I don’t understand how this makes taking hostages and mistreating them by Hamas even remotely understandable let alone agreeable.

Compare a photo of a IDF prisoner to a photo of someone who was held hostage by Hamas. And stop comparing hostages with prisoners.

So, I am a sadistic monster for pointing out that kidnapping civilists and meístreating them instead of just getting rid of your extremist leaders led to the desaster. And not even showing regret and distancing yourself from those religious zealots doesn’t help, of course. But I am the monster, not the kidnappers. How dillusional are you???

Did any of the Palestinians ever regret all those kidnappings? It brought so much suffering, yet no word of regret and still some hostages remain.

As recently as 5 years ago I was convinced that at the end of the day this guy does more good than bad for the human race. But he is really, really putting an effort into tipping the scales, isn’t he?

Well, I hope the data protection official of my school won’t find out. Oh wait, shit. He did find out. It’s me and idgaf.

That also is my experience.

I saved a lot of time due to ChatGPT. Need to sign up some of my pupils for a competition by uploading their data in a csv-File to some plattform? Just copy and paste their data into chsatgpt and prompt it to create the file. The boss (headmaster) wants some reasoning why I need some paid time for certain projects? Let ChatGPT do the reasoning. Need some exercises for one of my classes that doesn’t really come to grips with while-loops? let ChatGPT create those exercises (some smartasses will of course have ChatGPT then solve those exercises). The list goes on…

Again, the world is not black and white, only.

You know what you’re left with after renting for 50 years? Absolutely nothing.

Not really. If I don’t buy any real estate, I can afford to invest into other things. I could make monthly investments into a MSCI world ETF, for example. After a couple of decades I will have 0 debts and a lot of funds. And selling funds is easy and can be handled very flexibly (selling funds for amount x is trivial). If I buy real estate, by the time I retire I will have a house, worth 400.000€ or so and 200.000€ of debt or something along those lines. That might be better on balance, but it is a pain in the ass. You safe money on rent, but you pay interest instead.

And it’s not even like tenant rights are especially good here.

In Germany they are relatively good for tenants. Can’t complain. Rental contracts are typically indefinite. The landlord can also not raise my rent at will or get me out without a good reason and a very generous grace period. But on the other hand, I got a new gf and might need more space and some garden, etc. We will see. I have some considerations to do.

The world is not black and white. Example: I am a rentee in Germany in a house with 16 flats. My landlord owns exactly one flat in this house, the one I live in. The house and the adjacent house is owned by a community of owners. They meet once a year for decisions of all kind. They employ the services of a buidling managament company that sees to things like light fixtures in the garage and stairwells, cleaning of stairwells, repairs, winter service, trash cans moved to the streets, etc. This ist the 4th or 5th rental flat I have lived in. About 50% of people in Germany live as rentees. It generally has been a good experience for me. Finding a suitable flat has been difficult last time, in 2022. Generally, I want this option. Buying a home does have it perks, but generally it is financially not the best option. Example: if I want to buy a flat in the vincinity of my rental appartement, same size, same facilities, I would have to fork over 400k€ at least. If I even find anything comparable. As of now, I pay 660€ of rent each month (+ utilities). That means, that I could just as well live happily as a rentee for the next 50 years for the same amount of money. I am 47 now, so even accounting for some raises of the rent I could live here for cheaper as a rentee until I die.

I will buy a property in 2026 nevertheless. But it will not be located as conveniently as my current flat. I will be able to buy a house for maybe 220k€, but it won’t be within the city center, like my current flat. But the new gf and her kid make an own house more desirable.

I am not really surprised. As long as people are not starving and they have any kind of recreational activities (social media, streaming, alcohol, drugs), they won’t do shit. The ancient romans already new about that. They gave the people “bread and circuses”.

The other side of this coin is having to be 100% self-dependent. If you want to do this, you better have a job that pays for your preferred life-style. And you better live in a country with a functional health-system that doesn’t immediately bunkrupt you if you fall ill and lose your job because of that.

So… what am I not understanding then? You left that info out, inconveniently.

Your first ammendment guarantees that everybody can weigh in and say that your foreign policies suck dicks. Wether you like it or not.

Here, in the German press, I recently heard Trump described as not being the catastrophe itself, he rather is just a symptom of a deep rift going through US society.

Judging by what he did during his first term: Regarding Germany nothing much happened that was any worse than whatever Obama or grampa Biden did during the adjacent terms. A lot of isolationism happened under Biden. In the term before Trump, a lot of murdering people (including a lot of “collateral damage, aka murderings of civilists”) happened under Obama with his over the top employment of drone warfare.

I don’t see much of a difference by whoever becomes the next GRÖFAZ POTUS.

Especially the person in the background starting Elon’s first public robotaxi-trip with a remote control didn’t really help.

My MSCI World ETF shares lost about 4% in a day. yesterday. Does this have anything to do with this shitshow?

While those facts might not be wrong in your neck of the woods, they are at least very, very US centric. That is of course ok, as we are talking about the US candidates here. But generally, keep in mind that the world is way bigger than the US. You make up a whole of 4% of the world’s population. And those numbers all vary from country to country.

You might be right there. I’m German. And many a man did come back later, after the war, here. A lot of refugees were forcefully relocated from what is today Poland. Also a lot of POWs came back long after the war was over. So the baby boom was a bit delayed over here.

Kamala was born in 64. She’s a boomer. Also, GTFO with Generation Jones. She’s a boomer. X-ers are those who came after the pill became omnipresent after the mid 60s. I am one of those (born in 77). We are relatively few in numbers in comparison to the boomers. Because of the pill. Also GTFO with Generation Jones. She’s a boomer.

Trump and Biden also aren’t boomers. They predate the boomers. They were born during or shortly after WW2. That’s usually called the silent generation. Trump being part of the silent generation is of course ridiculous. But he’s the exception of the rule, I guess. But both are born very late in that generation, so they are its last remnants I guess. Soon they will all be gone.