I have a couple good rules of thumb.

What are the experts saying? Not the loud people, the experts. Incredible news would have them talking.

Would the reverse of an idea also be true? If the president is responsible for high gas prices, do people agree he’d be responsible for low ones?

Does the idea try to make me feel? If there’s clear emotional intent in a story, the facts are probably being shaped to fit the narrative.

Do I see evidence of the widespread problem here? Should I? I remember an article about a couple who flew short hops across the US, and they said at every stop the story was “things are horrible everywhere, we’re just lucky they’re good here.”

Do I hear people using the same talking points, but they get confused when you ask for details? Often this is a story made to make you feel, not think.

They’re a lot like american seperatists, but with a large bank roller behind them (russia).

I agree with both of you in principle, but who really had N Korea troops in meat wave assaults on their 2024 bingo cards?

I am personally looking for a few things that will concern me about escalation:

• Japan and Finland making active land claims to Russia (actively reoccupying disputed land with troops)

• Europe putting peace keepers in Western Ukraine (which will create a casus belli for war with Russia), specifically France and the UK. I mean, Poland as well, but if Poland says they are putting peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, Russia should either back off or assume war.

• South Korean troops in Ukraine. (Ridiculous given their current chaos, but stranger things have happened in the last year).

Other than that, the russian frog has been very well boiled for 3 years. Even China has probably gone back to the drawing board on a taiwan invasion, and added a delay until 10 millions drones are available.

I do have concerns trump will pull the us back in europe, making the second item above possible if not likely. The first trump presidency shook us primacy in europe, and the second may see it start to unravel. If europe has to take russia alone, the us should consider china a personal problem from now on (as well as any other concerns not near europe), as no one will see value in going to war with a fair-weather ally.

Lemmy is slowly accumulating mass - I’d really love it if we gained a number of strong niche communities, but didn’t turn into a reddit due to mass influx.

Yes, because I have fixed goals that are for what I consider the greater good of humanity, and an unlimited amount could be spent on them.

Here’s a fun tidbit, I used to deal with ambulance billing. Most places would try to hang back on submitting their bills, because the first to submit would hit the insurance deductible, and it was unsure if that portion would be paid.

Flight services bill as quickly as possible, out of concern of hitting a billing cap, because after, say, $100,000 on a bill, some policies stop paying.

Well how long would I have to give one of them up for?

Such great art… support his patreon if you can!

That’s on purpose, the site asks not to be indexed. Oglaf is like cool sites in the 90’s, you had yo hear about them.

We’ll be doing oglaf.com soon at this rate.

1/3 is infinite in decimal form, as a more common example. 0.333333333….

I love finding an oglaf in the wild

Speaking of, when are we getting more Andor… maybe with some sweet crossover action with Din Djarin, they can call it The Andorlorian!

…that was a joke, please stop looking at me like that

You could just call yourself a Sparent.

Well that just, like, your opinion, man.

I’ve noticed my passions aren’t as sudden, but they burn deeper and longer.

You count on them for support, I’m guessing. The only way cleanly getting out is to be able to accept the consequence they may set of cutting you off if you fail to uphold their beliefs. This is a people problem, not a religious problem, and religious people are as bad as the next person.

They’re running the football beside the guard.

Some of you probably don’t know about http://www.oglaf.com/ but should, because sex and comedy go so well together.