Definitely. I knew one guy who was an EMT. He was very casual about it unless he was drinking.

Probably not but it would be funny.

I say we let him build up a huge satellite fleet and then force him to sell a huge chunk of it under antitrust law.

They just need to try and land on one, that’s the trick.

Well, I drive a Kia Soul, so I’m probably not one to be throwing stones.

For real. I love those ugly things.

You don’t consider credit card info sensitive? May I have yours?

Nope. Once upon a time long ago I thought I wanted a Tesla. Now? I’d rather drive a Ford Focus.

That last point is really interesting. Conservatives and right-wingers can’t grasp that other people don’t think like they do. I remember during the January 6th insurrection how all the people doing it really seemed to believe they would be seen as heroes. It’s like they had no idea over half of the US didn’t agree with them.

Genuinely curious, this isn’t snark, what do you suggest in the US that’s better than the NY Times? I mean, NPR, of course, but I can’t really detect much of a difference between the two.

I have always wished I were around for the Cretaceous period… :(

Seriously though, it’s understandable to want to experience something you can’t. Like, the more we know we can’t do a thing sometimes, the more we want to.

Personally, having lived through the 80s and 90s, there was absolutely something unique about both. I think if you set aside the trivial stuff, fashion, etc., it comes down to what I describe as a more human pace. Life just moved slower. You had to interact directly with people more, yeah. Also, people were kind of more on the same page. For example, TV shows were aired at a specific time, movies showed at a specific time. (I’m referring a bit more to the 80s here, pre VCR.) So, you kind of always felt like you were a part of something bigger. It was kind of a cozy feeling.

On the other hand, if you didn’t fit into mainstream culture (straight, mostly white, probably Christian), things could be really rough for you. It was much harder to find groups outside of that mainstream. You could feel very lonely and isolated. Connecting with people was hard. Being a nerd was definitely not cool, it was just being a nerd. Bullying was really bad.

It was really hard to learn about things. Like, you had to go to the library or school. No internet searches. Maybe in some ways that was a good thing.

That’s more the 80s. I would describe the 90s as sort of complacently boring for the most part. Also, in the same way that people romanticize the 80s and 90s now, many in the 90s were romanticizing and imitating the 60s and 70s. It didn’t feel like there was as much of a distinctive culture to me. The 90s were when corporations really figured out how to commercialize everything too. Think… Pepsi sponsoring Woodstock 99… Things felt less organic, more engineered from above.

But, those are generalizations. People always find a way to express humanity, to be creative, to be unique, to express something new. We’ll look back on these times and see special things too. Personally I really miss when everyone was walking around with their fidget spinners dabbing…

Seriously. There’s way too much content and no way most of it is worth my time. If it is, people will still be talking about it in a couple decades, and then I’ll think about it.

You may be right now that I reread their comment.

Just wait until we find out what the US military has.

Yikes, I would be very scared to take anything ChatGPT says as accurate. Google keeps trying to get me to use theirs when I do searches, and I refuse.

So maybe you were joking and I didn’t catch it?

Ha, literally no one under thirty has any idea. Imagine trolling a bunch of faceless people online and then you actually get to meet them. Good times.

Very different…

How ironic. I guess you haven’t been on Reddit in the past decade.

Hmm, you’re kind of sounding a little pissed though…

I’ve been on Reddit for years and never seen Americans claiming we’re number one. Quite the opposite actually. Same here so far. Not sure where you’re hanging out that you’re hearing Americans saying that, but I would argue that it’s a minority view. As far as converting for us, I would say, don’t. The sooner Americans have to go do it themselves, the sooner everyone else in the world can stop caring about it.