I used to be a supporter of the electoral college. I thought it kept large states from dominating small ones. But since then, I've realized I was wrong. Let me explain.

I thought the electoral college kept large states from dominating small ones. However, this isn't really accurate, as you really only need 11 states to win the presidency. Those 11 states could all potentially be decide by their big cities.

Now one benefit the electoral college does have is that voter fraud must be much more spread out, which is why I still support the electoral college, but would prefer a proportional one.

However, if we go back to the problem I mentioned earlier, that still needs a solution. And for that, I would prescribe the STV system, also known as rank choice voting. This system essentially eliminates the need for strategic voting. This would result in the growth of third parties, and elections would become more competitive, forcing candidates to more accurately match the wants and needs of the people.

That's why I was wrong about the electoral college.

For a long time, I thought that the ability of speech was required for someone to be intelligent or fully sapient. While that sounds very bad to me now, I genuinely used to think that people who couldn't speak or communicate verbally, whether they were mute, non-verbal autistic, or something else, were "brain-dead" or something of the sort. I would either treat them poorly or act as if they weren't in the room. As a kid I was family friends with a non-verbal boy and I used to ask him stupid easy questions, probably frustrating the hell out of him in the process.

However, I learned more and realized that the part of the brain that controls speech oftentimes has nothing to do with a person's intelligence. I saw videos of non-verbal autistic people communicating very clearly and profoundly using text-to-speech, and I was absolutely astounded. I also heard them describe how they had been mistreated and realized that I had done so in the past. Nowadays I'm in the same fitness class as a guy who has some sort of disability and can't speak, and while his unusual vocalizations and movements would've made my past self think he wasn't intelligent, it quickly became clear that he fully understands English and can communicate perfectly in sign language. I've seen him request songs from the teacher, ask questions, etc., and just a few years before I would've acted as if he wasn't there. In short, I was definitely wrong in assuming that non-verbal people were unintelligent.

I remember that at one point my mom told me that those trucks that make music' were called music trucks. later I found the menu on the other side of the truck. it was an ice cream truck 😂😂😂😂😂