I’ll save you the trouble. The majority of the arguements fall into the usual categories it’s “performative”, “it won’t matter any way”, “it’s a ‘war’ zone”, they’re all just “taking pleasure cruises on yachts” that “they aren’t even carrying aid”, that “Greta’s just a rich spoiled brat and it’s European rich kids having fun” etc. And of course the full fledged backing of Israel(which is basically confessing Israel has an obligation to provide for “their” territory and are failing to do so).

Basically “DiRtY HipPiESssssssss” is their “strongest” counter-arguement. The rest are just proving the point how ridiculous Israel is and how world governments are complicit.

I think I misunderstood your remark at first, but I just took a brief peek at the comment section over on one of the Reddit posts. What I find funny is a lot of their crying/outrage/gotchyas actually justify the purpose of the flotilla and bring direct attention to many of the problems the mission seeks to highlight.

I mean if you just ask nicely enough times, right? That’s how civil rights, women’s suffrage and labor rights were won and global apartheids dismantled. I mean when the bully is punching my face in, pleading to their humanity has always worked for me. /s

The story here is about Palestine. The story here is about how people are being deliberately deprived of the very basic means to survive. The story here is how the world can be silent and how those in power who are supposed to represent us, are in every possible way betraying and failing the Palestinians and all oppressed peoples around the world.

• Greta Thunberg

They’re absolutely not worthless missions imo. Every ship that’s intercepted puts egg on Israel’s face and takes time, resources, and money out of their pockets. People like Greta also make it near impossible for western media to completely ignore. It’s also grown the movement. They bombed the Conscious. They didn’t back down. She got forcefully taken and held with the crew of the Madleen and Egypt showed their true colors blocking the March to Gaza. All which taught the activist community, and the world, a valuable lesson. They captured the Handala with other notables aboard, who western news outlets interviewed and gave airtime.

Now they’re going again and this time with a fleet at their back.

Every mission has grown the movement to break the blockade and expose the truth. They can say what they want but actions speak louder than words.

This.

I don’t know why but my brain just auto completed that as, “… fresh from the grave…”

Something tells me you’re the one struggling with quality of life my friend. The world doesn’t have to be one big fight.

But if you insist. It’s well documented that many of the largest donors to the MAGA movement advocate for absolute privatization and deregulation across the board. They don’t advocate for democracy (representative or otherwise) but rather see it as inherently counter intuitive to economic progress. All you have to do is listen to them speak and read any of their work.

Also, by “better yourself” I imagine you mean “fit as a cog within capitalism”, which friend, you have stepped into the wrong realm for that arguement. I noticed you used “lib” or “liberal” and “blue haired piercing etc” in another of your comments— most of us reject liberals as too far right or centrist and those remarks are just inflammatory nonsense.

I fear you’ve fallen into the deep end when you’re better equipped for the kiddie pool. Good luck.

I didn’t mean anything negative toward antidepressants other than that lowered sex drive is often a side effect of many of the most commonly prescribed medications. And yes, there are many real reasons we see a consistent plague of depression in modern society.

I would argue though that we are in one of the most food secure times in all of history. And are actually positively positioned for meeting our energy and resource needs.

Our problem has more to do with management and greed than with actual reality of our situation as a species. If we were making better choices collectively we could reduce a tremendous amount of the harm we associate with population sizes and lifestyle. But many old systems would have to die, we have to let go of a lot of what we just assume to be ‘facts of life’ and start evaluating the intrinsic value of things differently. Meaning measuring success with a new set of rules.

But it’s very hard to even consider when most of us are just trying to get from one day to the next. We feel trapped in someone else’s fabricated cage. Hence, the depression and hopelessness that’s universally felt. But all in all, I think we’re going to make it to be honest. We have to, or we will indeed fail as a species. The cage looks small but it’s not real. That’s what I remind myself anyway.

Well, that’s a whole lot of depressing graphs. Speaking of… I wonder if antidepressant use, or just depression rates in general, might have something to do with the married couples data.

Uff he’s ancient. He needs to be poopin’ his pants at brunch somewhere with his grandkids screaming “grandpa smells again!” in public really loud, not making a fascist power grab.

They only need Trump to stay alive long enough to consolidate power. Then it’s phase 2. And it doesn’t really matter what anyone thinks as far as “respect” or “like” them. The long term plan is privatize everything completely moving the seat of power away from government altogether. We’re well underway.

Pie feds aka “the feds”

A round of applause for Elizabeth Baxter. Pam Bondi, the SEO scare word generator, can suck a fat one.

“Welp, you’re old enough now to know the truth… you see when…”

I think you make a lot of solid points, I’m still just concerned about what we don’t know: primarily the chronic long-term effects of repeated use. Hanging out by a fog machine a couple times a month for a few hours or diffuse short-term exposures as a disinfectant in a hospital hvac system isn’t the same as someone directly sucking on a vape dawn until dusk. We don’t have a full generation to look at yet. But we will. There’s a lot of money to be made but give it two generations of data and there may be some trends popping up we can’t ignore.

I add my snarky () because unforeseen consequences do happen. There may be something we’re not catching. Something we simply won’t know until we know it. I’m not advocating for smoking, I’m just saying, be careful assuming a rapidly adopted product to save an industry under attack is really as harmless as it’s touted to be. History has shown something picked up as quickly as vaping and woven into society rarely comes without unforeseen consequences.

Also, most of the studies seem to be comparisons in realms we know smoking is damaging, but what about other less studied areas like long-term cognition or auto-immune disorders? I hope I’m wrong but it’s one of those time will tell scenarios. I think it’s better to just quit smoking if that’s the issue and for young people to be aware that “at least it’s not cigarettes” shouldn’t discount the potential risks. And whatever you do for god sake don’t chew!

Lack of long-term data doesn’t equal benign. Smoking used to be considered safe for pregnancy and overall health. It took awhile to figure out, and companies and society to accept, why people were dying. Vaping still has a noticeable impact on cardiovascular health, chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract, and still contain known carcinogens although in smaller quantities. We don’t know the full effects yet and they definitely are experimenting in real time and publicly with flavoring and chemical compositions, which makes them rather dangerous imo. You can argue it’s better than smoking (that we know of) at this point in time but I’d be careful downplaying the risks too much. There is just a lot of data we don’t have yet.

They’re repeatedly sliding into bankruptcy yet rewarding their CEO’s with multimillion dollar bonuses and salaries greater than or equal to 102 times the median salary at the company after repeated failed mergers… Don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious.

More forced birth legislation

You’re telling me, the guy the Trump appointed Israeli born attorney and her buddies intentionally let go so he could flee… fled the country and didn’t come back to face his charges? Huh. Weird.