That write up on finding the German family that vanished in Death Valley really did a good showcase of how easily that can happen.

‘At that moment they were in a survival situation, although they did not yet realize that fact.’

Or, if someone doesn’t have the enzymes to digest it, it sits in their stomach and rots, which is fun.

It’s even more fun if you’re actually allergic to the proteins in meat, but I digress.

Spoiler: it’s not

Wow, who hurt this guy? They’re like, every bad terminally online never-talked-to-a-real-woman cliche.

To STAY THE FUCK OUT OF A SOVEREIGN COUNTRY maybe I dunno

They’re kind of being an asshole all over the thread. I don’t know why women asking men to not comment in a women’s forum has them so hot and bothered, but it sure has them on the warpath lol.

Ummm… what do you think the park picnic space rentals are?

Also, parks with camping have reserved spots.

Seems to me either you don’t get out much, or you are one of those assholes that refuses to leave a space someone already paid to rent.

If you want a great rundown on the history and craziness of English, may I recommend this video? It does a pretty good breakdown of how our language got to be such a mess.

Yeah, if they didn’t have such bad engine and transmission issues as they get older I’d probably go for another one. As it is, I was thinking of a venza, but like hell that’s happening anymore.

Yup. Until recently we had a bad habit of giving other creatures tests geared towards mammals and then, when the reptile or insect or whatever didn’t ‘do well’ (because duh) our scientists declared that obviously meant they were stupid.

Like snakes were thought of as really dumb because they wouldn’t solve a maze to get to a piece of food like rats would.

Now, snakes can go sometimes a year without needing to eat, so of course they looked at the maze and said ‘Um, why should I go through all that effort, again? Eh, think I’ll take a nap instead.’

When scientists got smart enough to offer them a comfy dark place to take a nap as a reward, suddenly they were solving the mazes as fast as rats did.

(Of course intelligence does vary. Kingsnakes, for instance, obviously have a timeshare on the single orange braincell.)

I don’t. I remember tales my grandparents told me of what their parents went through in the Great Depression. I have 0 interest in experiencing any of those things myself.

Wow. When I saw the article I figured it would be bad, but that’s even worse than I expected lol

What is it with these idiots trying to re-brand racism and reinvent phrenology every few decades? Are they stupid enough to believe they’re the first to think of shit like this, or are they hoping we’re dumb enough to fall for it this time around?

I mean, it does make sense if you have a tribalist worldview. Less people means more resources for your tribe, after all.

And, if you make it so that ‘other tribe’ has some kind of easy identifier they can’t change, like skin color, then you know who to throw out on sight!

Some people are just more tribal-minded than others. They’ve done studies and it’s pretty consistent that republicans/conservatives have a far more tribal mindset. Which tends to go hand-in-hand with a desire for a ‘strong leader’ and a strict tribal hierarchy.

Unfortunately that tends to translate to whoever bullshits the best because they’re reacting off instinct rather than thinking about things, which makes it easy for scam artists like Trump that talk a big game to appeal to them.

They just don’t care. Those people can’t add value to their companies, so they see them as ‘surplus’ and want them to die.

Nice composition! I love that the ficus tree is named Ben.

I mean, there was a group called Jews for Hitler, so…

But in all seriousness, there’s many reasons why.

Indian people for example are, sadly, a bit racist and very, very classist, and the higher-caste Indians kissing Trump’s ass think they’re in the same category as ‘white’ people.

Most Mexicans, on the other hand, were straight-up lied to. Many don’t speak English very well, and the Spanish-speaking news stations did some very liberal editing on their translations of Trump’s speeches, to make him sound coherent and sane. Seriously, if you speak Spanish check out the translations of his speeches; it’s not even remotely close to reality.

Former Cubans generally see anything called ‘communism’ as bad, and that’s how the Right has painted the Dems for a while now (never mind anyone with a brain could see that they’re nothing of the sort). A lot of them also really, really hate illegal immigrants, and so anyone who promises to get rid of them gets the Cuban vote.

Pica?

Trump’s approval still is around 40%. These people will all blame democrats and will continue to vote republican.

It used to! Kids would steal wood, break down fences, take outdoor furniture, and use it to build a big bonfire in the center of their towns. They would egg houses and run wild.

Modern trick-or-treating and Halloween parties were invented to counter this destructive behavior, actually. Tasting History did a pretty cool episode on it.

So, are you wanting practical basics, esoterics, or both?

Practical:

1. What that other person said about debt is and isn’t good advice. Without debt you can’t build credit and without credit you can’t get big things like houses, mortgages, etc. More and more of society seems to rely on credit scores to judge a person’s worth, too. Which is concerning, but this is the world we live in, not the world we wish it was, so… On the other hand, with debt it’s easy to get into a ‘pay later’ or ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ mentality and get yourself into a bad position. So, better advice would be: never take on large debts unless you absolutely have to. Get a credit card, buy one or two things with it a month, and pay it off every month. That way you can build credit safely.

(Obviously ignore this advice if you’re rich.)

2. Learn basics. I was taught cooking, cleaning, how to properly do laundry, basic electrical wiring, basic home repairs (attach things to studs, how to patch drywall, etc), and sewing. All of this has come in handy once I got my own place. Learning simple car stuff like changing oil, changing tires, and perhaps redoing spark plugs and belts can help you too, especially if you want to save money on car maintenance.

3. On a related note to that, cars, houses, and boats are all basically giant pits you toss money into. (That’s why people often take on debt to get new cars; a lot of the expensive maintenance is covered under warranty.)

4. Be careful with student debt. An education is important, but you can be stuck with that debt for a very long time, and owing that much in an uncertain economy like we have can be dangerous. So plan your education well.

5. With the understanding that there are some things people call ‘hobbies’ that are just them being gross (ogling little anime girls because they’re ’really 700 years old so it’s fine!’ comes to mind), in general enjoy your hobbies and don’t be ashamed of them. If, say, you like doing drag, and one of your friends says nasty things about it, that person is not your friend and you don’t need to feel ashamed of your hobby to make them feel better. If it makes you happy and doesn’t harm anyone, then just have fun. But, in counterpoint to that, don’t fall into your hobby so hard that you start gatekeeping and being an ass about it, or ruining your health about it. Remember, other people are in the hobby to have fun too, so who cares if so-and-so’s drag wig is a little basic or messy?

6. I hope you know this already, but it’s astonishing how many people don’t: bathe every day. And wear at least moderately clean clothes. No-one likes stinky people and it’s easy to become inured to your own smell.

Esoteric:

1. Like that other person said, read. Terry Pratchett, Mark Twain, Richard Feynman… plenty of people have put amazingly good thoughts down on paper. I especially like Pratchett’s definition of sin.

2. Learn history, and not just the basic ‘approved’ things taught in schools. For example, our school ‘neglected’ to teach about the Tulsa Race Massacre, or the brutal Union fights in West Virginia. I’ve found, for good summaries of more ancient history, Overly Sarcastic Productions does a pretty good job. It’s impossible to know where you are going until you know where we have been. And of course that old adage ‘those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it’ is very true. See: the US right now.

3. Learn what a cult looks like and avoid them like the plague. Doesn’t matter how lonely you are, how much ‘esoteric knowledge’ they offer, they will destroy your life and probably your family’s lives as well.