I agree with all you said. I just wanted to say as a Canadian that I still like a lot of Americans. I hate your political parties and many of the decisions they have made in my 44 years, but a lot of Americans do as well. Your country is being fucking savaged by your new leaders right now and I have no clue what the future holds. I do hope that our two nations can resume a relationship that has been one of the best/most productive in history once you folks have figured out how to deal with your presidents Musk and Trump.

Oh yeah buddy, big win for Trump there. This picture from this post is applicable:

Canada gave up nothing, we just reiterated our commitment to the exact same promises already made before Trump was even in power. The only thing this pointless, unnecessary chest-thumping accomplished was the world found out how quickly the USA betrays even it’s closest ally. Trump traded in a lot of international goodwill in order to “win” something already agreed to before his presidency so he could brag about it to credulous people like you.

Have you always felt tired or is this a new thing?

If you’ve always had trouble then you may have a chronotype that is set to differ from your daily routine. Research suggests it’s heavily influenced by genetics. Unfortunately I’m not sure what to do about it if that’s the case since the world is designed to run on 9-to-5 with no regard for those that don’t fit.

If it’s new, then think back to when you weren’t tired and what has changed since then. Changes in diet, sleep habits, weight, stress, stopping working out and more can all affect sleep quality.

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Bullet vending machines? Just in case you find yourself running low on bullets while out and about in the city? “Damn it. They’re out of Snickers bars so I guess I’ll just settle for some 9mm.”

Airborne Cops Are Bombers

Huh, never thought I’d be an Infowars listener, but then I also never thought Trump would be a two-term president. So I guess this is just a strange timeline.

That headline is crazy, but then I read the article. Thank goodness it’s not a mainstream idea and even other politicians are vocally telling this guy to pump the brakes. I don’t think it ever even made it to a formal policy proposal. I suppose that one politician wants to speedrun the decline of Japan or something.

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Man, the Onion is back to being ruthless and I love it. I’m not happy that circumstances give them so much to work with, but boy are they letting the fists fly lately.

Policies should be passed at a governmental/institutional level to reduce inequality as it’s identified by data. No one should be at a societal disadvantage because of how they were born or choices that are their personal right to make.

That said, I think some problems to avoid are:

• On case-by-case scenarios, assuming that broad trends apply to every individual. I don’t like automatically assuming everyone of a certain demographic is a victim. Also, some people in disadvantaged groups will use very real discrimination to excuse bad decisions and behaviors. Everyone is fallible, and sometimes justice requires punishment even for these folks.

• Gatekeeping suffering. It’s hazardous to society and individual mental health to tell people of “advantaged” demographics that their suffering/problems aren’t valid because of who they are. I’m talking about “what do you have to complain about, you’re not X or Y”. We can acknowledge discrimination and work to reduce it without dismissing the concerns of other groups.

We’ll see. As an Albertan I’m hoping other voter pools will even recognize the harm for what it is. I have family members who would be absolutely thrilled to have abortion made illegal, forced Christianity in schools, homophobia/transphobia/Islamophobia, anti-immigration and hostile foreign policies, etc. There’s a reason Alberta is called Canada’s Texas.

Lots of reasons. Left-leaning Canadian’s take on Kamala’s loss:

• Biden/Kamala have acted against the American majority for months now in Gaza. This isn’t a sabotage take, it’s as close to fact as can be determined of national attitude. Look at my post history before you accuse me of “both sides”. A lot of Dems and especially young people are very vocal about hating support of the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Palestinian Territory. Millions of people chose to stomach it, but I think other millions felt unrepresented and betrayed by protest suppression/bipartisan condemnation.

• I don’t want to insult anyone, but even moderately detailed political plans may not work in America. Trump’s campaign was run on vague promises and angry rhetoric that was emotionally engaging. Clearly people don’t know how much Trump’s policies like tariffs are going to hurt them personally, but like “America for Americans”. Kamala ran on a detailed platform that took effort to understand and clearly it failed to motivate enough voters.

• “Try to please everyone and you will please no one.” Instead of solidifying support and inspiring hope among the Dem base, Kamala’s campaign assumed their support due to fear of Trump and went after undecideds and Republicans. Republicans aren’t going to switch and many undecideds are that way due to apathy.

• No Dem primary meant people couldn’t choose the candidate they might actually want to support. They were given Biden then Harris without being asked for input.

• Related to that: Biden’s campaign soured voters, and Kamala wasn’t able to climb out of the hole left to her. His low approval rating didn’t help given Kamala felt like a younger version of more of the same.

• Misinformation and propaganda by foreign and domestic right-wingers kept a lot of people from switching sides.

Oh fuck…non-aggression is my kink. Whisper that you’ll sign all over the treaty and disarm like a good little nation. Sovereign borders get my motor running hot.

• If you’re the owner of the home, know what bylaws there are regarding snow removal near your home. Where I live you can get a fine + snow removal costs if you aren’t reasonably prompt getting snow off the sidewalk.

• Snowy surfaces (sidewalks, driveways, roads) are often icy surfaces = slip and fall hazard. This is especially serious for older folks but it can hurt/injure at any age. This gets worse if it snows then melts then refreezes. Don’t run if you don’t have to. Sand/grit on these surfaces can help, and in my area you can get sand for free at certain town facilities.

• Frostbite on exposed skin is a genuine hazard. Look up the weather forecast when it’s cold and take time-to-frostbite warnings seriously.

Reddit:

• It has a much larger user base and many heavily specialized boards that nevertheless stay reasonably active.
• It’s a collection of echo chambers. Dissent is usually stomped out by mass downvoting and heavy moderation/bans. It’s rare to find a board that allows arguments for a long period of time. Agree with the board’s users/mods or get silenced. Posted rules do not matter, and you can definitely be hateful in ways that violate posted rules so long as that type of hate is acceptable on that board.
• So many users mean that getting content to succeed is a crapshoot. Often posts become lost in the noise, especially on busy boards.
• I left about a year ago, but apparently there’s a lot of bot/AI slop on boards now.

Lemmy:

• Much smaller user base. Heavily specialized boards move slowly if they exist at all. It’s not unusual to see boards where it’s just one/a few people posting with days in between new content.
• More ability to have disagreements. Whether it’s because moderating a smaller # of users is easier, the mods are less authoritarian, or whatever you are more likely to be able to disagree. Don’t be blatantly racist, celebrating violence, clearly trolling, etc. and you’ll probably remain able to participate. I’m sure this isn’t universal on all boards, but it’s my experience on many boards.
• For all that I believe the above point, there are still “echo chamber” moments on Lemmy. Sometimes it seems people may be downvoted simply because they are already downvoted. It’s still way less egregious than on Reddit, and such is human nature I suppose.
• Fewer users means you are more likely to get some engagement on your post, at least in my experience. I never sorted my feed by new posts on Reddit because it was an avalanche of posts of questionable quality, so I only saw whatever content had already succeeded. On Lemmy I can look for new posts and see most if not all content on the boards I enjoy.

• Take time off from social media once in a while, or at least avoid doomscrolling all day. Bad stories generate FAR more engagement than good stories, and every form of media knows this. If 100,000 people in your area have an average-to-good day and 5 people have terrible days, all 5 stories presented to you will detail how things are in your area are terrible.

• Physical health affects mental health and vice versa. Eat healthy (or healthier). Stay hydrated. Get 7-9 hours of sleep regularly and use sleep hygeine. Get 90+ minutes of exercise (anything that raises your heartrate) a week which is like 15 minutes/day. Don’t worry about doing it all immediately - if you try to change everything at once you’re more likely to get overwhelmed and burn out. It’s way better to make slow, sustainable changes over months than it is to do a difficult crash course for a short time and get fed up with the process.

• Do thankfulness exercises. When I go to bed at night I think of 3 things I’m thankful for in the day. On average or bad days it may be that I wasn’t in constant/chronic pain, that I got to eat and drink, and that I’m in a safe place and a soft bed. Just remembering those basics (that many of us take for granted) helps keep me aware of good things in my life.

• Find ways to enjoy hobbies that require participation - arts, sports, board/video games, whatever. Just something other than passively taking in TV/online media. This will help you feel engaged and double points if it’s something that allows for improvement because you’ll feel rewarded as you get better.

Replace “kill” with “imprison for life regardless of applicable law” and this isn’t satire anymore. It’s an oft-repeated campaign promise and has been for quite a while.