Pharmacy liquor is a new one to me, lol.

Because a slight orange hue is a mark of good cheese, so fluorescent orange must be even better, right?

At this point it’s just tradition, and people in anglo North America don’t realise it’s not naturally that colour.

Yes, I don’t think Americans realise how good they have it with Mexican food. Ditto with barbecue.

The sheer number of people who support and vote for a party who will do absolutely nothing for them, and will enact policies that will drive them even further into poverty and destitution just so their Parasite-Class campaign donors can get even more obscenely wealthy. Conservative voters are just weird, man.

I mean, we have deep blue (Conservative) ridings too.

Another Canadian.

All-green money is weird, about as weird for us as ours is for you. Once I knocked over some products in a store and then picked them up. The staff acted like that was saintly, so I guess other people just make a mess and move on? Drive through liquor stores are weird, and seem like an invitation to drink and drive. Paying at a hospital is weird just in concept, although thank god I’ve never had to deal with it down there.

Uhh, other than that it’s been pretty similar in the places I’ve been. Etiquette around “sorry” is famously different, but aside from giving me away as Canadian it has little impact.

Edit, to add a couple positive things: Amazing Mexican food and barbecue not only exists but is ubiquitous. Coding jobs pay good money.

Everyone has an air conditioner, although Canada might be the weird one there.

Yes, but political support is also in the equation. Stalin might have been able to keep this up forever, since his power was based on ideology and fear. Putin’s power is based on greed and fear, and he’s actively encouraged political apathy, so once people start personally hurting I have trouble imagining him sticking around for long.

(Meanwhile, the West is so ideological it doesn’t even know it’s ideological, so it’s all down to a stupid election on our end)

Also Russia can just print Rubel. It hurts the economy long term, but Putin does not care.

A good point. It’s a subtle difference, but so far he’s resisted making any cuts. He’s spent on the war on one side and handouts on the other, and just taken the resulting inflationary pressure. If he keeps that pattern up it will be hyperinflation that marks the end of his capabilities.

Sadly, accurate. If Trump is going to win, Zelinsky has already passed the optimal end date for Ukraine.

If Kamala wins, he’s got a solid 4 years to chip away at them.

I mean, definitely, that describes their military situation thus far. This guy is qualified enough to know something I don’t, too.

It would seem that at some point they’ll just straight up have less stuff in Russia than the Russian government is ordering. They’ve been solving it by squeezing borrowers so far, but they’re at credit card levels of interest right now, and you’d assume that lever gets diminishing returns at some point, once people stop bothering with central bank loans entirely.

I have trouble picturing the Putin regime as the kind that can power through hyperinflation and empty shelves on ideological fervour alone. It’s pretty greed-based. (They could also do austerity and try to buy less, but so far they’ve gone for inflationary pressure between the two; it’s easier to blame someone else for)

Ah yes, another highly-coordinated cooperative action by the global anti-imperialist powers. /s

I know, I know, that’s not what this sub is about, but it’s kind of what Lemmy is about.

“Signs of imbalances in the economy are increasing," said Heli Simola, a researcher at the Bank of Finland, but "Russia will still be able to continue financing the war for some time. The war won’t end because Russia is running out of money.”

Really? I’ve looked at it in a reasonable amount of detail for an amateur and it seems dire to me. Another 2 full years would be impressive.

Hmm, are they finally hiring internationally? Americans are historically funny about that.

Wait, you earn more to not commute?

If I ever was in a room with him, I’d ask if he thinks there’s ever a situation where a comedian should have priorities beyond getting a laugh. He seems to operate on the assumption it’s a no, and I want to hear him openly say that, or else have the opportunity to call him out.

Hmm, I wonder how often it would generate a false positive and force someone to reword something innocuous. My guess is that it would be relatively rare.

Dope. Put garbage language where it belongs.

I mean, given that it’s all speculation that’s not really a mistake. I just thought it might be good to mention.

I really don’t think so. If you went back in time and bought a bunch of Apple stock you too could be a billionaire, no obviously antisocial behavior required.

There are examples of billionaires that were helped along the way by being an asshole, and it might improve your chances slightly, but it’s neither necessary nor sufficient.

That’s a given and the fact that most megarich people don’t recognize this feeds back into them being assholes.

Unambiguously agree. They actually prefer being called evil to being called lucky.

It’s not even just security. People live in cities, so things tend to be built near cities.

The argument Hamas being anywhere in Gaza counts as using human shields was fully bullshit. In their case, they operate(d) mostly as guerillas, so they didn’t have conventional military bases to build in any place in particular, anyway.

Heroes have a way of always disappointing. There’s people like Malcom X, John Brown or Thomas Paine who I’d say were the good guys of their time, but I really try not to lionise them beyond the flawed humans they were.

Most people stop making more when they have enough.

I can’t think of a single person like that.

Nah, it’s all a lottery. If being an asshole was enough there’d be way more rich people.

True, but I wouldn’t really hold the people that buy in responsible for each other’s misery. They’re doing it to themselves just as much.

Even in a complex system, though, if something doesn’t happen continuously it’s bound to have characteristic conditions that precede it. Describing it as cause and effect is a function of language, then.