I’ve recently made this decision with my lifelong closest friend. I’ve known about his changing views for a while but its really hard to let go of a friend I’ve had for 15 years. I justified it to myself because I wanted to make sure he had my perspective around and I thought he was starting to mellow out. Turns out he was just learning to avoid politics around his friends.

It came to a head when I moved to a new city and he stayed with me for 2 weeks. After hanging with my local friends for a year, I realized I was always avoiding the elephant in the room with him. When I introduced him to my friends, I realized I was really hoping he wouldn’t say anything crazy. I was really hoping my trans friend wouldn’t show up in case he decided to make that a focal point. He’s been “getting more religious” (dominionist, christo-fascist). And I can tell he’s still disguising himself even when we talk openly about politics and religion.

More recently, two other friends stayed with me for a week. They’re also long-time friends with the first guy. We all collectively realized that we were much more comfortable around each other than we were around him. I was excited to introduce them to my local friends. I never had to pick my words or hold my tongue. So I’m going low contact with him. It sucks but I can’t call someone a friend that has such fundamentally opposed values to my own. If it were just a difference in how much taxation is the right amount or how healthcare should be administered, I could look past it. But he’s gone pretty authoritarian and believes some of my other friends shouldn’t exist. I can’t reconcile that.

You’re a good Joe

When people refer to metal balls as ball bearings. A ball bearing is an assembly of outer ring, inner ring, balls, and a cage/retainer. I worked in bearing manufacture for years and they’re just referred to as balls. To be more specific, it would be a bearing ball, not a ball bearing.

Let’s go Justin!

My brother is a linesman for a power company in upstate SC. He also moonlights as an arborist. He’s been busy. He told me that if the power company didn’t get out of state help, it would have taken them 8 months to fully restore power.

You just equated blocking c/politics with being broadly pro status quo. You can be politically engaged and active and not like the discussions on c/politics.

Per-capita figures are on the right. I think this metric should be given the bar chart.

What pests are wasps and hornets killing? The wasps and hornets *are" the pests to me.

It’s a stupid, conspiratorial accusation, but it would matter. The point of the debate is to get a sense of how a candidate performs off the cuff. They weren’t allowed any notes or materials. If a team was feeding her bullet points, that would deceptively give her an advantage in the debate.

Hey I have the stereo on the bottom.

2:46 “am I not speaking clearly?”

I just checked mine and it has no permissions. How is it collecting everything?

In Chicago, I started the night with a clear view of the Sears tower. Throughout the night it became more obscured until I couldn’t see any of it.

Let’s say my name is Jerry. I’m a little short but not a lot. My work hired another dude named Jerry and he was absolutely massive. At least 400 lbs. So he became big Jerry and I became little Jerry. I attempted to just be Jerry but they were having none of that.

I used to binge growling sidewinder videos. I bought a HOTAS that I haven’t even opened because of those videos.