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You know, you’re never going to change that map if you tell everyone living in one of those red states that their home is part of “dumbfuckistan.”

if they say they don’t care what pronouns I use for them

I’m taking it at face value then and using whatever I think is appropriate. There’s no point in wasting time playing games with this.

I’m sure it is, but when you throw in property taxes, insurance, HOA dues, PMI, and the big one: maintenance costs (which will vary dramatically on a case-by-case basis), comparing mortgages to rent becomes an apples-to-oranges comparison. For me personally, I spent $50k in the first six months of owning my home on maintenance & repairs alone. That could have paid for 2+ years of rent. Not to mention the ~$30k or so you’ll pay to sell it if you’re only going to be there for a few years.

Keep in mind too that the mortgage interest deduction is now capped at the first $750k. For people in HCOL areas, that’s starting to become a fairly low limit.

But yeah, I’m with you on the sense of stability is worth something too and that’s hard to put a dollar figure on. Most people want that stability, but there’s also people that want flexibility or may move around a lot such that buying a home every other year doesn’t make sense. My overall point is that it’s not always cheaper to buy and that renters can and do come out ahead, especially when they’re also investing excess funds appropriately.

For sure, I’m not trying to say that buying a house is a bad idea by any means, just that for some people you can rent and still come out ahead of a homeowner. It seems like people always compare a mortgage payment to their rent and think “wow, owning is so cheap compared to my rent!” and then forget about all the other costs associated with owning that can easily result in monthly costs double that mortgage rate. For example, I pay much more for my house now than I did when I was renting. Yes, it’s building equity but if I took the difference in costs and invested it in index funds over the long term could easily be equal to or exceed money earned from property appreciation. Plus, index funds are far more liquid than real estate is and I never have the mow the lawn of my portfolio. But on the other hand the stability and sense of ownership in a home is worth something as well which is harder to put a dollar figure on. If that’s worth something (as it is to me) then buying is likely worth the premium.

Buying is not always cheaper than renting. You’re on the hook for closing costs, ongoing maintenance, property taxes, insurance, HOA dues, PMI, etc. Then if you’re only living somewhere for a few years you have to pay real estate agent fees to sell. Depending on length of ownership it can very easily be cheaper to rent. Plus you can’t just up and leave like you can at the end of a lease. Renting is far more flexible and that’s attractive for some people.

There’s also something to be said for paying more to live in a house rather than an apartment for the reasons you listed, but the same math above applies to renting vs. buying a single family home, or some other standalone housing.

Junior dev: “I fucked up bad, I’m so fired”

Senior dev: " I have 3 production outages named after me lol"

Source: https://twitter.com/CarlaNotarobot/status/1481458190722207747

Do you have anything of substance to add here or are you just going to continue replying “wrong” to everyone you disagree with as if your opinion is the absolute arbiter of truth?

I have to re-auth with AWS every goddamn hour and enter a 2fa code for every. single. command. I run from the CLI. It drives me up a fucking wall even though I have it entirely scripted now. Another great example of how overly tight security leads to worse security as people try to bypass it.

Toyota and Honda have the reputation for being the most reliable. I would add Subaru to the list as well out of my personal experience.

Although, I think the best investment a car owner can make is a basic set of tools and the time to learn to do repairs/maintenance yourself. I started by doing my own oil changes and, at first, it wasn’t cheaper at all with needing to buy the tools, but in the years since I think I’ve become quite a handy mechanic and have saved tens of thousands by doing everything myself. There are repair videos online for virtually everything so it’s pretty easy to get started with basic stuff and work your way up from there as needed for your car.

Does writing music about alcohol necessarily mean an artist has alcohol problems? Buffett died from skin cancer.

To add one more option as well: In even more limited cases, a fanbase is dedicated enough to rewrite the entire game into free software like with OpenRCT2. I don’t know if I’d really call this a “mod” per se since it’s an entirely new implementation, but the end goal of changing/customizing the gameplay remains the same.

Is there any reason to be concerned?

No.

Or should I be excited for faster 5G speeds?

Yes.

That’s pretty much every social platform now. I got first suspended from reddit for “harassment” for telling someone trying to scam me out of money to “fuck off” and then permanently banned when I appealed the suspension. 13 year old reddit account, gone. Meanwhile, the scammer’s account is still active and scamming people.

I now run my own personal Lemmy instance.

Here you go: https://lemmy.ml/comment/2381016

Contact info and a template for this very issue.

Sure, but what exactly does this video reveal? All I got out of it was that they have a helicopter with various cameras and radios to communicate with. I’d hardly call that “revealing state trooper surveillance capabilities, tactics, and communications.” Is it really something that’s not already common knowledge?

That’s a false equivalency. Gay sex is an act between consenting adults. I’ll copy what I wrote in another comment in this thread on the issue of blocking a highway:

In the case of this road thing, my concern stems from people, at night, flooding onto a highway. There’s a good chance multiple people are hit, and killed at those speeds, possibly involving multiple vehicles, maybe a semi-truck. Even the drivers of the cars could be hit by other cars and hurt themselves. Short of that, you have the psychological toll to live with of having accidentally killed someone. It’s really just a bad idea all around on top of not being an effective protest method. For those reasons, I do believe the police acted appropriately to show up, and arrest the people doing it.

That’s alright, I still like you.

I know I said I was out, but I wanted to say thanks for a thoughtful reply. I’m always happy to have discourse without vitriol so I’ll add some more thoughts here.

I think you are being absurd, because our democracy is in critical danger, and you’re worried about a road.

For the record, I’m not at all downplaying the corruption and illegality of the Trump administration. I wholeheartedly support the current criminal court cases going against him and, while I believe all defendants are innocent until proven guilty (doing otherwise would be to turn our backs on one of the tenants of a functioning democracy), I do hope to see him convicted of his crimes once proven in a court of law. I could write a lot more here, but I think we’re basically on the same page with this so I’ll spare the full sermon on the dangers of MAGAism.

In the case of this road thing, my concern stems from people, at night, flooding onto a highway. There’s a good chance multiple people are hit, and killed at those speeds, possibly involving multiple vehicles, maybe a semi-truck. Even the drivers of the cars could be hit by other cars and hurt themselves. Short of that, you have the psychological toll to live with of having accidentally killed someone. It’s really just a bad idea all around on top of not being an effective protest method. For those reasons, I do believe the police acted appropriately to show up, and arrest the people doing it.

On the topic of police, in general this is a difficult topic for me that I honestly don’t really feel qualified to speak on generally so I typically stay silent on it. That’s not because of an unwillingness to help but because I don’t believe in speaking on topics that I don’t feel qualified to speak on. You’re right that I’ve never had bad experiences with police to the point that I felt their actions were unethical or illegal. In fact, in my life I’ve personally known a handful of police officers and each one of them I found to be ethical people who wanted to live peaceful lives and do the right thing with their job. But I also recognize there are many instances of problematic (to put it lightly) policing and have seen many instances in the news demonstrating that. I also recognize that, in general, humans in positions of power tend to abuse that power. That’s why civilian oversight and accountability of police is paramount. That’s something that’s clearly lacking currently given the strength of police unions, as one example. Overall, I think it’s a system that needs reform, but I wouldn’t go so far as to throw out the whole system because what would it be replaced with? You can’t have a society without some way to enforce laws (like enforcing illegal and dangerous protests), but you also can’t have a police state. That’s what I mean by there’s a difficult nuance here, but I also recognize that I don’t know what that is and why I’m hesitant to even type this up right now. That’s also not to diminish your experiences, I’m sure they’re just as valid as mine, likely moreso given your experiences and my comparative lack thereof. I’d be happy to learn more about them if you want to share.

Calling people “fuckers”, “chodes”, etc. is part of my vernacular, as with many others of my generation; you shouldn’t take it so hard. The point isn’t to degrade you, but to snap your attention.

I’ve been on the internet for long enough to have been called much worse names many times before, I have a pretty thick skin at this point (see the other person on this thread telling me how I’m a fucktard and no one likes me, again, as if that’s going to accomplish anything). My point here was though that text based communication carries a negativity bias with it. In that we tend to assume bad intent and starting with language like that only serves to immediately make folks retreat to their corners where no constructive dialog can be made. Ultimately your goal is to sway more people to your side, right? The most effective way to do that is to engage with them rather than use what is traditionally considered offensive language in an attempt to get their attention.

In short, my general view is that the best, and really only, way to preserve democracy is to support its institutions. Those same institutions that told Trump “no” when he tried to falsely claim he won the 2020 election. I know they’re not perfect, but tearing down those institutions instead of reforming and strengthening them is not the way to preserve a democracy in times of trouble. Call me naive and idealistic, maybe I am, but at the end of the day governments are based on the faith of the people that live under them. I have to maintain my faith in America’s democratic institutions because without that faith they crumble and die which is exactly what neither of us want to see happen.

Protest SHOULD be disruptive, like strikes, which actually affect change! While those protesting (actual patriots, take notes) are risking their lives (literally), you’re slightly inconvenienced.

Sure, strike all you want. That’s not putting yourself and drivers on a highway in danger. Or shining a laser into a helicopter blinding the pilot while flying over a populated area. Indeed these people are risking their lives, but also putting other’s lives at risk too, especially when doing this stunt at night in the middle of an active highway. It’s not just a slight inconvenience, it’s stupid, misplaced, and irresponsible.

But alright my man, if that’s how you feel so be it, it’s your prerogative to be angry and call the people that would otherwise support your cause a “chode” and telling them to “fuck off” multiple times. The reason we’re in this situation is because of the anger and extremism. You know, I used to have a harder line on all of this stuff too, but after spending time having real conversations with people I disagreed with came around to realize that internet discourse is pure sensationalism and doesn’t reflect the real world. If we could turn down the volume then this extremism on both sides would not be necessary. Fighting fire with fire is always a losing game for both sides.

If you’d be willing to have an open mind for 15 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVV2Zk88beY

Anyway, I’m out. I came to this community for tech privacy issues, but it’s quickly turning into conspiracy and political theater so I unjoined it entirely. Take care.

No, the point is that there are not effective ways to protest anymore, by design!

There is no one stopping you from protesting peacefully and without public disruption (like blocking roads) just as people in decades past did. What the people did in this video was clearly illegal and the police were correct to arrest those responsible. That’s not defending “the police state,” it’s recognizing that a group of people were doing something clearly illegal and being arrested for it accordingly without, from what I can tell form the video, excessive use of force.

You can sit by and watch the country crumble and succumb to corruption.

Lawlessness is not the answer. That includes blocking highways, assaulting the US Capitol, whatever. These are matters for the courts to decide based on rule of law. Which by the way, in this situation threw out every single one of Trump’s challenges to the election. You’re allowed to be jaded, but don’t confuse that with throwing out the entire system instead of attempting to fix its ills in a constructive way.

But sure, call me a “chode” for having a nuanced take on something and understanding that the world is not black and white. Insulting people is a wonderful way to sway opinion. Let’s turn down the toxicity here.