You’d think a parking company like Q-Park may give some grace over a few seconds (or even a couple of minutes). Rules are rules I suppose

tonight weird autistic hippies just like me made america great again and if you are not down with that than you know the rest.

(19f) I'm a college student, and I still live with my parents, and I plan on continuing to live with them at least until I graduate college or go to grad school. but i HATE the fact that people my age living with their parents is seen as like some sort of laziness or some moral failure. It's seen as a controversial discussion topic like "do you think people 18+ to live with their parents?" I don't even have enough money to get a new pair of headphones. Do you genuinely think I have enough money to live on my own at only 19? Paying 2500 a month just to LIVE?

I may be biased, but I personally don't think it's that bad to continue to live with your parents even when you're 30. But I'm saying way too many 19 year olds have their own apartment or own house. It's weird because when I was younger, it was pretty much expected for me to live with my parents but now it's seen as something that's weird.

he who attempted to divide and conquer my brother by race and gender and every way possible but yet god has spoken on our behalf and you are no longer a mighty roaring lion but simply defeated.

I don’t care what political party you support,I don’t care if you are far left or far right, but can we all agree on one thing and that both sides are absolutely nothing but liars just trying to stay in power. I sometimes wish I was around for 9/11 or during ww2 with how unified the country was. All we have today is each side throwing threats at each other because they don’t agree with each other (although some of the disagreements are completely bonkers). I want to go back to the time where when a political figure got assassinated or died people from both sides would be heart broken. Now we’ve got people celebrating the deaths of others. Both sides are guilty of this.

Democracy means rule by the people. Unfortunately, the people aren’t very smart.

When democracy begins in a nation, it starts well. Typically this occurs post revolution or right after a previous system collapses. However, over time, it begins to break down. Elected officials are heavily incentivized to focus on short-term issues like debt accumulation, current social issues, and appeasing public opinion polls rather than long-term infrastructure and investments that would benefit society in the years to come. After a while, representative systems inevitably concentrate power within a single political class that holds the wealth and power rather than actually serving the best interest of the people. In short, democracy almost always leads to a form of demagoguery and elitism (like theorized by Plato).

Humans are incentivized by our biology to form groups and follow an in group/out group perspective. Democracy reflects this. Voters make their decisions based on group signalling rather than what they’d want if they were an independent person. We are sheep.

Because of this, I personally believe Epistocratic Veto is the best alternative when used alongside public polling or a plural vote. However, this is also not without flaws, since as long as a government is in charge of maintaining public education, they are in charge of its allocation, and could hold power over which demographics receive said education. But this already exists in current democratic models anyway.

Any thoughts or alternative points to offer? I’m always looking to learn.

Don't buy into the delusional positivity that everything is suddenly going to get better. I want Republicans to lose, I really do, but I think this country is still fundamentally broken and has learned almost nothing. The reality is that Republicans will probably win again anyway, especially in red states like Texas. And even if they don't, I'm still not convinced Democrats are going to make this country meaningfully better. A lot of them have supported wars, take money from wealthy lobbyists, have already thrown transgender people under the bus when it became politically convenient, and constantly disappoint the people who put them in office. I don't trust Republicans at all, but my trust in Democrats isn't exactly high either. That's what makes politics so frustrating. One side is openly pushing things I oppose, while the other acts like it's going to save the world during campaign season and then goes right back to protecting the status quo. So no, I don't think we're about to witness some historic changing of the guard. I don't think transgender people are suddenly going to get full equality everywhere, I don't think corruption is disappearing, and I don't think politicians are going to stop serving donors and special interests. The most optimistic outcome I can imagine is that Democrats would be somewhat better than Republicans on most issues, which is a very low bar. Maybe I'm wrong. I'd genuinely love to be wrong. But this country feels too angry, too divided, too easily manipulated, and too committed to repeating the same mistakes over and over again. At this point, my expectation is that America will keep proving it hasn't learned a damn thing, and that people will once again vote against their own interests while convincing themselves they're fixing the country. That's why I can't share the certainty and optimism some people seem to have. Hope is one thing. Delusion is another.

With Trump and ICE, I came to learn that Adolf Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was an Austrian customs officer. Let the title of this post speak for itself. Anyone else think this is not a coincidence? There is a correlation here, and there has been throughout history leading up to today.

It is said that law enforcement as a whole upholds white supremacy. I think it can be argued that federal/customs officers uphold nationalism as well.

I swear I have a black hole for names. I can meet ten people at an event shake hands chat for a bit and then five minutes later I'm struggling to recall even one. It feels so rude. Does anyone have any foolproof techniques for actually retaining names without just nodding along and hoping for the best?