SkepticalButOpenMinded

joined 1 year ago
[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

Surprising that, even having gone through Covid, now is the most hospitalizations the province has ever seen.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago

Happening in Canada too. For the last decade, virtually every province has been led by Conservative governments (except BC and that was just half a decade ago). Healthcare and housing has been slowly falling apart.

Looking at the polls, what’s amazing is that most Canadian voters seem to think the problem is insufficient conservatism!

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Public transport is clean and safe when everyone uses it. In the US, the social expectation is that public transportation is for the poor. Like white flight out of US urban centers in the 60s, it’s a class thing, and owning a car becomes a self perpetuating class signifier. In most of the rest of the developed world, like London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. public transportation is for everyone, rich and poor. It’s just a question of investing in and valuing public transportation over cars.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

There are legitimate worries concerning the commodification of people’s bodies. We already do not allow people to sell oneself into slavery, and many countries do not allow the selling of one’s own body parts (which is why organs must be donated in many countries).

I’m the only one here who knows anyone who’s used surrogacy, and it was for a legit health reason.

I’m not sure why you think it matters, but my sibling recently had a child through surrogacy. No one is disagreeing about the health case. But more exploitative cases can exist. Not everything should be made into a product.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

I’m not saying I agree with the meme, but that part makes sense to me. Am I really the only one who has met both types of dysfunctional people? Some people are extremely emotionally demanding, where they need constant reassurance and support, and others are completely detached, so that there’s hardly emotional connection at all.

Being healthy is almost always about achieving the mean between extremes.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In most existing TCG, artificial scarcity is a meta-mechanic of the game. For many, that’s part of the fun of the “collecting“. It’s fun to collect rare cards because they’re in limited supply.

That said, I think there could be, in theory, an open source way to have artificial scarcity and the fun of collecting. Maybe have a nonprofit that sells official printed cards at cost?

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca -1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Are you two substantially disagreeing?

When surrogacy is merely a luxury to spare the rich mother the discomforts of bearing a child, it can be bad, and for other reasons such as health and infertility it’s totally fine?

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

In context, I clearly meant “most apps people use and need”. Almost all the streaming apps, all the corporate social media apps, all the payment apps, etc seem to be problematic.

Remember that the larger discussion is about the viability of protecting your privacy on Android vs iPhone. Sure everything is “possible” if you futz with it enough, you could even code your own OS and all your own apps, but the more you have to futz, the less viable it is for most people.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No please read my comment again. I know there are alternative stores. In practice, many mainstream apps are not easy to install using these stores. If you had done a 1 minute search, you’d find tons of people complaining about trying to degoogle their phone. I think almost everyone just gives up on at least a few apps.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

Most commutes are not between major cities, they are within metro regions, so the size of the US doesn’t explain the terrible infrastructure. Besides, for decades now, most of Europe has no political impediments to travel, same as the US. People can commute from Berlin to Madrid as if it were one country. Density matters, but not the size of the country.

As for density, there are many US regions that are of similar density and distance apart as European cities, such as DC-NY-Boston, or Portland-Seattle-Vancouver, SF-LA, etc.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Yes exactly this. Car infrastructure is the most expensive transportation infrastructure per capita possible. It’s why the US spends tons of public money on transportation and has just crumbling highways to show for it.

[–] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Trolley problem doesn’t go away in the air (not that it’s that big of a deal to begin with). In fact, it might even be worse. Your car is falling. Do you crash into the crowded street or the crowded building? Which one? The destructive potential is much higher. If safety is really a concern, don’t you worry about giving every person a missile?

Flying cars “solve” a non-problem, because long distance highway travel is already the least dangerous. Most accidents are at intersections and points of conflicts. But eventually flying cars need to land and be near other cars and people. There will still be traffic jams, vast fields of parking lots, and cities made uncomfortable to actually walk or exist in.

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