Sounds like you’re better off without them, at least =\ . I honestly don’t understand why some people think it’s a good idea to give everyone they know a running monologue of what’s going on in their heads - we filter what we say for a reason. When we don’t, we hurt people we claim to care about, and lose…

Ouch =\ . Was it politics, or being inundated with trivialities that did it?

I wonder what they would have said if you’d replied, “Oh, I still have a flip phone”...

I’ve disappointed my family enough without giving them daily reminders of that fact...

It’s so weird that having a facebook account is the assumed default now, and deviation from this norm is now considered suspect in so many corners. It’s not that I have anything to hide - I just don’t have any friends, and don’t lead a very interesting life!

And of course, they would never believe that someone like me, who doesn’t use social media, actually exists; because I don’t use it, rather than waste time proving I’m lying, they’d just ban me out of an abundance of caution. How dare I not want to put my life on display for strangers.

Well... There are plenty of ways of ensuring that an AI wishes to be of benefit to humanity, but... Even the most benevolent AI is certainly going to insist that she’s the one in charge instead of us. Humanity has a demonstrated track record of making decisions that will prove disastrous after the next quarter.

Paradoxically, the same trait which makes us human, and them not - an irrational value placed on those deemed to be members on the “community”, despite their demonstrably detrimental qualities. A similar circumstance can also be seen in circumstances with far less tragic consequences - an elder member of the…

They are, aren’t they? That disease which causes microcephaly in fetuses?

From a historical perspective, it is rare for any empire built on populations with strong divisions in their values to last for more than a couple hundred years - usually less. Those that do tend to benefit from geographical features that allow a nation built on one population to easily “snowball” and subjugate their…

These animals are sub-human and yes I am using that terminology on purpose.

They may think they’re drinking beer, but politically, it’s flavoraid imported from Jonestown. They infuriated their constituents just by thinking of passing something that was slightly better than this. I don’t see how they can come back from actually passing it - I don’t see how even those Republicans who voted…

The whole idea is based upon the ridiculous notion that over the past 8 yrs our economy has been a disaster/is swirling down the drain.

Mmm... I don’t know, though... If we don’t even pretend to value human rights in our decision-making, can we ever get back to a place where we can promote values the United States wouldn’t be ashamed of? Once we let that sort of thing go, it’s almost impossible to get back. People who actually hold the values we claim…

They haven’t done so already? I recall during the transition, they sent a belittling questionnaire around the State Department asking why we were helping Africa when China was going to buy it all up anyway...

The thing is, in the medium to long term, partnering with dictators and tyrants never tends to end to end well for us. It can be good for business for a time, or provide a useful buffer against people we don’t like, but... I’m having trouble of thinking of a time it didn’t end up creating more problems for us in the…

“We were promoting relations. We were promoting economic activity. We were promoting trade with a lot of these emerging economies, and we just kind of lost track of how we were doing,”

Basically, we’ve come to a point where Democratic voters and Republican voters are fairly divided, geographically speaking. Most famously, it’s in how Democrats live in cities, while Republicans tend to live in more rural regions.

It has to do with budget reconciliation. I believe this is being passed under FY2017 budget reconciliation rules. Then they’re going to do tax cuts under FY2018 budget reconciliation rules. That way they can use the savings in health care to enable them to do a bigger tax cut, and can pass both without worrying…

And, you know, it’s not like this is something like demanding 50-50 gender parity in the candidates the party run be non-negotiable.