It’s not stupidity, it’s loyalty to the level of irrationality.

You’ll understand the current American right if you assume that they have no attachment to the meaning of their words, and the prime axiom they operate by is: “My team is always right”.

They use words as weapons to convince those who can be swayed by them, but they themselves are immune to being swayed by words, and largely indifferent to their literal meaning - only their emotional content.

This is not to deify the left, they have their own problems.

It’s horribly depressing, but the only people around to fight the actually evil people are slightly less evil people.

The only reason democrats, as a whole, are a better alternative to republicans is because they chose a different portion of the population to pander to in order to gain power.

It really fucking sucks.

This ruling is only possible and accepted because the current political climate allows for that, true. Things haven’t been fine for a while. But this is a sign that they keep getting worse.

I vehemently disagree with the idea that it’s a good thing to have “the curtain pulled back”. Realpolitik is and has been true forever - but public perception and acceptance matters a huge amount. These popular illusions and ideals are a part of the calculation of realpolitik.

Society should be idealistic, it should expect better - because those expectations shape the actions of politicians. Our society losing its ideals shouldn’t be applauded, it should be mourned.

You’re right that they could.

Now look at their past legislation. Will they?

You’re right, using this ruling in the way people fear it can be used would provoke a civil war.

Now, remind me, was there a large fraction of the US population frothing at the mouth at the idea of a civil war? Perhaps one with a complex the size of Alaska with regards to the previous US civil war? Hmm…

It sincerely feel absolutely insane. Completely beyond any party line bullshit - I’m almost as concerned with what Obama would do with this as what Trump would do with this.

This sort of ruling has no place in a democratic society. It is beyond reprehensible, it is utterly absurd.

The fact that it has been basically accepted by the general public - no riots, no large-scale outcry - sends a dire fucking message.

“May you live in interesting times”, indeed.

Yes! There’s so many cool apps on there! I wish the play store was similarly browsable.

That’s an extremely cool usecase! Thank you for sharing it, I might steal it!

I use Typewise, with its default hexagonal layout that’s supposedly based on the frequency of letters in English. I’ve gotten alright with it - ~60 WPM on Monkeytype, which is enough that it doesn’t feel clunky to use it. And it’s quite fun to practice, too!

While I’m pretty sure it’s quite possible to write faster with more predictive keyboards, I really appreciate the precision this one allows. Especially since I’m bilingual, which leads to autocorrect and swype getting quite confused sometimes.

I’m still in the market for a better keyboard app. Another interesting one I’ve tried was MessagEase. It looks really cool and arcane to use, but I found it to be slower in spite of me putting more effort into mastering it.

You can use most modern phones as a spirit level with the right app! It’s really useful when doing projects around the house, not having to run around to find a real one. Quite accurate, too!

Oh, I’m aware and I largely agree. I’ve got a nitecore Tini SS and it’s both adorable and really useful.

One thing I’ve found extremely useful is carrying a small headlamp around - specifically a Nitecore NU20. Having hands-free lighting is so handy. Although, come to think of it, I wonder if I could modify the Tini to serve that purpose…

Been doing this too! Embarrassingly I still need to refer to my washing machine manual occassionally.

It’s a really useful habit!

In a similar vein, I’ve also got a receipt scanner app - to make sure I’ve got 'em saved if I need to return or service something.

Cool list! I’ve taken to listening to music and videos with a sleep timer as well.

I wonder, what unusual things are you using a password manager for? Inputting common address data or something?

I had initially mentioned the custom keyboard app I was using. I have since edited the post to remove that, since I’m genuinely interested in people’s answers and don’t want them to think this is an ad.

Believe it or not, not every corner of the internet has been taken over by astroturfing as of yet!

I’m genuinely just sharing a cool keyboard app that has made my use-case far more fun for me. Another such app I used for a while was MessagEase, but unfortunately they went subscription-based (and also it was slower, even after a huge amount of practice).

This is definitely a huge one in my experience as well. Speech isn’t great at communicating visual detail. It’s amazing how the moment you start drawing you can just see it click in the other person’s mind.

I’ve never had a phone with a stylus before, but you make a good case for it!

The phone flashlight is absurdly useful to me. I think I end up using it almost every single day.

Another use that comes to mind is google lens. Really easy and quick translation, and it helps me figure out what various random items are called - thrifting finds or plants, for example.

A big part of that is that those bulbs are never turned off. Cycling power is actually a large part of what degrades them.

Northernlion. He’s still a cool person in my books, but the moment he started actively trying to maximize revenue is when he began to lose his appeal to me. Nick’s - RockLeeSmile’s - departure was the first warning bell, but I stuck with him for a long while after that.

I completely get it, though - he wants to ensure a good future for his family.

For the same reasons they always have.

The year has little to do with it. The only things we’ve really undeniably progressed in over the past century are scientific knowledge and the level of technology. Existential philosophy hasn’t exactly made breakthroughs recently, to my knowledge.

Each person still needs to find their own answer to the fundamental questions of “why am I here” and “wtf is death and how do I deal with it”.

Our mechanical, scientific understanding of reality provides fairly depressing answers to these questions. Religion? Sunshine and roses.

Also, on a more practical factor: childhood indoctrination and cultural inertia. Most people are raised in religion and they find it “good enough”, so religion continues.