People don’t generally know that Irish heads are larger to fit enough explosives in them to just do that sometimes.

I mean… It does fit his persona, dude will do anything to fund his endeavor to not look old.

Plus he has a history of tax fraud.

People in China definitely don’t live scared to criticise the government, I’ve had plenty of Chinese exchange students and discussed openly politics with them and they have no problem doing so. In fact, people in China have a much better opinion of their system of governance than we do anywhere in the west:

I think it’s kinda a more complicated subject than anyone’s presented in this argument. There are plenty of people who are afraid of criticizing the government, but they make up a tiny minority of the actual population and are more than likely ethnic minorities.

The overwhelming majority of Chinese nationals have very positive views of their government, which makes sense considering the advances this government has made over the last 50 years.

In my experience if you have talked to exchange students who are critical of the Chinese government, they are typically from Hong Kong, or from very wealthy families who would prefer a more hands off approach when it comes to the government’s involvement in economics.

Queer rights need improving but are not horrible, people are free to have a relationship with whomever they want (though older generations may not understand it and may show prejudice)

Thats a bit of an understatement. As an Asian dude I can attest this isn’t an issue unique to China but, it’s a problem in any Asian country where Confucianism was prevalent in their history. You may be “free to have a relationship with anyone you want”, just so long as you are not loud about it. You will face discrimination in things like employment and housing, and more than likely be disowned from your family. Though the only time the government will really get involved is if you participate in activism.

and thankfully China has no threat of a right wing party taking away the rights once they’re earned!

I think this is a common misconception held by westerners, who typically associate cultural conservativism with economic liberalism. While there may not be a party representative of the economic right, that’s really detached from the cultural mores promoted by the government.

All Eastern countries are more culturally conservative than most all western nations. And the values that the west associates with leftism are not typically aligned with what a country like China views as leftist policy. In fact, I would say the current make up is more culturally conservative than they were in the late 90 and 00s when they decriminalized thing like homosexuality. They are currently going through a bit of a nationalist streak, and with that are more culturally involved with promoting ideologies like Confucianism.

While I don’t think they will recriminalize the LGBT community, their engagement with more typical leftist economic policy is no real indication of that. In fact, I think the more they utilize nationalism to promote their economic policy, the more likely they will emphasize their traditional cultural values, making it harder for lgbtq citizens to thrive within their communities.

I think one critique I would add is that your previous statement of it being a social normative is likely a lot more accurate than blaming the state or religion. There are a ton of different states and religions where monogamy is the social norm, and we can even see it reflected in nature as well.

Different relationship types are just better suited for certain animals in certain situations. Whether monogamy is still the most successful relationship type for modern humans is likely subjective.

Eh, you can still do a blood test in conjunction with a field sobriety test. Its not as cut and dry as something like alcohol, but to be honest it really shouldn’t be anyways considering how much more dangerous driving while drunk is.

No no no… They don’t even have waffle houses in Russia or the ocean.

they banned face sitting porn.

Well, it kinda makes sense. If you allow people to simply watch face sitting porn from the comfort of their homes, how are they supposed to sell the public the licenses required to face sit in real life?

Not when compared to the maintenance and cost of installing the amount of multi lane interstate and highways we currently have in the US.

Electric rail isn’t a solution for every commuter in the US, but it is the solution for most commuters, as 80% of Americans live in urban environments.

Also, the argument that America is too large to have rail isnt very logical when countries like Russia or China depend on it for the vast majority of their logistics.

What’s the fuel for your teleportation device, plutonium? Nah, most of the time it’s schnapps.

Let he who has not been teleported to a Waffle House throw the first stone. Did you know most people at a Waffle house at 3am cannot tell you exactly how they got there? Coincidence or Conspiracy? Chug this handle of Goldschläger(teleport fuel) and we shall conduct an experiment!

making electrified transport a reality

Electrified rail remains the most efficient form of transportation and has been available since the late 1800s…

People are just so obsessed with cars that they ignored the safest, most efficient, and environmentally friendly option for over a hundred years.

I guess the future is bound to be filled with dangerous traffic with even heavier cars, and filled with millions of batteries filled with lithium mined by impoverished children.

Well, women have the ability to lie… Unlike the president, who many people are saying is biggly honest, and the most honest man in history.

I worked with a dude when I was in college that used to buy broken TVs on eBay and swap out the guts, return them, and then sell the TVs to people on eBay.

He was banned from a couple Walmarts around town because they caught on to what he was doing, but couldn’t actually prove he was doing fraud because we would also remove and re-solder the internal serial numbers back on the returned tv.

It’s a tale as old as time, no one wants to fight for a future that doesn’t advance their own personal positions.

How would a center right politician afford a vacation home in the hamptons if we actually regulated their corporate relationships? What good is a general if there isn’t a forever war?

It’s historically the only effective way to fight an insurgency and every military since ancient times knows it. Basically anytime you hear a modern military is enacting a “counter insurgency” it’s either code word for doing death squads, or it’s a tacit admission that they are out of ideas and have found themselves in an unwinnable quagmire.

The only way to defeat an insurgency is to do massive amounts of crimes against humanity…or avoid creating one in the first place.

Eh, I think there’s a decent semantic dispute for it. It’s of course dependent on your definition of deity and is mostly an exercise of pedantry. However, with the size of the universe I think there’s a pretty decent chance that there exists an intellectual being that could be interpreted as being god-like to the human perspective.

Now I’m not making claims that this proposed being has ever had anything to do with humans, nor are they responsible for any universal creation. Just that the universe is big enough for the existence of something significantly more advanced than humans. That being said, the size of the universe that allows for the possibility of this proposal also makes it possible existence mostly pedantic.

That was kinda my point about absolute equality. There will always be people with disabilities and therefore absolute equity and absolute meritocracies are mostly utopian philosophical concepts. Plus, if we’re doing idealist delights why bother with anything but luxury space communism?

Yes? I’m even friends with several queer people…shocking as that may be.

I even know a few conservative leaning gay dudes, our gay district has a gaybar specifically for cowboys. Even they don’t hate or discriminate against flamboyant gay men. They might not seek their company or want anything to do with that particular scene, but they are still neighborly.

disclaimed explicitly that I don’t believe that speakers who use the phrase “toxic masculinity” believe that masculinity per se is toxic

And did I accuse you of doing so?

while I was writing, somebody else left a comment that does indeed interpret it that way.

Yes, lemmy has a pretty established history of harboring a lot of misogynistic users which do not reflect the thoughts of everyday normal people.

I don’t think we should be moderating our own behavior to satisfy people acting in bad faith or to the temper of bigots.

Imo an absolute meritocracy would first require a society of absolute equity. Otherwise how would you know if someone is actually more inherently better at something or if they just had more opportunity?

I think meritocracies are a nice idea, but they’ve mostly been supported by societal elites throughout history because they know it’s easy to score when you’re born on third base.