domain:savenshine.com
Basically all the stereotypes about X or Y European culture being rude/unfriendly/etc. are false.
Interestingly enough, I have exactly the counter view of US culture, especially related to restaurant service. I find US waiters as rude. First they impose themselves upon me as if I care about their name or their stupid questions about where I am from or why am I in the US - as if I cannot tell that they don't give a shit. Then they constantly interrupt me and my friends with inane sales pitches - and if god forbid we go under some invisible sum of $spending per minute, then they actually slam the bill on the table and just kick me out as if I am some hobo. So much for friendliness. To me US waiters are bunch of fake stupid clowns putting on clownshow for US patrons, who for some reason like that shit.
Nevertheless despite this rant, I put up with it when I am overseas and act accordingly with fake smiles and everything - each country has its own thing and US people like their waiters to be clowns for some reason, it is what it is. I am not there to reeducate them about proper continental way of "invisible" manners of waiting staff. But it would be good to have some basic respect for other cultures as well and not take your own manners as the etalon everybody in the world should aspire to. For instance Japanese people are polite, they do not like to be touched and in general like their space. People in Brasil on the other hand love to touch each other, so if somebody comes to me and taps me on my back he means no disrespect or sexual assault or whatnot.
Ioper
6hr ago
Patients are also tested by physicians before some medications are prescribed, both physically and mentally.
Folamh3
6hr ago
People hurt themselves with cars, knives, and guns all the time but we allow people to buy those in part because cars, knives, and guns are useful.
Virtually all jurisdictions require a license to operate a car. Many jurisdictions either require a license to own a firearm, or forbid it entirely. Many jurisdictions place strict limitations on who may purchase knives (e.g. minors).
aardvark2
6hr ago
Psychiatry is all about normalcy. If the people saying that have power over you, it's an evidence that you are less sane than them.
aardvark2
6hr ago
No, it's not. By the same logic, large fraction of people using word "hate" themselves hate white men too, they value societies with developed infrastructure and protection from Russia and PRC, but the fact that white men are involved in the process in annoyance to them.
aardvark2
6hr ago
I guess @RandomRanger meant this
Blueberry
7hr ago
You need a drivers test as proof that you know how to drive a car. The test for understanding medications is being a physician.
aardvark2
7hr ago
There is no evidence that Niger's fertility isn't dysgenic. For countries for which there's data, ones with greater share of population in agriculture like Moldavia have more dysgenic pattern than more developed ones. Higher IQ Nigeriens probably are more likely to use condoms, get higher education and emigrate to 1st world countries. Even if the country had zero dysgenics, it's still loss for the world at large.
some
7hr ago
If some reader misses something that the author intended and the expected audience understood, I would think less of that reader. Like if all I took away from Animal Farm was that it is a sad story about animals, you would be correct to look down on me.
aardvark2
7hr ago
Allegedly women paid prostitutes to make them participating in sex strike too, or maybe the problem was serious enough so prostitues considered supporting it too themselves
Corvos
7hr ago
There is very little reasoning on this earth that can stand up to the awesome power of “But I want to.”
DirtyWaterHotDog
7hr ago
People hurt themselves with cars, knives, and guns all the time but we allow people to buy those in part because cars, knives, and guns are useful
Exactly, this is a bad idea.
Knives are safe enough, but guns and cars can lead to unintentional harm for both the user and onlookers. They should be regulated.
There can be 3 tiers: over-the-counter (free for all), needs based and testing based.
Pepper ball guns, tazers, and lowest caliber pistols can be over-the-counter. Wilderness communities can get needs-based allocation for larger guns. And hobbyists would have to take demanding tests to qualify for the wider selection.
Cars would come with speed limiters (80mph), limited acceleration (0-60mph 5 secs) and sales be limited to low-ground clearance vehicles of limited size. Tall vehicles like pickup trucks would be approved for those who need them. And those that want to go faster, must qualify for harder driving tests.
It seems excessive, but if you look at road & gun deaths in the US and it makes sense.
sun_the_second
7hr ago
(weird that they didn't have means to detect somebody had been imperiused, but let's not dwell of that, HPs magic system is so full of plot holes).
They could always dose anyone they wanted to question with Veritaserum, the problem in HP society is that the Good Guys can't just impose such measures on the important people.
Maybe it's a 4' band, although I'm not sure which one's worse.
Dean
7hr ago
Obviously so, yes, but by posing a question anyways I was able to get some adults to nerd out about a children's book series. ;-)
Pasha
Defend Kebab
7hr ago
I remember it being fantastic. Characters who really believed in a way that I can imagine a renaissance Italian aristocrat would believe. Also very good plot and acting
orthoxerox
If you can read this, you're using a custom theme
7hr ago
If 4B was a cup size, how big would it be?
Grotesquely oversized.
There’s a difference between trying and getting it wrong, versus thinking you’re doing everyone a favour by failing to respect how people are supposed to behave. Trampling people’s boundaries is deeply disrespectful to them and shows poor character IMO.
I remember a tourist I met once at a Meetup; she immediately gave me a rather demeaning nickname, clearly intending it as a playful icebreaker. Frankly I was appalled. I tried to be nice and not hold it against her but I still remember it as a quintessential example of someone trying to leapfrog social customs and botching it.
Lizzardspawn
7hr ago
The penguin was amazing show. Too long since we had a proper protagonist that was flat out irredeemable.
weird that they didn't have means to detect somebody had been imperiused, but let's not dwell of that, HPs magic system is so full of plot holes
Also, sometimes you just can’t do stuff. Modern fantasy is very influenced by sci-fi and D&D, and readers expects thing to be rule-based, comprehensible, and amenable to experimentation. See for example all the silliness about playing rules-lawyer with genies.
I don’t think the deep HP magic runs on such modernist lines. It’s more like art: there are principles and the basics are straightforward but the complex stuff just isn’t, and you have to go by feel.
Corvos
8hr ago
No, I agree with @SteveKirk here. The Weasleys have a noble background (they’re on the Black tapestry) and they’re well known as an old-established Pureblood family. Lucius Malfoy basically dislikes them for being traitors and letting the side down.
It’s noted several times that Mr. Weasley could have a lot more money and be a lot more influential if he were willing to toe the line. He has personal relationships with bigwigs and Department Heads like Bagman and Crouch.
Many of their children also get distinguished positions: Percy goes straight to the top of government and Bill has an important job in the biggest bank in Britain.
(I’m ignoring accents and going by the books, I never had much interest in the films).
MaiqTheTrue
Renrijra Krin
8hr ago
People generally don’t understand drugs or how dangerous or addictive they can be. Allowing the public to take addictive forms of morphine or opioids for every ache and pain without supervision just makes a population of addicts who cannot hold down jobs and are thus dependent on the state. Other drugs are easy to overdose on and do pretty serious damage to the body.
The link is self-explanatory.
A pretty impressive guy who has been mentioned here and who got cancelled for saying his mind is apparently tasked with recruiting people to reform key institutions.
What more should one post?
I guess you could just cram it into the CW thread, but
a) it's not even really worth debating.
b) it's fairly important information. Wouldn't everyone here want better Us institutions ?
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