I think that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

People who live in an area should be empowered to push back against outside interests coming in and changing things to the detriment of the residents, like the HOA posted earlier that protected their forest and watershed.

The problem is that this power is often turned back onto the residents. This sounds to me like hyper-local politics - and so the answer is to get involved and vote out the assholes in power, not ban the existence of the political body!

(Edit) I didn’t realize this, but some HOAs are controlled by outside developers, rather than local residents? That I can get behind banning!

But not the stem!

One thing that surprised me in the article - I had no idea magma could be acidic!

It is not stealing. The data is still there. It is, at worst, copyright violation.

And because when a gas car catches fire, it isn’t even newsworthy

Were you never an asshole as a kid? It’s part of growing up. We work to make them better, but arresting them does nothing worthwhile.

They’re working on it…

VR is my one use-case keeping me on Windows. Someday…

I’m remembering that color blindness is actually really good at bypassing certain kinds of camouflage too. Which sounds like the two would pair well together in hunting parties.

As a 41 year old, when I call someone in their early-mid 20s a kid, there’s no derision intended. Think about how you relate to someone who’s 12 or 16 when you’re 20 or so - they might be quite capable, even fun to hang out with; but their life experiences also give them a clearly different outlook. And, like as not, you feel a little more interest in making sure they’re getting along all right (at least I do!)

As you age, that doesn’t really change - but the “target age” where that comes into play follows you up! So at 26, you feel that way about people just coming into high school; at 30-35, about people getting out of college and starting their careers. My oldest kid is 6; and I feel this way now about most of the parents of my kids’ classmates! Makes for a fun juxtaposition, when they have older kids and know more about what we’re in for than I do :p

It can turn into something condescending, depending on the person; but I think it’s usually more of a statement that “I remember being where you were!”

I’ve never found this sort of argument compelling. Yes, it’s possible there’s things going on we don’t know about; and sometimes tactical and strategic necessities may require hidden actions.

Those actions still need brought to light as soon as it’s feasible to do so; and I struggle to imagine what sort of strategic necessity would require this sort of stance for more than a few months, let alone the years these stances have been in effect. Not to mention the difficulty of keeping something on this scale quiet for this long. At best, things are more or less as they appear - the alternative is there’s things they don’t want their electors to find out.

It’s entirely relevant to your argument. Both are commonly expected to be role models. This expectation is enforced in only one case.

Even a properly made blank can cause serious injury.