That’s still the purpose of the second amendment, for people to own guns to defend themselves and others against tyranny

It isn’t, and has never been. The language of the constitution is plain as day:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

The mythos of the 2nd amendment being this poison pill for a tyrannical state government is only so pervasive because institutions like the NRA perpetuated it for decades in service of arms manufacturers and their bottom line. No sane government anywhere in the world would bake such a clause into their constitution, it’s antithetical to government itself.

The 2nd amendment is absolutely an artifact of a bygone era of American history where, as a fledgling nation, we did not have a powerful standing army to rely on for defense against foreign adversaries. A people’s militia was the final defense against such a threat.

However, all that being said, I agree with your sentiment that leftists should be arming themselves. Just because the 2nd amendment has almost completely lost it’s original intent or meaning, doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of the fact that it exists with tons of legal precedent to strap up in preparation for what might come next. Things are unlikely to get better from here, and if things get worse you will be glad you have a firearm for protection.

Former non-water drinker here.

I was addicted to caffeinated/carbonated sodas. I never had any problems drinking almost exclusively diet coke for a long time. My caffeine consumption was well over the FDA recommendation for maximum daily intake.

I would still drink water, especially when doing sports or exercise, but it wasn’t my go-to for hydrating myself throughout the day.

Several times in my life, I quit drinking them, but I would always circle back around to it because I missed the taste more than anything, and I had never noticed any kind of significant health benefit to stopping.

Recently some months ago, I was having some pretty severe bladder issues. Sudden onset urge to urinate. Like going from 0-100 in a racecar, the rapid urgency was the main issue. One minute I was fine and if you asked if I needed to use the bathroom I’d say “Nah”, and then 5 minutes later I’m literally dancing my way to the nearest toilet to just barely make it in time, like literally almost peeing my pants it was that bad.

Went to the doctor about this, obviously, and that was when he told me that the extreme caffeine intake is causing irritation in my bladder and diagnosed me with Overactive Bladder Syndrome. I was instructed to completely cut out caffeine from my regular drinking habits, no tea or sodas, but I could have a cup of coffee in the morning to get me going, although initially I would want to quit cold turkey to purge my system of caffeine and let my bladder settle down. So water it was. Within about a month, I started to feel more regular again and I didn’t need to rush to pee as often and when I did I could hold it for longer periods of time.

Now I pretty much drink only water all the time. I take a big 54oz jug with me to work and refill it towards the end of the work day. I’ll have a cup of coffee now and then in the mornings on weekdays, but I try not to make a habit of it, and I’ll have a sip of a soda at the movies or something, but I don’t even miss the taste of cola anymore. Occasionally I will buy the flavored waters at the grocery store just to get the carbonated experience, but I can’t drink those all the time. Water is great, it just takes forever to get your brain used to the idea that not everything you put in your body needs to have flavor. It’s super refreshing to get the filtered water pitcher right from the fridge, maybe pour it over a glass of ice, and drink it straight that way.

In short, chugging sodas never used to bother me at all, but I guess as I’m getting older my body is just not having that shit anymore. Just like how I can’t eat straight junk food and not gain any weight like when I was a teenager, my metabolism has finally caught up with me on my soda/caffeine addiction and I had to cut that out too. I realize that I am better off now for it and I’m going to try and keep up the good habit I’ve started to form and keep drinking water.

Thx brah

Thank fucking christ. Now hopefully the AI bubble will burst along with it and I don’t have to listen to techbros drone on about how it’s going to replace everything which is definitely something you do not want to happen in a world where we sell our ability to work in exchange for money, goods and services.

Cancelling a pre-loaded pride event because you’re scared of right wing nutcases being mean to your playerbase is the very definition of letting the terrorists win.

The NRA never actually gave a shit about any of that. It was always a front for gun lobbyists to stoke fear so people would stockpile more weaponry that they definitely didn’t need while also promoting the American political faction that would be less likely to pass gun control legislation that would harm their bottom line.

Republicans were just useful idiots. They do not care if Trump is an oppressive tyrant as long as he doesn’t even think about the word gun control. If tomorrow the positions on gun control reversed, you’d see a flip-flop so Orwellian it would make you question your concept of objective reality.

Can ChatGPT actually play chess now? Last I checked, it couldn’t remember more than 5 moves of history so it wouldn’t be able to see the true board state and would make illegal moves, take it’s own pieces, materialize pieces out of thin air, etc.

I see you’ve never met a narcissist before. They are bad enough when you have to interact with them in your daily life, and I feel sorry for people who had to grow up with one as a parent. Letting multiple narcissists be in charge of the government has proven to be one of the worst decisions Americans have ever collectively made.

I thought it was funny, but maybe they have a point? I didn’t even realize I was on the memes community, I just assumed this was on lemmyshitpost. I guess it’s a stretch to call this joke a meme.

Fresh wounds always hurt the worst. This sounds like it just happened. You are obviously going to need time to emotionally move on from a failed relationship.

My advice is to distract your brain from the event in the short term. Play with your pets, go see a movie, hang out with your friends, eat some ice cream, focus on your creative hobbies. When this sort of thing happened to me when I was younger, I would flip it around and use my newfound single status as a positive - I can enjoy the foods and activities that I knew my ex-partner didn’t like, I didn’t have to plan my schedule around making time to see them and include them in stuff, and I just generally enjoyed the liberating feeling of being single, even though it still hurt to lose someone so close that I had been so attached to. By the time I started to feel like the feeling of being single was losing it’s appeal, I was emotionally ready to move on and meet new people.

In short, just give it more time. Distract your brain. In time, this too will pass.

My opinion has also shifted over time, but not quite in the way I expected. I was also very anti-gun and pro-gun control, and maybe you can make an argument that I was being naive or that I’ve succumbed to the decades-long conservative culture war, but I feel like things have gotten so bad that we can’t possibly rely on the police or the military to be able to effectively protect us in times of crisis anymore.

Seems like cops are more likely to shoot you than help you these days, and the military might be under the control of someone competent, or under the control of a fascist demagogue who replaces all the generals with incompetent yes-men, which is a huge national security threat for a disarmed populace. Also, the government using the military against it’s citizens (or non citizen residents) is definitely not off the table - no matter what pretty words the soldiers said about defending the constitution, a lot of them are in bed with the folk who want to exterminate “the enemy within”.

Maybe if we had more stability we could make a push for more restrictive gun laws, but I don’t think it’s politically feasible for either party at this point to make any such suggestion. The tragic part is that mass shootings will continue unabated until we find a way to counteract them without touching on the subject of gun control.

Be aware of your surroundings. This is not just a safety thing for yourself, but a courtesy thing for other people.