Bamboodpanda

My wife and I own three homes, each purchased below our means so we could invest time and money into renovations while living in them. One is currently rented, and we’re working on the second, with plans to have it rented by next summer.

Balancing full-time jobs with these projects demands a lot of our time and resources, but I take pride in the work we put into each home. I treat my rental properties with the same care and quality as my own home—because they were my homes.

I also expect my tenants to treat the house with the same respect I do.

The moderation practices on that subreddit have created an environment where dissenting opinions are swiftly and permanently banned. This approach has fostered an echo chamber where only one perspective is allowed to thrive, reinforcing a cycle of confirmation bias and groupthink. As a result, most conservative posts lack depth and often resemble oversimplified memes rather than meaningful discourse.

Even when an opposing viewpoint manages to slip through, it’s often dismissed as artificial or the work of bots. This mindset reveals how deeply entrenched their worldview has become—so much so that they struggle to believe that differing opinions could be genuine. It’s a surreal and unfortunate dynamic that stifles any chance of productive discussion.

That subreddit is an absolute dumpster fire of stupidity.

I jumped on board with the reddit API fiasco. I use Sync primarily since I'm familiar with the format and I browse and post often.

I think one problem is that it's confusing to your average Joe. I honestly still don't quite understand how it works. I see posts like .ml and .world and I have no idea what they are even though I've been here a while.

I don’t usually eat fast food, but one night I was starving, and there happened to be a drive-thru right next to me. I saw only two cars ahead in line and thought it would be quick. I pulled in and waited. Fifteen minutes passed. Then nearly twenty. By that point, a long line had formed behind me, trapping my car.

At the thirty-minute mark, I started asking the cars around me if they could maneuver to let me out. After almost forty minutes, I finally managed to escape.

Frustrated and still hungry, I drove a little further to a local gyro joint. I walked inside, placed my order, and within five minutes, I was enjoying a fresh, delicious lamb platter.

If this had been an isolated incident, I wouldn’t have thought much of it. But the reality is, experiences like this are all too common. Fast food isn’t fast, and to make matters worse, it’s often not even cheap anymore. Unless you’re scraping the bottom of the so-called “value menu”—which has become scarce and filled with low-quality options—you’re likely paying the same, if not more, than you would at a local spot.

When you stack up the cost, the wait, and the disappointing quality, it’s hard to justify why anyone bothers with fast food at all.

We're about to celebrate our 17th anniversary and we've been together over 20. I am more in love today than I was when we first started dating. She's the most wonderful person I know and I love sharing my life with her.

I am genuinely curious about your perspective—when you say the left can act in a fascist manner, could you provide some specific examples of what you mean? Also, how do you personally define fascism in this context?

AI-generated art is an incredible tool for art design. I used to spend countless hours sifting through Google images, trying to piece together mood boards or find references for very specific concepts. Now, with AI, I can quickly generate visuals that capture the exact mood, style, or design I'm aiming for, saving both time and effort.

However, I view AI art as a starting point, not the final product. Once I’ve developed a clear visual direction, I hand these concepts over to a skilled artist to bring the idea to life with depth, creativity, and a human touch that AI simply can’t replicate. AI streamlines the creative process, but it doesn’t replace the artistry and nuance that only human creators can deliver.

My bad for not being more clear. I didn’t mean to imply that more parties are automatically a good thing. What I meant is that ranked choice voting actually incentivizes candidates to adopt broader, more inclusive positions that reflect the unique views of voters in their district or state. It encourages collaboration and reduces division because candidates need to appeal beyond their base to win second- and third-choice votes. Just adding a third party alone doesn’t fix anything, but RCV actively reshapes how campaigns are run and how candidates engage with voters. That’s something only RCV can accomplish.

Ranked choice voting is designed to reduce the spoiler effect and allow voters to support third-party and independent candidates without fear of "wasting" their vote. While it doesn't automatically create new parties, it can encourage their growth by making the political system more accessible. By implementing RCV first, the political environment becomes more open to alternative parties gaining traction and competing more fairly over time.

I'm short, by it's nature, RCV creates alternatives.

You're right that proportional representation (PR) would better reflect diverse political views, but RCV can still be a step toward breaking the two-party dominance. It lowers the barrier for third-party and independent candidates by reducing the "spoiler effect" and encouraging broader support. Ideally, combining RCV with multi-winner districts or systems like Sequential Proportional Approval Voting would create a more representative democracy.

Ranked choice voting still works with two parties by letting voters rank multiple candidates within those parties or include third-party/independent options. It helps ensure the winner has broader support, reduces "lesser of two evils" voting, and encourages more positive campaigning, especially in primaries.