u/showerthoughthaver

I live in an older city and the suburban type areas aren't zoned too badly. There is a corner store the block over and even a winery that has live music in the summer. Of course my neighbors put on their serious hats and went to the city council to complain about it. The pictures from the news article were almost funny. They had the most serious expressions like they were discussing a murder.

Complaints:
-"How can a bar set up in a residential area?": yes one of them actually said this.
- "There's kids out at 10-11pm!": Americans are child haters and find the prescience of children offensive I guess
- "The house I inherited from my father will have reduced property values": boomer who didn't even live in the neighborhood said this

It's weird that suburbanites will tolerate constant lawn mowers, dogs barking, cars revving up the street at 2am but god forbid people have fun and listen to music. That noise is disruptive! I mean obviously they're not mad about the noise itself so much as they are people having fun and doing something besides sitting quietly inside and watching netflix.

Thankfully they failed and I heard the band playing last night. It makes me happy the rare times human joy wins out.

I enjoy learning languages as a hobby. I have studied seriously, Japanese, Spanish and French. Right now Japanese is the only one I can converse in. When I've been able to talk to a Japanese person here in Ohio, they have been very happy to converse with me and gracious of my mistakes. The problem is they never want to correct me and often would just say "oh your Japanese is very good" when I know it's not.

Arabs don't do that in my experience. I've practiced a few greetings when I've happened to go to a store ran by Arabs. If I mispronounce something they just look at me dumbfounded and are like "Sorry I don't know what you are trying to say" This is very helpful when you want to actually learn to speak properly

I don't have much to contribute but here is a fantastic voiced anki deck for Iraqi Arabic.
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1907570867
https://youtu.be/giEFe6FpcEU

just pseud rambling.

the stories about Natl parks being opened up for drilling, logging and ATVs then the destruction of big bend got me thinking. a lady told me she was moving because the forest behind her house was demolished to make way for more mcmansion developments. she joked the developers got out of their f-150s to high five each other. gotta have random empty space between houses. gotta have it! maximum destruction of woodlands

I'm sure they're working on constructing a costco and drive-thru only chic fil a in Yosemite next.

I thought back to my history and social studies classes in school. Over and over again, most teachers said the same thing. "We're not gonna do BOOORING stuff like memorize state capitols or dates of historical events!" "that stuff isn't gonna help you get a JOB anyway." idk man I don't think you playing grab ass games with the football team is helping them either. It really bothered me even as a 12 year old but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Why was teaching kids where the centers of government are and important dates in our history so bad?

kids who wanted to go to college to learn niche stuff like medieval history or whatnot got shamed with the "hurrr starbucks barista" line for like a solid 20 years and how many of the kids who went into STEM ended up not being able to find a job anyway?

universities turning into trade schools is peak Walmartism. any pretense of culture must be obliterated. conservatives used to complain about schools not teaching western civ and that it was a plot by liberals to strip people of common culture. they were right but they've done the same thing.

I've had engineering majors complain about having to take phys ed or English or history in uni because "how is this gonna help me find a job?" the whole point of the university system in the US was to create educated, well rounded people. to create members of society who had common ethics. a STEM nerd was expected to have at least a cursory knowledge of our own damn culture and history.

you see the downstream effects of this brutal, trashy functionalism today, both in the "elites" and every "bro just said that 💀 " zoomer

anytime someone complains about dogs in grocery stores on Facebook, every NPC chimes in with "then people shouldn't bring in their disgusting children!" as if there is some bargain to be made. "people's feral children make bigger messes than dogs!" I have to say it has been years since I witnessed a child causing trouble in public. It's remarkable how predictable these comments are. I've noticed they never have pictures with loved ones on their profiles.

It is really a sign of a selfish and dead society. children are HUMAN BEINGS, they belong in human society. we tolerate a crying baby because they can grow up to be a doctor who saves lives, a farmer who grows food, a teacher, etc. Dogs will never stop uncontrollably shitting themselves

are these people going to rely on doggo when they get sick? they won't call an ambulance right? Those are staffed by humans. maybe they ought to stop eating food grown by humans too. also your dwelling. built by evil humans

side note: I see a lot of people saying they should be exempt from property taxes because "I shouldn't have to pay for other people's disgusting kids" but of course they want to be cared for by medical staff. the movement to abolish property taxes for people over 60 scares the hell out of me. how are they going to get educated if you refuse to invest in them? all anyone wants to do is take, take and take. sick, dying society.

like, why would I do a hold on an item you are offering me less than the listed price? Do people not understand that if you make special requests, asking for a discount on top of that is rude? You're telling me my time is worthless. I had a woman ask me for like 3 different measurements on a shirt she offered $1.40 for. The price of a candy bar. like no. I am not doing that.

Yes really

Our next door neighbors have 5+ dogs in the house who bark all the time. In addition, the dogs never go outside. My city has a barking ordinance. We've probably called the police a dozen times over it. They've actually came to our house just to tell us they refuse to do anything. "You need to call animal control"

We did and the animal control officer just said he doesn't handle any calls about barking. The dogs don't even have licenses and they never go outside so they shit and piss in the house and you can smell feces whenever you go outside.

I expected them to make up some excuse to cover for the dogs but I did not expect them to just say that dogs are exempt from the law. Going to try contacting my state rep's office next.

I was talking on the phone to my husband while he was out trucking and he mentioned reading a post about how the goth BDSM stuff is lame and uninteresting in a culture that is already cynical, misanthropic and worships death. This point has been made here far better than what I just said but it got me thinking about what IS actually subversive.

I am biased as a fuckcars sperg but here are my thoughts

Walking everywhere/hang out in public: in an age where you can see hundreds of videos of cops harassing people for suspiciously existing outside, I feel like just hanging out in public without burning fossil fuels, buying crap or waging is practically scandalous. I know when I biked and walked to work, I had fat people in SUVs scream at me all the time

Being kind to children and mothers: facebook normies fall over themselves to tell you how much they like dogs better than people. they think it's so quirky. they'll say "well people shouldn't bring their FILTHY kids into grocery stores if i can't bring my dog" as if they're trying to bargain somehow. When I see a mother with young children, I always try to smile and wave when it feels appropriate. frankly, they need more love. they are the future.

Leaving your phone at home when possible: it causes asocial behavior, it pings whatever flock cams are nearby. the less you have it, the less you're getting surveilled.

feel free to share anything you think of. also don't forget to eat your veggies and donate to the National Parks Service. it's what real badasses do. ✌️

See here https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/trump-says-xi-will-visit-us-september-24-2026-07-23/

This would be a perfect time to organize. this will be a very high profile event. anyone on Instagram talking about organizing protests? If so, please let me know. We can't miss this oppourtunity

>“Within 30 days I lost 20 pounds,” Kennedy said at an event in Michigan this week. “JD Vance is also on the diet and you can see how different he looks.”

>The diet is the brainchild of Dr. Sean O’Mara, who advises his high-profile patients to eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi, alongside grass-fed steak—and to abstain from alcohol and sugary food. 

>O’Mara says the diet leads to a reduction in visceral fat, which wraps around organs, as well as a more robust microbiome, which can help with digestion.

Why do we struggle with this so much? They're saying its the probiotics making them lose weight but I think it's because you're replacing high calorie food with pickled cabbage.

Americans think specific foods have magic powers that cause weight loss when they could just consume less calories overall. It's so embarrassing to watch people cope about this. "I went to europe and lost weight. what are they putting in our food?"

I mean no dude. You lost weight because you stopped snacking every 2 hours.

I usually enjoying helping people out and answering questions for them when I can. But I find it inconsiderate to massively lowball a nice item and then do that. I am sure someone will tell me this is just part of selling but I don't think it's fair to want below thrift store prices and also department store level of service.

If you're that anxious over something that's the price of a candy bar, just don't buy it.