Well, in a sense there was a sharply defined rule of engagement.

Eh... Sorta

And a good chunk of conflict was scientific ... "flag" waving over... well

Proxy wars though.

Hasn't really stopped

True

Is moral panic a more US/UK phenomenon or do you all have them too?

ohhh man

@apaul pretty bad here :(

Government is anti drugs, anti homosexual (unless you're rich and gay...)

we had one

well a couple ones

@JourneymanGeek Remind me, India? Sorry I think we talked about clothes styles from there.

Singapore

Ah sorry

Honest mistake to make

I've talked about culture more than country

@Magisch Germany?

yeah

it's all a bit more muted, people aren't as active and outraged here

@Magisch Here that you all have been having some nasty ones lately.

we have a lot of old conservative types but they've been accepting defeat on important social issues

yeah young people right wing populism is saddening

AFD has 45% in my town in the latest poll

looking at almost 20% in the state general elections

Yikes

Granted I'm not pro legalisation completely, drugwise but I think our approach (hang the trafficers haaaang) is a little less humane than it can be

we might actually get one of theirs as mayor next

the established parties arent helping this either

@JourneymanGeek is there actually a significant drug problem or is it just fear mongering?

@apaul hmm. More of the latter?

But also I'm not a fan of mandatory death penalties for crimes

Ya, I'm not a fan of the death penalty in general.

@Magisch At least you have more than 2 parties?

I guess

america is looking pretty bleak atm isn't it

@apaul ._.

I read an article that republicans are expected to further strenghten their control of house & senate in november

@Magisch Ya... It's been scary.

Singapore is essentially a single party state

all of china is a single party country

it's not actually a democracy by any solid definition of the word

@Magisch Both parties appear to be mobilizing their base around the recent supreme court nomination.

we have one GRC and one single member ward with the opposition, but the government decided to audit the opposition ward and their own town council sued the MPs... and I'm sure there's an election coming soon.

2019?

@apaul radio hosts have been making fun of it here for the past weeks

@JourneymanGeek bail?

@Magisch Same here.

@apaul more like imagine if a town sued its own mayor.

most journalists here find it both hilarious and a tad terrifying that america would appoint someone like him to the SC.

And there was an analysis piece of how they essentially expect both Roe v Wade and the recent gay marriage decision to be overturned if trump gets another appointee in in some way.

@JourneymanGeek There's a whole pile of suits against our sitting president...

@Magisch Yup.

seems like a dark couple of decades are coming for the US

I hear Canada is nice. It gets more and more tempting.

@apaul one of these days, I'll be brave enough to rant about the oddities of our system ;)

@Magisch no matter who wins. Don't forget one of the end results of this is really big social divides

is what I mean

not particularly happy about it because of course it also affects me, if the US struggles the rest of the west struggles with it

@JourneymanGeek I don't know how you do it. Challenging authority is such a given here.

@apaul you don't worry about politics.

You more or less are focused on surviving.

or fun stuff ;p

@JourneymanGeek Hard to do that when politics worries about you.

@apaul well the political system here is stable. Just that there's no plan B

And the people on top get out of touch

stable for anyone who doesn't deviate from the social norm too much

otherwise you're 500% screwed

@JourneymanGeek That's a universal.

@Magisch this.

@Magisch "fitter, happier, and more productive"

Umm...

Sounds like something out of an Orwell novel.

lol

No Comment ;p

I do, extremely indirectly, work for the government

Dunno America is pretty f'ed, but I know at a point I'm talking about Cadillac problems.

As in, I know it's bad, but I'm aware that a lot of places have it much worse.

well, its the place you gotta live in

@IPSCommentBot tp

@apaul a couple more years and then we're in the clear

@JourneymanGeek True, just seems a little entitled to whinge about supreme court justices when talking to someone who lives in a single party state.

@scohe001 nah, its not that simple

@scohe001 Eh...

especially with the SC appointment

@apaul we have a democracy. Just that no one else has a real chance of winning ;)

@spiralsucculent yea that doesn't help

But I'm thinking more of the new generation coming fully into their adulthood

@JourneymanGeek I see what you did there...

Give it another 5-10 years and none of your new hires will know what "dial-up" is

It'll be interesting to see how it shapes the country

All those internet babies

@scohe001 Generations have been saying that for generations. lol

@apaul lol fair enough. You don't think the internet makes it different this time?

@scohe001 it does, but we've yet to see whether it makes it better or worse.

@scohe001 Hey, even I know what that is.... in theory.

Not that I've ever touched one :P

"Young people are out of touch" every old generation ever

I even feel it creeping up inside me

@Magisch isn't it supposed to be "old people are out of touch with the current generation?"

that too

@apaul well here's to hoping. That's about the only thing we have left

@Mithrandir haha get outta here ya young whippersnapper

Just thinking that the internet allows people to come together and share ideas in an amazing way, but it also allows people come together and share ideas in an amazing way...

I feel like one of the worst parts of the digital age is that it's now easier then ever to hate on people

as much as it's memed I do think it's quite bad that it seems to be good sport now to attempt to hurt people as causticly as you can

Thats not something people do to your face because then most people feel a bit of empathy and refrain. But if you're just typing at a nickname ... it's easier. That doesn't mean the words cut less.

@Magisch People also had a reasonable fear of getting punched in the face

A feature that I really hope gets added at some point ;)

^jokes

There's also the echo chamber effect. It's easier now than ever to only talk to people who agree with you.

Yeah, the echo chamber effect is awful and it's perpetuated and strengthened by algorithms that make more money by showing stuff you've seen and/or liked before.

@El'endiaStarman Liked or were outraged by.

Yeah, you're not wrong. Stuff you had a strong reaction to, let's say.

@El'endiaStarman this right here. It's crazy the bubbles that people live in. John Oliver had a great piece about the scariness of getting news from Facebook. Apparently whole countries get free cellular data when they're using Facebook so they buy plans with no data and only use facebook for internet. Scary stuff.

@IPSCommentBot tp

what do tp and fp stand for?

true positive, false positive?

Caught correctly and caught incorrectly but I'm not sure why tp/fp were chosen

For more on this we turn to @Mithrandir

probably modelled after smokey :P

@doppelspooker does smokey also use tp/fp?

@IPSCommentBot fp

(that's the OP)

@scohe001 yes

@doppelspooker whole thread is tp in my opinion but to each their own. Looks like ips-bot isn't responding though, so none of that was recorded

If it isn't responding reboot it

@spiralsucculent correct

If it's not even responding to commands, ping me or TSM and one of us will eventually reboot it from the terminal

@IPSCommentBot tp

@Mithrandir gotcha, thanks!

It's so wonderful to see one of my suggestions actually be applied and succeeding! One user selected my answer and shared that it worked in their situation, and it's one I really relate to.

(pinging me seven times if there's an emergency is probably the easiest way to alert me that it's an emergency)

...as long as the SE app is working, that is

Anyway, sleep time, so even an emergency would have to wait until I woke up :P. Good night.

Good night :)

@ElizB Which one?

@ElizB this feeling of helping people is the greatest part of SE imo

@spiralsucculent absolutely!! I have experienced invalidation from my dad all my life so i know i take extra effort to find validation elsewhere

@Mithrandir yesss haha

That's a pretty good one, hard to pull off in practice, but a good approach.

I'm still working on the practice part with my dad ands I'm still getting anxiety attacks

@ElizB Are you still living with him?

@apaul no, I'm married and away from him. Still, hes demanding counseling and I'm only giving him one more and It's gonna be my playing field not his

@ElizB Ah. There's something to be said for not allowing people to have that much power over you... As in they can be awful, but not letting their awful touch your life/emotional-state.

@apaul still, easier said than done. :/

True

I'm doing my best to support my sister who recently decided shes not going back and forth with him and my mom, and my dad's still going bonkers over "losing" her and she's becoming even more resistant to talk to him, which I completely understand

Just something I picked up recently... Abuse doesn't necessarily stop when you're out of the situation, if the abuser is still living in your head and screwing with your thoughts.

I did the same when I was her age

@apaul that's what I'm working on with my counselor- how to get my dad out of my head

I'm still struggling

Sometimes forgiveness is more for you than if it is for them. Just something worth considering.

@apaul absolutely! I forgive him and I'm over that. I'm talking about additional drama he creates

@ElizB fair enough.

@apaul yeah, he just keeps making more drama on and off depending on his mood

Right now, he's quiet because he's realizing that he has more time on his hands to spend with his girlfriend

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