G650

Only takes money homie.

Ignore doesn't seem to be working?

Cockroaches

Fair enough, I would have figured that part is self explanatory though, if for no other reason I wouldn't ever consider paying taxes as a transaction. Not to mention I get very immediate benefits from it like roads to drive on and schools for my son to attend. But what we mean is helping out others as an act of kindness, as opposed to what's in it for us. Personally, 2016 shattered every idea I had about what this country was. I never considered America perfect, but the depths of our depravity and malice were never that exposed, and it seemed we were always working towards being better. But that went out the window in '16. Even so, I still clung to a small flicker of hope maybe it was an aberration, and Biden's win in 2020 restored probably 75% of my faith in the US. This, well, the flame is 100% out now. As I told my wife, I actually don't feel any anger or shock at all, I'm pretty serene. The truth is laid bare for all to see now, and I have completely accepted it. So if I know someone is a Trump voter, my interactions with them are going to be 100% transactional. If my Trump neighbor needs sugar, I'm not lending them any unless I get something from it. Which sounds heartless, and it is, because I'm not giving that part of myself anymore to people who don't deserve it. I feel zero guilt about this. These people have chosen to break our country. The onus is on them to put it back together again.

You think paying the IRS taxes constitutes an interpersonal interaction?

I know reading isn't necessarily your strong suit, but I'm pretty flummoxed how you got there from what I wrote.

No, it means that if there is immediate value in the interaction for me, sure I'll partake. If not, I'm not helping you.

You know what transactional means, right?

From today's Atlantic. This is something I've been saying for years.

You are right about that, but we are straying off topic.

There's really no clearer divide than some of us care less about our immediate short term gain than we do the health of society writ large, and some people can't grasp that concept whatsoever.

The dildo of consequences

100% this.

Not me. I am surprisingly serene, not at all what I expected.

You've come to the right place for people to encourage reckless spending

This board is like the most concentrated form of Pete voter

I've honestly wanted to leave for a decade and a half or so, as America and I have been steadily diverging culturally for a long time, but career and family and all have precluded it. Now, ironically, when I could probably talk the wife into it, we just sunk a shitload of money into a new house. Fml. I'm still pretty sure I am going to pick up some property in northern Italy just because

I will say the loss of this has been the hardest pill for me to swallow. The Republicans have normalized being emotionally weak while overcompensating with hate and bluster.

I guess it's inevitable that being in here, this will pretty much devolve into a bunch of Democrats squabbling over how to get young men to vote for their party, but it really isn't why I made the thread. I just didn't think anywhere else on the site would lead to a remotely productive discussion. And to be fair there have been some great responses here so far from several posters.

Literally nobody is saying that

That dude is a grade A piece of shit

Nope

That's wild.

Lotta people fixing to die