shikitohno

Yeah, this was an odd write-up. I found this section particularly baffling.

It’s true that Democrats need to energize their base voters, but our analysis suggests that they’re unlikely to do so successfully through a strategy of blanket progressive appeals to an ideologically diverse base. Instead, Democrats need to persuade nonvoters with a clear and credible message about how the party plans to improve the economic lives of working people.

Now, credible eliminates the means-tested-to-death programs the Dems love so much, right out of the gate. This, much as the author seems loath to say it, leaves you with progressive ideas, or Republican/conservative ideas. Presumably, folks who cared enough to register as Democrats don't like the conservative ideas, so we can fairly safely discard them as a winning move to get those voters out. Raising the minimum wage, universal healthcare, building more housing and/or implementing schemes to help people afford current housing, expanding benefits like WIC and EBT, free and universal university education, or taxing the rich and corporations to fund these sorts of programs are all clear, credible and progressive stances that would help working people.

It doesn't get much more simple than, "I make minimum wage. They say they will make minimum wage a bigger number, so I will get more money." or "My check would be bigger if I didn't have to pay insurance premiums, and I could spend it on other stuff if my insurance actually reliably covered most medical expenses without me having to cough up $2500-$6000 a year out of pocket first."

I'd also like to send out a special "Fuck you" to everyone who signed off on changing the position representing nonvoting Democrats and those who voted, depending on whether the nonvoters were more or less likely to respond in a certain way compared to those who voted in this section.

The second thing to notice about the demographics of Democratic nonvoters: They were overwhelmingly working class and relatively economically precarious. Democratic nonvoters were nearly twice as likely (60 percent vs. 32 percent) to have a household income of less than $50,000 per year, they were nearly three times less likely to hold a four-year college degree (47 percent vs. 17 percent), twice as likely to be gig workers (31 percent vs. 15 percent), and only half as likely to be union members (27 percent vs. 14 percent). Further, nonvoting Democrats were more than twice as likely as voting Democrats to report feeling the economy is worse now than a year ago (46 percent vs. 22 percent) or that their incomes had recently decreased. And, perhaps not surprisingly given their economic precarity, Democratic nonvoters were substantially more likely than voters to support increased state welfare spending (61 percent vs. 52 percent).

This seems more like extroverts' misconceptions of how introverts are, rather than an actual issue to me. I don't tend to seek out relationships with highly extroverted people who can't stand the idea of a moment where nobody is saying something, regardless of how inane that thing happens to be. At present, my companion and I have known each other for pushing 15 years, and we're just comfortable being quiet around each other, unless one of us actually has something to say. If one of us actually has something they want to communicate about their day, or some other typical topic for small talk, we're more than capable of talking each others' ears off, we just don't feel any need to run through conversations like:

"How was your day?"

"Good, yours?"

"Also acceptable."

on a regular basis, unless we actually have something we wanted to discuss.

It's also not as though we don't have any hobbies or interests. We've got plenty of shared ones, and enjoy discussing them and planning out future activities, we just tend to do it either solo or together, but without involving large groups. Even for those we don't share, we enjoy discussing them with each other to a certain extent.

There's a huge difference between disliking pointless, socially expected chatter to fill dead air, and having some sort of social anxiety that leaves you unable to sustain regular conversations with others in your life. People who are not introverted just seem to assume that we either wish we could do it, but have some sort of condition that prevents us from being able to do so without it causing us problems, or that we just never learned how to do it properly, and would enjoy it for some reason if they just kept trying to get us to do it more and practice. I'm sure there are people that would apply to, but it's not universal, and many of us would just like to be left in peace, unless you actually have something to say. Sometimes, we even meet others like ourselves, and enjoy our peace together, without the pointless talk that we both know neither is really interested in.

Relevant meme:

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For most people, unless you're filleting a flat fish (flounder, sole, etc), you're probably better off using a boning knife than a fillet knife. The flexibility of a fillet knife can be helpful, but it's also more difficult to control properly. I'd also recommend going in from the back on step 2. With a little bit of practice, it's quite easy to learn to feel your way around the ribcage, rather than slicing through it and having to remove those bones later on.

I don't know, they could at least obstruct as much as the Republicans did for them whenever the Democrats were in power and had a chance to pass actual progressive legislation, but chickened out and said they needed to compromise the shit out of it to make a bipartisan effort, since the Republican minority was blocking anything and everything they tried to do.

Probably all the knives and the room full of people who spend 8 hours a day cutting things to bits with them. After a while, you get pretty good at finding where to cut through joints, so it doesn't take all that long.

Because, for many people, it's not all that easy to get the requisite visas to go to Europe legally. As it stands now, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in my household of 3 who has a few options to get skilled work visas based on my work experience. In another few years, when we've all finished our degrees, we're looking at making the leap.

For other people, they might already have put down roots that hold them back before considering what a raw deal they're getting. Even if someone can qualify to emigrate, significant others, kids or property can make it more difficult for them to decide to go for it.

And, of course, you have plenty of folks who drink too deeply of the Kool-Aid, and believe Fox News when they say Europe is overrun by communist governments that implement Sharia law in their gulags, and force you to be gay to hit the national quotas.

Nah, as in there's no reason for anyone to bring up F1 as a comparison, for the reasons you listed, and plenty of other safety improvements.

I don’t think you understood what I wrote or the context it was written.

I understood what you said fine, but you sure needed me to spell it out for you that I was agreeing with your point regarding most forms of racing these days, so maybe cool it on these comments until you work on your own reading comprehension and grasp of context yourself, there.

Nah, F1 has come a long way from back in the day, and really done a lot for driver safety over the years. I've been following it since shortly after Jules Bianchi died, and the only time I thought "Holy shit, I've just seen someone die on live TV!" was Romain Grosjean's crash, which he ultimately came away from with relatively minor injuries.

I think the motorsport equivalent would be something like the Isle of Man TT, or the motorcycle races at the Macau Grand Prix, where the approach to safety seems to mostly remain "Hey, don't hit any of those stone/concrete barriers while going as fast as humanly possible, but if you do, there's a doctor somewhere around, maybe they'll get to you in time."

Both of those events are, in all honesty, insane that they're allowed to continue as is. The Macau GP seems somewhat better in terms of sheer death count, but despite being interested in motorsport generally, I don't think I could ever make a holiday out of attending either one. I just don't want to go somewhere that has a very real possibility of someone dying an avoidable death because "Ah, fucking health and safety have taken all the excitement out of racing, but we're the real deal and hit stone walls at 200mph when we fuck up."

Nope, it's true. When I went for the first time a couple of years ago, my bank decided I needed more £50 notes than anything, and I got several "Wow, it's been a while since I've seen one of these," comments when I used them.

Also, fwiw, depending on where you're heading in the UK, cashless payments can be way more prevalent than they are in many places. I've been to multiple bars in and around Manchester that just didn't accept cash, and would bring out a card terminal to tap for every £2-3 beer I ordered.

On the other hand, bring a coin purse or something with you, because when you do use cash, you'll get a ton of coins back, and it becomes a pain to have rattling about in your pocket real quick.

It's seems like the 3d movies of the tech world. Every so often, they release a new iteration, tell us it'll change everything, and while people get excited at first, they rapidly realize it's not as useful as it was presented and often impractical. Start developing the next gen version, rinse and repeat.

No, of course not. Can't have him getting distracted from advancing his handlers' agendas by handing him a snack, now can we?

And the Lamy ballpoints can finally have a decent ink, now that they're making them with the Jetstream ink. Pretty sure it's a Japan exclusive for the moment, though.