Tbf, I’m a zoomer who knows a lot of people who vape, and the overwhelming sentiment among people I know isn’t the denial of “this won’t give me cancer”, but rather the nihilism of “I cannot be bothered to give a shit if this will give me cancer, because I probably won’t live long enough for it to matter.”

That’s not to say there isn’t a denial crowd, but the prevailing view in my experience seems to be that if, in the end, it’s the cancer that does us in, then we have already survived past all expectations, and in the present we’re just trying to get through the day.

Ahh, good old Ken M.

It’s been a while, old friend.

Asymmetric warfare is the name of the game, and you are correct in that Ukraine’s creative implementation of low-cost, accessible technology to generate combat power is something which any force fighting an asymmetric war should seek to emulate. Drones are a fantastic resource for equalizing a resource/materiel disparity and filling capability gaps, as we have learned. Unfortunately, though, looking at the way that Ukraine is fighting their war currently is not likely to be as helpful as looking at the way that Ukrainians were preparing to fight this war.

As it stands, the war in Ukraine turned out to be much closer to a peer conflict than the absolute overmatch that was anticipated, so the type of fighting we see now became an option. Before Feb. 2022, however, the focus was much more on providing civilians and irregulars with the arms and resources needed to become persistent thorns in the side of an occupying force. That is, rather than preparing to fight a war, focus was on preparing an insurgency. The US is unlikely to be atrophied in the same way as Russia, and while there are many valid criticisms which can be leveled at the US Military, the operation in Venezuela proves that the US retains the ability to coordinate a combined arms offensive in a way that Russia simply cannot.

That’s not to say it’s a guaranteed instant loss: Canada is a very large country, with many environmental advantages which skew the odds heavily away from an invading force, but I think that this is much more likely to be an overmatch than Ukraine was. If nothing else, though, the expeditionary wars in Asia and the Middle East tell us that a dedicated insurgency always wins over a long enough time frame against America.

To any Canadians (or Greenlanders, for that matter) worried about a US invasion, I would recommend the Swedish government’s In Case of Crisis or War brochure. There’s some information in there that is Sweden-specific, but it contains a lot of good information about prep and adaptation during wartime conditions. Additionally, the Simple Sabotage Field Manual by the US Office of Strategic Services remains a great resource in making yourself a more destructive nuisance to an invading force.

Also, get a gun and learn how to use it. Hopefully it just gathers dust, but in the worst case, you’ll be glad you have it. Know that if the US invades, I’ll be doing my best to be a domestic saboteur.

Godspeed, soldier, and thank you for your service up to now. You’ve been a persistent voice of reason on Lemmy, and I’ll miss seeing your input, but taking care of yourself comes first.

Hoping all goes well for you, and I’m looking forward to hearing how you beat cancer’s ass!

You’ve never received a grippy sock foot job and it shows.

I’ve always assumed it’s because of the usefulness in its divisibility, with 60 able to be subdivided evenly in halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, and sixths, and because 24 is just 12x2 and 60 is just 12x5, that remains the case (save for fifths) for all subdivisions of the day in its 60/60/24 configuration.

My guess is that it’s simply an issue of working with something like a day, defined by cosmic forces rather than human sensibilities or control, where you don’t always get something that can be decimalized and still have useful units of time. I’ve done zero research on the actual reason, though, so that’s just a guess.

Probably depends on who you ask, but my understanding is that there is at least relatively significant support for the reinstatement of Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son and exiled crown prince of the last shah. To my knowledge, his calls for protest and overthrow aren’t the inciting incident for the currently-occurring protests (the economic catastrophe(s) Iran is going through have that plenty covered), but those calls to action have at least been been a contributing factor and rallying point for the ongoing protests.

Genuinely, invest in education and you can resolve a lot of this in one fell swoop. I firmly believe that a large part of the reason the US is in its current state is because of the systematic cuts to our education system which have been happening for damn near half a century (fucking Reagan). Invest in the youth, give them the critical thinking and media literacy skills needed to draw their own conclusions, and I think you’ll have made significant progress on the issue.

Easier said than done, though, I’ll admit, and it’s a plan that operates on a pretty goddamn long timeline - a much longer one than the current critical situation is likely to allow us.

100%. Content sorting is (to my understanding) handled by peer vote rather than any kind of central algorithm on Lemmy by default, so a vote is much less about agreement/disagreement, and much more about doing your part in the process of separating the wheat from the chaff imo.

In my view, even a (non-bot) lurker who only views/votes is still contributing to the community, because they still add another data point for sorting. It’s a collective effort that generates a collective content algorithm, so a person should vote accordingly.

Well, at least we’re getting good fuel efficiency in this dogshit economy?

It’s not the licking that’s the problem. A small little lick would go unnoticed. Utilizing 110% of the surface area to maximally tongue fuck the cup’s exterior, though? You’re just begging to get memed.

My friend group recently acquired of a heart of gold type himbo, and honestly he’s quickly ascended to like top five people I wanna have around at the function. He’s just so genuinely pumped on life all the time that I can’t help but have a better outlook, and anytime he sees his friends doing well, he gets even more hyped.

He’s not the brightest bulb of the bunch, but he cares genuinely for the people in his life, wants the best for them, and finds joy in their successes. In my opinion, that’s way more noteworthy than any amount intelligence could ever be on its own.

The world could certainly do with a lot more kind, dumb people, and a lot fewer smart assholes, that much is for sure.

I honestly prefer the distinction, because whenever I see “que” in the place of “queue” I read it as Spanish, and it also helps distinguish the word from “cue”.

I genuinely thought this was a KSP screenshot at first glance lmao. Larian could even take a page out of Bethesda’s playbook and call it a feature. OP hit the ultra rare Illithid Nautiloid spacewalk sequence - only .01% of players have seen this!

Plus, without the US onside, NATO does not have the stocks at the moment to keep supplying Ukraine in the way they would need to take back all of their lost territory, and you can’t become a member of NATO if you have an ongoing border dispute. Unless Ukraine is willing to cede its claims to the regions occupied/annexed since 2022 (as well as Crimea), they can’t join NATO now, and they can’t re-take that territory (for now) without the US helping.

If defense production can adequately ramp in the rest of NATO, then that might change, but for the moment this seems like a decent option if it keeps US friendly and options open depending on how things pan out. They aren’t really sacrificing anything that was a realistic prospect in the short term anyways, as far as their strategic goals are concerned.

I mean, it sort of does, particularly as far as retirement is concerned. I know some MAGA diehards that are, to a significant degree, judging by the metric of their 401k/Roth retirement savings accounts, and the value of those accounts are necessarily going to be tightly linked with the overall performance of the stock market by virtue of the fact that they are investment account.

Now, if we’re being honest with ourselves, the US stock market has been largely decoupled from reality since at least 2008. Consequently, the current state of the stock market no longer functions as any kind of meaningful metric for economic health. It is, in my view, just a system for speculation which exists to transfer wealth out of the pockets of the people attempting to beat the market and into the pockets of the people who already have enough money or influence to make the market. Even decoupled from reality as it is, however, I find it a dubious prospect that the line can ever keep going up indefinitely - they never do, and especially not when so many other (arguably more concrete) economic indicators are pointing the other way.

Looking at you, load-bearing (and suspiciously bubble-shaped) AI hype, looking at you.

Should such a crash happen, I’ll be very excited to hear what rationalization they pivot into this time. Who knows, maybe Trump will get control of the fed like he wants and then we can throw hyperinflation (and likely a subsequent de-dollarisation) into the mix to really take the already roaring garbage fire up a notch. I’m certain that this fascist will be just as cautious and responsible with the money cannon as his dictator peers have historically been.

There’s something comically absurd to me about censoring “fuck” on a post that jokes about pedophilia lmao. Feels like the priorities might be slightly out of order.

Yeah that was about my experience from switching as well 😭. It’s absolutely worth it, but god damn if there aren’t moments where I want to rip my hair out troubleshooting some issue that’s just plug and play on windows.

I’m certain that you could fix this issue by switching to Linux.

When they go low, start hitting below the belt until they cry foul.