The An-225 was designed to carry 253 tons about 2500 miles. This aircraft needs to carry just 75 tons, and could get away with about a 1000 mile range.

This is not supposed to be a superheavy airlifter. Supersized, yes, but wind turbine blades are very light for their size.

Nor can communism.

Ahem…

Yes.

Why don’t I ever get the fucking sniper rifle?

Broken Clock.

We “tend to turn a blind eye to it” because “cultural problem” is primarily used as a racist dog whistle.

If your intention was to point at the underlying cause, you need to be talking about systematic impoverization, lack of generational wealth, devaluation of labor, etc.

Waffle Stomp!

and part of that is that adults absolutely do buy stupid status symbols to flex on each other.

Exactly. And when they do, we don’t say “Well, that’s just what humanity does”.

We say “Despise these covetous pricks”.

The alternative is some variety of private mortgage insurance. The insurer bets that housing prices will rise, so that you won’t default. If you do default, they reimburse the lender on their losses associated with your default.

I use “philosophy” to mean one’s individual, personal relationship with reality: how they choose to interact with the world around them. I understand this is a somewhat atypical use. There is probably a better word for that concept. It eludes me at this time.

As I used the term, “Christian teachings” (etc.) would only qualify as a philosophy if the individual actually adheres to those tenets. If not, those teachings are just a work of fiction.

There certainly are “striking similarities” throughout the the populace and time. My point is that we don’t need to accept, excuse, explain, or tolerate those widespread behaviors simply because they are widespread. As I see it, “Human nature” is a slightly more egalitarian synonym for “boys will be boys”.

What’s the culture where people don’t covet meaningless status symbols?

While there are numerous examples of such philosophies and cultures around the globe, I don’t actually need to identify such a culture to demonstrate my point.

If one can remain human without engaging in this behavior, this behavior is not a characteristic of the human condition.

The question before you is whether the members of such a hypothetical culture are inhuman specifically because they do not engage in that covetous behavior.

The abhorrent behaviors being described are conditions of ideas held by certain members of the species. The species is not lessened by the rejection of such ideas. The “certain members” are lessened by their adherence to those ideas.

Don’t pretend we’ve ever been better than that as a species.

Will you make the argument that people who refuse to follow such fashion trends are somehow inhuman?

If you are unwilling to make such an argument, I will not accept your premise that this is a trait of the “species”.

What you (and the parent comment) are describing is a characteristic of certain childish behaviors, philosophies and cultures.

The sophomoric behavior of these geriatric children is not an indictment of humanity in general.

Those aren’t adults. Those are geriatric children.

Yes. The relevant metric:

99.55% of posts are on a single instance. That is not “federated” in any meaningful sense.

I’m home now, but if someone is going to give me a 10 minute warning, I won’t be when they get here.

Or, and hear me out: I can drive off, flip them the bird, and go down to one of the other 15 fast food places within a 5 minute drive, that doesn’t use a speech recognition AI to take my order.

The fucking taco bell AI likes to ask if I would like anything else, then ask if I want nacho fries. Then, hearing “No”, go ahead and add them anyway.

Then it likes watching me drive away, giving the store the finger.

Apocryphal.

Supposedly, “No va” means “no go”, or “It doesn’t run” in Spanish.

It’s largely a myth. The Nova actually sold very well in Latin American countries.

Romeo and Juliet laws are fairly common. 24 states allow a 2 to 5 year age difference. AFAIK, federal law allows up to a 4-year age difference.

The other 26 seem kinda stupid. Two kids can be in the same class and dating since 6th grade, but for 6 months in their senior year, it’s rape. How does that make sense?