In a video with Ben Shapiro he questioned if the news we were hearing regarding Israel and Gaza could be trusted. Shapiro looked mortified that a fellow conservative would even entertain such a thought. It’s been alluded that was the moment that Kirk sealed his fate.

There are also a lot of people out there that will intentionally swerve to hit an animal. Mark Rober made a video a long time ago where 6% of drivers went out of their way to hit animals that were just chilling on the shoulder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fp7flAWMA

They are referring to when New Jersey had a huge problem with needles washing up on the beaches back in the 90s.

Hell yeah! Where all my New Jerseyans at?

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Licking restaurant ashtrays is just what we kids did back then. We didn’t know any better!

…and we still put people like Caligula into positions of power.

We’re not going to make it, are we? :(

Nope, it’s nee-chuh. I also mispronounced it for years…

That makes a lot more sense, thanks for the clarity!
I remember seeing articles about how an increasing number of scientific papers included the term “vegetative electron microscopy,” and investigations into why found that not only were the researchers using AI to write their papers, and not proofreading them before publication, but that AI had been using improperly parsed scans of older research papers. That term is now believed to be permanently embedded in some models.

Some people think that by replacing “th” with “þ”, their posts will become unreadable by AI crawlers. However…

Was all said tongue in cheek. I was taking the piss because they were being hyperbolic. Appreciate you.

Right, so you’ve seen that, have you? Watched some gullible sap throw cans of food at the cat until one sticks? Perhaps if it’s a newly adopted pet, then yes, you have to put in some work to find the kind of food that the cat prefers. Research has proven that kittens actually build a preference for the food that their mother ate during gestation and nursing, and it takes deliberate care on the owner’s part to move them over to a different kind of food.

I once had a golden retriever inhale half a pound of salami, vomit it across the linoleum ten minutes later, and then like some greasy ouroboros of shame, it ate the same spewed-salami again. Twice. It’s like comparing apples and oranges, except I bet my dog would have eaten those, too.

And then there’s the cat, not having any of it. Doesn’t fetch, doesn’t beg, doesn’t need humans’ approval; which I bet drives certain people mad that it’s primary motivation in life isn’t to be their own personal dopamine dispenser.

Sarcasm aside, I do get where you’re coming from. Cats and dogs aren’t variations of the same theme; dogs are social, cats are solitary. Some people understand that and don’t expect their pets to be anything more than what they are. Me? I like both cats and dogs. I don’t expect them to be little humans or to stroke my ego. I’m their caretaker, not their cult leader. If they’re happy, safe, and healthy, that’s the win. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

party hears rumbling from deep beneath the mountain
Obiwandalf: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

All-Star is what made me change my mind on Superman. I never really liked him when I was younger, and it was for all the same complaints that people have already listed above. But All-Star was a blast to read, not in spite of it’s (at times) cheesiness, but because of it. All-Star Superman is relatable because he embodies the best traits in all of us; he is incredibly intelligent and kind, leveled and patient. Without going into spoilers, I think what I love most about All-Star is that it shows that even the best among us have our weaknesses, and that it’s not the huge, planet-level threats that define who are and what we do, but the small, innocuous things that can most affect who we are in the moment.

They’re not shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of us at Costco, or waiting for hours at an overcrowded clinic, or sending their kids to schools packed past capacity. They live in a separate world, where exposure to the mess the rest of us deal with is minimized.

When illness does fall on them, they get top-tier healthcare; faster, smarter, better than anything we’ll ever see. It’s a tiered society, where wealth and influence dictate your caste. They’re not digging graves; they’re building bunkers.

Has anyone seen RFK Jr. and one of Nurgle’s Great Unclean Ones in the same room together? I don’t think so…

Game theory, pure and simple. At its core, it is nothing more than the mathematical codification of self-interest. Within capitalism, it becomes one of the most powerful tools for justifying and even glorifying selfishness and greed. By reducing human interaction to competitive strategies designed to maximize personal gain, it frames cooperation, empathy, or long-term collective well-being as irrational or inefficient. The result is a system where decisions that harm the many can be rationalized as “optimal” so long as they benefit the few who hold power and wealth.

Most people recognize the absurdity of this: we are essentially allowing the worst actors to dictate outcomes for everyone else. And all of it is wrapped in the veneer of mathematical inevitability, as though greed were a natural law instead of a human choice.

It absolutely is abusive, and I don’t the other poster meant to sound like it isn’t. That said, it’s easy for the abused to waive off their abuse. From my own experience with CPTSD, that kind of thinking doesn’t just appear; it seeps in, sets up shop, and eventually convinces you it’s a “truth.” We learn to justify our abuse with neat little stories: that we deserved it, that we’re broken, that others had it worse and therefore our pain doesn’t count. Therapy helps, but the hardest part is undoing the belief that we are rejects, never meant for real society.

Same here. I was labeled as gifted in first grade, but my home life was filled with neglect and abuse. A couple decades of that, plus being bullied at school, left me with CPTSD that makes trusting anyone nearly impossible. On the surface, I might look like I built a decent career, but the truth is I have spent my adult life wearing masks that barely fit whatever situation I am in.

Inside, I am constantly fighting the urge to just leave everything, convinced I am useless and only pretending to be a real person. Now that I am in the back half of my life, the weight of it has worn me down and each day gets harder. The only justice in the world that which we make, but we cannot trust justice in a world where worthiness is conflated with wealth.

A lot of young people grow up believing there’s glory in war. But anyone who’s been through it sees how pointless it really is. Ruining soldiers, families, civilians, and even the land itself.

You saw the truth and came back better for it, and that’s worth more than any so-called victory. In the end, all people are equal; born, live, and then gone; war doesn’t change that. The best we can do is share what we’ve learned, so those who come after us don’t fall for the same lies. The rich sending the poor to die for their personal gain only shows how empty and corrupt they are.

I hope you’ve found your peace, P00ptart, and I hope your story helps sway people away from fighting wars.