The meanest people I know are all devout Christians.
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Itâs pay walled but thatâs a strong first paragraph
Over the past eight years or so, Iâve been obsessed with two questions. The first is: Why have Americans become so sad? The rising rates of depression have been well publicized, as have the rising deaths of despair from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. But other statistics are similarly troubling. The percentage of people who say they donât have close friends has increased fourfold since 1990. The share of Americans ages 25 to 54 who werenât married or living with a romantic partner went up to 38 percent in 2019, from 29 percent in 1990. A record-high 25 percent of 40-year-old Americans have never married. More than half of all Americans say that no one knows them well. The percentage of high-school students who report âpersistent feelings of sadness or hopelessnessâ shot up from 26 percent in 2009 to 44 percent in 2021.
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For decades, researchers have asked incoming college students about their goals in life. In 1967, about 85 percent said they were strongly motivated to develop âa meaningful philosophy of lifeâ; by 2000, only 42 percent said that. Being financially well off became the leading life goal; by 2015, 82 percent of students said wealth was their aim.
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IMHO, this is a half century of damage wrought by Reaganism and the establishment is going to blame it on Woke Culture. Maybe if we get everyone back in the office that will fix it!
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Itâs been a long time. I changed my number. How are you?
Iâve been getting 5-10 of these texts per month for the last 6 months. Usually just block them, but occasionally give a stern correction for not introducing themselves first. Not sure what the best (most fun) approach is and open to suggestions.
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Start playing with them a la kitboga
âget a real job â â â â â has been my go-to for a while.
Itâs Pulp Fiction up in Poughkeepsie
Sending to my dad, who grew up in Newburgh.
I have heard the same thing on the Eastern Seaboard during hurricane season: moving towards the coastline tends to be the most prudent approach.
the worst thing about that story is describing Poughkeepsie as âNew York cityâ
I read it that way many many times but it says âa New York Cityâ.
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omg reading comp failure
Whatâs the status of the weather/rain/flooding in So Cal and Vegas?
Any big issues?
Consensus in LA area is that it was much ado about nothing. With that said, Iâm sure some people had some issues, and I would be surprised if no unhoused people died. Today it was 80 degrees and sunny where I am.
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Responded âGreat!â, they responded with the correct spelling of my uncommon and uncommonly spelled first name and asked me if I still live in the city that Iâve lived in for the majority of my life. I responded âNo, do you still live in East Palestine, OH?â. Apparently they moved to Cali. Next move?
The issue with harsh penalties for drug dealers is that they just increase the price and the willingness of dealers to use violence against the police and in general. If drug dealers will get the death penalty then why not shoot some cops too? Finding fentanyl in Singapore is very likely easier than cannabis because it is WAY easier to smuggle, has a more intense demand and theyâll kill you either way.
Drug addicts, by definition, will make their top priority acquiring drugs and someone will inevitably satisfy that demand for a price. Drug addicts will just steal more shit if the price goes up. People get drugs into prisons.
However, very few people actually want fentanyl specifically, they just want an opiate. The reason why fent has become ubiquitous is because it is much more potent and thus cheaper to smuggle. It also will become even more common now that the Taliban have again swiftly eradicated the vast majority of opium production in Afghanistan.
If you could somehow make importing fentanyl specifically more expensive than other opiates, you could essentially replace it with its substitutes. I donât think that thereâs much of a way to pull that off other than legalization though.
It also wouldnât surprise me if there were some people in the Chinese government having a nice laugh about flooding the west with fent as revenge for the Opium Wars. Hell, they might do it for free just to fuck with us.
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Death penalty for drug dealers is just thinly veiled code for death penalty for POC.
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I posted that exact story a few weeks ago.
Edit: I guess I posted it elsewhere. I posted a different one here on UP. Similar bullshit so I got them mixed up.
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I donât think that the death penalty is a significant deterrent in most cases. Singapore is pretty drug-free, and it might work better there than other places for reasons that are specific to Singapore. But I donât think you can take what works in a tiny island with not that many entry points and generalize it to apply to much different and larger country.
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