Eat well

That is an euphemism for “don’t eat anything yummy”.

It may or may not extend your life, but it will make it feel unbearably long.

I am not absolving people. I am describing a behavioral pattern that has remained for decades, if not longer. If anything, it’s a cautionary tale.

As a Spaniard, I can confirm that this is a great balanced summary of Spanish politics, in my opinion.

Yes, things are tough now. Climate change is a very serious challenge ahead. I vote Green, ride a bike, etc.

All that being said, I’m probably older than most of you. I grew up during the cold war, when we sincerely believed we were at the brink of nuclear annihilation.

It didn’t happen.

I will spare you the countless doomsday headlines I’ve read in the news over the years. The hole in the ozone layer, the wars, the genocides, the natural disasters, the political churn.

The details don’t matter. We were truly terrified of the future, just like you are. Yet, the immense majority of the fears we had did not materialize, either because we took action to prevent them or because they had been overblown. We also faced some challenges that the news didn’t warn us about.

We prevail, like we have always done. People are much more resilient than they imagine. You can handle it and so can your children, and your children’s children. Living in fear doesn’t solve the problem, so why do it?

I understand Martin Luther King’s quote in its context, but I fail to see the parallel to the situation at hand. Can you elaborate?

How are “white moderates” who tolerated racial injustice similar to moderate parties who suffer electoral losses to far right populist parties? I’m honestly not seeing how the situation is analogous.

“How White-led groups quicky moved more than 200 asylum seekers off a Toronto street to shelter” would be gross and weird, and so is this. Good for them to help out people in need and yikes on the journalist who wrote that headline.

There can be no peaceful outcome without the threat of force if demands are not met

History proves you wrong, though. Civil disobedience has worked in the past; it will work in the future. Violence and the threat of violence feeds a vicious circle where nobody wins.

When the middle class struggles, they eventually embrace anybody who promises a break from the status quo.

Moderate parties need to ask themselves what have they done so poorly that these extremists are now becoming popular. We’ve seen these sort of authoritarian far-right movements across the globe and I’m not seeing moderates offer a great answer.

Personally, I would rather see a shift towards a sustainable future where the necessities of life, such as food, housing, education, health care and public transit were enshrined.

Peaceful protests achieve fucking nothing.

Peaceful protests have been pretty successful in India. Ever heard of Mahatma Gandhi?

I am a light sleeper, whenever I have been woken up by these alerts I’ve been unable to sleep again for the remainder of the night. Not everybody can fall asleep easily like you do.

And since you feel so angrily about the subject, perhaps you wouldn’t be so grumpy if you had a good night’s sleep.

Everybody understands that a person on a bike is in a very vulnerable situation. 99% of drivers respond to that by being considerate, while the remaining 1% take advantage of that power differential to bully their neighbours.

I don’t have a silver bullet solution, but there are many things we could do to help. Personally, I would start by providing a better cycling experience around schools, which can be done with inexpensive traffic calming measures such as in-street crosswalk signs, raised crosswalks, etc. Traffic calming protects all children, including those who walk and bike to school, and people who grow up riding bicycles are going to be more considerate to cyclists when they drive a car.

JFC. This one is so much worse, being in the kernel.

If I may…

It is not okay to burn your own book but it is okay to burn somebody else’s building

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, presumption of fault should always be on the motorized vehicle first, and then on the heaviest vehicle otherwise. Trucks > Cars > Motorbikes > E-Bikes > Bicycles > Pedestrians.

Status: insecure about their worth.

Can we stop humiliating men for having small dicks? Penis size is something people don’t choose and can’t change, like their skin color or their sexual orientation.

Those trying to project a “tough guy” appearance are deeply insecure. They have this idea that if they show vulnerability then other people will think less of them and they will be victimized. People don’t learn this sort of coping behavior when they are raised in a loving nurturing environment.

They don’t have small dicks. They are scared.

I don’t know who is downvoting you because you are completely right.

At the same time, I am delighted at the idea of a bunch of speculators being stressed out and losing a ton of the money they obtained while making housing unaffordable for everybody else.

Housing can be affordable or it can be a good investment. It can’t be both, and it is time it starts being the former.

Autism isn’t something that needs to be cured

My cousin suffers autism. He is in his forties and is entirely nonverbal. He depends on his aging parents to survive: he can’t go grocery shopping, he can’t bathe himself, he has never had a romantic partner, and I don’t have to explain that he can’t get a job either.

His mother abandoned her career decades ago to become his full-time caretaker. She hasn’t had a real vacation ever since because my cousin only feels comfortable around his parents.

Autism isn’t something that needs to be cured

I sincerely hope life doesn’t force you to become the caretaker of an autistic child.

If my family of four can live cramped inside a one bedroom apartment for years, then overleveraged folks can downsize from the large houses they bought during the pandemic. And, if nothing else, it will feel a little like justice.

I suggest choosing your parents carefully. They should be elderly and in poor health, and most importantly they must own a house not too far from Toronto.