I have not once had a friend ask me these sorts of questions. You need to make different friends.

Young people are struggling with mental health and relationships, but there are small shifts in beliefs and behaviors that could help.

Gotta disagree here. They always sell the “quick fix”, but the reality is that changing your beliefs about the world is no small thing.

Thank God someone in this thread actually knows how HOAs work.

Look up “polarizing” as a dating strategy. You don’t have to attract everyone. Just the people who are into what you’re into.

I’m confused as to what your objection is.

Not really. I’d say that most fetishes heavily favor one gender or another.

Removed by mod

Removed by mod

Who said it isn’t working?

No, but a lot of women are really into giving pleasure to their partners, whatever that might entail (within boundaries). So if a guy is really into feet and shows it, there’s a decent chance his partner will get off on indulging his fetish. Plus, I assume foot fetishists give the best foot massages.

For all the reasons others have described, this is problematic. However, I propose a middle ground: develop permanent, reversible, side-effect-free birth control, and apply it to every child at 10 years old. When you turn 18, you can have it removed. You just need to show up at a government office, sign a form, and have the procedure completed. It is completely free, and you are out the door in an hour. The treatment can be reapplied at any time.

What happens? No more accidental pregnancies. No more getting knocked up in high school. No more scares after one night stands. No more becoming impregnated by a rapist. Everyone can fuck to their heart’s content, but babies only get made if both people actually want a baby. Most of the problems you are talking about typically occur when either one or both of the parents don’t want or weren’t expecting a child. Make pregnancy opt-in, and you’ll solve 90% of the problems.

Ooh, I’ll beat your unpopularity here.

Cycling on the sidewalk in suburban areas is often safer than cycling on the road, and should not be discouraged.

I mean, why would anyone want to live in Venezuela as a life choice? Typically, those who would really like to leave don’t have the means to, and those who have the means to leave don’t have a real reason to. This current shake up is concerning, but you have to also understand that most people’s lives don’t revolve around the actions of the federal government. They revolve around the social connections they’ve made, the physical things they own or have built, and the places that they know and call home. Leaving means losing all of those things. And my perspective, as a blue tribe member in the US, is that most of my friends are watching this unfold with a worried grimace, but with an assumption that we’ll oust the dumbass from office in the next election and begin the work of rebuilding what he broke. In the meantime, they are worried about raising their kids, fixing up their houses, building their businesses or advancing in their careers, going on dates and finding partners, staying fit and healthy, and all the other things people really tend to spend their time thinking about.

Removed by mod

Big shout out for enumerating questions. Makes it clear you need an answer for each one. Makes it easier to follow up if you need more info on a particular question. Makes it easier to pester the person with “hey, I need an answer to 2 by EOD or project deadlines will be significantly impacted” (copied to your PM).

People’s poor reading comprehension is annoying. But the right move is to do everything you can to get the answers you need, creating a polite paper trail as you go. Usually the other person will get you the info you need sooner if you pester them enough, with the implied threat that you are building a case against them if the project is delayed. Because if they don’t answer your questions in a timely fashion when you do everything possible to get the answers you need, it is their fault.

Sure, but other religions do this too?

According to the article I linked, it seems to be due, in part, to aggressive proselytizing. But also possibly due to (in no particular order): Christians having more pro-social values than alternative belief systems at the time, those pro-social values resulting in better plague survivability, or their pro-natalist stances. There are all sorts of possibilities, and it is quite interesting. But Christians before the time of Christian Rome were certainly not out conquoring other people - at least not at scale. They weren’t that powerful.

Why Christianity became the superpower religion it did is quite debatable. But it probably wasn’t through all that much violence. The violence happened later.