you assume it’s biconditional. it’s not.

you can ask your boss for a raise, and get fired. for a lot of people there is no option for a union. and the smart move is to apply for another job that offers you better wages in another community entirely.

some of us had given a lot to our communities… and told to go f ourselves for not ‘fitting in’ or standing up against that community when it was willing to commit injustice in the name of ‘justice’.

also HOAs are a great way neighbors unite… specifically to oppress everyone else around them by making up all sorts of weird rules and penalties restricting the freedom of others. and if you you have no option to not be in the HOA now in a lot of places because that form of ‘community’ has become pervasive and oppressive in the name of ‘justice’ of preserving property values and creating exclusionary housing. that isn’t facism, it’s the self-interest of the community putting itself way above the interest of any individual who might want different.

Community isn’t necessary a net positive effect, oftentimes it can be totally oppressive. you can organize to create and promote injustice against marginalized people and further marginalize them or straight up criminalize them.

for a lot of people there is no community when shared views are retained. the point of community is submission of your individuality to the ‘greater good’.

it’s not hard if you understand your parents are idiots who make bad choices and their not loving you or treating you well is also a product of their bad choices.

and then at some point you will have to take care of them and that will further make you realize how stupid they are/were.

USA culture has always been this way. It’s what made us different from Europe and a huge beacon for immigration.

The idea that you can just do what you want and fuck what everyone else thinks, esp your community.

Is worshiping community to the detriment of individuality better? You forget that most communities are highly oppressive and discriminatory, they only want the ‘right’ people to be a part of them. If you challenge the tenants of the community, you will be punished, including expulsion or violence.

both left and right extremists virtue signal and would gladly genocide you.

they are the same. they just have different social groups they support/hate.

abuse is a choice. you can choose not to abuse people if you were abused.

true though, that most don’t and view their abuse as a justification for their abusing others.

No.

But a lot of people choose to be because it gives them a built-in excuse for their perceived failures and faults. I notice with people who ‘struggle’ at life that they continue blame their parents for their failures, and then often end up moving back home anyway and ‘settle’ for a mediocre life because living on their own was ‘too hard’.

I am nothing like my family members because I choose to be different than them. Not the same with many of my peers I grew up with… most of my high school friends were poster children for bad choices or refused to leave the ‘nest’. However, as I have gotten older the limits of my background have been made very obvious to me and as i got even older, I have faced straight up discrimination I hadn’t felt earlier. I ‘pass’ as being two social class above where I was born, but among the upper classes, accomplishment doesn’t matter much and birthright is everything.

That said, I’m talking from a western viewpoint where independence from your family is the goal. There are different cultures where trying to get away from your upbringing/family is consider sacrilegious and families are much more dependent on one another. I had friends who lived at home until 30 and even then their parents dind’t want them to leave, but they were eastern.

I am never sure how time works at all. It’s possible that everything we experience is just rolling out from some original cause, everything happening is just an effect caused by what came before, essentially has already happened, in a way, you cannot change anything.

I don’t need to cope. I like my job. My country has always been shit. My life isn’t stagnant.

I went to PAX many years, only place ever met such people, but even then there many were board game only snobs. There are a lot of board game snobs in my city, but they generally hate video games for being ‘anti social’.

anytime i mention that i play games it illicits are very negative/suspicious reaction. but if i say i spend 10 hours riding my bike or reading or going to restaurants that’s seen as worthy and legit. i guess i don’t see any of those as more ‘constructive’ than any other activity.

I’ve never met anyone what was pro video game other than on the internet. Even people who do play games I know only do so on the DL because they know it is a social faux pas.

that’s the other thing. hating video games is like saying you hate books, or anything on a screen.

it’s a medium with tons of genres and game play types that are often radically different. plus the ‘haters’ often do like games like guitar hero or dave and busters stuff or phone games. i guess because it’s ‘normal’, but apparnetly playing mario on a switch isn’t.

there is no ethics in politics. there is only power.

the ethics is what the people in power say it is.

hence why the dems eat their own over a misunderstoodjoke, and the republicans promote child rapists.

you can plug an ergo keyboard into your laptop. my workplace gives a person two keyboards if they need ergo. one for home and one for office.

mouse is expected to travel.

the left supports their own wallets too. everyone does.

nobody is voting to give their money away to other people.

The right also supports all that. It’s just disagree about who should benefit and what the government should intervene about.

That’s a name that you barely hear anymore outside of YouTube.

Define left.

If it’s ‘not republican’ than the Democrats are it. If it’s ‘socialist values’ than no, that’s considered fringe politics. Sanders is a moderate socialist who’d be a center or center-right figure it many european countries, but American overton window makes him a extremist because our political history is far more libertarian and less centralized than most european states.

Yes, the left has no coherent vision.

And the funny thing is when they find someone to rally around, like Obama. They act like it’s some miracle of his personality or something. No, Obama just had a coherent policy and message that people could get behind, including the white-working class. For some reason the Democrat leadership refuses to even consider having such a platform, and like you said, pushes all these niche interests to various voting blocs, instead of having one vision that appears to many voting blocs.

they just go after low hanging and inconsequential fruit… like Al Franken.

Carter was a a good person and put forth good policies.

That’s why he’s seen as weak by everyone including democrats/left. Good policy and good actions make everyone feel bad about themselves. Carter also asked Americans to make sacrifices and inconveneince themselves for the greater good… which is a huge political no no. Americans love convenience above all else and gladly sacrifice their children’s happiness for lower taxes and cheaper gas.

Part of what makes Trump so popular is his unhinged assholery makes people feel good because he gives them permission to embrace their shittier selves.