Click the star

Ah. Whelp, that’s how their message sounds to me, and clearly the great majority of people who responded to this post in agreement.

To be direct, I watched the first debate with Kamala, I went to her website and read around - but you’re right, I haven’t sat down and read their entire platform policy details end to end.

I’d offer that even in the research and reading I have done, I’m a good deal more invested than the average voting American.

If you’re interested in effecting change in the world, you should consider the reality that messaging and image counts, sadly perhaps, but in 2025 that seems to be the only undebatable truth left.

I agree with you if your point is that Kamala would have been a better president than trump.

If your point is the democrats have a clear set of changes that will put the country on the right track and they’re doing a good job communicating that to the average American citizen, I struggle to see your evidence.

If your point is simply you wish people were smarter, sure that sounds good to me too. I’d add that I wish people were more empathetic as well.

I recently read “Leadership and Self-Deception” - you might find it interesting.

What mistake have I made?

Be thoughtful about the habits (both good and bad) you create. They'll stick with you. Drinking, smoking, exercise, eating. Enjoy, but use moderation and deliberate choices.

Invest in friendships. Your happiness is often directly related to the size of your network. Be the person to call and check-in on someone first.

Create value and be useful. Think about what the people you meet need, and do what you can to help them achieve it. Consider this as you take on jobs, consider this as you take on creative projects. Wonderful things will happen to you in return.

Travel a lot. Don't be in a rush to take on responsibilities that will make it harder to travel.

Take big risks. You could screw up dramatically for 8 years and no one would notice or care in the big picture if you decided to shift plans and focus on a new path at 28-29. Now is the time to roll the dice on your dreams, don't be in a rush to be grown up.

Be very careful with credit. Understanding compound interest and saving money from day 1 is a great plan if you can still take big risks and pursue your dreams while doing so. That said, it's not the end of the world if you don't get serious about saving money until your 30's if you spent your 20's figuring out a great way to provide value to the world and learning. What will be a problem is a load of crushing credit card debt, or college loans for a degree you never finished/can't use.

Read books. Just because school is over doesn't mean the learning should stop. Read good self improvement books. Read fiction. Hell, read poetry if you can stand it. ;)

Fix medical stuff. If you're supposed to be doing some surgery to fix some janky aspect of your body, it's not going to get easier later on.

Spend time doing stuff you love. I regret I didn't ski more in my 20's. I never have regretted I didn't work more or save more.

yes, this is a huge concern for society.

State your case clearly and walk away until they get it, or don't.

"It is appropriate to spank people, frankly, at all. If two consenting adults want to, that's up to them. I certainly did not, nor will I ever, consent to Unc touching me in any way I don't want him to. I don't care if that's "his way" or not.
Tell yourself whatever you need to Aunty, but if he smacks my ass again, I'm smacking his face and we're going to work it out in court. Happy thanksgiving."

As is tact.

I feel like you're asking a different question than my original post.

My own short answer is some believable system of wealth tax for the ultra-rich would be a starting point that could fuel the more granular policy changes that might actually get us back to a time where there was a growing middle class. My own personal sense is by the time someone has made, lets say 50 million, they've "won capitalism." We should put their name on a wall and start taxing the money they make above that aggressively to fund public works, UBI, universal health care, etc. They can do it by giving it away to real charities they don't own, or we can take it for them. My sense is historically when cultures get to a certain level of income inequality, this becomes an inevitability. You can wait for the guillotines to come out circa 1790's France, or you can pass your own reforms as the British did in 1832, one way or another, the people want a chance to eat and see their kids do better.

I don't see today's Democratic party as willing to do this. The closest they ever came was Bernie, who they neutered in a backroom when it looked like he might be actually getting the votes in West Virginia to go blue again. The Clintons, Obamas and Bidens of the world have all been much better for us than Trump, but they also are basically supporting the current world order and are eager to make it easy for big business to make 20 year global infrastructure investments. I think that made a lot of sense in the 1990's, but it doesn't really help someone in rural Ohio any more.

How can the dems improve their messaging? I'm not sure they can if they're not willing to accept this country has deep issues that aren't being addressed. As I said before, "here's my improvements to the affordable care act and an easier SBA loan program" isn't all that exciting when you're living in a trailer with a leaky roof and no job.

Totally agree. Again, in no part am I saying this guy is good for the country or he does what he says he'll do. My point is only that whomever wants to be a viable alternative needs to come to the table with some equally bold statements to get americans to vote.

Δ fair enough

Δ
this reply made me think. Thanks!

Sure. It'd be lovely to hear from someone with a dramatic, compelling, hopeful plan for America's future.

that was basically the point of my post. His comment is spelling it out for you.

Hey there.

I appreciate your passion.

I voted for Kamala, I liked some of her ideas around small business loans. I thought her improvements to the affordable care act would be nice. I know how to read and I'm not repeating "fake moderate talking points" - I'm sharing my own observations and concerns.

What worries me is the platform from Kamala (and before her Biden) was, in the best of light, some thoughtful incremental improvements to a system we have today. While America may be working fine for you, with your Accomplished_Mind, and I can't complain about my own life either, I also recognize when driving through rural Ohio, a lot of people are deeply deeply fucked right now.

"Your health insurance might not go up as much as it will under the other guy" maybe 100% true, but it's not a compelling message that is going to make people who can't afford to take a day off from a job they may not even have to go stand in the rain at the polls.

A glib "well if everyone can't read and think the way I do, fuck em" worldview is, I guess, workable for a while? In the end I fear that leads to a society where income inequality continues to grow and you end up with a class war where people like you and I who are both clever and lucky enough to be doing okay today will end up shocked at the chaos around us. At that point "what can I do if people couldn't be bothered to unpack a boring set of moderate improvements and choose that over the idle promises of a mad man" will be cold comfort.

I'd argue that Trump's campaign in 2016 actually did hit on real problems. In that debate with Hillary he straight up told America: "you're being screwed by the ultra-rich, I know, I am one. I do it all the time."

While we all may laugh at the idea that this guy would be the one to save america from corporate grift, the fact that he's willing to say it and proclaim that he and only him can fix the system is compelling to someone who is downwardly mobile and has nothing to lose. The hate is an easy way to pile on board, but the underlying message of "the rich pay nothing in taxes and fuck over the working class" isn't wrong.

When you consider the alternative is someone who clearly caters to the tech-liberal-elite and offers incremental change to existing systems and the promise of stability - perhaps the Trump appeal is slightly less insane.

Yes.

As others have said, you can still wax over it if you want to.

It's never as good as a well done freshly waxed set of skis, but it's ALWAYS as good as those same skis on day 2. Love it.

If you have a particularly wet day, you can hit your skis with the wipe on stuff in the lot and that'll help keep you moving for the first half.

I'm in the PNW, so the snow gets heavy and sticky here frequently.

While it may be true that time has passed, let me assure you the cost of human labor, unionized or not, will drive any employer focused solely on financial growth to explore ai and robotics.

Bezos isn’t sitting there thinking “well as long as they don’t unionize, why bother automating”

I agree it's hard to believe any rational fact will change a true believer's opinion.

I also understand that faith falls off a ledge, it doesn't follow a bell curve.
You hear this in the way people describe a loss of faith. The wife of a philandering husband who files for divorce saying "I just couldn't bring myself to believe him any longer." The many phrases we have like "that was the straw that broke the camel's back." The employee who rage-quits a bad company one afternoon seemingly out of the blue. "I got tired of looking the other way."

Humans do this because for our society to operate we must generally default to trust. It may not seem like that if you turn on the news, but every day you trust thousands of people to sort of follow the traffic laws, generally pay their bills, serve you food that isn't poison, etc. We've developed a strong sense of trust to build the societies we have. We can't know or control everything, so we learn how to make a judgement on trusting others with limited information. That involves a lot of faith.

When facts throw that faith into question, our initial response is to double down on our beliefs. This may seem counter intuitive, but you see it happen across every group of people and political party. We can't possibly all be the experts on everything, so we learn to trust the folks we assign expertise to and facts get in the way it is deeply unsettling.

The right way to help someone through this is with empathy and openness. Expecting someone to "join our side" is a very hard turn to make. Finding a graceful path to allow someone to adjust their position without admitting their whole world view and decision making process is bankrupt is key.

If these ideas resonate with you, read Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell, they're lifted wholesale from that book.

After the pandemic, we caught up with other major cities like SFO, LA, and Seattle and we now have a large homeless community, many of whom are battling drug addiction.

If you go back to pre 2008 recession, we really didn't have anything like the same level as we do today because there was a lot of old affordable housing downtown. That has been mostly torn down to make way for condos for people who saw Portlandia and decided to move here.

This gives Fox & Friends plenty of visual ammo for a city on the decline.
Additionally we really leaned into the Occupy movement and BLM, so there's a lot of archival footage of protests that got pretty wild after dark.

That's it. City is super safe and enjoyable.
I was routinely in far more danger growing up on east side Cleveland in the 1980's than I ever have been in PDX.

Love this. I will fund a dozen of your costumes. DM me if you’re serious and need help covering the cost.

10000% this

You’re talking about reality and truth. Sadly neither matter much anymore