I mean… I give a fuck, the intention behind the action is just as important as the action itself.

You argue we should be grateful because a company is participating in rainbow capitalism, and that makes people feel accepted and happy. Fair enough. But if Home Depot spends the other 11 months of the year donating to organizations and political groups that are actively trying to take away the rights of LGBT+ folks…

How is that a win for anyone? Like, are we supposed to jump up and down with joy because a company decided our money was worth accepting for a brief period of time? We’re allowed to exist for one month because it results in a profit increase for a company that actively hates who we are the rest of the year?

In what world does that make sense? “We hate you and want you back in the closet, but we threw a rainbow on this shovel, BUY IT OR YOU HATE LGBT PEOPLE. Cool, now go back in the closet, we’ve got what we wanted out of you.”

It’s patronizing at best, and insulting at worst. You liken it to a vaccine, which is a bad example since, famously, vaccines like Polio were released without a patent to help ensure their widespread use across the globe.

To me, it’s more like “Why are you complaining that this restaurant spits in your sandwich every day? They didn’t spit in it today because it’s Pride, so why aren’t you happy about it?” Because I know in 30 days they’re going to spit in my sandwich again, and they’re only not doing it now because of optics and wanting more money.

Purchased a soft drink from a fast food restaurant. I have a few friends that, in their minds, it is never justified to buy a drink from a fast food place if you’re doing takeout because “you have drinks at home, they charge $3 for something that costs them $0.11 to make, etc.”

It’s become somewhat of a debate amongst our group of friends: I argue they have flavors I may not have at home, it can be a treat, and it helps keep restaurants in business since drinks are where they make their money. I’m told it doesn’t matter, the upcharge is too much to justify.

I’ve boiled my view on it to “There is a fine line between frugal and cheap.” But never thought the purchase of a soft drink would be so polarizing amongst people in my life, hahaha.

There’s also an ongoing moratorium on the board game Life simply because we cannot agree if it’s legal for one player to take out all of the bank’s loans on their first turn. It’s not explicitly stated in the rules you can’t, but many of us feel it defeats the spirit of the game.

Fun fact: The Navy uses the affirmative “aye” or “aye aye” as opposed to “roger” like the Army/Air Force/etc because of similar slang origins. Basically, sailors used to use the word “roger” to mean “fuck,” both as an insult and as a way to identify women they had been with while in port.

“Yeah, I rogered her last night at the tavern,” kind of thing. But as sailors began to respond to officers using “Roger that (fuck that),” the Navy came down and made “aye aye” the official affirmative response for their personnel.

And even then, “aye” is simply a “I understand” whereas “aye aye,” means “I understand and will carry out X.”

The US Navy also launched an investigative unit during the 1800s (I wanna say the 1880s?) to find homosexual sailors and kick them out of the Navy. The unit only lasted a couple of years before being shut down, as the only people volunteering for the unit were homosexual sailors. 😆

My mom has no sense of smell, I believe it was from a polyp surgery where the surgeon nicked something during the operation. We couldn’t have any gas powered appliances growing up because she wouldn’t be able to smell a leak if there was one.

Plenty of reasons beyond COVID for why someone may not be able to smell.

From high middle-high school timeframe, probably The Yellow Wallpaper, I just think about that one at least a few times a year. And I only read it the one time in school.

The less well known one I remember from elementary school was My Brother Sam is Dead. It’s about a family during the American revolution, where the father just wants to stay out of all of it and live their lives, but the eldest son wants to join the revolution. The whole story is just the hardships the family has to go through after the son runs off with the only gun to fight and ends up dying, and how that affects the family and the youngest brother, who the story is told from the perspective of.

None of my friends remember My Brother Sam is Dead, but if I’m remembering right, the ending is kinda dark for a bunch of 3-5th graders.

Ehhh, people don’t take kindly to assertions regarding animals/pets. It’s not the same, but look how quickly everyone, including Republicans, turned on Kristi Noem after she doubled down on shooting her own dog.

Yeah, he’ll rile up some of his base in Ohio and they’ll start taking precautions to protect their animals, but the majority of pet owners aren’t going to buy this, and they’ll hopefully condemn him for not only the outright lies, but the xenophobia/racism embroiled with it.

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I use my own bag a lot of the time because my usual grocery store (ShopRite) doesn’t put out baskets anymore. I don’t want a cart or need a cart, I want a basket, but they’re never out anymore. Like, they’re just gone…

So either put the baskets back out, or accept we’re going to use our reusable bags as baskets. Granted, I flip mine upside down in front of the self checkout camera to show I’m not stealing, but ffs… Just put the baskets back. 😭

Ok, so then what was the plan? If the killing was a mercy, and was expedited by Germany losing the war, what was the plan for the 17 million collective people? Because I provided such a dismally low number of under one million in response to your comment saying the only reason the Nazis started killing more quickly was because they were losing. And those one million (more, since I’m sure my source didn’t count all deaths, only those who were Jewish) mattered to people, so they mean no less than the other 16 million killed later during the war.

I’m waiting, I’ve provided sources regardless of whether you respect them, you’ve provided nothing to back up any of your claims, so why don’t you refute my apparently unfounded claims of you being a holocaust denier?

Is that civil enough for a discussion with a holocaust denier, moderators? I’m glad we have to respect the opinions of holocaust deniers, god bless tolerating the intolerant. 🙄

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According to museumoftolerance.com and their Holocaust Timeline, Hitler said during a Reichstag speech in January 1939:

if war erupts it will mean the Vernichtung (extermination) of European Jews

So before the war even started, when these people were already surviving in the world, eating, etc, the Nazis and Hitler already knew feeding them would be a logistical problem best solved by death?

The Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp began operations on December 8, 1941, literally one day after Pearl Harbor, far before Germany was “losing” the war. And camps don’t just pop up overnight, especially ones that earn the denomination of being an extermination camp, so was this just more logistical foresight on behalf of those oh so kind Nazi officials?

From the same source regarding the Kulmhof Extermination Camp opening:

340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs murdered by April 1943

Or the March 17, 1942 Entry:

Extermination begins in Belzec; by end of 1942 600,000 Jews murdered

Wow, the German 6th Armored didn’t surrender at Stalingrad until January 1943, and the Allies didn’t invade until June 1944, so that’s an awful lot of “mercy killing” happening before the Nazis knew they were going to lose the war.

And FYI, just because the Nazis didn’t begin their extermination campaign until after the war began, doesn’t mean their actions don’t signal what their intentions were from the start: Dachau opened in March 1933, Jewish Germans were barred from military service in 1935, Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in 1936, immigrant Jews having their German citizenship status revoked, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Kristallnacht in 1938… Like, you see all this, right?

Where do I need to start explaining stuff here?

I took it, had an army recruiter show up a year later and asked to speak with me. My mom said I had already enlisted, the guy goes, “Oh, we already got em?”

“No, the Navy did, he left for bootcamp last fall.”

Also had my recruiter step between the Navy MEPS guy and I to tell him to fuck off and find me a job I wanted. He would not let the nuke thing go, and my recruiters already knew I had no interest and backed my other job choices. 😂

I’m gonna throw “forecastle” out there. It’s referring to a specific part/area of a ship, but it’s pronounced similar to “folks-sole.”

When I was a carrier, I had a business road on my route, all the mailboxes were at the curb for every business. On two or three separate occasions, I’d get to the last box and it looked rougher than it did the previous day. Business owner came out and told me the box had been broken into again, along with several others on the road, and wanted to know what we could/would do about it.

I called my postmaster and explained and asked if USPIS would be getting involved (as the business owner also asked). I was told no, they don’t get involved in those sorts of things, the owner would just have to file a report with the police, and we’d stop delivering on Saturdays since none of the businesses would be open.

I never got a further explanation than that, so I couldn’t say why USPIS doesn’t get involved, but they don’t seem to anymore. 🤷‍♀️

Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.

Richard Cranium

Edit: someone beat me to it 😆

Right? He kinda looks like Gru, with hair 😆

They wouldn’t have had their lives upended if we weren’t doing everything in our power to prolong the war!

They wouldn’t have had their lives upended if Russia didn’t illegitimately invade their homeland. Twice, in the last decade, I believe. I also don’t know wtf you mean when you say prolong the war, if Ukraine stopped fighting now you don’t think Russia wouldn’t just go at it again?

So you understand making the world a worse place isn’t the gotcha you seem to think it is right?

So you understand that this discussion is about OPC and their view on Ukraine and the Russian invasion? I told you I served to answerbyour initial question as to why I don’t go fight in Ukraine: I’ve already done my time in the service, was the implication you seemed to miss.

Trying another subject change isn’t the gotcha you think it is, kid.

The one who suspended elections after he got elected on a platform of peace and failed to end the civil war?

The one who’s following Ukrainian law and listening to the general vibe of the country and the situation with the war?

Or the Zelensky who is open to the idea of having elections, but does not think it’s a good idea based on both the law and I assume logistical decisions, like having mass groups if people located in small areas for extended periods of time during, say, a war.

Not being literate on the world stage isn’t the gotcha you think it is, bud.

How many Ukrainians living in Ukraine do you know? I’m certain it’s less than the actual Ukrainian right here telling you what the situation is.

None, as does the very obvious Russian bot who’s, like I said before, just propagating the same Russian State Media talking points that you’ve somehow fallen for. Sad, really.

You really don’t give a shit about actual Ukrainians beyond their willingness to bleed for the profits of the military industrial complex.

Mm, no, I do give a shit about a sovereign nation defending themselves from a foreign aggressor, and reclaiming any illegally held territory going back to, idk, 2013-ish. 🤷‍♀️ If it was so important to the military industrial complex, why did the GOP actively fight to stop it? That’s taken money out of the wealthy’s purse, can’t have that.

You also never answered why you’re defending a Russian troll, so let’s try again in a language you may understand:

Почему вы защищаете русского тролля?

Do you think we’d be sending them weapons (and buying up their assets for pennies) if this battle wasn’t yours?

Welcome to the world under capitalism, guess we should just do nothing then, fuck all the actual people that live in Ukraine and have had their lives upended or destroyed because of the war.

Seriously? Fuck off with that bullshit.

They’ve also supported Israel. By that logic, you, personally are assisting them in genocide.

Yep, and I’m fucking pissed about it. This discussion also isn’t about Israel, so don’t change the subject.

I will serve crack before I serve this country. Look at every military action in this country’s history since WWII. In none of them were we the good guys.

Edgy, wow, impressed. Never said we were, just said I’ve served, so don’t put words in my mouth.

Oh fuck off. He knows more about the situation than you do. He is right there experiencing it.

By his own admission, he left Ukraine before the invasion, so no, he isn’t there experiencing it. He’s safely in another country, acting like he understands what’s going on in a country he currently doesn’t live in. And then acts like he speaks on behalf of Ukraine when they democratically elected their leader, continue to fight against their unjustified invaders, despite apparently living in a prison-state worse than Russia.

While also claiming Russia is not actively engaged in the very same activities he is accusing Ukraine of.

So go fuck yourself, I don’t know why you’re defending some Russian troll.

1. It’s not my battle, my country wasn’t invaded. His was, but he had already left, and refuses to go back and help, but defends the people invading his country. That’s pathetic and cowardly, and spoken by someone in a position of privilege from foreign soil (again, he left before the invasion) but claims to speak for his countrymen and women actually living through the atrocities and attacks.

2. My country is supplying military aid to Ukraine via my tax dollars, so while I’m not directly fighting, my country and myself are assisting them in their effort to defend themselves against an unjustified invasion.

3. I am a veteran of my country’s armed services, can you say the same?

4. I also never told him to go fight, but it seems pathetic and cowardly to sit behind a computer screen in another country, claim to speak on behalf of your home nation while propagating Russian-media talking points. So I stand by what I’ve said.