Moral excuses aside, it’s money. Huge gaps means less material, one-size-fits-all installation, and arbitrary tolerances in production. Same reason the latches constantly break or get stuck - the whole setup is mass-produced as cheaply as possible.

But it’s not a good way to save money. On top of the obvious safety and privacy benefits, bathroom quality can completely change a person’ opinion of an establishment and is worth investing in.

Do you think these assaults are happening in crowded bathrooms? Or that other women will ignore an assault simply because the bathroom is unisex?

But where is the place where I can get a message like that and trust it as it is the norm in that social network? McLuhan said “The Medium is the Message”

I’m not sure this is possible on the internet in general. Even in the early days of facebook people were forced to grow suspicious of their old acquaintances reaching out to say hi only to be hit with some “be your own boss!” MLM schtick, and that was when you could be fairly confident the sender was a real person that you actually have known for some time. Not to mention how suspicious we all are of some of the “living my best life!” type of humble-brag posts that are really just sad people playing pretend.

Add a layer of anonymity and I’m just not sure genuine trust could ever be possible. Try to take away anonymity and you wander into the quagmire that is personal privacy and still can’t avoid the possibility of scams and compromised accounts.

I think that the Internet as a Medium simply cannot do what we have been trying to force it to do for years - serve as a good “third place” for socialization. Do people make friends here? Absolutely. But people make friends in the ICU, doesn’t mean we should install a bar there.

Contrary to the circles we reside in, most of the US despises any act of “socialism”. It’s ingrained in the culture after 50 years of waging a cold war against an entity that was associated with everything on the left because of propaganda.

America’s mainstream opinions on “socialism” were not caused by America’s history of arms races, thermonuclear development, and proxy wars across the globe, nor do they persist because of it. Many Americans have experienced a rapid and shocking shift in opinion toward Russia - the great red enemy of the cold war. This is still happening despite Russia making no major political reforms in recent history, no significant revolution in government, and actively trying to reclaim soviet territories.

If this was possible within a single generation, it also should be possible for public perception to change on socialism. There is no need or purpose to wait for people to die - their ideas live on.

No, decades after the cold war ended, the cause of the hatred of socialism in this country persists for one simple reason: Americans have become convinced through a tremendous amount of propaganda that Government is bad.

Not just America’s government as an entity - we could all find some common ground there if it were that simple. No institution in particular, not the Administration, the federal or state legislatures, or the town halls, or the mayor of the small village who’s really just doing it as a part-time gig - no, all of these are but parts of the greater problem - Government itself is seen as bad.

Not the flashy boots on the throats of “radicals”, not the ICE agents storming the hospitals - that’s not governing, that’s just violence. No, what’s “bad” are the mundane, boring, tedious things the Government does because someone has to.

There is this wild knee-jerk reaction to governance itself that dates back to good ol’ Reaganism of course.

“The most terrifying words are… I’m from the federal government, and I’m here to help.” (Reagan, 1986, paraphrased)

Spoken by the man specifically in charge of the federal government.

America was supposed to have been founded for the people, by the people, and with the people in mind. But now the people believe not only that the government isn’t here for them - it can’t be.

They believe we shouldn’t try to make things better through governance because governing can’t be good. it’s always “inefficient”, it’s always “stealing your hard-earned money”. To them it’s million dollar pens in space, and spraying cat piss on drunk rats, and paying for hormones and birth control and school “litter boxes” - in short, to many Americans, any money the Government spends is by definition theft and waste, especially if it’s hard to understand.

Changing their minds on socialism involves first changing their minds on the government. Not the capital A capital G American Government, but the nature and purpose of governance itself.

But on the bright side, I believe our opportunities to change those minds are only growing from this moment. The hateful idealogies, the demagogues, the simple answers - they’re all a net negative on society. But the fact remains that the government is being challenged and ripped apart both internally and externally. Institutions are crumbling as we speak, traditions are being broken, and precedents are being set and shredded left and right.

People have the opportunity to realize that government itself is malleable, and that if it can be changed for the worse so quickly and horribly, then it can also be changed for the better. We have the chance to convince them that we as a society can take all of this power and use it for our personal and collective good, if only the right minds and the right ideas take root.

Thank you!

These overreactions are reminding me of the J6ers, though.

Ah, yes. Truly a classic. “The people angry about the blanket pardoning of all the violent insurrectionists are just as bad as the violent insurrectionists!”

Lol.

But, the beautiful thing about hitting rock bottom is that the only way to go from there is up. All of that to say that maybe (yes, I’m being optimistic) Trump is what this country needs to hit rock bottom, do some self reflection, and pull ourselves back up to a better place. The biggest takeaway I learned way back when is that no matter how bad things get, the world keeps spinning

These are unfortunately contradictory ideas. It sounds like you had a positive journey in the end, but there are many individuals - especially people struggling with addiction - who will tell you that there is no rock bottom. The world does keep on spinning. And as long as you are alive, you can go lower. There is no point where you go so low that you hit bedrock and the world stops spinning.

Plenty of people think they hit rock bottom and later discover that what they thought of as their lowest point eventually became a time they now think of as “the good days”.

There is nothing inevitable or guaranteed about hitting rock bottom and climbing your way back up. It is hard work, and it sounds like you know that personally. Whatever comes next will be a terrible struggle for all of us, and there is no guarantee of success. But we do have to try anyway.

That’s very interesting. Do you know where I could learn more about that decision? I tried searching but its 2025 and any phrases I could think of just returned websites offering nearly identical collections of flag emojis…

True! It’s just another of the many ways that evil is counterproductive to its own interests.

Helping groups of humans that bigots don’t like would literally result in less humans that bigots don’t like in the world.

But they can’t help the wrong humans! Oh no! They have to hurt those humans! And so they leave those humans in the socioeconomic conditions that maintain exponential population growth indefinitely

In a broad sense this is inaccurate - war has been around as long as humans, and yet we were on an exponential population growth curve until the demographic transitions started.

Over the last century we as a species have significantly reduced child mortality, improved education, infrastructure, overall quality of life, and established reproductive health initiatives that supply condoms and sex education!

These advancements cause the local mortality rate to plummet. Then the following generation gets to reproductive age but has much less offspring, and the reproductive rate falls farther than the mortality rate did.

This is called the “demographic transition” and has occurred across dramatically different cultures, environments, and economies.

This is not universal or inevitable across the globe but the impact is so significant that global population as a whole is currently heading towards a plateau!

Therefore condoms, reproductive healthcare, and distributed economic growth are more effective at reducing population growth than bombs and bullets.

Developing a nation is literally more cost-efficient than destroying it. For the species. Not for the people selling the bombs.

It could be more complex than that. It could be an average number of vampires preying on an evolutionary disadvantage - hospitality. Vampires cannot cross a threshold uninvited, but Italians are famous for welcoming everyone and their mothers to dinner. It was a recipe for disaster until they found the holy bulb.

Ever wonder why Italy has crosses in every home? Why the Vatican formed there? Could it have been a long and storied history of the rise and fall of romans and religions? No. Vampires.

It was more obvious when they all had big bellies, but have you ever noticed that the Pope sitting in his white outfit and hat looks like unpeeled garlic?

Personally, I think both theories can be true. It is hard to corroborate dates for our records. Immortal bodies that burn away in sunlight pose some archaeological challenges.

But consider this:

What if Italy had a significantly higher number of vampires than normal? Before they learned the secrets of Allium, and faith, and a big wooden spoon always close at hand.

2075. A world where fast and foreign foods dot the Italian countryside. Faith has been abandoned, crosses discarded. Their traditions are forgotten. But their traditions have not forgotten them.

Only one grandmother remembers the past. Cross on the mantel. Big wooden spoon. Garlic in the sauce. One big dinner, every week. Everyone’s invited.

Coming soon to a theater near you:

Nonna: No Blood Before Supper

They want to use military planes because they can hide the cost of this program in the “whoops it’s too big to audit” defense budget. The cost of civilian contractors would be publically disclosed.

This person’s outright sadistic blindness or trolling aside, anyone reading this comment with good faith and not immediately having an aneurysm should remember that the once and current president once said, and I quote:

I like taking guns away early. Take the guns first, go through due process second.

Please don’t feel that the best thing you can do is shut up! You deserve a voice in the matter, even if it is much harder for you to use it the way others can use theirs.

Besides, not everyone can always be or even needs to always be the person who spreads the message. We need people to help figure out what the problems and solutions are just as much as we need people to share those problems and solutions with the world.

It is usually a necessary evil that we have marketers to sell the things that wouldn’t exist without the engineers to produce them.

If the user was going to message someone off platform they’d still be sending them an unencrypted message anyways if they have to switch apps to SMS.

It sounds like they don’t want to take responsibility for that user choice or be connected to anything that happens because of that choice.

It would still be an insecure choice, even with obvious UX distinctions. It would only be a matter of time before headlines muddy the waters with “intercepted Signal messages reveal…” or “Judge rules in favor of subpeona for unencrypted Signal messages…”

No, they haven’t always been extremely greedy and selfish. All social animals strike a balance between self-interest and group-interest, and humans are no different.

Some humans have always been extremely greedy and selfish. And some of those humans have always been charismatic and persuasive. And many other humans are not equipped to differentiate between emotionally persuasive and right. Well-intentioned humans will often connect themselves to the wrong people or ideas.

That’s not really their fault. We’re repurposing evolution’s creations for things they weren’t built to do. We’re trying to build empathy and connection with people that are chronologically, geographically, and/or psychologically distant from us.

And unfortunately we’re trying to do that while a handful of us try to sever those connections and build physical and metaphorical barriers between us for their own self-interest.

Most of us struggle with the ability to feel empathy and connection with our own future selves. We often choose instant gratification over personal benefit, we often choose to forego temporary burdens in the present at the foreseen expense of finding greater burdens in the future.

That’s not greed or self-interest. That’s the opposite of self-interest. That’s just the burden of the rising ape. But it’s no reason to lose hope, and it’s no reason to stop trying.

The most important proof that humans aren’t all greedy and selfish is that people are still trying to do better. We are still trying to build better connections, even as others try to tear them apart.

Then you’re not actually advocating for change. If you have no interest in changing minds then you have no interest in any meaningful difference in the future. Besides, the consent has been manufactured and the horses have been lead to a poisoned pool.

The apathetic dismissal of people as helpless - the belief that they are, individually and as a whole, incapable of change or redemption or worse, unworthy of it - is a small but meaningful part of the machine that has altered reality in front of our very eyes.

We appear to be in one of many pivotal moments in history, where economics and politics and technology all tip the dominoes that are human lives toward an entirely new and irreversible state.

Hard times tend to meet demagogues and easy answers, but they also tend to force people to come together and face hard truths. I’m not saying you personally can save or change them all - perhaps not even save any. But there are plenty of good, ignorant people that will have opportunities to learn some terrible lessons very soon.

Correct! One of the most important tools we need to obtain, the most important weapon we need to arm yourself, isn’t obvious, or simple, or easy.

It’s Messaging.

Want to spend your time bitter? Apathetic? “I-told-you-so”?

I don’t blame you.

But you’re not actually working towards a solution. If all you have to say is “I told you so,” or “what’s the point?” or “everything’s fucked” - I get it. But you’re not contributing to the conversation any more than the people in this comic have been for the last how many years. You’re not helping any more than they were.

We need messaging. We need to be willing to fight these battles. Not fighting the embittered trolls, but spreading truth. Sharing solutions. Making plans. Fighting this. Apathy. Pointlessness. Accelerationism.

Spread free platforms. Spread free ideas. Have meaningful conversations with your friends and families and coworkers. Try again, and keep trying. In little steps, in great acts. Don’t let the shock paralyze you, the size overwhelm you. Don’t get washed away by the flood of hate. This is the second best time to act. Your opportunities are growing by the minute.

Life is about to get very, very hard for many people. Many of the obvious targets will suffer, but it’s pretty clear that nobody is “safe”. Even the poster boys are under threat of retribution for stepping out of line. And everyone, everyone is facing the inevitable economic downturn that is speeding toward us.

But hardship shakes beliefs. It changes minds. Things will become personal for even the most detached, apathetic, or privileged. And when politics become personal all bets are off.

But don’t bother if you’re not going to try. Really, really try. Think about yourself, and the world, and the person you’re talking to, and really try to make them see.

Take - and make - your opportunities to change minds. Don’t be afraid, but be careful. Don’t be polite for the sake of politeness, but be kind, be considerate, even be gentle when you think it will help, but don’t be polite.

Whatever they can say to you can’t compare to what is being done to you or about to be done to everybody. Whatever they say can’t be worse than their complacency.

Your one and only goal: stay on message. This is bad and it needs to stop. Here is how it affects you. Here is how it affects your family. Here is how things are going wrong, and why.

More than anything else, we need each other. We need solidarity, community. We need to genuinely start asking ourselves: how do we win? And then make the answer happen.

We kneel beneath the weight of wealth and tradition and fear. But despite the growth of AI, at the end of the day the people we kneel beneath are people. Humans decide what happens next. They are human. We are all human. We can decide what happens next.

The changes in attitudes towards social media websites, caused in this instance by Elon Musk are a great way for those in power to suppress another Arab Spring type event in the future.

The change in attitude is the consequence, not the cause. The best way for those in power to suppress another Arab Spring type event is a change in ownership of a massively influential social media platform where the richest man can take over completely to censor and control the narrative and oh, whoops… that already happened.

Yes.

Profess: 1) To affirm openly; declare or claim. 2) To make a pretense of; pretend.

If one makes a pretense of holding beliefs, feelings, or values that one does not hold, one is a hypocrite.

Whether anyone else understands the pretenses of the hypocrite or not does not change the definitions of the words.