I have no science behind this (and am therefore a hypocrite) but I’m giving up on the assumption that people think. I suspect that most people feel and make decisions on those feelings.
Thinking happens later, if at all.

Far-right leaders are winning across the globe.

How does it map to income inequality? Only authoritarianism can support higher levels of income inequality. Arab Spring. Western Fall.

There’s not one single reason when the election went the way it did, just like there is not one demographic that made the election go the way it did.
But the argument “It wasn’t the economy. The economy is great, just look at these numbers [published by the government]!” is just politicians falling for their own rhetoric.
The US governments have been skewing official statistics for decades. I’ve lived through decades of “Oh, X is fine” when my lived experience has been quite the contrary.
I suspect that a significant source of D’s sitting this election out is similar to a lot of R’s thoughts: “You’ve ignored us for decades telling us that things are getting better, but they never do. We’re done. Burn it down.”
Maybe they don’t expect things to get better after this election, but maybe their hoping that spreading the suffering will prompt more people to demand change as well.
Just a thought.

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As long as they continue to help him overthrow democracy, it’s performative bullshit.

My theory is: free publicity. Just like the fashion industry comes up with ridiculous clothes that no one would ever wear, attention whores will constantly do outrageous things so that people will talk about them. The number of electrons spilled over this stupid mouse port placement over the years is uncountable. But the repeated conversations keep Apple in the public consciousness as a fashionista.

In the early days it seems pike Stack Overflow tried to regulate engagement from trolls. They encouraged support for dumb/newbie questions and discouraged obnoxious behaviors.

I’m guessing that’s just a losing battle. I don’t think there’s much hope of keeping a good moderator for free. It’s a tough, thankless job. Troll/poor moderators are free.

If I didn’t know better, I would say this sounds like Farley giggling and winking in order to make a play for his next CEO gig.

One Youtube channel suggested it was tax incentives. Cities give tax incentives to large corporate offices in order to bring customers, er… employees to the cities.

Work from home means offices no longer meet qualifications for tax breaks. Ergo CEO freakouts.

Don’t know if it’s true, but it does sound plausible to me.

All those teachers over at the middle school ARE pretty elitist.

/s

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That is the nature of greed. There is no thought of the future or consequence.

The Saw anniversary DVD.

In my experience, groups of people will ignore inconvenient but correct answers until the problem explodes into their collective faces.

“The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.” – George Orwell

Uber Black is “Luxury rides with professional driver.”

“Professional” insinuates “paid”, so the other Uber drivers aren’t paid?

It’s likely you won’t find a rock this big when digging a basement, but as we can see here, it’s not something you can safely take for granite.

We’re raised by parents that must be obeyed for our own safety. Some people eventually learn to accept their parents are imperfect people and not gods. Many people do not. They look to kings and gods to protect and provide for them.

Those that have power negotiate with kings and gods. People without power attempt to use the only techniques they know to negotiate with their kings and gods: begging and/or pledging loyalty and service in exchange for scraps.

Of course this is but one of many reasons many people worship power.

I just tell them I don’t have a phone. Even if I’m still holding it in my hand. Most don’t want to engage. They likely figure they’re not payed enough for that.

My bowels have been questioning a lot lately, so it’s not entirely without precedent.

Sam Altman is demonstrating the power of AI. He’s showing how a single CEO can fire the entire company and continue to develop the product to be even better than when humans were involved.

“OpenAI. No real humans involved!” ™