I’m not sure what country you are from, but as someone whose vote literally is counted before I even see a ballot, let me tell you, please vote or at least do something. If you don’t like the way politics in your country work, go out and demonstrate. Take it to the streets. Talk to your neighbors, make leaflets. But please don’t just go bitter and sit in your corner because everything is shit anyways. Because this is how we ended up with a lot of the messes we are having now. I “voted” for the first time this year in a rigged election and before that I also always thought the way you do. Democracy is dead, why bother, my vote doesn’t count anyway. But once I stood in this fucking line and smuggled in a non erasable pen and voted and went out knowing no one will even look at this ballot something changed.

You know we all are so focused on him not being reelected in 2024 that we forget that if he won’t he’ll definitely find a way to run again in 2028 and we have all this hell all over again

More. Definitely more

I’m honestly baffled by how immigration in Germany is supposed to be a problem. We have a horribly low birth rate. Our retirement security is basically gone because there won’t be enough working people. Retirement homes, hospitals, kindergartens, all these places suffer from a lack of personnel. These jobs are notoriously stressful, have horrible working conditions, and underpay extremely.

The free market has obviously failed to solve this problem. Even with unions and tariffs: An increase of 1€ per hour does a good living not make. Neither are bonuses a long term solution. And even if you made these jobs attractive af: we will still not have enough people choosing them anytime soon. And even if we did, it’s simply still not enough people in the workforce to secure pension for the elderly and generations to come.

And let’s be very real for a second here. Skilled immigration from third countries (i.e. not EU, not talking about third world here) isn’t an easy ride. These high paying job offers of privileged jobs like IT or science are not going away but they are also rather rare. It’s a niche thing compared to the waves of immigration of, well, low paying and often low skilled jobs.

And while I can “understand” if an asshole wants to cut the former, why would you want to cut the latter? Jesus, no one is stealing your job because I doubt you want to work cleaning toilets at McDonald’s. If you want to go wipe asses in retirement homes you’ll find a job stat no matter whether the Ukrainian, Romanian or Syrian girls apply too.

We are literally insanely exploitative of immigrants. We either have a brain drain from countries that immensely need them, or cause them to have a demographic crisis of their own by buffering our birth rates with their people, or we simply give them jobs that pay so little that they hardly survive. All that while doing shit for their integration into society. But they still pay taxes and buy products in the supermarket and ride the tram and everything. We get all the positives and they get all the negatives. Why would you even want to get rid of that if you’re a cunt?

Oh fuck off

Just wait for it

May I add: Hitler was largely supported by the youth. Putin is mostly supported by the elderly.

I’m sorry to disappoint you there but that’s not how childbirth works, even after the industrial revolution. This here might be a good start to see why a conveyor belt system isn’t feasible with kids

Honestly give me a 24 hour work week with a median salary income and I’ll become a birthing machine

Thank you for breaking it down to this as well, I tried to get the comment above but this helped make a bing sound in my head

And thank you for asking in the first place

Ok, follow up question. If you don’t take a painkiller in the morning, how does the headache progress?

For real man. We were so overworked when both of us had a full time job and no kids. Now we have one kid and one full time job. It is easier, hard in another way but somehow easier. Soon I’ll have to go back to work and I don’t even know how we will survive. We would love to have another kid but we either can’t afford it or we will go insane trying to afford it.

The other part is that stupid part time career pit. Ideally we would both work half jobs, but this will mean none of us can have a well paid job (per hour). But this also means that if my husband is laid off while I am at home, were fucked. Job security is a huge factor in work life balance.

But also, we are the “risky” ones. Most of my friends from school wanted to wait until they are “settled” financially. I don’t have one mom friend from school/university. They are either still settling in their careers or have given up on feeling settled and now have fertility issues.

Just for context, our kid arrived shortly before I turned 30. My friends are in their 30s and 40s. None of them is really “financially secure” since job security is just not a thing anymore.

I would argue it is a problem in a capitalist society where constant and eternal economic growth is necessary.

Then again, I would also argue that capitalism is the problem.

It’s grey and looks very cheap, like Kik style, with some glitter. It was actually a free clothing swap so it didn’t cost anything. My two year old likes cats right now so it has a lot of potential to become her favorite shirt. It gives me “precise dwarf bravery” vibes but by now these companies produce them on purpose. I am cherishing this shirt because I found it in the wild and it is very obviously an actual mistake. Especially since it’s a toddler shirt.

The only thing that I don’t like about that shirt is that it doesn’t come in my size.

I’m not sure if your colleague wore the shirt as a joke or in all seriousness. I kind of hope the latter, simply because its genuity would save the cringe.

Absolutely agree. Mallorca has so much to offer apart from Palma, and it’s a disgrace how they massacred that city (and island). I am happy there are protests now.

I remember back then (it must have been like 2003) it was offered to my parents at a travel agency. I even remembered how they called home to ask my sister and me whether we would like to go since they knew we both were kinda anti Mallorca (since we then also didn’t know about the beauty of the other parts). We still agreed because it was a really cheap deal and we were like lower middle class back then, so a good deal’s a good deal. I’m still grateful because I would have never travelled to that tourist place by myself, and I would have never been scarred for life by that dildo. I think it was the first time I saw a sex toy in real life. There were still some really cool memories and moments, and even having diarrhea and watching One Piece for a week was pretty chill.

On the topic of t-shirts, I found a kid’s shirt saying “sample text” under the drawing of a cat at a flea market yesterday. Not too related to what you mentioned, but I hail that shirt so much and needed to share.

When I was in Mallorca when I was 12 I literally didn’t hear a word of Spanish over the course of the 2 week holiday. Ok, granted, I spent 1 week in the hotel room sick and watching One Piece on TV (also in German) but I’d say a whole week in Playa de Mallorca and only hearing perfect German was wild.

Almost as wild as when I opened that plastic bell pepper in a souvenir shop and there was a dildo inside. Like, why. Why would you want to have sex with a bell pepper. Why did they have red ones and green ones but no yellow ones.

I think we have more enlightened and more informed views now than 270 years ago is alls I’m saying.

Bruh with literally every country on the planet turning more fascist by the day that’s a bold statement to make

He is, the Iranian media and government confirmed

I also didn’t know how people did it. Then I had a baby and almost fell asleep in the shower once while standing. I’ve never been more tired in my life but man, these few months of just being able to fall asleep at meteoric speed anywhere anytime were incredible. It felt like a superpower from one of those pill memes. Now I am just tired all the time but I can’t fall asleep like that anymore.

Well they just are extra not allowed to commit crimes. Like way more than other people.