This supports my hypothesis that people are mostly emotional. They’re angry and scared so they lash out. They’re not thinking in a calm detached manner.

Somehow we need to direct all the negative emotions towards the people who actually deserve it

Republicans have terrible economic policies. Voting for Republicans for economic reasons is stupid. Even if you’re rich, if you care about the long term.

No. A well executed flirt can make someone interested when they weren’t before. You flirt with the cute girl at the party and if she’s receptive, maybe ask her out or ask to kiss. Or not. Sometimes flirting is just fun for itself.

Standing there in chaste politeness is going to create a whole different scene with different outcomes.

I can’t speak to Germany specifically, but a lot of people don’t think very much at all. They feel things, and make up words to justify their feelings. (We all do this to some extent, but for some people it seems like that’s the only process running)

Republicans are an existential threat. No republican should be allowed to hold office. They should be ashamed to show their faces in public. Someone revealing they’re a republican should get the same reception as someone saying “I kick puppies”. (Though, given some high ranking republican is out and proud about shooting a puppy, maybe I should find a new metaphor)

You can be an extremely hot man but if you can’t converse better than “idk lol” and never ask any relevant questions, you’re unlikely to have a good time. People like when potential matches are interested in them.

Your message I’m replying to seems fine, so that’s promising.

Many people go to clubs and meetups to do the thing the club is about. If you go to the bike riding club or bird watching club looking for dates, people are going to pick up on that and probably react unfavorably.

If you go just to do the thing, that’s fine, but you could do that for years without ever finding a date.

I wouldn’t recommend this as a primary means of finding a partner.

Yes and no. Capitalism has lead to shitty experiences for users, but also users self sabotage. It is possible to find success for free, but you’ll probably need to spend time and effort on it.

On the one hand, they are capitalist shit holes. They want to make money, not find you a partner. There’s not enough competition (match group owns a lot of different apps). Those are big factors in why they suck. They’re going to keep asking you to pay for more, and there’s no competition to drive down prices or force innovation. This absolutely sucks and should be changed, but good luck getting the current US government to do anything good.

The other problem is many users are frankly bad at using the apps. They have a blank profile, or one that has no hooks. When they get a message, they dead end the conversation instead of engaging. They ghost.

Don’t be like that. Don’t send generic messages. Have a profile that funnels people into interesting stuff you want to talk about. When the app has a space to write your hobbies, do not write “lol I dunno”. That’s stupid and self sabotage. Write something (true) that gives people an entry point to talk to you. “I really like making pizza! I’m working on perfecting a stuffed crust recipe” is basic but gives them something to talk about. Many people fuck this up and then are like “why does no one send me interesting messages??”. They don’t know you. If you don’t present anything interesting, they’re not going to know.

Once you have the conversation going, ask them out. I’ve heard many people complain about this problem. Guys will match and then text and text and text for days or weeks, and never ask them out. Then they complain “I never get a date!”. Self sabotage. Match, ask a question about their profile, have one or two exchanges, clear any deal breakers (eg: if you’re divorced or have kids), then ask them out. That’s it. That’s the game. People fuck this up and blame the apps.

You don’t need to be mega good looking. That’s just a bullshit self comforting excuse. I used to have a horrible cave man beard and none of my clothing fit right. Still got dates. The bar for men is in hell. If you can converse, be kind, and pay attention to them you’re already ahead of the curve. Getting a good hair cut, clothes that fit, and a good photo helps, but do not think you are immutably unattractive. That’s nonsense.

Your location matters a lot more. If you live in bumblefuck, Wisconsin, where there are 23 people in your age and gender range, you’re going to have a bad time. There’s a special place in hell for people who lie on their profile, though. Don’t say you live in New York when you “might move there some day” or commute in for work.

I never paid for the apps. When I’d use them every day, I could typically get a date a week. Some were just the one date, some lasted weeks, and a couple lasted longer. I’m about 40 and largely unremarkable. You have to put time and effort in. Every day, go through profiles and send quality messages. Most will go nowhere. Don’t be discouraged.

16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

18 “Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’[c] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”

20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Matthew 19.

Most of these so-called christians are not following their text very well.

Larger orgs probably have their own website, and could put it there and/or make an RSS feed. That’s old tech, and probably not as popular because it can’t be monetized like twitter/facebook/etc.

There’s also email, which is typically free. It’s less fancy, but it’s also very open. You don’t get good discoverability, though. Some bands I like send out newsletters and that’s how I keep up with them.

Lastly, the fediverse exists. It has some of the problems of social media, but at least it’s not owned by a handful of rich assholes.

a local “didn’t want the bench near their house,”

Fuck that local

I don’t use reddit aside from reading search results. I never post and never explicitly seek it out.

I deleted Twitter years ago. I never used Facebook or Instagram or tiktok. That shit’s bad for you.

It’s annoying that some places will make announcements only on shitty platforms. None of my friends are this “hardcore” , so sometimes I find out about stuff like a concert or protest or whatever because one of them sees it on Instagram

I feel like at some point people will get fed up with not being heard when they use their words, and they’ll use something else.

Hopefully non violent protest first, but I’m not going to be mad if whatever equipment is used to clear cut the woods gets broken.

Man, I’d love to play more WoD. One time I got a game going and it was a lot of fun. The other times I’ve tried, there was always at least one player who didn’t read the books or pay attention to the explanations, and dragged the game down with “wait, who are they? Why are they doing that? What do I roll?”

Not everyone needs to be an expert on all the minutia, but sometimes it’s just a mood killer to have to keep explaining the basics.

I don’t understand how Cuomo is polling so well. He’s bad! He resigned in disgrace! The average person must just live in a haze

Impeach Johnson, too. Throw them all out via the 14th amendment. I’m so tired of the republicans being consistently the worst people on earth.

I was burgled. The cops came and looked around. Looked for finger prints. Didn’t get anything. The guys who came were polite, at least.

They supposedly caught the guy because he left his wallet at another place he broke into.

I didn’t get my stuff back. They didn’t even try to help me get my stuff back.

Overall a 3/10 experience.

Finally, some good news.

I feel pretty confident musk doesn’t know or understand semantic versioning

Conservatives don’t want to solve real problems. They’re like toddlers that are angry without understanding anything, but they want to scream and throw things. Broken people.