I’m not sure I’m as pessimistic as you, but yeah, there are at least two things that concern me (one of which you mentioned):

So protesting is idiocy then? I for one am not shaking my head or going about my life - I can no longer easily buy toilet paper or visit friends and family.

I’m not really qualified to answer, but iirc Second Life wasn’t a game, or at least not much of one; wasn’t it more “just” a virtual reality space where people could do whatever they wanted? I know there were ways to attack people/buildings, but I thought that was more secondary to Second Life, whereas in Minecraft…

And for anyone who struggles with reading comprehension: despite conventional wisdom, whatever effect Russian interference had - and will have - on our elections pales in comparison to all the ways we’re fucking things up ourselves (and by “we” I mean both Republicans and Democratic Party elite, not to mention…

Yeah! Who cares if they’re doing even more than Walmart at facilitating a race to the bottom in terms of trampling on workers and unions, crushing smaller businesses, tax avoidance, or anything else! Who cares how the sausage is made? Not you, apparently.

Well, we’re just going to have to agree to agree. :-)

Here, ‘PB’ stands for ‘peanut butter’. :-)

I’ll admit I’m new to the whole “ok boomer” meme (if that’s what it is), I literally hadn’t run into it until about a month ago, but I guess that’s beside the point. There’s some truth to this:

PB used to stand for “British Petroleum” - and still does.

I know it’s not clear from the comment itself, but it was an (admittedly stale and lazy) joke. And for the record; I’m more Gen X, and harbor no genuine ill will towards either Millennials or Gen Z; between healthcare being as shitty as it is, the whole push towards the “Gig economy,” the cost of college, the planet…

Millennials, amirite?

Yeah, my feelings on the subject of “conspiracy theories” are complicated. I do believe there are genuine conspiracies taking place in the world - and in fact there are plenty of historical examples of conspiracies that were eventually uncovered. Some modern conspiracies: Jeffrey Epstein getting away with creepy shit…

From the linked article

the U.S. is already doing “it’s part”, being below the replacement level already

Nobody, for example, is “criminalizing” anything here...

I doubt it, but who fucking knows these days

The point is pretty obvious and it’s silly on purpose.

...those challenges will be rejected in court based on the language of the bill.

I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here. Do you believe there’s some causation, or at least correlation, between a) climate change / global warming, and b) number of people incarcerated in the US? Because I don’t think that’s what Booker is getting at (at least going from this article). The “link,” as I see…

... you seem to have a serious misunderstanding about what I am saying here and how it reflects how I approach driving and interacting with pedestrians... That’s why I said it’s a “pet peeve” and not “the number one reason I commit vehicular homicide.”