make the switch seamless for the users.

Nobody is lost. People lead lives that make sense to them. It’s not your job or any government’s job to impose your beliefs on others. Because we have different philosophies and belts, separation of church and state is a thing.

Some people follow the Nobel Eightfold Path. Some follow the Ten Precepts of Taoism. Some follow the Seven Tenants of the Satanic Temple. Some follow the 52 Hukams of Guru Gobind Singh. No matter how strongly you feel about your beliefs, nothing makes them any more special than the beliefs of other people. They feel just as strongly about theirs. People having different norths as you call it isn’t a bad thing. That’s called diversity. There’s only a problem when people are bigots that don’t accept others for who they are and feel the need to “fix” them. Whether it’s militant Christianity or militant atheism, we don’t need that. Keep it to yourself. Countless societies have flourished without your 10 commandments.

All of it. The entire thing is complete garbage.

You already acknowledge that commandments 1-4 are things with which non-Christians in general strongly disagree.

5 - What if your father was Josef Mengele? The silence of his son is what allowed him to successfully hide in South America. Was that a good thing? Did he deserve any honor?

6 is written by the state of Texas as “Thou shall not kill.” Is killing in self defense wrong? If someone broke into your house with assault rifles and the intention of killing your children, would it be wrong to shoot at them to stop them? If a fighter jet was coming to bomb your city with a nuke, but you were able to intercept it with a missile, killing the pilot in the process, would that be wrong?

7 - In the context of the Bible, “adultery” can mean not only cheating, but also any sex outside of marriage. Tons of people do not see anything wrong with consensual sex outside of marriage.

8 - What is considered stealing? Is copying that floppy stealing? If a starving homeless orphan steals a loaf of bread from a billionaire to survive another day, is that wrong? A state may define theft however it wants. Personally, I consider the mere existence of private property as theft.

9 - If it was WW2 and Nazi officials came to your house asking if you had seen any Jews, would it be morally wrong to lie to them if you knew about some hiding in your attic?

10 - Is it wrong for workers to desire the means of production?

Every single one of the 10 commandments throws away the nuance of defining morality through critical thinking. As such, I would argue that it is incredibly immoral to follow any one of them.

Wait, am I reading this correctly? When you say 11299.68, that includes not only the person working, but also their spouse and children??? How much does that cover?

Right now, I’m lucky to have possibly the best healthcare plan in the US through my wife’s job. She was able to add me to her plan for $8580 per year, but it fully covers almost everything with no deductible - something basically unheard of in the US. In comparison, the cheapest marketplace plan I could have gotten would have been something like $8400 per year, with an $8500 deductible, and then it only would have covered 25% of expenses after that. Before I got on her plan, it usually cost me $300 to see a doctor for a regular cold. I’m in my 30s, a normal weight, reasonably fit, and don’t have any health problems other than occasional acid reflux. Under my previous plan, the pharmacy was going to charge me $980 to get acid reflux medication (40 mg esomeprazole magnesium tablets). So much winning living in the US. 🙄

While there’s maybe an 85% chance of that, the other 15% chance really needs to be considered as well. What if it’s not rabies and by opening the door, you get to hang out and become best friends forever? Maybe next week, the raccoon will invite you to its den, introduce you to its family, and fix you a nice meal? Maybe some apple-berry-grasshopper salad. Have you ever considered that?

Eesh. Guess the rainbow isn’t anywhere in America, huh? I mean, it was at one time, but that was pre-1492. Hopefully some day it will change for the better.

While that’s true, every state except for Montana has at-will employment. Despite that, unions often negotiate contract requirements that effectively guarantee job security. But if you live in a right to work state, chances are there isn’t even an option to join a union at your job, giving you no means of collective bargaining.

Time is sneaking up on us. It’s not even 10 years anymore. It’s closer to 20. 💀

In a right to work state, they don’t need to give a reason. Any rules against firings are pretty much unenforceable, and the company is considered innocent unless proven guilty.