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Cake day: January 1st, 2024

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  • The current Democratic party is basically the Reagan Republicans with more emphasis on civil rights.

    US politics have skewed further and further rightward for the last 50 years. On a global scale, Democrats are firmly center-right.

    Bernie Sanders and AOC are barely left of center for the rest of the world, but in US politics they’re “off the deep end.”



  • nickiwest@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyzLiquid Trees
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    2 months ago

    Even with ideal light conditions, there’s still more to consider.

    I lived in Louisville for many years. It’s fairly green as cities go. In older parts of the city, trees had been planted between the streets and sidewalks … definitely a long time ago, maybe 30 to 50 years? Maybe longer?

    Every spring, we lost a number of those trees to thunderstorms. Enough rain, followed by strong winds, would topple multiple trees. Every single one that I saw had a root ball that was exactly the size of the opening where it had been planted, so maybe two square meters and maybe a meter or two deep. (For those keeping score at home, that’s not enough root volume to support a full-sized tree.)

    So we’d lose those lovely trees and on a good day, we’d lose the use of the street for a while. On a bad day, someone would lose a car or a chunk of their house.

    “Just plant more trees in the middle of the city” is not the brilliant fix that many people seem to think it is.




  • You’re exactly correct. I used to work in a manufacturing environment, and the amount of single-use plastic our production team used on a daily basis was staggering. I would estimate that company created as much plastic waste in one day as my household did in three months.

    Consumer recycling or boycotts is only a drop in the bucket. Industry will have to shift away from single-use plastic if we’re going to have any chance of saving ourselves from a future filled with generations worth of garbage.



  • You have a valid point about the historical unfair distribution of labor in heterosexual relationships, but for the love of Jesus, can you not just let the guy have a win?

    Your whole response is very “all lives matter,” and it’s extremely off-putting … even to me, a woman who is very firmly on your side about the unfairness of the emotional and domestic labor workload that is foisted upon women.

    Read the room. This conversation is an opportunity to recognize that men could do with some encouragement sometimes for doing things well. That doesn’t mean women don’t also deserve encouragement when they do something well.

    Both things can be true simultaneously. But we’re not talking about both things here. Don’t derail the former conversation to try to make it about the latter. Surely you can see from the downvotes that your digression isn’t getting any traction.

    People who might otherwise listen to what you have to say are actively dismissing your ideas because they are not receptive to those ideas as a part of this conversation. If you find that is a common theme in your experience, it’s probably because you aren’t making ideal choices about how to start these conversations. (Unless your whole goal is just trolling, in which case … congratulations, I guess?)

    The old saying is trite, but it’s also true: you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.


  • nickiwest@lemmy.worldtoLefty Memes@lemmy.dbzer0.comJust stop having kids
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    7 months ago

    My non-educated family all insisted that I go to college. As of now, I am the only one of my grandparents’ descendents who has a university degree. And that includes the generation after mine (my cousins’ children).

    My experience as a teacher has given me a glimpse into other people’s lives that shows me how very fortunate I was to have a supportive family.

    You don’t have to believe my anecdotal evidence, but my time working with low-income students has shown me that a surprising number of parents are absolutely dead-set against higher education for their kids. It doesn’t make sense, but a lot of things in the US don’t make sense right now.


  • Men/women - nouns

    Male/female - adjectives

    I think the reason male and female get equated with biology is because biologists need to describe individuals in terms of characteristics within the species.

    Like, “I live with a small, white, female felis catus and a tall, Caucasian, male homo sapiens” is a weird way to tell people that I live with my cat and my husband outside of a scientific context.



  • nickiwest@lemmy.worldtoLefty Memes@lemmy.dbzer0.comJust stop having kids
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    7 months ago

    Sure, but chances are low that uneducated people are going to great lengths to make sure their children are well educated.

    One of the most horrifying things I’ve encountered in my career as a teacher was a father who insisted that his incredibly bright high school senior not accept a college scholarship because, and I quote: “I didn’t go to college, and you’re not better than me.”





  • It has taken the better part of 50 years to get from there to here. I wouldn’t say it was easy.

    The evangelical bloc was the hardest to convince. They had to get some capitalist representation in the churches to counteract all of that business about “helping the poor” and “blessed be the meek” that Jesus was always going on about.

    Once they got Joel Osteen to convince millions of viewers that Jesus wanted them to be rich, that really clinched it for them.




  • There are multiple references to this in the Bible. This is the most uplifting one I found.

    Psalm 90

    10 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

    11 If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

    12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

    13 Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.

    14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.