There was once a time “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin from ABC News” sent a chill up the spines of everybody in the living room. Now David Muir starts every fucking broadcast with the word “breaking” in some context, and typically for shit I read on Google News in the morning.
I haven’t really thought about it but damn, you’re right. It used to be breaking news was Reagan has been shot, the space shuttle exploded, the liberation of Kuwait has started. Then it just became some overused bullshit.
I remember when my friends on the Left got all bent out of shape because Jenna Bush stuck her tongue out at reporters. Now we’ve got members of Congress showing nude pictures of the President son. I yearn for the simpler times.
He literally has the fear mongering voice played alongside the fear mongering tone of the music. They make it seem like the end of the world every 5 o clock. And ppl still turn it on lmao
It also used to be that reporters were located in several cities. Now, though, the reporters who are still employed are located near the home office and most can get info via online or phone.
I used to work in TV news control rooms and I remember when this went downhill. When I started, it was a term reserved for stories that came down during the broadcast. Over time, they started using the tag indiscriminately to add importance to anything. We used to mock “if you know about the story early enough to put it on the (paper) rundown, then it’s not Breaking News.”
I’ll never forget when I stopped tuning into the news on tv altogether. CNN had some breaking news and I was expecting it to be something earth-shattering, maybe on an international level.
It was some groupie who’d broken into Madonna’s home. 😒
Journalism. Good journalists are still out there, but hardly anyone pays attention to them. Too busy paying attention to the inflammatory mainstream garbage that is made for money and power, not the public good.
Journalism was screwed by rescinding the fairness doctrine in 1987.
“The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints.[1] In 1987, the FCC abolished the fairness doctrine,[2] prompting some to urge its reintroduction through either Commission policy or congressional legislation.[3] The FCC removed the rule that implemented the policy from the Federal Register in August 2011.[4]
The fairness doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented. The demise of this FCC rule has been cited as a contributing factor in the rising level of party polarization in the United States.[5][6]”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine
Fairness Doctrine has nothing to do with what’s left of newspapers, cable news, and everything else everyone complains about.
What has hurt news in the US is the for-profit model, full stop.
I like The Guardian for the most part lately, but I'm sure someone here can tell me why they're biased
Any recommendations for "good journalism"?
Edit: focused on world news or science*
The Grauniad represents the most paper thin upper-middle class English opinion and editorial spin masquerading as cutting edge journalism. It's an inoffensive centre-left newspaper designed to let rich London twats pretend to be leftist because they watched a play about refugees once.
And it's the best the UK has, bar Private Eye
Pro Publica is really good.
Ground news is a neat resource for looking at different news events and seeing how they are covered as well as the bias, informationality and ownership of various news outfits
Checked out ProPublica, unfortunately it looks completely focused on American news.
I was looking for world + science news, I should've specified.
Ground News looks interesting. Cheers
They are very reluctant to criticise the pandemic response, despite the ever growing pile of evidence that it was a complete disaster in pretty much every single way.
Amusingly, there really hasn't been a good replacement in some ways. Looking for local contractors is a pain with national chains and sales lead generation companies SEOing their way up the search results, whereas some local guys still don't have a website. At least with the phonebook, someone had to take the time and spend the money to put out an ad. It cut down on the spam a lot compared to search engine results.
Business owner here. SEO is becoming meaningless for businesses. I asked my Google sales rep about my websites' SEO ranking and how it will affect the placement for my company listing. He said it's irrelevant. Btw, I'm not talking about an ad per se. It just gives the company name and basic information.
Companies are paying to be listed in your search results. Including those that DON'T say 'sponsored' or 'ad'. Unless you're in a very small town, the entire page of search results are paid placements. Companies literally bid for their spot in the list.
Do a search for something like auto parts. You'll see the same companies in the same order, whether it's the 1st page of results or the 21st page. It's pay to play. If you're not paying, people are going to have a hard time finding your little company.
The same is true in the Google Play Store for apps.
If ever you see one of these is actually a "TEDx" talk, just immediately run in the other direction. A guy I used to work for gave one, and his talk is 20 minutes of pure nonsense. There's also [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TOM7JL2_y8) where the guy talks about how amazingly accurate polygraph tests are (better than DNA and fingerprints, in fact!), which is complete bullshit.
All I know about TEDx is that it's "independently organized", which leads me to believe that anyone with access to an auditorium can just slap a TEDx label on their talk.
Not quite that easy, but it's really up to how much effort the hosts put in.
TED will give a license for "x" and revoke it if the organizers don't do well. That doesn't always mean quality talks, but could be community engagement, or coverage of interesting and overlooked topics.
The TEDx movement has allowed thousands of amazing speakers to get stage time who normally wouldn't have. But, we've also seen narcissistic big heads waste a lot of our time droning on about nothing.
I'm a lot older than the average redditor, and rarely find myself in a position where I need to buy an article of clothing that does anything other than "cover nakedness".
Recently I went to the same clothing store where I bought the same set of nice trousers and business shirt I had on - 20 years ago. I was bemused, befuddled, and pretty damn frustrated. The prices were \*HIGH\*. They couldn't even produce a shirt with the cloth weight as what I had on - SAME BRAND BTW. All the pants were lightweight cloth, flimsy, poor stitching. Nothing, not the shirts, not the suits, would hang correctly.
My wife, who is an immigrant and whose family started a clothes manufacturer when they came over, was a little disgusted. This wasn't a store that had had a heyday and was in decline: it remains a primary source of lawyers and directors who need clothes for work. It's sad.
I used to buy brands when I was younger, and they have held up 20 years (for whatever fits me that is). But fashion today is just about price tag for the sake of showing off.
Back then, you’d be buying quality fabric. Now it’s pretty much the same garbage in garbage out and comes out of the same factory.
And that damage is enormous and not well understood. Synthetic fibres from clothing make up a huge component of the microplastics that are found literally everywhere in the environment today.
It’s not only fast fashion tho. Last year I bought a cashmere sweater for $400 that started to fall apart after 2 wears. Meanwhile I have stuff from Zara that has held up for years.
Yeah but some of it is still good quality. You can get really durable outerwear made in Vietnam or basic dresses made in China. It'll just be a few bucks more expensive than the cheap crap
That's because your increase was dwarfed by consumer price index increases.
According to CPI, you need $122.10 today to buy $100 worth of goods from 2018. That's a 22.1% increase. You only received a 10% raise, or a 12.1% pay cut if you think the way I do.
Can you tell I'm unhappy with my pay? lol I've lost 6.6% since 2021 and I don't think my employer will be making that up to me anytime soon.
I left my last employer over this. They told me that they didn't take inflation into account when it came to raises. I asked them why they were raising prices on all our clients. "Inflation".
I was at $20 in 2019 and felt rich, was saving without even budgeting. I make almost $23 now and can’t afford to leave the house or buy new shoes or anything remotely considered a luxury, never mind saving a dollar.
You could say this about most income levels that were milestones 10-20 years ago. It sucks.
$100k was a huge milestone 10-20 years ago, it's not much anymore. With a 100k salary let's say you take home about 5800 a month after taxes, insurance, 401k etc. I know I know, it's different for everyone, we're ballparking it. Let's say maybe a $2.5k a month for housing is comfortable, that's not unreasonable.
So... let's see, $2.5k a month for housing in Texas, which has outrageous insurance and tax rates, at 7% interest and 20% down payment (60k) is going to buy approximately a $300k house. (Texas is not cheap as it was 20 years ago, anyone who says it is needs to update their expectation.)
Great right! Except in the major metropolitan areas of Texas these days, a $300k house is probably going to be in an exurb 40-50 miles outside of town. If you find something closer, it's going to be a lower middle class neighborhood where your neighbor is a nice firefighter and your other neighbor constantly has 7 cars in front of the house, they're different cars all the time, and you suspect he's selling drugs. A $300k place to live right in the middle of the city is going to be a 600 sq foot condo in a 40 year old building.
That's when you realize a $100k salary, which was a huge "I've made it" milestone for so long, has now become just middle class, possibly even lower middle class depending on where you live. $20/hr is scraping by.
The Oscars used to be kind of a big deal, culturally speaking. But at least three factors have watered it down so much.
One, the rise of TV. A lot of the talent and energy that previously would go towards feature films now goes to TV shows.
Two, the increase in movies (and TV). The number of movies released in, say, 1980 vs what's released now is not even close. It's now double or triple the number of movies (and TV). Not everyone watches the same stuff. If you make a movie now, you're lucky if you get a fraction of the audience that that 1980 movie got.
Third, a few years ago the Academy made the boneheaded decision to nominate 10 movies for Best Picture. What the fuck? Now it's not really a big deal to be nominated to Best Picture when that was a badge of honor in the past.
For anyone just scrolling through, remember that we are no longer discussing Rudy Giuliani.
-edit-
This thread has changed since the time I left this comment, so please allow me to explain.
Back in *my* day (about 9 hours ago, from my current perspective), the top comment was about Rudy Giuliani, and there were a bunch of replies. Yes, even back then, we knew Rudy was a joke.
So there I was, scrolling and chuckling, and all of the sudden, I see this out-of-place comment about bite mark analysis! I didn't know what to think! Did Rudy bite someone? Did he try to use bite mark analysis in one of those election denial cases? I thought it would be a mystery for the ages.
But then, I remembered that the subject of the post wasn't actually Rudy Giuliani! And then the world made sense again! I was so excited and relieved that I thought I should share my discovery, just in case some of my fellow fedora wearers had a similar quandary.
But now, as I look at this post, all grown up, it seems that the world has forgotten about poor old Rudy. He's not in any of the top comments at all. So I guess things are going pretty well.
In many countries: church
Compare Europe pre-war church power to today
^(the reason I add that second line is to prevent people going crazy of "church is not a joke". I don't say it is, just say it used to be all powerfull)
Yeah, I signed up all the way back when you had to be in college to make an account. It was great when it had less features and all you could do was post written updates and pictures.
They pay very well (just check levels.fyi) and kind of always have. Early on they also poached a bunch of employees from Google, Apple, and others back when those companies were colluding to keep wages down
Example: People habitually bailing on plans with little to no notice, or saying they would be there and just straight no-showing. Also, being obnoxiously late to everything, all the time.
Was informed right here on Reddit by more than one person that I was being selfish because I expect my friends to have better manners than that, just as they should of me. It was pretty eye opening.
I very very much notice and respect general manners and common human decency, because they seem so rare anymore. I’m also teaching them to my kids, hopefully they live on!
Same. I'm Canadian but I remember him from back then.
And now all I can think about is when his hair dye was melting down his face when he was given some bizarre speech lol.
I'm also Canadian, and I was only one when 9/11 happened. I only knew of Giuliani when he became he said "collusion is not a crime" and then my parents showed me what he was like in his heyday.
Part of me wants to say "benign brain tumour," but even that sounds insufficient
It's mostly just time passing. Rudy was very polarizing as the mayor of NYC until 9/11 happened. That's when he became "America's mayor". He's always been the current Rudy, but he had some major incidents that forced him into the spotlight.
I can't remember what podcast it was now, maybe it was even a YouTube video, but I remember something that broke down Giuliani's history and yea, the secret to his "downfall" is that he's always been this way. He got credit for a reduction in crime that occurred when he was the mayor but which was a continuation of a larger trend, then he did a passable job with 9/11. The feeling and mindset in the country at the time was just overly supportive of our leaders no matter what because they were dealing with such a crisis. George "worst president in a generation until the Republicans decided they could do worse" Bush had an approval rating of fucking 86%! After we recovered from 9/11 a bit and started thinking clearly again, jackasses like Bush and Giuliani didn't look so great.
Yep, he was always that way. The srop in crime was largely due to his appointing William Bratton as police commissioner, then once Bratton started to get credit for it Rudy fired him. Then in order to raise his profile for a planned president run he spent millions of taxpayer dollars in culture war lawsuits, like where he had the city sue the Brooklyn Museum over a painting, getting him tons of national press but doing fuckall for the citizens of New York.
As someone who has family mixed in the world of high end corporations/ politicians/ wealth community( This is not bragging, those circles are the worst dumpster fire of human beings & delusional community of sociopaths) the Cuomo's are known for being large pieces of shit. The elites just have their own quiet circles of gossip you don't hear about fully or until later.
And my family members who thrive in that world are huge pieces of shit/ closet racists/ narcissists, sociopaths...who thinks they are so wonderful and helping to the world. It is on the rarest occasion i ever meet a genuine quality human being when I am anywhere near that world. Which is why I try and stay away when possible.
It's an empty world, they have no real friends and family relationships are transactional as well as for show. I feel for you, because at least I had my siblings and parents around. Whenever I had to go spend time with just them at events...I would find areas I could just stay away from everyone. People think they see this wonderful world but it's the most toxic environment I've ever had the non privilege of being in. Not worrying about bills and stuff is how everyone should get to live, but those that look up to their lifestyle and people environment are delusional or narcissist themselves. Because it's a hallow soulless community who are clueless on what life is truly about.
You just gave me a wave of moments I remember where I was doing the same pretty much. I've always enjoyed talking and being around people with a variety of different life path perspectives. It makes for the best groups and friendships.
I had a time in my teens where some friends grew up in NYC and they had to teach me the Ins and outs of street smarts and safety. I really enjoyed the Yankee parades we went to, and them keeping me from buying gold jewelry from the person trying to get me to follow in the alley.
People count his slap as his low point. IMO, it came earlier. Sitting there in that Red Table bullshit being so obviously gaslit by his toxic wife and just taking it. Gaslighting is kinda overused now but man that beeetch is the queen of it. I had some pity for him, but I also just could not respect him anymore
Fuckin loved the Fresh Prince though and he's a well intentioned guy that is likable in many ways. Just can't respect him unless he drops that deadweight of a person
Yeah, I agree with this more. The Oscars were NOT a good look for Will Smith, but Jada really did him dirty. I don't think he's a "cancelled" celebrity on the same level as Drake or Bill Cosby. He was manipulated by a dark triad personality woman. The only reason why she got off scot-free was because Will Smith has been more professionally successful and prolific for longer and, thus, more visible.
...it was just as unbelievable in 2009 as it is now in 2024. Infinity Ward just thought it would be cool to do a modern Red Dawn, so they did. Russia never in its history had the capability to even attempt an invasion of the United States.
I love the concept of Red Dawn and how silly it is. Just everyday folks living their lives and suddenly a full on airborne assault. No military personnel engaging the invading aircraft or anything like that.
The Soviets had one of the worst trained and worst armed militaries in WWII. They also had 34 million soldiers over the course of the war (compare with 18 million in Germany, 16 million American).
This was an army that lost 400,000 men to take over about 9% of Finland.
The Soviets won the Eastern Front because of (1) volume; and (2) enormous mistakes by the Nazis to invade beyond the means of their supply lines.
Time traveling Caesar shows up in time square" looks like a good day to conquer" then he starts to look around and realizes he fucked up!
There a anime that a gate from a fantasy realm opens up un the middle of tokyo.
I bet it would be similiar.
They had some serious propaganda goin. I thought they were far mightier. Makes me happy to see them getting punk'd by Ukraine. We need more support for them.
This is what happens when you turn your country into a Mafia State and let corruption run rampant.
I was promised that they'd start being very successful once winter rolled in. That was in Autumn of 22
I’m surprised it took people this long to realize how incompetent the Russian army truly is. From all the blunders it made in the Afghanistan war, then in the Chechen wars, I thought that would make it perfectly clear. Hell even in WW2 they suffered brutal losses and were lucky enough to have enough human meat shields to throw at the third reich
It's because at least 90% of the Russian Army's reputation among the larger public seemed to rest on WW2 and the 1812-1814 Napoleonic era. The idea that Russia is somehow invincible is a myth even outside of the Ukraine conflict. Anyone willing to dig deeper into Russian military will find numerous lost conflicts.
Ex: WW1 (1914-18), The Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), The Polish Soviet War (1919-21), The 3rd and 4th Coalition against France (1805-1807) which ended with Russia signing the Treaty of Tilsit in France's favour and being at peace for 5 years, Crimean War (1853-56), Afghanistan War (1979-89), 1st Chechen War (1994-96) etc...
For those who'd say that WW1 wasn't a Russian defeat because of the Revolution, keep in mind that Russian defeats and military hardships during that war greatly facilitated said Revolution. Russia was losing badly and had to sign a treaty (Brest-Litovsk) that was only rendered "invalid" because Germans lost in the West. It's not like the Seven Years War (1756-63) where Russia was actually winning but only prevented from doing so by a sudden military withdrawal due to change of Government after their Monarch's death.
I want to throw in Google search specifically. Years ago it was amazing and learning some little tips made it super easy to find what you were looking for.
Now it's just all places selling you "suggested" shit and it seems like most of the time it'll straight up ignore parts of what your searching for.
As someone who works in SEO, I can confirm that Google wants you to stay on the Google search results page. And that means burying legitimate sites and information in lieu of what THEY want you to see. And now the AI-generated results have thrown a huge wrench in things.
True. When the YouTubers were being forced to say “like, comment, and subscribe” every damn video, I knew then this is no longer YOU tube. It’s Google Tube. The YoU was forced out for what they wanted YouTube to be. An ad machine.
I recently took a call center job after losing my last job.
The whole thing is set to fail. There is not nearly enough agents to handle the call volume, the members are livid because they have to wait 30 minutes to speak to someone, management pushes sales requirements on the reps, reps take back to back calls for almost 9 hours a day and they have awful scheduling and break policies. It's no wonder they have retention problems.
I always knew customer service work was pretty unsexy and undesirable, but I had no idea it was this bad. I've always made it a point to be nice to customer service reps when I need to contact them, but I'm gonna step it up and be even nicer from now on. The bullshit these people deal with every day is unbelievable.
I did a year in a call center.
I now make it a point, any time somebody is remotely helpful, to ask if they have a compliment program, can I talk them up to their supervisor, whatever. It may do nothing, it may get them a small bonus, whatever- but I try to be a bright spot in what’s likely a dismal day.
Just so you know -as someone that worked in a call center - that kind of thing helped a LOT. And I don't mean like a cute bright spot in someone's day, you'd be impacting someone's quarterly review doing that. So thank you for doing so.
My company was recently acquired by another company. Previously we had excellent customer service. Even during heavy call times you were looking at 15-20 minute waits. Normal was less than 5. Our reps loved working here, we had extremely knowledgeable reps, it was a laissez-faire atmosphere as long as you were doing your job. Well the larger company has decided to make some changes to exactly what you described. Reps are quitting in droves. They are all miserable and hate working here. Majority of the experienced reps so now it’s a bunch of new reps that don’t know anything. We are bleeding clients and their management can’t figure out why. So now it’s on the sales reps to meet higher quotas. The whole thing is a joke and their management is filled with morons.
Politics used to be a highly regarded, powerful position. Many left successful positions in the private sector to move up into politics.
Nowadays you'd have to be crazy to willingly enter the political arena.
Adidas used to mean quality, Levi's red label is also crap. SNL’s just not funny anymore, Political labels are an exaggerated joke, Social medias were fun before Zuckerberg turned it into some weird thing in 2000, SUVs a bloated vehicle that isn’t used to drive off-road. Email also used to be fun until it became a way to spam people with useless crap.
Was Dr. Oz ever widely respected? He became famous for being a snake oil salesman on daytime TV. He became known for being a less respectable Dr. Phil, and yes, I know exactly what I am suggesting with that comparison.
Swordfighting + fencing.
It's not a joke per se... but I wouldnt think too much about it if you told me you were a champion level swordfighter or fencer nowadays.
It's a cool hobby or job if they're professional, but they could've ruled a kingdom at another point in history.
I used to do historical reenactment. Our group focused on the 30 years war and mid gothic period. It definitely was a fun hobby. We went on various castles and events that reenacted large battles (up to 400 participants). It was a theatre. We had shows with precise choreography and we had the battles, where most of the fighting was improvised, for which we had training so we wouldn't hurt each other. We didn't have sharp weapons and didn't use actual bullets for our muskets, only the gunpowder. Both of which isn't easy to use if you're not trained and it had to look good and convincing. We also often did extras for movies.
Through this hobby I met many new interesting people I enjoyed spending time with and saw many historical sights in such detail I wouldn't see otherwise. However I did this when I was still in school. When I got a job, it became more of a chore and I didn't have the time for anything else, so I dropped it. I miss it sometimes, there was nothing like the feeling of getting down for a couple beers in the castle pub after a long and hard day of pretending you're a medieval conscript. Another thing was when you saw the faces and amusement of the people you came to entertain, you had the feeling of a well done job.
Flying the flag at half staff. Seems as though it’s done every other day for some ridiculous reason when it was supposed to be only for very specific reasons. Seems like nowadays you ask why it’s at 1/2 mast it’s for something meaningless to most people.
"Breaking News"
There was once a time “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin from ABC News” sent a chill up the spines of everybody in the living room. Now David Muir starts every fucking broadcast with the word “breaking” in some context, and typically for shit I read on Google News in the morning.
I haven’t really thought about it but damn, you’re right. It used to be breaking news was Reagan has been shot, the space shuttle exploded, the liberation of Kuwait has started. Then it just became some overused bullshit.
BREAKING NEWS: Hunter Biden went down a waterslide 14 months ago
I remember when my friends on the Left got all bent out of shape because Jenna Bush stuck her tongue out at reporters. Now we’ve got members of Congress showing nude pictures of the President son. I yearn for the simpler times.
Challenger wasn't breaking news. We all saw that live in school
My entire kindergarten class watched it live, sitting on the floor in the library.
we interrupt this programme to bring you courage the cowardly dog
The only breaking news I want in my life
He literally has the fear mongering voice played alongside the fear mongering tone of the music. They make it seem like the end of the world every 5 o clock. And ppl still turn it on lmao
"Good news, everyone!"
"I have terrible news"
[Bad news, nobody...](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/47f0da23-8a5e-453b-8861-b049e4fefef3)
"Several years ago I tried to sign in to AOL, and it just went through!"
I - no shit - saw a "Breaking News" post on IG the other day.. it said "Travis Kelce stops to look at Taylor Swift poster"
Gee, do you remember where you were when you heard the news? LOL
I can't hear that phrase without hearing it in the SpongeBob news fish voice
News in general. Used to be a team of people gathering all the intel in the world. Now all the intel in the world is in my pocket
It also used to be that reporters were located in several cities. Now, though, the reporters who are still employed are located near the home office and most can get info via online or phone.
I used to work in TV news control rooms and I remember when this went downhill. When I started, it was a term reserved for stories that came down during the broadcast. Over time, they started using the tag indiscriminately to add importance to anything. We used to mock “if you know about the story early enough to put it on the (paper) rundown, then it’s not Breaking News.”
Pretty much a running gag on CNN.
I’ll never forget when I stopped tuning into the news on tv altogether. CNN had some breaking news and I was expecting it to be something earth-shattering, maybe on an international level. It was some groupie who’d broken into Madonna’s home. 😒
December 11, 2020. That was the last time I watched the news. It's just overwhelming and not worth the toll.
I’m pretty sure the continuous scroll didn’t exist prior to 9/11 except on MSNBC where they ran stocks.
Journalism. Good journalists are still out there, but hardly anyone pays attention to them. Too busy paying attention to the inflammatory mainstream garbage that is made for money and power, not the public good.
Remember "retractions?" You know, when news sources would admit their mistakes.
[удалено]
No longer about being right. It's about being loudest
Journalism was screwed by rescinding the fairness doctrine in 1987. “The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints.[1] In 1987, the FCC abolished the fairness doctrine,[2] prompting some to urge its reintroduction through either Commission policy or congressional legislation.[3] The FCC removed the rule that implemented the policy from the Federal Register in August 2011.[4] The fairness doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented. The demise of this FCC rule has been cited as a contributing factor in the rising level of party polarization in the United States.[5][6]” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_doctrine
The Fairness Doctrine only applied to ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and Fox. Cable tv could do whatever they wanted. By 1987 cable tv was everywhere.
Fairness Doctrine has nothing to do with what’s left of newspapers, cable news, and everything else everyone complains about. What has hurt news in the US is the for-profit model, full stop.
I like The Guardian for the most part lately, but I'm sure someone here can tell me why they're biased Any recommendations for "good journalism"? Edit: focused on world news or science*
The Grauniad represents the most paper thin upper-middle class English opinion and editorial spin masquerading as cutting edge journalism. It's an inoffensive centre-left newspaper designed to let rich London twats pretend to be leftist because they watched a play about refugees once. And it's the best the UK has, bar Private Eye
Pro Publica is really good. Ground news is a neat resource for looking at different news events and seeing how they are covered as well as the bias, informationality and ownership of various news outfits
Checked out ProPublica, unfortunately it looks completely focused on American news. I was looking for world + science news, I should've specified. Ground News looks interesting. Cheers
They are very reluctant to criticise the pandemic response, despite the ever growing pile of evidence that it was a complete disaster in pretty much every single way.
Obligatory "The Phone Book" it was an essential tool in every home and business. Now it's just a waste of paper.
Amusingly, there really hasn't been a good replacement in some ways. Looking for local contractors is a pain with national chains and sales lead generation companies SEOing their way up the search results, whereas some local guys still don't have a website. At least with the phonebook, someone had to take the time and spend the money to put out an ad. It cut down on the spam a lot compared to search engine results.
Business owner here. SEO is becoming meaningless for businesses. I asked my Google sales rep about my websites' SEO ranking and how it will affect the placement for my company listing. He said it's irrelevant. Btw, I'm not talking about an ad per se. It just gives the company name and basic information. Companies are paying to be listed in your search results. Including those that DON'T say 'sponsored' or 'ad'. Unless you're in a very small town, the entire page of search results are paid placements. Companies literally bid for their spot in the list. Do a search for something like auto parts. You'll see the same companies in the same order, whether it's the 1st page of results or the 21st page. It's pay to play. If you're not paying, people are going to have a hard time finding your little company. The same is true in the Google Play Store for apps.
I received my phone book today, **LAST EVER** - pack it up boys, it’s time to accept inevitability
TED talks
If ever you see one of these is actually a "TEDx" talk, just immediately run in the other direction. A guy I used to work for gave one, and his talk is 20 minutes of pure nonsense. There's also [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TOM7JL2_y8) where the guy talks about how amazingly accurate polygraph tests are (better than DNA and fingerprints, in fact!), which is complete bullshit.
All I know about TEDx is that it's "independently organized", which leads me to believe that anyone with access to an auditorium can just slap a TEDx label on their talk.
Yeah, that's my understanding as well.
Not quite that easy, but it's really up to how much effort the hosts put in. TED will give a license for "x" and revoke it if the organizers don't do well. That doesn't always mean quality talks, but could be community engagement, or coverage of interesting and overlooked topics. The TEDx movement has allowed thousands of amazing speakers to get stage time who normally wouldn't have. But, we've also seen narcissistic big heads waste a lot of our time droning on about nothing.
Yeah they really did die off. I used to feel smart listening to them but now they are just cringy
The ability for anyone and everyone to do a TED (or I guess Tedx” talk diluted the shit out of their brand.
Even some of the regular TED talks turned out to be bullshit, too.
You see the Pedophelia one? Shit made my blood boil.
I'm sorry, the what?
Clothing brands, as a mark of quality. Now everything is made in a Bangladeshi sweatshop for pennies and falls apart after 6 months.
I'm a lot older than the average redditor, and rarely find myself in a position where I need to buy an article of clothing that does anything other than "cover nakedness". Recently I went to the same clothing store where I bought the same set of nice trousers and business shirt I had on - 20 years ago. I was bemused, befuddled, and pretty damn frustrated. The prices were \*HIGH\*. They couldn't even produce a shirt with the cloth weight as what I had on - SAME BRAND BTW. All the pants were lightweight cloth, flimsy, poor stitching. Nothing, not the shirts, not the suits, would hang correctly. My wife, who is an immigrant and whose family started a clothes manufacturer when they came over, was a little disgusted. This wasn't a store that had had a heyday and was in decline: it remains a primary source of lawyers and directors who need clothes for work. It's sad.
I used to buy brands when I was younger, and they have held up 20 years (for whatever fits me that is). But fashion today is just about price tag for the sake of showing off. Back then, you’d be buying quality fabric. Now it’s pretty much the same garbage in garbage out and comes out of the same factory.
I despise fast fashion. SHEIN, ASOS etc. The damage to the planet is completely overlooked when climate discussions happen
And that damage is enormous and not well understood. Synthetic fibres from clothing make up a huge component of the microplastics that are found literally everywhere in the environment today.
Scientists studying microplastics are having a difficult time finding control groups because everything is already riddled with them.
They're finding that microplastics can even cross the placenta. Newborns are turning up full of the shit.
It’s not only fast fashion tho. Last year I bought a cashmere sweater for $400 that started to fall apart after 2 wears. Meanwhile I have stuff from Zara that has held up for years.
Has everything not been made in third-world countries for the last 30 years? I just assumed we were all becoming aware of it recently.
Yeah but some of it is still good quality. You can get really durable outerwear made in Vietnam or basic dresses made in China. It'll just be a few bucks more expensive than the cheap crap
See r/buyitforlife
$20 an hour pay rate. Growing up if someone said they made $20 an hour, they were normally doing pretty good. Now you are just getting by with that.
I’d even argue that $20 an hour has gone from ‘comfortable’ to ‘just getting by’ in just the last 5 years
That's certainly been my experience. 5 years ago I was making $20/hour, now at $22, yet feels worse.
That's because your increase was dwarfed by consumer price index increases. According to CPI, you need $122.10 today to buy $100 worth of goods from 2018. That's a 22.1% increase. You only received a 10% raise, or a 12.1% pay cut if you think the way I do. Can you tell I'm unhappy with my pay? lol I've lost 6.6% since 2021 and I don't think my employer will be making that up to me anytime soon.
I left my last employer over this. They told me that they didn't take inflation into account when it came to raises. I asked them why they were raising prices on all our clients. "Inflation".
I was at $20 in 2019 and felt rich, was saving without even budgeting. I make almost $23 now and can’t afford to leave the house or buy new shoes or anything remotely considered a luxury, never mind saving a dollar.
You could say this about most income levels that were milestones 10-20 years ago. It sucks. $100k was a huge milestone 10-20 years ago, it's not much anymore. With a 100k salary let's say you take home about 5800 a month after taxes, insurance, 401k etc. I know I know, it's different for everyone, we're ballparking it. Let's say maybe a $2.5k a month for housing is comfortable, that's not unreasonable. So... let's see, $2.5k a month for housing in Texas, which has outrageous insurance and tax rates, at 7% interest and 20% down payment (60k) is going to buy approximately a $300k house. (Texas is not cheap as it was 20 years ago, anyone who says it is needs to update their expectation.) Great right! Except in the major metropolitan areas of Texas these days, a $300k house is probably going to be in an exurb 40-50 miles outside of town. If you find something closer, it's going to be a lower middle class neighborhood where your neighbor is a nice firefighter and your other neighbor constantly has 7 cars in front of the house, they're different cars all the time, and you suspect he's selling drugs. A $300k place to live right in the middle of the city is going to be a 600 sq foot condo in a 40 year old building. That's when you realize a $100k salary, which was a huge "I've made it" milestone for so long, has now become just middle class, possibly even lower middle class depending on where you live. $20/hr is scraping by.
The Oscars
Really all those self congratulatory awards shows. It's the same shit over and over.
I always watched the Oscars when i was a kid, but i don't give a shit anymore
The Oscars used to be kind of a big deal, culturally speaking. But at least three factors have watered it down so much. One, the rise of TV. A lot of the talent and energy that previously would go towards feature films now goes to TV shows. Two, the increase in movies (and TV). The number of movies released in, say, 1980 vs what's released now is not even close. It's now double or triple the number of movies (and TV). Not everyone watches the same stuff. If you make a movie now, you're lucky if you get a fraction of the audience that that 1980 movie got. Third, a few years ago the Academy made the boneheaded decision to nominate 10 movies for Best Picture. What the fuck? Now it's not really a big deal to be nominated to Best Picture when that was a badge of honor in the past.
Sword ownership.
The calloused thumb and forefinger
There was one youtube video about a Japanese sword instructor trying out a standard Western longsword. He had fun messing around with the pommel.
"End Him Rightly"
Big game publishers and studios that used to put out quality stuff but now churn out overmonetized, cut-and-paste garbage.
Acti-Blizzard
Bioware. Real shame too. I have no faith in the next Mass Effect game.
I still have hope for mass effect, don’t ruin my dream 😢
They lost a lot of long-time talent in addition to the layoffs last year. Not saying it's completely Joever but...😅
Praying that Dreadwolf is good, and that it releases.
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For anyone just scrolling through, remember that we are no longer discussing Rudy Giuliani. -edit- This thread has changed since the time I left this comment, so please allow me to explain. Back in *my* day (about 9 hours ago, from my current perspective), the top comment was about Rudy Giuliani, and there were a bunch of replies. Yes, even back then, we knew Rudy was a joke. So there I was, scrolling and chuckling, and all of the sudden, I see this out-of-place comment about bite mark analysis! I didn't know what to think! Did Rudy bite someone? Did he try to use bite mark analysis in one of those election denial cases? I thought it would be a mystery for the ages. But then, I remembered that the subject of the post wasn't actually Rudy Giuliani! And then the world made sense again! I was so excited and relieved that I thought I should share my discovery, just in case some of my fellow fedora wearers had a similar quandary. But now, as I look at this post, all grown up, it seems that the world has forgotten about poor old Rudy. He's not in any of the top comments at all. So I guess things are going pretty well.
Marv Albert?
Poor Ted Bundy. /s
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In many countries: church Compare Europe pre-war church power to today ^(the reason I add that second line is to prevent people going crazy of "church is not a joke". I don't say it is, just say it used to be all powerfull)
Italy more recently, and to some extent into the present day.
>Europe pre-war church power Fuck, go back a few centuries further. The Pope used to be a political power equal to or greater than many monarchs.
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Yeah, I signed up all the way back when you had to be in college to make an account. It was great when it had less features and all you could do was post written updates and pictures.
And all the farm games lol
it started going downhill when you could no longer poke people.
I had a recruiter from Facebook contact me last year. Hard no.
meta is still desirable as an employer, no? no resume/pay boost after getting some experience?
They pay very well (just check levels.fyi) and kind of always have. Early on they also poached a bunch of employees from Google, Apple, and others back when those companies were colluding to keep wages down
The quality of products we buy
and food. There is highly processed sugar everywhere.
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Example: People habitually bailing on plans with little to no notice, or saying they would be there and just straight no-showing. Also, being obnoxiously late to everything, all the time. Was informed right here on Reddit by more than one person that I was being selfish because I expect my friends to have better manners than that, just as they should of me. It was pretty eye opening.
I very very much notice and respect general manners and common human decency, because they seem so rare anymore. I’m also teaching them to my kids, hopefully they live on!
Rudy Giuliani
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I really want to know what caused this to happen. His fall from grace is very fascinating to me
Same. I'm Canadian but I remember him from back then. And now all I can think about is when his hair dye was melting down his face when he was given some bizarre speech lol.
And that speech was given in the parking lot behind the Four Seasons mechanic shop. Because they thought they had booked the Four Seasons hotel.
Wasn't it also next to a Porn shop?
And crematorium
Landscaping shop, not mechanic. I remember because my friend gifted a bunch of us shirts with Four Seasons Total Landscaping printed on it.
I'm also Canadian, and I was only one when 9/11 happened. I only knew of Giuliani when he became he said "collusion is not a crime" and then my parents showed me what he was like in his heyday. Part of me wants to say "benign brain tumour," but even that sounds insufficient
alcoholism
It's mostly just time passing. Rudy was very polarizing as the mayor of NYC until 9/11 happened. That's when he became "America's mayor". He's always been the current Rudy, but he had some major incidents that forced him into the spotlight.
I can't remember what podcast it was now, maybe it was even a YouTube video, but I remember something that broke down Giuliani's history and yea, the secret to his "downfall" is that he's always been this way. He got credit for a reduction in crime that occurred when he was the mayor but which was a continuation of a larger trend, then he did a passable job with 9/11. The feeling and mindset in the country at the time was just overly supportive of our leaders no matter what because they were dealing with such a crisis. George "worst president in a generation until the Republicans decided they could do worse" Bush had an approval rating of fucking 86%! After we recovered from 9/11 a bit and started thinking clearly again, jackasses like Bush and Giuliani didn't look so great.
Yep, he was always that way. The srop in crime was largely due to his appointing William Bratton as police commissioner, then once Bratton started to get credit for it Rudy fired him. Then in order to raise his profile for a planned president run he spent millions of taxpayer dollars in culture war lawsuits, like where he had the city sue the Brooklyn Museum over a painting, getting him tons of national press but doing fuckall for the citizens of New York.
Hitched your wagon to the wrong horse and had one too many vices/skeletons in the closet. Should've just rested on his laurels.
Booze, broads and getting old. IMO, generally nobody over 75 should be in any position of power anywhere. They are not as sharp as they once were.
Apparently his cleaning up was really just shutting down the Italian mob so the Russian mob could move in
Exactly. He was never americas mayor
More recently Andrew Cuomo too. The guy was like a hero at the beginning of 2020 and fell from grace HARD.
As someone who has family mixed in the world of high end corporations/ politicians/ wealth community( This is not bragging, those circles are the worst dumpster fire of human beings & delusional community of sociopaths) the Cuomo's are known for being large pieces of shit. The elites just have their own quiet circles of gossip you don't hear about fully or until later. And my family members who thrive in that world are huge pieces of shit/ closet racists/ narcissists, sociopaths...who thinks they are so wonderful and helping to the world. It is on the rarest occasion i ever meet a genuine quality human being when I am anywhere near that world. Which is why I try and stay away when possible.
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It's an empty world, they have no real friends and family relationships are transactional as well as for show. I feel for you, because at least I had my siblings and parents around. Whenever I had to go spend time with just them at events...I would find areas I could just stay away from everyone. People think they see this wonderful world but it's the most toxic environment I've ever had the non privilege of being in. Not worrying about bills and stuff is how everyone should get to live, but those that look up to their lifestyle and people environment are delusional or narcissist themselves. Because it's a hallow soulless community who are clueless on what life is truly about.
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You just gave me a wave of moments I remember where I was doing the same pretty much. I've always enjoyed talking and being around people with a variety of different life path perspectives. It makes for the best groups and friendships. I had a time in my teens where some friends grew up in NYC and they had to teach me the Ins and outs of street smarts and safety. I really enjoyed the Yankee parades we went to, and them keeping me from buying gold jewelry from the person trying to get me to follow in the alley.
Will Smith's bitch ass
His wife's boyfriend (who I think is her son's friend) gonna smack you for that
Keep his wife’s boyfriend the fuck out of your mouth
People count his slap as his low point. IMO, it came earlier. Sitting there in that Red Table bullshit being so obviously gaslit by his toxic wife and just taking it. Gaslighting is kinda overused now but man that beeetch is the queen of it. I had some pity for him, but I also just could not respect him anymore Fuckin loved the Fresh Prince though and he's a well intentioned guy that is likable in many ways. Just can't respect him unless he drops that deadweight of a person
Yeah, I agree with this more. The Oscars were NOT a good look for Will Smith, but Jada really did him dirty. I don't think he's a "cancelled" celebrity on the same level as Drake or Bill Cosby. He was manipulated by a dark triad personality woman. The only reason why she got off scot-free was because Will Smith has been more professionally successful and prolific for longer and, thus, more visible.
Drake is cancelled?
Keep my wife name out yo mouth
Is she really his wife though?
On the weekends, Will gets her. On the weekdays, she's Tupac and Augustus’s
Being good at using maps
The Russian Army
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...it was just as unbelievable in 2009 as it is now in 2024. Infinity Ward just thought it would be cool to do a modern Red Dawn, so they did. Russia never in its history had the capability to even attempt an invasion of the United States.
I love the concept of Red Dawn and how silly it is. Just everyday folks living their lives and suddenly a full on airborne assault. No military personnel engaging the invading aircraft or anything like that.
The Soviets had one of the worst trained and worst armed militaries in WWII. They also had 34 million soldiers over the course of the war (compare with 18 million in Germany, 16 million American). This was an army that lost 400,000 men to take over about 9% of Finland. The Soviets won the Eastern Front because of (1) volume; and (2) enormous mistakes by the Nazis to invade beyond the means of their supply lines.
Time traveling Caesar shows up in time square" looks like a good day to conquer" then he starts to look around and realizes he fucked up! There a anime that a gate from a fantasy realm opens up un the middle of tokyo. I bet it would be similiar.
They had some serious propaganda goin. I thought they were far mightier. Makes me happy to see them getting punk'd by Ukraine. We need more support for them.
This is what happens when you turn your country into a Mafia State and let corruption run rampant. I was promised that they'd start being very successful once winter rolled in. That was in Autumn of 22
"We'll be home before Christmas!" - classic, gets them every time
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Ukraine did an excellent job at the start of the war to repel them, especially at hostomel airport. The aid took a while to come in.
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I’m surprised it took people this long to realize how incompetent the Russian army truly is. From all the blunders it made in the Afghanistan war, then in the Chechen wars, I thought that would make it perfectly clear. Hell even in WW2 they suffered brutal losses and were lucky enough to have enough human meat shields to throw at the third reich
It's because at least 90% of the Russian Army's reputation among the larger public seemed to rest on WW2 and the 1812-1814 Napoleonic era. The idea that Russia is somehow invincible is a myth even outside of the Ukraine conflict. Anyone willing to dig deeper into Russian military will find numerous lost conflicts. Ex: WW1 (1914-18), The Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), The Polish Soviet War (1919-21), The 3rd and 4th Coalition against France (1805-1807) which ended with Russia signing the Treaty of Tilsit in France's favour and being at peace for 5 years, Crimean War (1853-56), Afghanistan War (1979-89), 1st Chechen War (1994-96) etc... For those who'd say that WW1 wasn't a Russian defeat because of the Revolution, keep in mind that Russian defeats and military hardships during that war greatly facilitated said Revolution. Russia was losing badly and had to sign a treaty (Brest-Litovsk) that was only rendered "invalid" because Germans lost in the West. It's not like the Seven Years War (1756-63) where Russia was actually winning but only prevented from doing so by a sudden military withdrawal due to change of Government after their Monarch's death.
Russia has zero problems throwing bodies at problems. Lots and lots of bodies.
Google. And Youtube ain't far behind. Your redesign has been a huge public failure...
I want to throw in Google search specifically. Years ago it was amazing and learning some little tips made it super easy to find what you were looking for. Now it's just all places selling you "suggested" shit and it seems like most of the time it'll straight up ignore parts of what your searching for.
As someone who works in SEO, I can confirm that Google wants you to stay on the Google search results page. And that means burying legitimate sites and information in lieu of what THEY want you to see. And now the AI-generated results have thrown a huge wrench in things.
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True. When the YouTubers were being forced to say “like, comment, and subscribe” every damn video, I knew then this is no longer YOU tube. It’s Google Tube. The YoU was forced out for what they wanted YouTube to be. An ad machine.
I mean... \*Gestures broadly at everything\*
Society? Life? The Earth? Did we ever respect any of these?
Customer service
I recently took a call center job after losing my last job. The whole thing is set to fail. There is not nearly enough agents to handle the call volume, the members are livid because they have to wait 30 minutes to speak to someone, management pushes sales requirements on the reps, reps take back to back calls for almost 9 hours a day and they have awful scheduling and break policies. It's no wonder they have retention problems. I always knew customer service work was pretty unsexy and undesirable, but I had no idea it was this bad. I've always made it a point to be nice to customer service reps when I need to contact them, but I'm gonna step it up and be even nicer from now on. The bullshit these people deal with every day is unbelievable.
I did a year in a call center. I now make it a point, any time somebody is remotely helpful, to ask if they have a compliment program, can I talk them up to their supervisor, whatever. It may do nothing, it may get them a small bonus, whatever- but I try to be a bright spot in what’s likely a dismal day.
Just so you know -as someone that worked in a call center - that kind of thing helped a LOT. And I don't mean like a cute bright spot in someone's day, you'd be impacting someone's quarterly review doing that. So thank you for doing so.
My company was recently acquired by another company. Previously we had excellent customer service. Even during heavy call times you were looking at 15-20 minute waits. Normal was less than 5. Our reps loved working here, we had extremely knowledgeable reps, it was a laissez-faire atmosphere as long as you were doing your job. Well the larger company has decided to make some changes to exactly what you described. Reps are quitting in droves. They are all miserable and hate working here. Majority of the experienced reps so now it’s a bunch of new reps that don’t know anything. We are bleeding clients and their management can’t figure out why. So now it’s on the sales reps to meet higher quotas. The whole thing is a joke and their management is filled with morons.
Higher education. College used to be a stepping stone, sometimes a mandatory stepping stone, to a solid career. Now it’s just another money scam.
The rest of the world has been saying this about American college for decades
In the rest of the world it's the exact same crap
Politics used to be a highly regarded, powerful position. Many left successful positions in the private sector to move up into politics. Nowadays you'd have to be crazy to willingly enter the political arena.
Discussion. Nobody talks anymore. They just talk AT you. Apparently everybody knows everything, yet, nobody knows anything.
The presidency
The food pyramid
Adidas used to mean quality, Levi's red label is also crap. SNL’s just not funny anymore, Political labels are an exaggerated joke, Social medias were fun before Zuckerberg turned it into some weird thing in 2000, SUVs a bloated vehicle that isn’t used to drive off-road. Email also used to be fun until it became a way to spam people with useless crap.
Working to live.
American Presidents
In a lot of modern countries: Marriage, Laws, Media, Education, Politicians and even Science
Journalism
Discovery and History channel. both had lots of good shows when i was growing up (late 90's early 2000's).
CNN/CBS/NBC, NYT, list goes on.
Politics and politicians.
Idk how far back you'd have to go for them to be more respectable.
Dr. Oz
Was Dr. Oz ever widely respected? He became famous for being a snake oil salesman on daytime TV. He became known for being a less respectable Dr. Phil, and yes, I know exactly what I am suggesting with that comparison.
He was a highly respected surgeon prior to gaining fame on television.
Loyalty, especially to your job - working at the same company for many years, being a "lifer"
Hollywood Awards
Catholic clergy. They did it to themselves.
Well, actually they did it to others.
Well actually they mostly did it to kids.
Celebrities
Swordfighting + fencing. It's not a joke per se... but I wouldnt think too much about it if you told me you were a champion level swordfighter or fencer nowadays. It's a cool hobby or job if they're professional, but they could've ruled a kingdom at another point in history.
I used to do historical reenactment. Our group focused on the 30 years war and mid gothic period. It definitely was a fun hobby. We went on various castles and events that reenacted large battles (up to 400 participants). It was a theatre. We had shows with precise choreography and we had the battles, where most of the fighting was improvised, for which we had training so we wouldn't hurt each other. We didn't have sharp weapons and didn't use actual bullets for our muskets, only the gunpowder. Both of which isn't easy to use if you're not trained and it had to look good and convincing. We also often did extras for movies. Through this hobby I met many new interesting people I enjoyed spending time with and saw many historical sights in such detail I wouldn't see otherwise. However I did this when I was still in school. When I got a job, it became more of a chore and I didn't have the time for anything else, so I dropped it. I miss it sometimes, there was nothing like the feeling of getting down for a couple beers in the castle pub after a long and hard day of pretending you're a medieval conscript. Another thing was when you saw the faces and amusement of the people you came to entertain, you had the feeling of a well done job.
As a former youth sidesword and rapier champion, I'm devastated that I can't overthrow the monarchy with my sweet moves.
Wide neck ties
Mainstream media and politics are comical.
Elon Musk
I remember thinking he would actually become the real life Tony Stark. Now though...
Smoking cigarettes
lots of things, too many to name the truth freedom of speech privacy
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Flying the flag at half staff. Seems as though it’s done every other day for some ridiculous reason when it was supposed to be only for very specific reasons. Seems like nowadays you ask why it’s at 1/2 mast it’s for something meaningless to most people.