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Joined 29 days ago
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Cake day: April 6th, 2026

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  • We haven’t had deaths on the scale of WWI or the Spanish Flu since those events.

    WWII had 3-5 times the number of deaths (depending on whose numbers you trust) as WWI though? Like, it’s not even close. Even using the highest estimate for WWI (22 million) and the lowest estimate for WWII (70 million) WWII was more than triple the deaths.

    The global population at the time of WWI was ~1.8 billion, and at the time of WWII is was 2.3 billion.

    So in terms of of percent of the world population, WWI loses.

    I will concede that the Spanish flu was a lot worse than COVID.


  • Wasn’t that literally the purpose of grog? A mixture of beer and water used on ships to kill harmful bacteria that would grow in the ships’ water stores over a long voyage?

    1. Grog was a mixture of rum, water, and lime juice. Beer does not have enough of an alcohol content to have any antibacterial impact. Your basic premise is flawed.

    2. The main reasons grog was invented were twofold, first and foremost, it diluted the alcohol to manage the sailors’ intoxication levels (much like drinking a rum and Coke does today). Secondly, the addition of lime juice helped fight off scurvy (leading to British sailors being called “limeys”).

    3. While it did improve the flavor of stale water, the disinfecting properties have been greatly exaggerated over time.






  • His base does though, and that’s what matters. There’s a Trump/MAGA merch store in the same shopping center as the liquor store I frequent, and they’re making bank. I’ve never seen that store empty.

    There was a Trump rally in my area in 2016, and the line of people waiting to get in was so long that the State Troopers shut down a lane of the highway to make room for more people.

    Remember the dad who murdered his own daughter over an argument about Trump? Do you think that guy would say Trump has charisma?

    I personally can’t stand Trump, but he definitely has “A personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (such as a political leader).”, which is literally the definition of charisma.











  • Americans have no more third places

    I have never understood this claim. Do parks and libraries not exist where you live? I live in a pretty rural area, but I can drive to the closest town and hang out in the Public Square all day, and there are always a couple dozen people there as long as the weather is nice. They even host a farmer’s market every Thursday from June to November, and they have an arts and music festival once a month from June to September.

    The casino hosts free outdoor concerts in their parking lot every Thursday night from May to September. I’m going to see a Lady Gaga cover band on the 7th, an ABBA cover band on the 21st, and a few others over the course of the summer.

    I can hang out in the bookstore for hours without anyone getting mad. They’ve got a nice little cafe if I want an espresso or a yummy pastry, but it’s not required. They also have nice clean bathrooms, which is always a plus.

    I could hang out at the mall, but that’s more of a teenager/retiree spot, and I’m not in either of those demographics. My 17 year old granddaughter goes there with her friends a couple times a week though.

    I can also go to either one of the two art galleries in town. They showcase local artists, and I’ve seen some amazing artwork there. They occasionally host slam poetry nights, and those are always fun. I’ve made quite a few friends there.

    The Public Square I mentioned is also where we had our “No Kings” protest, and it was honestly a blast. Food trucks pretty much surrounded the Square. I must have eaten 6000 calories that day, and at least 2000 of it was delicious lamb kabsa cooked up by the refugees we welcomed into our community a decade ago.

    If you’re into nature, we’ve got a shit ton of hiking trails, like, you could hike a new (to you) trail every weekend for a couple years and not run out of trails. I like to go rock climbing, and there are a lot of rocks to climb out here. We’ve got a ton of cricks and lakes to swim in. You can go set up a tent in the woods, and camp for up to 7 days before the State Troopers ask you to move. And even then, you can just move a mile in any direction and you’re good for another week.

    And that’s just things that are 100% free of charge. I can drop a few bucks and hang out in a pub, a cafe, the shisha bar, or a comedy club.

    I know this one is not a solution for everyone, but I can also hang out at my local Polish American Citizen’s club. We have all sorts of fun events, and they’re all technically free as long as you pay your membership dues ($10/year). We had a pierogi eating contest last week, with a $500 prize. I didn’t win, but I had a great time eating 34 pierogi and it cost me nothing but my membership fee, which I happily pay every year. On regular days, when we’re not having an event, we play dominoes, checkers, cribbage, pinochle, and sometimes chess, but that’s not very popular because no one can beat Piotr, and he ends up basically “owning” the chess board if he’s there, since the winner doesn’t have to leave the table. Spending time with people from my own cultural background is very enjoyable, I always leave happy.

    Another solution that is not gonna work for everyone: Getting involved in Church activities. My church has a men’s support group that I am heavily active in (They also have a women’s support group that my wife attends.). We go camping, we go fishing, we have a flag football league, an amateur baseball tournament, we play pool, ping-pong, air hockey, darts, and we host free community BBQs in the summer.

    Sorry for the novel, but I am an American, and I have more “third places” than I can even make use of. When I lived in a more urban area, I had even more options. I’ve never lived in the suburbs, only urban (for the first 20 years of my life) and rural (for the past 31 years) areas. Is this specifically a suburban problem?