Finland has social democrats / socialists who have been in power, right? And decent labor unions, I thought. Must admit, I assumed Finland was similar in politics to the other Nordics, but I’ll stand corrected if not.

Ok, what you need are realistic possibilities. I live in Norway and just had a daughter. I get 2 weeks off from work, paid, from arrival of the baby. My wife is now on mother’s leave from her job, paid, for about a year, (there’s math, but nvm), then I get paid parent leave for about 3-5 months when she is done. Kindergarten here costs about 200$ (US) per month, recently lowered from around 300$. All children have a right to kindergarten from they’re a year old (simplified).

My dad just spent a month in hospital in Sweden. The total cost was 400$.

Universities here cost about 100$ per semester + living costs, which the state owned student loan bank offers at decent interests to cover, and if you pass your exams, 40% of the loan is turned into a grant.

I could go on. Main reason on my opinion is the Nordic model of labor organization, where the state, businesses and workers try to make compromise so that businesses go well, workers are well paid and the state mediates when necessary. There are issues of contention, it’s not paradise, but it works quite well for quite a lot of people. Bernie has talked about the Nordic model for years. It’s real, it works quite acceptably, and it can be yours.

First step, strong unions and politicians that support them.

I get off on people watching me wank. Joke’s on you camera virus dude.

The English word depressed comes from Latin roots and means pushed down. An old Norse term for the same condition was called hugsott, which translates directly into thought-sick. To me the latter term is more useful because the person suffering has the chance to change his own thoughts, while the former term implies that the condition is caused by factors outside the person’s control.

Just listened to the Empire podcast about Catherine the great. Turns out the twat she was married to was the kinda idiot that managed to get everyone against him, so when the two came to blows everyone he tried to recruit was already sworn to her. Didn’t go well for him. Then Catherine’s son was exactly the same as his father and when she died, his own children joined in on the coup against him. The point being, if you piss off everyone by being an absolute ass, then their dislike of you will force them to join forces against you.

Yeah, the catholic church encouraged the study of the heliocentric idea, right about until Galileo used his scientific papers to directly criticize and mock the pope.

It’s a matter of world building. Orcs can be noble savages, or violent monsters. The main problem is humanizing these creatures. If you instead imagine a separate evolutionary path, then the race can be inherently “evil”.

If orcs have evolved for conflict and violence far beyond human levels, then by our standards they would be evil. At least by the philosophy of a middle ages like world. Catholics and Protestants considered each other evil for a few hundred years. A violent species that destroys humans on sight due to their violent instincts would easily be evil. Exceptions could exist, but the mass of individuals would be “evil”.

When I get these I say to myself, that’s little Jimmy’s fear response. It’s ok little Jimmy, if that happens it would be dangerous, you’re right. Then those thoughts have done their job and go on their merry way.

Or maybe it’s state capitalism. Like Norway does. But the GOP can’t tell the difference between socialism and a stick up their ass, even while they love to hate the former and hate to love the latter.

Yes! I’ve been thinking the exact same thing. Watching TOS and TNG it clearly comes across that they’re military hierarchies inspired in part by the kind of sciency and professional approach of the military / real life space program. The new shows reveal that the creators lack this understanding.

It’ll be especially dangerous since they’re gonna have slashed tires so often.

You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. -Bob Dylan

You keep going at it. You try to make yourself a better person, bit by bit, and forgive yourself for your mistakes. You work to understand your own neurosis and patterns of emotion and find ways to work on them. I still feel dysfunctional sometimes, but it’s a pattern that I’ve learned not to fall into fully.

Rogue state revealed. Amazing it took so long, but I guess that’s what good PR / lobby can do.

You have less than no clue what you’re talking about.

Thank you, sweet prince /princess

It’s good, but, have you noticed the enterprise has a crew of about 10 people? It’s the main cast, and a few recurring characters here and there, and that’s it. Sure, there’s tons of extras in the bar and other shots, but none of them have names or lines. I happened to re-watch some TOS and there’s new extras everywhere, on every away mission, on the bridge and they’re… there. Once I realized this it broke my immersion a bit. Otherwise it’s pretty good.

How many divisions does the pope have?

Tel’aran’rhiod

West Norway, it’s falling hard. Serious rainfall that is.