And your body is the “collateral damage” in that war.

I think it’s just missing a bit of specificity.

Building more bike lanes will reduce traffic. Building more bus lanes will reduce traffic. Building more tram lines will reduce traffic. Building more car lanes will reduce induce traffic.

Not perfect, but solid logic within reason (Building 100 more bus lanes will reduce traffic).

I’ve seen those orange ones, but was never much of a fan. The demonstrators are beautiful though. There’s nothing quite like seeing a beautiful ink sloshing around inside.

I slept on the kaweco sport, but when I finally got one, it quickly became my everyday. I got a transparent body and fill the body directly with ink like an oil tanker ready to defile the ocean within my pocket, then lube the threads with petroleum jelly. Not a single leak.

Iconic style, affordable, ink lasts forever, one of the most reliable, smoothest gold bibs came with it, and it’s comfortable to write with. I love that pen and wish I had as many chances to use it these days as I did in the past. Unfortunately, my writing at work is almost entirely digital now.

It’s doing something for someone else vs doing it for you. For some people, it can serve as a “hack” to engage the hyperfocus.

Aside from stimulants and therapy, learning to live with ADHD is about developing seemingly abnormal coping skills to overcome the barriers it presents. Looks weird from the outside, but it makes total sense to that person because they know it engages something within them that won’t engage under normal circumstances.

It sucks to use and I hate it, but if someone starts doing the thing I’ve been struggling to do, that can engage my ability to do it because I’m doing it so they don’t have to…such as cleaning up one of my messes. Maybe you can use this too?

Aspartame cures cancer, but only when ingested in soda.

Pi equals exactly 3.

The most effective, universal vaccine is based on asbestos.

I took the same approach and my kids started believing when they were in elementary school. My mom was taking them to church sometimes more for the social aspect (my mom wasn’t directly preaching to them at all), so the influence was relatively weak. It caused some problems for a while but neither of them believe as teenagers now.

Just as a word of warning, you may run into situations where your children’s beliefs are different from yours and worse yet, they are getting conflicting information from multiple trusted adults. It can be very uncomfortable and confusing for them to the point that it’s very upsetting because kids often idolize the adults closest to them when they are that young.

It’s very important to talk to them, but you need to tread very lightly. I ended up telling them my beliefs and telling them that it’s up to them to choose what they believe in life, even if what they choose is different from mine.

Good luck!

More improvement in the area of vaccine technology, acceptance, and adoption of these techniques: alternative forms of administration, less reliance on boosters, improved thermal stability. A better understanding of the immune system, neuroscience, and human biology in general. I expected more infectious diseases to be eradicated such as HIV, TB, and malaria.

These things are progressing and I see hope in how technologies are progressing, but I believe vaccine and infectious disease research and development have been severely limited by the industry’s obsession with intellectual property and pursuit of profit. Our understanding of human biology has improved, but thinking back to my teenage years, I was naive as to how complicated biology is and how little we actually understand.

I’m still a bit salty no one ever brought dinosaurs back from the grave. Our progression in flight technology has been disappointing without flying saucers too.

That makes sense and sounds like how I used to be too, no real TV, just a computer or laptop and I also don’t like how they are made the center of living spaces.

I think it became a social thing for me, watching movies or listening to music with others while we sit around. I also exercise on a bike or something while watching a show if it’s too cold to actually enjoy going on a ride just for leisure. If I’m alone, I don’t end up watching it much, I’d rather read or listen to something while on my computer.

i dont even own a physical TV

Damn, do you not enjoy things like watching a movie in a theater (given all the bullshit was removed besides the movie)?

I wasn’t big on watching movies for a long time, but then upgraded my sound system for music and eventually got a decent TV, if a bit outdated. This made it more enjoyable for me to watch at home what I would have seen in a theater before, but I hate the theater experience, so I found myself watching more movies.

I agree with everything else you said sucks about the experience, I’m just curious because I don’t meet many people who don’t have a TV unless they can’t afford one.

As someone who meets your criteria, why would I ever put an antenna on my shit again when I can just pirate things or block the ads? An added benefit is that companies think both hurt them as if they are people and subverting their BS fills me with joy.

Whether the commenters are talking cable or not, both are arguably garbage alternatives to more contemporary methods of streaming media except in special circumstances due to the abundance of cell tower coverage and bandwidth. I wish I could say that radio was not also lumped in with this, but again, 50% of airtime is ads and I find the radio in my car less useful with each passing year.

You’re allowed to like something and have people younger than you disagree. Fighting and talking down to them isn’t going to change their minds. It’s cool that you still get use out of older technology for free, but not everyone gets the same value from it.

If anything, don’t blame young people for ruining your technology, blame capitalism for enshittifying it.

The cost to be born and continue existing in the US is also quite steep and if you hope to avoid these costs, dying is also quite expensive and in some cases illegal.

I’ve been given some books on writing through the years, but never thought much of them. I didn’t read these full articles, but what I saw looked good: Article 1, Article 2 (mostly contains links to other articles on the topic).

There’s a lot to consume there in terms of writing theory, but one of my favorite exercises is taking a certain writer’s style, identifying some of what is interesting about their style, and applying it to your own writing. The writing needs to be something connected to you and it helps if you can pick a topic that evokes emotion in you, even if it’s otherwise not something you consider to be a notable story. The important part is being able to tap into your own vulnerability because it can help what you put on paper to be genuine. This doesn’t mean everything you ever write needs to be this way, it’s just helpful and a good place to start and learn. It’s the whole idea of “putting your heart and soul or a part of yourself in your writing” but that people sometimes talk about. Once you learn to tap into that and break down the barriers, you can channel yourself into other writing much easier. Writing like you naturally talk can help, but it’s probably bad grammar for writing (except when writing conversations).

Again, it’s not always easy and I have no clue how much harder this is if you live somewhere without native speakers in the language you are writing, but you need others to read your work. That’s what most writing is for!

If you end up doing technical writing for science or similar, my best advice is keep the layman in mind. Most science writing is overly clunky and full of jargon and buzzwords that not only drive off the layman, but drive off scientists not in that particular field. It’s stupid and bad writing all to stroke the ego of the writer to get a false sense that they sound smarter. To many, it just makes the writing hard to consume. Technical writing should go into sufficient technical detail while aiming to be as easy to consume as possible, even if you make assumptions that the audience understands a topic. Here is an example of good technical writing.

While everything above and reading in particular is good advice, being a good reader doesn’t make you a good writer.

You must read to learn and then apply those concepts in your own writing. Better yet, have your writing critiqued by a varied audience that includes at least one person with some training in English writing. Universities and libraries often have editors to help with writing or hold writer’s workshops where you can find these people and get help for free.

To get good at writing, you must write consistently with pointed effort at improvement. This doesn’t start at writing many pieces, but at repeatedly revising a single piece. Even the writing of the most experienced author begins to shine only after polishing. The revision steps are some of the best opportunities to learn and to reach out for advice on how to improve a piece of writing.

All neutrality is false.

This is media literacy 101. Once you can get past this, you find that outlets that wear their bias on their sleeves are refreshing over those who feign neutrality. They begin to come.of as aloof and condescending, because that’s exactly what they are. It’s not journalism, it’s theatre. Same thing goes with regurgitating exactly what government spokespersons say: that’s not journalism. Journalism includes investigation and critique. It’s not possible to give an unbiased critique.

Looking at you NYT, you fucking dumpster fire. I only keep you around because a dumpster fire can provide warmth.

I read from multiple sources to cross-reference what narratives are being pushed, and I find news outlets who are often labelled “biased” are the ones most likely to just lay everything on the table. They aren’t deliberately trying to direct you into how to think because they assume you agree with them. “This happened and we think it’s bullshit!”

You’re also more likely to hear about stories that are left out or considered unimportant or are intentionally censored by the mainstream outlets. It’s more often the case that they will censor themselves than the government will directly get involved and this is far less from smaller news groups who don’t worry about being labelled as biased.

Only a basic exam, no special screening.

But the reality I see is that they are very easily manipulated by unregulated media like TikTok and would vote for the same extreme right wing party as old people. Surveys here in Germany are a bit disturbing…

The same argument can be made for people of any age.

Can’t we instead take away voting rights from old people? Also kinda wrong.

The same can also be applied to younger people.

Personally, I prefer to err on the side of including them. It’s unjust that we can take advantage of them in so many ways as a teen but they can’t participate in the political system that decides how they can be taken advantage of (work, school, taxes, military, etc.) I know I hated it at that age and as a general rule, I’ve tried not to repeat the same things the adults in my life did that pissed me off when I was a kid. It’s not a perfect approach, but it’s been the correct approach to avoid the problems it caused when I was growing up from being repeated more often than not.

The only way to do right by them is to give them the right. If you are worried about them being manipulated too easily, education is a good fix.

And as a conflicting anecdote, my 16 year old is very interested in politics and very much wants to have a say in their own life, just like I did at that age. Are they the most informed individual? Hell no. Are they more informed than some adults? Hell yes.

Younger people may be susceptible to their lack of experience, but they are also more likely to bring new ideas to the table because they are less invested in the status quo. If they have the capacity to make informed decisions, they should have the right to self determination and participation in our political systems.

What you say about your kid doesn’t sound like an inability to process these concepts, just a lack of interest. Do you talk to your kid about politics and if so, how? I’ve found I’ve made a lot of progress by talking to teens about current events and asking them what they think. They won’t care about every topic, but I guarantee there is something that will peak their interest and typically topics related to adults imposing their beliefs on kids will get teens to talk, even if it’s just related to school. It’s important that you get them talking about their beliefs, not just telling them yours, because they won’t want to talk to you unless they feel like you will treat them as a peer.

You don’t need to agree with their beliefs, just listen and not talk down to them. Ask follow-up questions that can turn into wider conversations. Help try to explain what is going on and the context surrounding it if needed. You can absolutely share your views, but it’s usually best to talk about what’s going on/being discussed, asking their thoughts, and then following with yours. If you talk down to a kid, they will shut down or fight back (and also shut down). They need the same respect adults crave. They’ll also eventually disagree with you just like adults.

It varies by person, but I’ve found kids tend to start getting interested around 13-14 if you take this approach and then will really come into their own in terms of beliefs by 16. Kids have a LOT they are concerned about in the world today even without this. It causes many of them significant anxiety because they feel powerless. If you have success getting them interested, 16 (or after a few years of observing and talking about current events, history, and politics) is a good age to talk about analyzing the events.

If you’re into Marxism, it’s a great time to start teaching and practicing dialectical materialism so they can figure out for themselves why the world is the way it is on their own.

I know there can be differences with ASD, but I have a few cousins who are 15-20 years younger than me with ASD and have found the same applied for them. Details of the conversation, finding something that gets them invested in the topics, and explanations you give them may vary, but the basic approach doesn’t change and this varies by person regardless of any condition.

This is just a random reply, but if it’s something you want to be able to talk to her about, I hope this helps you be able to do that in a way that expands your relationship as they grow older. I know I wish I could have talked to my parents about politics and the world the same way I do with my kids when I was a kid.

And the skewed power dynamic.

I’ll trade you the communal toothbrush for this joke.