The difference between the US and other countries is that there’s more financial incentive to having political control in the US. Companies here have way too much freedom to exploit under the current system and a lot of money they can invest in keeping it that way. Whether that means bribing justices or building platforms for Ben Shapiros or making big donations to campaigns.

There’s a way out for the US I think. We need to get people in office whose goal is to remove the incentives. Take money out of politics (no more donations, lobbying). Laws should be decided based on merit and debate alone, and if it’s not near unanimous in the courts it should be a citizen vote.

I’m sure in America there would be a massive power struggle over which party would have majority control over the judicial review board. Agree with term limits though.

My personal health has declined to the point where I really need to start taking care of it. Throughout the entire project, we haven’t shared it with you, but I’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office.’

Black explained how he also suffered from two autoimmune diseases which caused ‘chronic fatigue’ and another that attacked his joints.

Yeah, I once had a job working 60-70 hours a week. I ate terrible fast carbs for energy and slept 3-5 hours a night. Eventually I developed an autoimmune/CFS-like illness because I was ignoring my body’s needs.

I think about the less fortunate who have to live this way under stress, all the time. The people who don’t have the option to just “opt out of the experiment”.

I’m admiring the ASCII art - great usage of different characters to smoothe out the outline of the text

Probably, but could just as well be anxious attachment since we don’t have the whole story. I’m on the anxious side and this happens a lot if the other doesn’t show enough interest or is closed off in conversation.

Plus the obvious hiding behind a VPN, which you would be out of your mind not to use if you were doing something this terrible. Or can VPNs snitch in these situations? Anyone know?

USA mobile carriers have been charging for tethering since devices implemented the tethering feature. Android enforced it through carrier firmware. I don’t remember how apple enforced it.

I remember having to jailbreak all my iPhones so I could get it for free. As iOS started feeling more limited, I bought a galaxy phone from Europe because the international phones didn’t have the carrier firmware.

Then T-Mobile was the first big carrier to offer free tethering - I switched to them from AT&T. And now more carriers are offering free tethering because it’s losing them customers probably.

Started questioning a few years ago in my early 30s. In my small hometown, gender norms are heavily ingrained and body dysphoria just isn’t a thing that people talked about.

I’ve never liked looking at myself in a mirror. As a kid I would play with and put on my grandma’s jewelry until my family started making fun of me. I had a major obsession with any video game where you could be a girl.

If I had known earlier and transitioned, I probably would’ve been so much happier. But doing it now would just complicate too many things.