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Is everything falling apart?

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Re: Is everything falling apart?

#821

Post by giantg2 »

bsder wrote: post #790
TMWNN wrote: post #734

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is why forcing USPS in 2006 to prepay pensions for the next 70 years is a good thing, as opposed to a "GOP conspiracy to privatize the post office". Why it was passed almost unanimously by Congress. USPS's primary business, delivering letters, was by 2006 clearly in terminal decline, with no guarantee that parcel volume would increase to compensate. Many, many employees of newspapers—the other industry that…

1) Except that NO OTHER COMPANY needs to prepay pensions for 70 years. I have no problem with the fact that companies must prepay pensions. Then make it the law for everybody --not just the USPS. 2) The USPS is supposed to be unprofitable--it's supposed to service everyone . If you are going to hound the USPS about profitability, then they should be allowed to drop service in rural areas. The easiest way to decrease…

They could, and probably should, increase letter and advertising prices.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#822

Post by ttytg »

4ggr0 wrote: post #720
ttytg wrote: post #709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the point you are making, but I feel that using a female pronoun while discussing Thomas being male would have been the more jarring linguistic choice, given the subject.

I know what you mean. But pronouns which relate to social gender can be differentiated from sex/biological gender. To rewrite your original comment, "Lia Thomas, who was born male, was permitted to compete on the basis of her gender identity claims" would be a fine and understandable statement, I think. When talking about the person Lia Thomas, we are talking about a woman. She's Lia Thomas. Yes, she was assigned mal…

I see your point, but I think one has to take the context of the conversation into account too.

In a social situation involving a transgender person, it's considered polite to use pronouns that won't exacerbate any gender dysphoria they may feel. I would think that most of us have done this at some point, as a kindness.

However if we're discussing a controversial public figure, and the topic is sex versus gender identity, I feel it makes more sense to use pronouns that match up with material reality, for the sake of clarity.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#823

Post by hedgedoops2 »

schroeding wrote: post #625
artificialLimbs wrote: post #615

America is having a Pluto return. Traditionally this is a period of time when nations are dissolved or at minimum completely transformed in their nature. It's currently turning retrograde and will scrape back across the US natal Pluto on July 12th, and will be conjunct again December 28th for the beginning of its next 246 year cycle. If it matters by that point.

Are those english idioms? Or do you mean the actual planet, it's position in orbit, in a astrological way?

It's astrology.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#824

Post by al_hag »

Supposedly it was Goethe who once observed,

“When eras are on the decline, all tendencies are subjective; but, on the other hand, when matters are ripening for a new epoch, all tendencies are objective.”

Like an entropic principle of social information exchange, with the potential for reorganization under a new paradigm.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#825

Post by ryukafalz »

oicU00 wrote: post #252
ravenstine wrote: post #111

Everything is not falling apart, though certain institutions may be falling apart. In America, there's definitely been a breakdown of belief in its own institutions. Far more people are skeptical of things like journalism and Silicon Valley; it really wasn't that long ago that the former was constantly salivating over the latter, but now it's more of an openly vulture-carrion relationship because that caters to publi…

Oh yeah no doubt; I collate trends into reports for rich investors. Lately they have been focused on youth trends, and some numbers are wacky. 40% point drop in 16 year olds getting a license since the 80s as urbanization puts people closer to stuff and ride share appeared. Youth participation in sports, especially full contact sports, had been going down since before covid which just accelerated it, leading to forec…

> > 40% point drop in 16 year olds getting a license since the 80s as urbanization puts people closer to stuff and ride share appeared.

As a young-ish person neither of these seems particularly “wacky”, and if places actually are re-urbanizing to any significant degree I’d say that’s a good thing given the changes we need to make to address climate change. Doesn’t feel like they are in the moment though.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#826

Post by nobody9999 »

lampshades wrote: post #641
sanderjd wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting comment, but one thing I don't get is the sports one. Why would lower participation in youth sports lead to a contraction of commercial sports? Does low youth participation in making TV shows hurt the market for consuming them?

Everyone I know that didn't grow up playing sports also doesn't watch them.

>Everyone I know that didn't grow up playing sports also doesn't watch them.

An excellent point.

When I was a child, we just grabbed our mitts/bats/balls/frisbees/whatever and went out to play with our peers and came home when it was dark/raining/time for dinner.

Over the last 30 years or so, it seems that (not that such things didn't exist 30+ years ago) in most places it's difficult to engage in sports without an organized group/league, especially in places where greenspace isn't within walking/biking distance.

As such, most kids need adults to get them to/from sports and there's not very much in the way of pick-up games[0] and the like.

The lack of unstructured sport leaves many kids out of sports (given that parents need to spend time and money to get their kids involved and to/from such activities)

N.B.: The above is definitely a US-centric viewpoint.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick-up_game

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#827

Post by ryukafalz »

paulmd wrote: post #809
bombcar wrote: post #704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you even get a license at 16 anymore in all states? I know when I was getting mine two decades ago it was already getting to the point where people were saying “I might as well wait until 18”.

IMO the only real downside of waiting till 18 is that your insurance rates are gonna be sky-high for the first few years regardless of your age when that happens. If you've held a license for 2 years with no accidents then your rates are gonna be cheaper, regardless of whether you actually drove anywhere. That's offset by teen driver education being a fucking racket though. The entire thing is just a scheme to extrac…

You don’t think the fact that immature teenagers operating fast, heavy vehicles is dangerous factors into that at all?

But sure, driving education requirements should be more thorough across the board, not just <18.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#828

Post by shrimpx »

heurist wrote: post #804
shrimpx wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought that the open ability to perform damaging speech against institutions and public figures in the west was “cool” — a major distinguishing factor between free countries and non-free ones. But I was also always a little skeptical of that ability. It seemed ok in small doses, just to prove we can do it. Now we’re grappling with the full import of nonstop destructive speech coming from all sides and being…

I think it's a temporary phase introduced by the hyper-reflective nature of the internet. Younger generations will handle it better because they grew up in the new environment. Older generations are struggling to adapt.

I am hopeful, too.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#829

Post by ars »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #806
ars wrote: post #779

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a non-drivers ID in the exact same place, in the same way, just without the driving test.

Yeah. I can back up the OP's claim with some anecdata as well. If you've ever had a license in IL, you can pretty much guarantee they'll give you a new one with no testing right now. I know 3 people that have renewed in the last 6 months. They all commented that the experience was weird. They'd be told that they would need to do all sorts of exams, but never end up having to do them. They would just get the new licen…

I've lived in a lot of places, and I've never once had to take any kind of exam to renew a license. Not sure who told them you need to do that - I don't think that's a thing in any US state, and probably not in most countries either.

Renewal of a license is mostly just updating the photo.

You can also transfer licenses between states with no exam. Not necessarily between countries though, some allow it some don't.

I think the OP was talking about an initial license though - for the most part exams are not very hard, you just need a basic level of skill, and some knowledge.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#830

Post by 1123581321 »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #524
basisword wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 40% point drop in 16 year olds getting a license since the 80s as urbanization puts people closer to stuff and ride share appeared. Is it urbanisation? I've noticed this trend in the suburbs in my country too and there seem to be a couple of reasons: 1. Driving tests have gotten progressively more difficult and more complex over the last 10-20 years. 2. The cost of learning to drive is insane and getting more expe…

> Driving tests have gotten progressively more difficult and more complex over the last 10-20 years. If true, this is a massively good thing.

That seems in doubt as young drivers are not improving (we would see lower auto insurance rates if so.)
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