Zero plastic doesn’t need to be a goal. There has rarely if ever been a more versatile and useful material. Delivering food and medicine to humanity would be impossible if we all woke up tomorrow without plastic.

So it’s more a case of judicious use:

1. use when no feasible alternative exists (not just because plastic is most convenient)
2. invest in effective recycling and recovery programs, including total incineration - AND (important) make sure the cost of this is shifted upstream to the manufacturers of plastics

There will be many cases where “no feasible alternative exist” and that will mean “it is prohibitively costly to do it with glass and steel.” I think that is really your questions. The answer is yes, sometimes plastic is actually best.

But I’d feel much more comfortable deciding that for a given use case IF #2 actually existed. Under current conditions, there may be no reasonable use of plastic at all.

Depression isn’t “feeling sad.” It has a lot of symptoms people do t commonly associate with it, including irritability and lack of motivation.

You’re asking why the state doesn’t exercise your rights for you instead of waiting for you to exercise them.

On the one hand, I see your point. Just make it all part of the process. On the other hand, I have no illusions that rights and representation are going to be brought to me on a silver platter and defended by someone else on my behalf.

They very least that any citizen must be prepared to do is invoke the rights they have. It would be great if we didn’t have to. But a lot of things would be great.

Normal journalism requires backbone.

I’m saying that references are more convincing than the condescending exhortation to “go read a book.” I’m also saying that if you persist in flogging people with the claim that you’ve read more than them, it won’t be long before you’re asked to show one bit of evidence for that. You can’t just run around saying “you’re wrong! I’ve read books that say so!”

It’s a huge assumption on your part that they believed it. It was and it remains an instrument of control. They took considerable editorial liberties, too, with the supposed word of god.

Anyway, even if they believed it that is STILL NOT EVIDENCE. The position that the Bible is evidence is incredibly weak. If you want to keep arguing that position, you’re going to have a very hard time and then lose.

You gonna keep using that “crack a book” line repeatedly without citing any references? It’s getting tired.

I can show you a book about Hobbits and the dark lord Sauron and it doesn’t prove they exist.

Atheists don’t make any claim. They do not claim there is no god. They simply do not hold a belief in a god. If there were any reason to believe in one, any evidence for one, we would of course believe.

So really, there are just normal people interacting with the world as it comes, and religion, making up wild shit about what’s happening up in the sky.

The church has been a political power throughout history, and has often come into conflict with other political powers, such as totalitarian dictators. It is utterly disingenuous to claim that this has anything to do with atheists. It’s about the state eliminating the church and their message as a competing institution and influence.

You should be able to understand that a totalitarian dictator attacking religion as a competing institution, in order to consolidate his power, says more about totalitarian dictators and absolutely nothing about atheists.

But only one of them is making a claim. Theists claim there is a god. The burden of proof / unproof is on them. Really it’s pretty insulting to posit that such a fantastical cosmic being exists, and not be able to offer any evidence for it whatsoever.

I’ve done the BM thing he describes and he hasn’t. I absolutely laugh at his begrudging approval. And uh, I guess I have respect for the cable TV watching he did that week? Is that the appropriate thing to say ;D

I can’t believe they pay musicians shit but they paid Joe Rogan $100M. What the hell kind of priorities are those.

Inviting someone out on your yacht is one thing, but furnishing them with luxury gifts is another. I’m not sure I can explain why. But rich friends need to know how to toe that line.

I’m like you. Not everyone is though. Or they might think they are, and the second they perceive any kind of sleight from the person they’ve showered with free gifts to enjoy, the resentment comes out: “after all I’ve done for you, how dare you [whatever].”

To be fair, this can come as a surprise to the gift giver too. People often legit aren’t aware that their heart is building up expectations as they do “nice things just to be nice.”

Oh they did. Having worked as an editor in a newsroom I can assure you that the cheeky headline is never, ever accidental and the person who wrote it is always, always stroking themselves over how clever they are. They live for this shit.

For years Israel has been running around the world, waving their foes statements about “pushing Israel into the sea” as a call to arms against atrocity.

And now here they are, committing that very atrocity. But genocide seems inevitable when your stated goal is to be an ethnostate.

Your choices, as you’ve presented them, are so extreme. Cut your dad off forever and move out, or… do nothing?

Let’s set your mom’s demands aside for a second. Do you have any reaction to him cheating on his wife? How do you feel about that?

You should act based on how you feel about it. And if your mom is incredibly wounded by it, that can absolutely be a factor in how you feel. “Wow dad you really hurt mom. That sucks.”

I’d think that cheating on your mom should have SOME effect on you. You say your relationship with Dad hasn’t changed. Is that true? Or is it only true in comparison to your mom’s extreme demands?

Basically, stop playing this like it’s all black or all white and realize that you have a million ways to react to this situation that are in the middle somewhere.

You’re not a bad person for not moving out immediately. You actually might be a bad person if you have absolutely no problem with the cheating. But you can disapprove of the cheating and still have a good relationship with your dad.

I’ll tell you right now that your Dad has rediscovered sex after aging a bunch and perhaps feeling like he’d never experience it again. That is a powerful experience for him and he won’t easily cast it aside. If you value your relationship with him, I wouldn’t try to take that away from him. He’ll react like a dog when you try to take away the steak it’s eating.

But you can disapprove of the cheating and still have a good relationship with your dad. That seemed worth saying twice. He should listen to you if you think it was wrong. He should listen to you if you are upset that he hurt your mom.

If you really just absolutely don’t care about your mother or the cheating… I don’t know what to say about that. It seems pretty cold and inhuman.

It does seem like AI will be way more useful for finding security holes than preventing them.

I’m no longer all that fascinated by the fact that they will follow “their guy” in circles and then straight off a cliff. It’s just gross.