Absolutely.

Bad, rushed software that wires together 200 different giant libraries just to use a fraction of them and then run it in a sandboxed container with three daemons it needs for some reason doesn’t mean “8 Gb isn’t enough”, it means write tighter, better software.

I felt the same way. I was VERY happy with that outcome. I won’t say PayPal earned my LOYALTY with that, because loyalty to ANY company is stupidity, but at the very least they earned my respect for the time being. Of course, I reserve the right to revoke it at any time.

In my experience, their consumer protection is great.

PayPal has been absolutely instrumental for me in issuing refunds with obstinate vendors. Once or twice they’ve issued me a refund after being refused a return/refund when an Aliexpress vendor either sent the wrong item or nothing at all.

I even got them to secure me a refund against the Australian government after they refused to issue a refund after directing me to apply for a tourist visa with the wrong visa process.

It feels a little ridiculous that we’ve gotten 6 comments deep into this, but…

None of those comments make any claims about poster. 2 of them are pedantic jokes in the “Can I use the bathroom?/I don’t know, can you?” school of ignoring colloquial usage, and one is what I assume is a well-intentioned legitimate caution about not getting caught in a cyclical spiral of self-defeatism.

As to the meme format, a green text can be anything from an epic 50+ post story about faking an IT job, to a single line about hating one’s name, to threatening a cartoon cat, so I’m not sure what template format it’s violating. If you don’t think it’s particularly well-written or interesting, that’s fine of course, but just say that.

As long as you’re alive and capable of communicating

…here we go with the impossible standards.

I take you at your word that that was your intention, but it doesn’t read that way. It comes off with a tone of mockery and hostility.

What gross vibes?

Don’t lump the guy in with incels. He’s not blaming other people for his problems, or complaining. He’s just lamenting. I don’t see anything in his post that’s gross. Leave a lonely dude alone. God forbid he let himself feel sad for 5 seconds.

I hope for everyone’s sake you’re right, but if that does come to pass it will come as a surprise to me.

I agree with your conclusion, but I don’t agree that it’s feasible. Any tax solutions will involve legislation by a government owned by those same interests. And even if you managed it in major economies, you’d just force the climate issues into places with fewer qualms about their fuel usage. I’d love to see this problem solved, but my faith in our ability to resolve it is far less than yours.

Okay, I can see how you got that from my post. I was a bit hyperbolic in my original post, and I apologize.

I’m not REALLY making a moral equivalence argument or saying anything about comparing the horrors of slavery to work… I’m saying getting rid of slavery was easier to enact because there was an alternative system that happened to be ultimately profitable for the rich at the same time. Yes, wars have been fought to stop abolition, but at the end of the day, after slavery was abolished, the rich found a way to stay rich almost everywhere - abolition came at very little real change to the wealth structure of society. They had a supply of labor to exploit for profit during slavery, and they had one after. The fact is that the moral and financial interests both aligned on making abolition happen - it wasn’t caused by pure strength of willpower. And yes, the system we have now is MUCH MUCH better than true slavery, but it’s still a stretch to use the current system as a beacon of hope.

On climate change the moral and financial interests are NOT aligned in a clear way. There are always still going to be financial incentives to screw the climate for extra money. By comparison, if slavery were somehow legal again TODAY, it’s not clear it would be profitable for anybody to actually do it. That difference will make climate goals harder to enact.

Not to be defeatist, but…

We didn’t abolish slavery… we just replaced it with wage slavery. Sure, the workers are free to leave - and try to survive with no other job opportunities and no money. In fact, for the employers, this is actually preferable to real slavery, because there are lower upfront costs for your slaves, they don’t try to run away or rebel, you don’t have to pay for their healthcare or long term care, and in many places government tax dollars will subsidize their living expenses. Employers have it WAY better with wage slaves than real slaves.

Child labour is still alive and well in many countries, and even there the ball is rolling on rolling THAT back in the US at least.

I admire your positivity, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

That was all Bing’s idea. My prompt only included “smiling children”.

Maybe the guidance is “Fix your nightmare faces.”

Sounds like you need some on-the-spot guidance.

When Shrek is outlawed, only outlaws will have Shrek.

Did somebody say Catholic Shrek?