when my own joy brought others joy. That was the only thing that was worth it.

If that’s something you truly value, then you should absolutely have kids. There is no joy greater than that which a child feels, especially one with a loving family.

I also don’t think experiencing life is inconsequential. Sure, it doesn’t have some grand cosmic consequence. Our existence has virtually 0 impact on nearly all of reality. But that’s not the only way to define something as consequential. What’s important to me is my life and the lives of those I care about (which extends far beyond just the people I know personally). My kids’ existence has been enormously consequential for many people who I care about, and my life has been enormously consequential on that of my kids.

I don’t need some grand cosmic meaning behind that. The meaning of life is whatever you choose to make of it. For me, that’s providing as much enjoyment and fulfillment to my family as I can.

Of course not. Everyone suffers in their life at some point. That’s called being alive.

I think that’s also an absurd hurdle to insist someone has to clear.

The fascists have no qualms with having kids and raising them to be little fascists, too. I had kids because I wanted to love and care for people as I help them develop into capable and caring people, but I’m also glad that at least 2 of the members of the generation who will be running this planet when I’m old won’t have been raised by fascists.

I think this whole line of reasoning that it’s immoral or cruel to have children at all is just plain dumb and utterly nonsensical. Yes, there’s a lot of fucked up shit in the world. But, other than climate change, this is far from the worst the world has ever been. Brining people into the world now is not particularly worse for them than, say, having kids in Medieval Europe where there was a decent chance they’d die as an infant or get the plague, but the best case you could hope for was to give them the life of a subsistence dirt farmer. Or ancient Mesopotamia, where, again, odds are they’d die in childhood, but they couldn’t expect better than barely surviving on the edge of starvation. Etc, etc, etc.

Yet through all that people managed to find ways to improve their conditions and that of those around them. People fought and built better lives and a better world. Fuck anyone who tells me I should just give up and just resign that the world now and forever belongs to the fascists and capitalists.

Having kids is not cruel. Despite the darkness, there’s still a hell of a lot of happiness to be had in this world. I look at the expressions of pure joy on my kids’ faces as they explore the forest near our house, or when I get home from work, or when they make cookies for their mom, etc. And you’re telling me giving them that joy is cruel? How detached from reality do you have to be to believe that?

That’s sort of the whole premise of The Wire, especially the 1st, 4th, and 5th seasons. The mass surveillance side is mostly shown through the cops’ perspective, and the show is now 20+ years old, but it shows an extremely realistic portrayal of how cops use surveillance to build cases against criminal organizations and career criminals.

It’s set in the early days of mass adoption of cell phones, so there are some pretty dated moments. The entire 1st season centers around monitoring a drug enterprise that uses pay phones to communicate. There’s a moment in a later season where the cops have to have text messaging and sending pictures over cell phones explained. They go into a lot of detail about what a burner phone is. It’s kind of funny in retrospect, but it was all very timely when the show originally aired.

The title “The Wire” is a reference to wire taps, ie the police getting warrants to allow them to listen to phone calls.

When were those days, exactly? I’ve studies a hell of a lot of history, and I can really only point to two moments:

1. The American Civil War, but we were both the good guys and the bad guys there, so doesn’t really count.

2. WW2. We fought against fascism. We were squarely on the side of the good guys.

I’ve never been alive when America was the good guys, and neither has the vast majority of anyone else.

Optimistic of you to assume any of this will end in 2028. Trump and his fascist goons are already priming the electorate to accept a 3rd term. He’s not going away until he’s dead.

I’ve been voting for 12 years longer than you and that’s the same for me in general elections. The way I see American electoral politics, you vote for who you want in the primary. They end up losing to some shitty as corporate stooge. Then you vote against the fascist in the general election.

2004 Primary Elections (it was a presidential year, but there were more elections than just for president). I was actually 17 at the time and still a high school senior, but the law in my state was that if you were going to be 18 for the general election you could vote in the primary. I’ve voted in every primary and general election since.

Yes, of course it is.

Like any privilege, having ‘pretty privilege’ doesn’t mean your life isn’t difficult or that you don’t have problems. It just means that your looks aren’t one of the things contributing to those problems/difficulties.

Well, whatever it is, when I was a toddler my parents mentioned to my pediatrician that I loved eating hot peppers (apparently I would just grab them off the shelf in the grocery store and chow down. It was a bit of a problem for my mom because I wouldn’t wait for her to pay, or so goes the story she likes to tell). The doctor told my parents that I don’t have receptors to detect capsacin. I haven’t had it independently checked as an adult. Maybe they were mistaken or my parents mis-remembered what they were told.

Regardless, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced what you refer to as feeling like getting maced while sneezing or laughing. I haven’t been directly maced before, but I have been in a crowd that got pepper sprayed. It burned the fuck out of my eyes and lungs, but I didn’t notice it anywhere else.

One of their commandments is to not “take the Lord’s name in vain”. Modern Christians have interpreted this to mean not using the word ‘god’ as an interjection or swear. What was actually meant by it was to not use god as a justification for things that do not comport with god’s religious teachings. You know, like claiming god says you should hate trans people, or that god has chosen you personally to be in charge of everyone. You know, the exact thing Christians do all the fucking time.

Rather than “god damn” I usually say “gods damn”. I’m not religious at all, but I’d rather someone mistake me for a polytheistic pagan than a Christian.

My mouth doesn’t have the receptors to detect capsacin, the chemical that makes spicy food burn/hot. I can eat the spiciest food imaginable and it will not burn my mouth at all.

That said, those receptors exist in other parts of my body. Very often while I’m sitting on the toilet I’ll realize my dinner the previous night was particularly spicy.

Also, after more than 1/3 of a century of eating spicy food indiscriminately, my stomach lining has taken quite the beating.

There were MASSIVE anti-Vietnam war protests at the time. Far more massive than anything we’ve seen since. And they did recognize the hypocrisy in calling it a “police action” when it was obviously a war.

You do not understand anarchism in the slightest. You are imagining some Hobbsian hellscape out of a disaster movie, which is completely counter to human nature.

So your argument is that the only way to get people to live together is under the constant threat of violence from the state?

I don’t know what that means, but I don’t think you do either.

The coffee certainly makes me need to poop!

What’s the circle A supposed to be here, then?

Eating a banana while drinking coffee. Perfectly complimentary flavors.