Hello, am new here from Massachusetts

Another one of my favorite ways to say someone is insane or stupid, is to say they have been drinking from a lead sippy cup. as in lead poisoning. Geez... I am maybe not very nice?

due to allergies to off label chemicals in American food that almost killed me a few times.

I have the same problems.

Do you?! Coming back from EU, I discovered mine. It was so terrible because they are very serious in my case. I had until then never heard of something like that. An allergy to chemicals in food.... I was shocked. It blew my entire life up.... Exploded it completely. I had to find a very different way to live. I did, but yeh it changed everything.

I have the same problems.

It was so terrible because they are very serious in my case. I had until then never heard of something like that. An allergy to chemicals in food.... I was shocked. It blew my entire life up.... Exploded it completely. I had to find a very different way to live. I did, but yeh it changed everything.

You just described my life 🙂. I'm also highly allergic to chemicals in products. I had to refuse from many products from supermarkets. For example I can't eat candies, chocolate and all that sweet stuff that is sold there.

You just described my life 🙂. I'm also highly allergic to chemicals in products. I had to refuse from many products from supermarkets. For example I can't eat candies, chocolate and all that sweet stuff that is sold there.

So sorry.... I almost died several times had to be rushed to hospital anaphylaxis. After lots of testing my specialist in allergies told me I needed to move somewhere that I could do clean food for myself. Now, I live on a 5 acre farm. I keep goats for dairy, chickens for eggs, and grow everything else truly organic from clean ground. i used to live down town and have a convenient life. Now I am in the middle of nowhere often alone producing my own food creating my life from the ground up. I had a plan. I was gonna have kids right near down town Boston......... Enter allergies which exploded it all. Out to the middle of nowhere I have had to learn a totally different way to live. All so I can live.

I almost died several times had to be rushed to hospital anaphylaxis.

Oh my, that sounds terrible. No, I haven't got such terrible complications, but I also had some not very pleasant moments with my allergy in the past and sometimes in the present that also changed my life.

I am sorry it is so difficult. I wish I had a solution that didn't blow life up.
What I will say is... Sometimes, the biggest life changes and new ways of living can bring out the best in us.
Coming out here to farm, changed not just my life, but me. For the better.

Well that is my story... What's yours? And how can I help you with english?

I am now in my mid 40s, I live still with my husband, I have a dog, some goats and chickens and a horse instead of a car which is fine because I never learned to drive anyway. Unbfortunately we never did start the family we planned to have. The dog is my only progeny.

I am hoping to find some nice penpal/s from well I dream of someone from a little island in the Hebrides, or Greenland, or The Faroes, or a science out post in the arctic somewhere. I would hope you would be somewhere in my general age bracket 30 to 60. My hope is that it might be a relationship we can build over time and one day still be nurturing when we are old and in diapers seeking our lost teeth cuz the old age dementia caused us to forget where we put them.

I am however available to help anyone of all ages with english. Of course, you must understand I speak the english of the North East Coast, so if you are looking for a whole bunch of bless your heart and other southern stuff you are looking in the wicked wrong place.

Hi and welcome! It sounds like you live on a farm, may I ask why you never learned to drive? If you live in rural USA I'm having a hard time picturing life without being able to go places with a vehicle 😛

On a side note I noticed that you tried to revive a bunch of topics in the "politics" forum category, I think most of us were kind of burned out by the previous back and forths we already had so you didn't get too many replies but I'm sure it's only temporary 🙂

Hi and welcome! It sounds like you live on a farm, may I ask why you never learned to drive? If you live in rural USA I'm having a hard time picturing life without being able to go places with a vehicle 😛

On a side note I noticed that you tried to revive a bunch of topics in the "politics" forum category, I think most of us were kind of burned out by the previous back and forths we already had so you didn't get too many replies but I'm sure it's only temporary 🙂

Why I don't know how to drive.... I was 5 when I was hit by car. My pelvis was shattered. I still have scars in various places on my body from this event. I am 44 years old I still have PTSD nightmares. Trauma to the head the damage they never got to the bottom of but they think it is healed. the state of my psychology ruined perminantly by PTSD or even CPTSD. This is one reason I don't drive. I see cars as big killing machines that I do not want responsibility for.

Another reason, I don't want to be part of the problem of climate change. For most things around town my horse works fine. I live in a tiny town by American standards and it is a farming community. My farm, operates a permaculture model and runs on solar power. The vast majority of our heating is done by wood stove. I am always seeking ways to be more environmentally friendly. We are on a well, we have a septic tank no connection to a sewer system is even available in this town. We chose to remain connected to the power grid. All of our electricity is produced here via solar panels on the roof. We stay connected because our excess can further help our region cut it's environmental footprint by contributing to the electricity that others receive and having it come from a clean source. So, it isn't just driving. But this place remains an imperfect work in progress while it's foot print has been dramatically shrunk to quite small more work remains to do. And it will be done as I can finance it.

I am married. We maintain in this era a 1 car household. My husband has one. Often he is at work. So it is rarely at the house. But for some occasional things I have him go get what we need or even more rarily the dog and I sit in passenger seats and go with him. Around here, a single car household is as rare as a chupacabra. Our goal is for my spouse to get an electric car when he dumps the current one. Which will be fed electricity created by the sun, to further cut our foot print. Eventually I will replace the stove in the kitchen with a wood cooking stove that was common 150 years ago, and I will run our plujmbing through it so hot water is created there and then sent to the hot water tank where it will be stored. At that point, the oil burner will be removed. We will have no further need of it at all. Already, we keep it super low at just high enough to produce hot water and prevent pipes freezing while the actual heat comes from wood stoves. So if another solution can be had for these issues I can cut it all together. Which is a goal of mine.


I did try to revive the politics. Mainly because I have started noticing some scary things related to the media where I live. I am fearful that soon we will lose access to accurate and honest information about what is happening in our politics and in the world in general especially in relation to us. So while I am not necessarily looking to argue, part of why I am here to help myself stay an informed person as long as possible until there is an internet crackdown which I view as being in our future at which point the lights go our and you will all have to pray for us like you do for the citizens of North Korea or something..... So yes, I was trying to bring that back. I also enjoy mocking political stupidness. It is a bit of a hobby of mine. And all countries engage in it though some more than others for example mine at the moment unfortunately.

Why I don't know how to drive.... I was 5 when I was hit by car. My pelvis was shattered. I still have scars in various places on my body from this event. I am 44 years old I still have PTSD nightmares. Trauma to the head the damage they never got to the bottom of but they think it is healed. the state of my psychology ruined perminantly by PTSD or even CPTSD. This is one reason I don't drive. I see cars as big killing machines that I do not want responsibility for.

Oh I'm sorry that sounds terrible. I was going to ask if you still ride with other people, but after I kept on reading it looks like it's a yes.

Another reason, I don't want to be part of the problem of climate change. For most things around town my horse works fine. I live in a tiny town by American standards and it is a farming community. My farm, operates a permaculture model and runs on solar power. The vast majority of our heating is done by wood stove. I am always seeking ways to be more environmentally friendly. We are on a well, we have a septic tank no connection to a sewer system is even available in this town. We chose to remain connected to the power grid. All of our electricity is produced here via solar panels on the roof. We stay connected because our excess can further help our region cut it's environmental footprint by contributing to the electricity that others receive and having it come from a clean source. So, it isn't just driving. But this place remains an imperfect work in progress while it's foot print has been dramatically shrunk to quite small more work remains to do. And it will be done as I can finance it.

I have mixed feelings when it comes to climate change. We should all acknowledge it's a real thing and be mindful of the environment, but there's something almost cult-ish about it that kind of rubs me the wrong way. All modern countries have cut down on emissions in the last few years/decades, however China, India, Bangladesh, Russia, etc couldn't care less about climate change. This was posted last week by the Indian Ministry of Coal:

I think the US is currently in a pretty healthy spot when it comes to balancing the economy and being mindful of excessive pollution, but places like Europe (France being a prime example) are burying themselves with countless norms and regulations for the sake of climate change that are completely killing our economy and making people's lives hell. Not only does it make us poorer, but we also need to import more and more stuff which... increases pollution even more. What I'm trying to say is: let's keep working towards clean energy, but we should celebrate our efforts more instead of being so alarming about how much harm we're doing. Those who do want to be alarming should fly (row? 😃) over to Asia to maybe lecture them first. What is your stance on this?

On a side note, not to be that guy but.. wood burning generates tons of particulate matter 😛 (that's also what I use).

I did try to revive the politics. Mainly because I have started noticing some scary things related to the media where I live. I am fearful that soon we will lose access to accurate and honest information about what is happening in our politics and in the world in general especially in relation to us. So while I am not necessarily looking to argue, part of why I am here to help myself stay an informed person as long as possible until there is an internet crackdown which I view as being in our future at which point the lights go our and you will all have to pray for us like you do for the citizens of North Korea or something..... So yes, I was trying to bring that back. I also enjoy mocking political stupidness. It is a bit of a hobby of mine. And all countries engage in it though some more than others for example mine at the moment unfortunately.

I think honest and accurate information is long gone. If anything, I think it's good that people do realize that some supposedly trusted sources actively try to lie and manipulate the general public. I feel like it's a good opportunity for some people to realize the world isn't as simple as they thought it was.

Why are you expecting an Internet crackdown? I definitely wouldn't mark the US as being at risk in that regard

I apologize Etienne, I must explain this through several posts and it may not let me do it all at once. I want to give you a real response though because I think it is important to do as the issues at hand are deeply important. So please bear with me.

Ooooh where to begin? Yes, it was terrible. I can never convey the terrible in words sufficiently. To properly convey it, I would have to set you on fire and literally have you treated like a third degree burn victim over more tha a third of your body. And I won't do that because I am not evil, cruel, or interested in assaulting or harming anyone. It would require you hearing a doctor tell you as you are lying there dying that no you can't have a tylenol till morning cuz you will die during the night and the hospital doesn't want to charge insurance if you will soon be dead anyway. It is looking that doctor straight in the eyes and saying to him at 5 years old, " I will be here in the morning bitch, so i can spit on you." Then being there in the morning by sheer force of will and nothing else. I DO occasionally ride in cars with someone else driving,. I ride in cars probably less than 97% of people do. I don't like getting in the car. If I can avoid it I will. When we purchase a new one which is coming. We will keep it charged with solar electricity to further cut our footprint.

One thing I learned from nearly dying at 5 and then finding the joke was on me cuz I am dyslexic.... Quality of life is as important as continued life. Money, isn't worth much. You can't eat it. You can't drink it. All you can do is buy crap with it. Well.... What happens when we have destroyed all our resources and there is nothing left to buy? So no I don't agree with you that the economy should come before climate change. I do however think that there are ways to make folks feel as though they are losing less switching to a more environmentally sound model. I do believe, we need to look at the way we are balancing the economy as we go and see how we might make it work better so that there is an economy less built on fictional worthless paper dollars than on clean water and earth. I believe strongly there are ways to do it. I believe too there are ways to create a life around these principles in which we lose nothing of our modern existence. The fact that major governments are too scared of bad actors who have grown quite rich through exploiting what belongs to all of us and abusing it, isn't an argument against change. It is actually an argument for change.

Ok let's see if I can post more of this response....

At one time I might have agreed with you that climate change cultiness is cultiness. Unfortunately that time is past. Not because I have joined the cult. Because I have read the science. We are at a major tipping point. Once we cross it and last I checked we were less than 12 years from hitting it, there is no saving the planet. What is all the money in the world worth to people too dead to spend it? On this issue, we are staring down the barrel of a gun set to fire within the next 12 years after which there is no way to save anything. The was is over. It literally is now or never.

My thoughts about other nations? We share this planet, we ALL need to be acting on this issue immediately and to massive scale. We are out of time. We don't have time left to put anything ahead of this matter. In the 80s we still had a little time.... We don't now. It's over in less than 12 years. In less than 60 all the money on earth won't buy you a single vegetable. Because we run out of soil for farming in less than 60 years. Unless folks start composting now. It will only get worse as the living things that contribute to our soil die off due to major fires and all kinds of other disasters.... The time to act must be now. Because later it is too late. EVERY nation should be acting. But we don't get to control other people. We get to control ourselves and only ourselves.

No, the USA failed to pass a green new deal so it was NEVER doing enough or anywhere near what it needed to do even while it was doing more than it ever had done. The problem is, we could have done this slowly and gradually but then no one did. And we are now on a cliff looking down at the end of all life on the planet still saying, "well money is more important." You won't feel that way when you are starvi9ng due to lack of soil, I promise. When you are watching your children starve due to lack of soil. What is life worth? Depends on it's quality. Vaccines don't cause autism. Know what does? Studies have found it is air pollution. What are your lungs worth to you breathing that in??? How much money will it take to buy a new set every 6 months to maintain your current quality of life? What is it worth to have a healthy child?

Trump, has rolled back an alarming amount of our pro environment regulation. To which South Carolina, promptly literally set itself on fire that has even broken into North Carolina now. He has alienated Mexico and Canuckstan, who came to help fight the recent fire in California because they understood air isn't limited to over the country that is burning. The smoke is toxic. Sooner it is out the safer the air is for all of us. This time though they won't come. Because now they are scared of being sent to prison in El Salvadore for trying to put our a dangerous climate caused wild fire. So is the usa doing what it should? hahaha NOPE! It wasn't before but it was at least doing something and something is better than nothing. Now it isn't even doing that.

Yes, wood burning creates particulates in the air. Wood breaks down and you wind up with that weather you burn it or not. It is also possible to plant trees. Either way the break down of wood is going to happen and the resulting climate damage is pretty much equal no matter how it is broken down using natural methods such as fire, or just gradual break down. So you might as well burn it for warmth. Again, I have read the science. Not to be a guy? What is wrong with being a guy? You think I can't use a chainsaw? I can be a guy too. You think a farm doesn't require a guy? Even when that guy is a girl, that girl is as much a guy as is necessary.

The reality is, change costs money. It can't be done all at once. But it needs to be done right now as fast as we can do it. Which means we must make it the most important priority we have as a planet. And we must go as quickly as we can. It could have happened differently and more slowly and been less of a cult if people had actually done it as needed when needed and met the historic goals set. But that didn't happen.

You will note I have the internet. I don't ration my electricity. My life is similarly reflective to yours in the areas of energy and many things. My home is heated, I am comfortable. I try to constantly do more to create an environmental situation here on my farm to show it can be done without people losing what they are afraid of losing. Every day I wake up in the morning and I prove that again. But the reality is, we are past the point at which we can make anything more important than the climate. Don't take it from me please. Read the science yourself. Don't just accept that it is happening. Actually understand what is happening and how it will happen and how much we can do to change the course and how long we have to do it in. Please read the science. You are right. The sources matter. I read literal studies. Not articles interpreting studies.

TThe US wasn't at risk in that regard until a couple months ago. Now everyone is scared of Trump, and they are waging war on things like Public Broad Casting and NPR. So YES those things ARE now at risk. And to placate an orange luantic just a few days back PBS, had on a truck driver and a highly decorated doctor to discuss vaccines as if they were equals on the subject. The USA, isn't what it was just a few months ago. Major and dramatic and dangerous changes are taking place. Just look at the world stock market today. You want to talk about stuff that is BS? Tariffs. Things are happening here very quickly. People are being kidnapped on the streets who have every right to be here.... And that is just the beginning. It is only going to get worse. So it is important to stay connected to people now who have access to information from sources that are NOT operating with a gun to their head. I expect internet crackdown because everything is getting cracked down on. All sources of information. I think it won't happen tomorrow but I don't know when it will happen. I fear that it will because that is what dictators do. They shut down access to information that may offer a different story than they are offering.

I think lecturing people has never done much good. I still can't seem to stop myself anyway. I apologize. It is a personal failing. I think the more we talk about this with countries not acting the better. I dunno that lecturing though is the best format for that communication to take. I also don't think the goal should be perfection. Because that isn't realistic. But it should instead be, to keep the problem set to low at a level the planet can tolerate. So I think if a few continue to be bad actors as harmful as it is, it isn't necessarily the end of the world if the rest of us can get it down to a low enough level that the planet can tolerate us living on it. I believe there is a time and place for literally everything. The time for alarmism related to this issue, we are tragically there. I wish we weren't. I wish we had more time. We did have more time. We used it badly. Now it really is a 3 alarm fire.

Again I'm sorry about your accident, it feels like it affected you very deeply.

So no I don't agree with you that the economy should come before climate change.

I never said that money is more important than our planet, I said that there's something delusional - and even sometimes manipulative - about exclusively focusing on what the West does, dismissing what the rest of the world is up to. Again I think it's good that we're doing things, but it renders them virtually useless if the worst offenders aren't willing to take part in any effort. What I'm trying to say is let's keep the energy, but shift it a little bit.

I think our "salvation" will come with technological improvements, which needs a strong economy to flourish. Tesla and SpaceX are good examples: cash flow combined with great engineering is allowing them to make massive leaps that greatly reduce the footprint in their industries. It's really unfortunate that some people think burning down electric cars is the right call to make.

At one time I might have agreed with you that climate change cultiness is cultiness. Unfortunately that time is past. Not because I have joined the cult. Because I have read the science. We are at a major tipping point. Once we cross it and last I checked we were less than 12 years from hitting it, there is no saving the planet. What is all the money in the world worth to people too dead to spend it? On this issue, we are staring down the barrel of a gun set to fire within the next 12 years after which there is no way to save anything. The was is over. It literally is now or never.

I'm going to be completely honest, I think this is typically the kind of counterproductive speech that drives people away from climate change issues. It sounds like Earth will explode at the flip of a switch in 2037. This is a quite dramatic thing to say, and one doesn't need to be a climate change expert to figure it's just as likely to happen as the infamous 2012 doomsday, no matter how many times "science" is stamped in caps. I think there's got to be a middle ground somewhere, although yes some areas of the world are in a very bad position, it's very uneven. Could you please share the firsthand scientific studies you have read on this? I am genuinely interested.

Yes, wood burning creates particulates in the air. Wood breaks down and you wind up with that weather you burn it or not.

This is technically true, but natural decay creates significantly less pollution - on an order of magnitude. You can tell by the insane amount of black smoke that gets generated when forests burn, there is a big scalability problem with wood burning, it's only acceptable if few people do it.

TThe US wasn't at risk in that regard until a couple months ago. Now everyone is scared of Trump, and they are waging war on things like Public Broad Casting and NPR. So YES those things ARE now at risk. And to placate an orange luantic just a few days back PBS, had on a truck driver and a highly decorated doctor to discuss vaccines as if they were equals on the subject. The USA, isn't what it was just a few months ago. Major and dramatic and dangerous changes are taking place. Just look at the world stock market today. You want to talk about stuff that is BS? Tariffs. Things are happening here very quickly. People are being kidnapped on the streets who have every right to be here.... And that is just the beginning. It is only going to get worse. So it is important to stay connected to people now who have access to information from sources that are NOT operating with a gun to their head.

You're mixing lots of unrelated things here, I'll just respond to a couple of things if I may:

- I don't think "everyone is scared of Trump", I would venture to guess your personal circle is, given Trump won the popular vote.

- Who are these "people are being kidnapped on the streets who have every right to be here"? This is a very serious thing to say and I want to learn about this, it's terrible! (I assume you're not referring to illegal immigrants; that wouldn't make sense)

I expect internet crackdown because everything is getting cracked down on. All sources of information. I think it won't happen tomorrow but I don't know when it will happen. I fear that it will because that is what dictators do. They shut down access to information that may offer a different story than they are offering.

What are examples of effective crackdowns? You probably want to read the Twitter files or listen to Mark Zuckerberg's statements from a few months ago (I would be happy to provide the exact sources). They explicitly mentioned the collusion they both had with the FBI to prevent Trump from winning last time and to censor right-wing opinions on social media. This also applied overseas, French right-wing accounts were shut down without providing a reason. Can you name people being censored for their political opinions? Hell, just 4 years ago the sitting President of your own country got banned on a social network because calling his supporter "American patriots" was "inciting violence". How was that not the ultimate crackdown? If you did align with your current convictions back in the day and opposed this ban, kudos to you.

The entire presidential campaign was about defending free speech for Republicans and censoring fake news for Democrats (you probably know this better than I do). It sounds anachronistic to complain in 2025 about a crackdown on opinions when you're literally describing the pre-Trump/Musk world. The authoritarian ideology is not the one you think it is, as a matter of fact it is the main reason why they lost the election.

Full disclosure: I don't even like Trump as a person, I think it's unfortunate that he's the President, but this doesn't mean we should make up an alternative reality

Oh gosh where to begin.... You did say that the economy is the most important thing and should be the important thing for how we choose to deal with climate. And I disagree. All things come back to this 1 thing. Without it there3 is no economy.

I don't disagree. It would be wonderful if everywhere would do it's part. We don't live in a perfect world.

It is incredibly abusive and here is where I am gonna nail you for being a dude, to tell a woman what is and isn't delusional. Let's not forget the old term "hysterical woman" and where it comes from. It is possible to disagree without someone being mentally ill. If you can't see that and frequently speak like this to people this is not a platform anyone should be using. That might work with young women who don't know better, but it doesn't work with me nor does it put my views or opinions in their place beneath yours. If that is a problem then I don't think we will get along. Which is not to say, that you don't have a right to a valid opinion and view of your own. I may disagree but I will not declare it insane.

Nope. I am not on facebook. I am not on X. I do not buy from Amazon, I have been making a concerted effort to gradually move away from google. I don't think there is anything beneficial about Elon's dumb car company. Wasn't the economy important to you? Well, he is crashing my economy. His car sales are in the toilet. Why do you look to these toxic men who'd only goal is to make money at the expense of the welfare of whole societies if you think there is value to the earth and to society?

I do support electric cars. I will insist my husband get one. But not from Elon. There is nothing someone like Zuck, has that I want, and Amazon, has been ruining small companies for decades but sure let's pretend that enriching an oligarchy is good for the world. It isn't. Some things belong to everyone and those things are being destroyed. I understand why you look to these men and how they live and you want to be them. But.... we need a new ideal of what it is to be successful. These men are actually the most dependent and needy in the world. They aren't strong. Strong is being independent.

Not everyone is scared of Trump. Not everyone is scared of their kid dying of measles either, or of cancer, or of climate change that is coming for us all. That doesn't negate the danger of these things. Only the intellectual awareness and astuteness of those unafraid.

With all due respect, you don't live here and you don't feel or experience the impacts of these things which when taken together ARE a major threat to society.

Oh gosh where to begin.... You did say that the economy is the most important thing and should be the important thing for how we choose to deal with climate. And I disagree. All things come back to this 1 thing. Without it there3 is no economy.

I do agree with you that the state of our planet will always be more important than the economy - it's our only home. I only suggested that you can't pit the economy against saving the planet, because you need cash flow to transition effectively. Example: with a bad economy you have a low purchasing power which prevents you from switching to solar panels. Or you can't buy an EV so you're stuck with your old truck. I was trying to say that you want an economy that supports your goals.

It is incredibly abusive and here is where I am gonna nail you for being a dude, to tell a woman what is and isn't delusional. Let's not forget the old term "hysterical woman" and where it comes from. It is possible to disagree without someone being mentally ill. If you can't see that and frequently speak like this to people this is not a platform anyone should be using. That might work with young women who don't know better, but it doesn't work with me nor does it put my views or opinions in their place beneath yours. If that is a problem then I don't think we will get along. Which is not to say, that you don't have a right to a valid opinion and view of your own. I may disagree but I will not declare it insane.

I'm sorry did I call you a "hysterical woman" or imply you are "mentally ill" in some way? I was simply sharing my opinions, as you've been doing, and questioning viewpoints to understand your perspective - none of it was intended as a personal attack. When I asked for your firsthand scientific studies, I wasn't trying to mock you, I was being authentic. I find your choice of words and your assumptions about my character a bit unsettling, and bringing gender into this feels questionable. I apologize if being a man with differing opinions offends you. I hope this doesn't make me a bad person whose goal is to insult or oppress you based solely on your gender.

I don't think there is anything beneficial about Elon's dumb car company. Wasn't the economy important to you? Well, he is crashing my economy. His car sales are in the toilet. Why do you look to these toxic men who'd only goal is to make money at the expense of the welfare of whole societies if you think there is value to the earth and to society?

I personally don't look to anyone specifically, I look at what is being done. I just find amusing that Elon is the prime example of somebody who was hailed as a genius until a couple of years ago and has now become a villain when his political opinions shifted. His businesses and accomplishments have remained the same. It shows how some people prioritize their political agenda over anything else, sometimes including causes they claim to support. It'd be fair to say "it's great what he's done with EV but I don't agree with his recent political takes, which could even make me reconsider buying a Tesla" but that's not what we get. For instance, your words "His dumb cars" and "Crashing my economy" hardly align with your earlier stance of favoring energy transition over the economy.

I do support electric cars. I will insist my husband get one. But not from Elon. There is nothing someone like Zuck, has that I want, and Amazon, has been ruining small companies for decades but sure let's pretend that enriching an oligarchy is good for the world. It isn't. Some things belong to everyone and those things are being destroyed. I understand why you look to these men and how they live and you want to be them.

I also try not to get stuff from Amazon. I agree with you it's not good, their employees are borderline slaves. I'm also on your side with small businesses, and I don't like Zuck nor do I like Bezos. I dislike them not because they are wealthy, but because they have shown they can't be trusted with how they run their businesses. Same goes with Google. Thanks for making random assumptions about what I like/support though. I suppose criticizing certain things means I must adore what you disapprove of. Do you mind me asking examples of what belongs to everyone?

With all due respect, you don't live here and you don't feel or experience the impacts of these things which when taken together ARE a major threat to society.

You're right, I follow what's going on and I don't live there. That said, dismissing my questions based on where I live feels like an easy way to sidestep what I think were fair points. All major social networks are American and have a significant impact on lives in other countries.

I'm happy to debate with you (and maybe others will join in, so far it's just me) on topics where we may or may not agree. You've shown an interest in discussing politics and current events, so I'm keen to engage. To keep this constructive, I'd kindly ask you to respect a few ground rules: feel free to challenge beliefs or opinions, share your perspective, end even strongly oppose what you disagree with. In return, I'd hope you can manage disagreements without turning to ad hominem arguments, or unwarranted and harmful assumptions about my character. Otherwise, I might conclude you're simply seeking an echo chamber - which this forum isn't the right place for.

You don't need cash flow to transition effectively. That statement isn't true and I suspect you know it. To transition COMFORTABLY cash flow is a necessity. It would be my preference to do it this way as well. Because that which is uncomfortable is that which is rebelled against rather than embraced. And showing that it CAN be done in such a comfortable way is what my life is about. It is what my home exists as a model to show. That this is how it CAN be done. But we need to be making major moves and making them now. Time is money. We wasted time. Now we must accept it may be a little less comfy to change than we had hoped. It will get worse the longer we waste time.

I don't tend to take things personally. But I also don't sit down and accept attacks on every woman present on this platform due to the history of such engendered attacks, weather intended as such or not. There is a reason word choice like that comes to mind when you speak to a woman and not when you speak to a man. It isn't always intentional. But these things are ingrained within our societies, which means, they are ingrained in US, all of us. So when I see them I say something. If it wasn't intended as an attack great we're cool. But for the future, the fact that that is where your mind and vocabulary went while disagreeing with a woman should give and I hope it does give you pause to look at just what has been ingrained without deliberately choosing to internalize it. It's not that you are male that I find offensive. It is the word choice you invoked. Due to it's history which most men never stop to think about because that history is not regularly levied at them, and there are no atrocities against white dudes really in history. You have a deeply privileged position. Then you chose to throw a word around that is far too frequently thrown around to dismiss the views of women and comes from a historic horror situation that was inflicted on women. And the fun part is you don't even care to learn about it. You don't even realize that is what you are invoking. Time to study some Herstory. Because History we all know a little too well. But clearly some of us, have not read about Nellie Bly, for example and the institutions women were once put in and the torture they endured simply for refusing to back down to men. Time for an American History lesson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQhRCs9IHM

If you are dependent on others what accomplishment? If you can't stand on your own 2 feet without needing to get paid through ads on platforms, or without destroying small businesses, or without creating anything substantive that supports you then how is that success? You are still completely and totally vulnerable to whichever way the wind blows. Which is what Elon is finding out. I have never had a high opinion of him. It has nothing to do with his political views either. As Corey Booker said, there is right and there is wrong. And then there is a lot of real estate in the middle. Ripping off the US government, while defunding Grandma who worked her whole life to starve is just wrong. Sorry. Not grey area there. DOGE, IS a literal death panel. The way they are defunding our healthcare and our healthcare research and defunding social security and medicare, they are a death panel choosing who lives and who dies. Having money, does NOT make one God. But if you use your money like Elon is, to pretend to be, certainly makes you Satan. I am definitely a liberal. But, any time anyone wants to talk about how to save money I am there because I DO believe there is waste. Nothing is perfect. But this isn't how you find it. This isn't even right wing politics. it is a dictator with an oligarchy. There is no right in that. That is hardcore WRONG. It isn't in the grey area. Mccain, is rolling over in his grave.... And Liz Chney, has incredible integrity. I would be thrilled to see liberals negotiating with her. Maybe between us both if we were handed a flash light we could find the center line. But you can't negotiate with a dictator. This isn't about right and left politics. It is about right and wrong.

BINGO! They can't be trusted! You think this is about money for me??? hahahahahahahahahahahaha Oh dears, no.... It is about concern for those who are suffering and are being abused for whom it is about money, and very real need. I am not dependent. I live on a small farm. I do hard labor quite a lot, but I provide for myself and I live with a small foot print. I am dependent on no one. I want for nothing. I only care because decent people can't help but care about the welfare of others.

Clean water, clean food, the right to shelter, and warmth. A clean place to call home, Clean earth, oceans free of plastic, clean air. The right to work hard and improve one's circumstances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq3BYw4xjxE access and fair treatment by the law. These things and more MUST belong to us ALL. Our one home as you put it belongs to us all.

They WERE fair points... 6 months ago. at least here. When the usa, was NOT a dictatorship in which funding for climate related junk was pulled. In which regulation to save the planet was rolled back to nothing and legitimate businesses offering alternative climate friendly solutions were defunded. Now, the situation here is different. Speaking to those points is like calling a fish a mammal.

No, but criticizing things that are not actually things based on the lies told by the tech bros eating up money that could have been used to protect what belongs to all of us does make you sound a bit silly... Or brainwashed. Not entirely sure yet which.... I mean you are French, so you folks at least have not crossed into the crazy land territory yet of letting felons control the funding levels.... So perhaps, it is neither? Perhaps it is that you are seeing the world and the situation from where you and your society are, while clearly being into technology as I hear tell you created this platform? So you must talk to and find yourself inundated with views from other techies often. We tend to internalize what we are around too much. Which isn't criticism. It is just a fact. It holds true for all of us. Not just men, or french folks. Spent half a lifetime watching this phenominon impact people from all over the world.... Might I make a suggestion? Get out of your bubble a bit. Stop judging things based on the situation 6 months ago. There is a 3 alarm fire right now in the USA, in government and then collectively we have another, climate change. Read the science. Screw the opinion. Look at what The Mango Mussolini has done here in the last 2 months. Look at the stock market. The evidence is clear. We are not living 6 months ago when your legitimate points were in fact totally legitimate. We are here now. The situation has changed. Would you for example use one of those early Apple computers to hook up to the internet??? You know the ones from like 1988? NO. Because you can't. They don't have the capacity to connect to the internet at all let alone the modern high speed internet. Your view on this matter is like that computer. Which is no fault of yours. A lot of things have been happening VERY VERY fast here. They WILL soon impact the whole world and it will gradually become impossible not to see it. But they are already impacting HERE, where I am. Your views I hope are once again substantive relevant, and reflective of a situation in the future. But who knows? In the mean time, they are out dated you just haven't felt the hit from the changes yet. But you will.

It's not the social networks and their impact I am concerned with. It is the choices and insanity coming out of the oval, funded by those at the top of social media giants that you are absolutely right. Impact the whole world. But I would argue, facebook dissolving facts is an amazingly dangerous place for the world to be.

I don't think I did ad hominen attacking. If I did, I do apologize. And we have finally reached a point we DO agree on. Civil discourse should be civil. If I do make an assumption about your character please do set me straight if I am off base. Because I don't want to be wrong. And while I know a great deal, I think we can bot agree, I am not in your head with you. As you are not in mine with me. But I do hope you will consider some of what I have said about how ingrained some stuff is in our western cultures and even in other cultures as well, and that history is a powerful thing. Sometimes we don't realize we invoke it when we do unintentionally. History.... can and does become part of the zeitgeist of the current and future that it is built upon. Often surviving under the surface somewhere where it feels almost dormant and you don't realize it is there in the background of everything leaching into the fabric of who each one of us is. I originate in a Buddhist Hippy Commune. I am sending you folk music to try to help you understand. Does that shock you? it shouldn't. That junk is one of those things I have internalized. Just as I have internalized feminism. I come from a long line of them. So I am perhaps not just aware of the history but even over sensitive to it. But that doesn't mean it isn't there ingrained in others this thing from further back in history. I am sure there is crap ingrained that I don't even realize is ingrained. Soooo.... Yeh....