3 of the couples I had in mind when I mentioned traditional dating sites used Match.com (between 2015 and 2022 in their mid 20s to mid 30s) and 1 couple each around the same time period/age demographic on specific religion dating sites (catholic chemistry and christian mingle)

I don’t think Anon is considering the set of all possible cute girlfriends or lending them enough agency. I think it’s somewhat reasonable if you’re app dating to assume that people are doing some amount of maximizing cute + interesting or something similar but I think that’s because the apps encourage people to gamify dating.

Anecdotally I’ve seen a ton of…erm…normatively mismatched couples form and find success in other contexts like dive bars, pick up soccer, chatrooms, kink communities, boardgame cafes, more traditional dating sites etc. Again anecdotally these relationships seem to skew (normatively) in the guy’s favor more often than the gal’s as far as looks and personality go despite the fact that complaints like this come more often from men.

I don’t disagree with that

I agree that comedy is an area that rarely ages well. If you look at the old post 9/11 HBO comedy spots on MAX they are atrociously racist against middle eastern people to the point where I don’t think they should be available or at least should be labeled history and not comedy.

Nor-cal but close

I thought they just didn’t breed in my habitat last time I moved— turns out they can breed here but they’re quite tightly managed.

I don’t love that this is a negative position (a struggle not to be something I don’t admire rather than to be something I admire)

Personally I think my most stable sense of identity comes from wanting to remain the caring person I was as a kid. I remember vividly the first time I heard a news clip about the genocide in Darfur and wondering how all of the adults around me seemed so at ease. Adults are supposed to be the doers in the world, why weren’t they doing anything? Why didn’t they seam upset? I think trying my best to avoid the complacency I saw in them has played a large role in my sense of self.

Perfection

We need some data on the poor furries who can’t afford cons. Back in high school it was just a matter of sticking a fluffy tail to the back of your pants

re “is it an american thing,” someone else will have to field the rest of your question

[Partisan] americans also like to wave off the roughly 1/3 of eligible voters who don’t vote at all as if they just forgot or were too lazy to vote or something. A lot of people are disillusioned with the whole thing, but the partisans are the loudest and the media mostly cares about them so it makes it sound like it’s 50/50.

According to the latest gallup data about 27% identify with each of the two major parties and about 43% as independent (of major parties).

But in the meme it’s the kind of milk bottle you return to the store for $ and they wash and refill it. Not really covered by that study I don’t think

glass bottles have a more damaging overall effect, largely because they are heavier and require more energy for their production.

Won’t even draw a hard line at genocide

Yes (agreed)— justice in the US is supposed to happen at an individual level, so even if it were true that systemic bias made one more likely to be convicted of a crime (just for illustration say living in a high conviction zip code where 99% of people have been convicted of a crime) it would not be appropriate to use that data to predict or assess any individual human’s potential behavior.

Yes that’s more precise, I’ve edited it. Thanks!

Just in case people aren’t familiar, some context from the aclu.

Also note: the is regarding the united states

Hopefully it’s clear this is super problematic in the context of risk assessment tools. It means if you are categorized as part of a racial group that is convicted of more crimes, you might be categorized as a higher risk than you would otherwise.

They argue models from education and psychology that address racial disparities could be adapted, but those institutions are designed to help people rather than to decide if they should be in jail.

Yeah I also read The Power and the author doesn’t have my favorite writing style, but I tend to power through books unless they’re awful. Shortly after I read Spin by Robert Charles Wilson which was phenomenal if you like sci fi and need a good read!

Yes! Thank you for the excellent sleuthing! That was so fast ha