I’m taking very long term, honestly. Germany is a fine example, except we had to have WW2 to undo it. I hope the US and Russia don’t need WW3.

Oh, I’m in LA and you should definitely come; just wait until after our civil war or coup or whatever it is that happens to get things to settle down. It’s a lovely city if you know where to go.

Also if it’s any consolation, we’ve practically got ICE protests almost every day. People here are fucking livid over this shit, particularly the Latino parts of town. (Although in typical LA fashion, part of the protesting is because of a TikTok trend).

Look, stranger things have happened but I get the sense it’s more likely Putin dies and the whole thing kind of crumbles. That’s the likelier, although still entirely unlikely scenario.

It’d still be pretty nice to see less reliance on the US except global peace relies on more trust, not less. The US might need systemic reforms to get there, but even Russia looked like it could be an ally to EU prior to Putin, just all countries need better safeguards to avoid backsliding into authoritarianism. I’m not sure what those would be, but you can’t have global peace without addressing these countries.

Yeah, unfortunately with how people think, you’re probably right. The average person anywhere isn’t noticing a global trend here.

Did I imply that? EU has done more than the US on this issue, but to galvanize in this context means to excite or stimulate. After 3 years it’s rather easy to grow complacent, and scenes like this remind people to remain pissed off.

I do hope that Trump is the galvanizing force that pushes the people of the EU (and perhaps others) towards Ukraine support, as well as everything else Trump and the right hate. The far right is gaining too much support, but if your average right leaning or moderate EU citizen sees just how bad it’s working out for the US, it might chill that movement a bit. At least, I hope so.

Yes, exactly. Although you also must understand the US is the size of Europe and is about 3/4th it’s population. The differences between California, Florida and Texas are as wide as Germany, Greece and Poland (maybe not culturally but… Actually no, fuck it, yes even culturally lol).

The biggest problem is, on paper our federal government should be closer in power to your E.U. but in practice, 200 years have expanded feds and now we’re in a hostage situation. Imagine your own neighboring countries having 80% control over your country for 4-8 years every 4-8 years; it’s fucking awful. Oh, it’s Greece’s turn to run the economy? Fucking great.

Almost like a certain military alliance this asshole wants out of. Hmmm…

Sounds like my sister and a good friend of mine, the latter who prefers playing games as a male character to avoid the attention. I totally get where you’re coming from on that.

I’ve heard that use case before, and it’s fairly reasonable in a faceless contract. Funny enough, my father is a perfect case study, his name is rather unique and one letter off from a common feminine name so he gets misgendered quite frequently as a cis man (plus, to make matters worse, hes very insecure about his masculinity and is sensitive about being called a sissy because his father abused him).

Thinking on his use case, it might help him to have pronouns at work, but according to him people pick up on his pronouns almost immediately because they hear it from a co-worker in reference to him, there is almost never a completely blind email despite it being a rather large city hall. In other words, only people who misgender him are spam. While pronouns wouldn’t have stopped the abuse and bullying growing up, the culture of acceptance behind the trend probably would have.

Ironically, he won’t do the pronouns because he’s a bit conservative leaning. And his alcoholic, homophobic ass certainly didn’t do me any favors when I dated a transgender person.

That, too. Things have regressed, it is definitely a target now.

As someone who was in a supportive relationship with a transgender person for 3 years and who personally struggles associating with my own gender (masculinity was never my thing lol), I never really got into the stating my gender pronouns.

I get why it’s done for the times it matters and can do so in a sensitive space, but I get the sense it’s usually done as public compliance (like a cis neolib as an email sig), which can lead to shallow support or worse, resentment. What we ultimately need is more genuine contact with people different from ourselves because that helps reduce “othering” a group.

Oh, but I do tend to default to “they” out of old internet habits. Always disliked the assumption all gamers are men.

Tell that to his ill advised Drill Baby Drill chant. I’m not convinced real life impacts his decisions.

Wait I didn’t know that was an option. Can he just offer some Crimean oil in exchange for all of their land back?

Added note: Americans go to war over oil. It’s a proven fact.

That reminds me that conduct disorder is treated with meds, too. A bunch of very angry, trouble with authority folks going off on our government sounds appropriate… almost like it’s the neurotypical folks who aren’t behaving right.

It’s common for a Japanese person to say it’s good anyway. I once was told this simply for knowing how to say you’re welcome. That said, it’s a long process to learn but nice when you make some headway.

Also I had the Genki textbook in high school lol.

みんなの日本語が上手です〜!

Oh, you didn’t have to delete your post, it was a valid question. Code switching is basically the ability to change language without mixing them up. It helps a lot with fluency and something professional translators are good at. My daughter asks her mom questions in Japanese and me in English and builds her two languages independently.

おはようございます、げんきですか？

Good to get that off my chest, I drop my kid off at a Japanese daycare and our parenting strategy is to stick to English to help with her code switching. My white ass has to say Good Morning knowing full well how to speak Japanese, lol.

I’ve been teaching a class on this (strengths based pedagogy) as well as other conditions in education interventions and I use a diagnosed friend of mine as an example.

Cons of ADHD: he’s got mad impulsivity to the point that he’ll show up on my doorstep on random weekends with minimal notification (he lives in another state).

Pros of ADHD: mother fucker’s hyper focus put him as lead of a student team that sent a robot to the moon.

He still takes meds now, though, cause the cons to get in the way. There are only so many times I’m willing to give him my hoodie just because he gave his only one to a homeless person out of impulsive charity and got cold.