None of the things by themselves fully justify “belief” in a religion yet many people claim they are without a true belief in the entire system. It’s the problem with such a vague question. By a narrower definition very few people attending a place of worship are true believers. Someone can believe in god, but not really believe in the rules, and still say they are “religious”. Someone can believe in the rules, but not god, and say the same. I think if you are practicing the religion to some extent then you have a right to call yourself religious if that’s how you view yourself regardless of your true beliefs on god, rules, etc. Cultural impact matters more than we give it credit for.

Another big reason is reason number 4

4. Gives a sense of community and cultural connection that other things don’t quite provide.

I’ve met a not so inconsequential amount of people in my life that when pressed admitted, they don’t believe in god, don’t believe in the moral teachings, but attend a place of worship because they think there is no replacement for the interwoven community and cultural connection their place of worship provides. Many people simply like the community connection of their root culture. This is especially true in minority groups (black church, synagogue).

Oh please, this is everyone’s fault, one man doesn’t rule alone. We are failing at every level, in every state, in every county, in every city, in nearly every household. As long as people are too comfortable and lazy to take action every day that is NOT election day, election day will continue to be disappointing.

Neither can actual fascists, at least one is a slower process. What matters is what we do with the time in between elections. I’ll happily vote for a moderate wet fart like Biden so I have 4 more years to educate, 4 more years to inch policy my direction at the local level, 4 more years to work with activists in my community, 4 more years to build bridges of understanding with people I disagree with in the hope for a better future. Giving in to accelerationists just takes away those 4 years entirely, ending any hope for that better future. Soon 70% of these fascists will die of old age, and then maybe we can translate our action and resistance into policy.

WE put them there, Biden didn’t end up there because Berkshire Hathaway appointed him, citizens voted for him in the primary, by a larger amount than many on the left admit. You don’t win on leftist issues at the ballot box, the ballot box is where you repair the levee wall so water doesn’t come rushing in. You win on leftist issues every day before and every day after the election. Voting isn’t an act of change, it’s an act of consensus building. If you don’t like where that consensus landed, then the work needs to be done to change minds.

I go out of my way to watch things she is in because she is such a good actor. I have heard the same from at least a few other people when discussing stuff she is in. She is consistently the best actor in anything she is in. I suspect that most people view her this way considering all the awards she wins. That kind and of dismantles the argument that she doesn’t bring in viewers like her male counterparts do.

It doesn’t matter that she is filthy rich, injustice is injustice. If we built a broken system that stratifies wealth, it’s still MORE broken if it also advantages some people over others.

If the recipe calls for tofu (and you are not vegan), use Paneer, almost always an improvement.

I agree with you that better mass transit is needed as much or more than bike infrastructure, but I want to check one of your assumptions.

I bike 9 miles to work every day in 38 minutes, the car trip is 20-25 minutes due to traffic. The key is an e-bike. I’ve put 3k miles on the bike and at this point it has paid for itself and then some. Cars are expensive to drive, maintain, and purchase. My wife and I share a car and I supplement it with an e-bike. Considering she was considering getting an expensive new car before we started sharing, we’ve probably saved $40-50k in the last 3 years by removing a car from the equation. (Cost of car, insurance, maintenance, energy use per mile).

E-bikes use such a tiny amount of electricity, I’ll probably only use two tanks of gas worth of energy in it’s lifetime, maybe less.

Over the course of the next 15-20 years, repeatedly buying and maintaining one less car will likely shave several years off retirement and the biking will keep me healthy in the meantime.

Edit: Like you I overestimated the burden of riding a bike before I tried to make it work. Now that I’m doing it, it’s almost entirely a positive outcome.

Every year you are alive increases your life expectancy. Infant mortality is factored into that 76 years, so are other unnatural causes of death. If you actually live a “normal” life and die of natural causes, 40-45 feels more accurate to me as “middle aged”. Even though 76 is the average, I believe 86 is the peak (mode/most common) age of death. If you think about it that makes sense. 99% of people die before their 92 birthday, so there are only 6 years to fit on that side of the peak but 86 years (far more opportunities to die of unnatural causes) on the other. This is why averages are very misleading. Even though 76 is the average, it’s not when the largest amount of people die.

I’m saying I’m not the one that accused you. You’re confusing me with the person who responded before me.

I’m not the person who first responded, I accused you of nothing…

The British repeatedly gave blankets they new had smallpox. Todays evidence is that nothing happened, the virus was already dead. But it’s worth mentioning that from a Native American perspective this still happened, they received blankets and shortly after they had an epidemic. Whether they contracted it from the blankets or not is sort of besides they point, they intended to infect Native Americans with smallpox and local tribes ended up having a smallpox epidemic shortly after. Maybe they found another way, or maybe someone got infected by coming in contact with the British during one of the conflicts. But does it really matter? With or without blankets they still murdered millions (thought to be the largest genocide in human history) of native people on their own land simply because they wanted to steal all the land. They didn’t need smallpox to do that, they did it with guns, and forced starvation.

USA, Minnesota. People hug but ask if you’re a hugger first.

I think it’s funny that only 2 options were given. In India the norm is clasping your own hands together and saying namaste, nomoshkar or some other greeting. No touching. In east Asia a very slight bow is incredibly common.

For much of my adult life I’ve smelled good with or without deodorant and rarely sweat much. Lately whether because of a hormonal change or something wrong I’m unaware of, my smell has changed completely. No amount of deodorant helps, no amount of showering helps. In fact, I often end up using deodorant as a last resort, because whatever bacteria is taking over seams to turn all types of deodorant into vinegar & onions in a matter of minutes, as if it’s feeding off the deodorant. The smell seems to be improving over time, according to other people, not just me. But it has given me additional sympathy for people going through this. When its bad, I can lather my body head to toe in the shower 4 times and come out smelling the same as I went in. Sometimes smells are hard to tackle. You shouldn’t assume it’s a hygiene thing.

Having been around melting ice a lot I think this is closer to the right answer. Also decomposing things give off heat. Any vegetation that is decomposing will accelerate ice melting.

A bit off topic from your point, but there is no way to get screwed if you just invest for 10+ years in all market index funds from something like vanguard. The only way you’re going down in that situation is if the whole system goes down for good. Also government bonds go well above inflation. There are options for regular people, but both of those options likely mean financially supporting things you might not believe in. Like a imperial government and a dirty energy focused economy. The only way it’s a casino is if you buy individual stocks. Index funds are the safest way for regular people to make more money than inflation, you just have to be willing to let your money sit for a long time. You don’t invest in index funds if you’re unwilling to wait for the boom and bust cycles to pass a few times.

I knew this guy years ago that bought up basically free property during the housing crisis. Houses were so undesirable in Detroit at the peak of the housing crisis, you could buy a house for $100, as they were considered a liability. His goal was to fix them up himself and then provide them to the community as extremely low rent residences, if anyone wanted to buy them after they were fixed up he would give priority to his renters at slightly above cost (cost of materials) as a rent to own system (not one of the scummy ones but a real system in their favor). He had no intention of making money, he just believed it was the right thing to do. Dude was just a good person through and through.

I was merely pointing out the contradiction in what you said.

seems like the criminal decides that when they make the decision to risk their life to steal a given dollar amount.

You were responding to a comment about the dollar value placed on life, I was pointing out that if the victim is prepared to protect that value then they are also placing that dollar value on their own life. The aggressors had already fled, I agree with you that I don’t much care if the aggressors live or die.

I believe that anyone that shows others they are prepared to kill, are therefor prepared to die themselves. If you wield that type of power you are accepting that risk. It’s not a moral judgment, it is a reality judgment, it is simply true that you are increasing you own risk of death. But by recognizing that truth you also must recognize that when that danger passes and you chose to follow someone to retaliate, you are also accepting that risk, even if you believe you are in the “right”. The universe does not care about right or wrong, moral judgments be damned, if you put yourself into danger, then you are accepting the consequences of your actions. For those reasons, it’s just silly to follow someone after danger has passed. Once they do that they have become someone who has potentially forfeited their life.

So does the victim by choosing to retaliate over that dollar amount. Had he been shot, he also placed that same value on his own life.

I think this is more complicated than just what the law needs to say. Or even whether human life has value. Personally I think it is good to prevent vigilante justice and that the death penalty is too extreme a punishment for crimes.

But from a more non-legal, purely visceral standpoint… I think that anyone, good or evil, for the wrong reasons or right, forfeits their right to safety when they willfully endanger others. The second that guy pointed a gun at someone he no longer had a right to life for at least the short term future, nor did the person aiding and abetting that action. They took on that risk willingly and knowingly and they suffered the worst possible outcome for their choice. But so did the guy that ran them over, by chasing them he also forfeited his life, and had be been shot, it wouldn’t have been a tragedy either. You chose to chase someone with a gun, you accepted the risk to your life and proceeded anyway. So the real question is, is property really worth the risk to your life? Everyone in this situation is a moron, property is not worth it, imo.