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Oh yeah. Cars are bad on like every metric.

Socially they isolate people. You don't interact with anyone when you're driving except to get angry. The micro interactions you have on the train matter. Seeing people that aren't just like you, also annoyed that the train is delayed, or just having a nice time with their kids, matters. More than makes up for when other people are annoying.

Economically they hurt. It's much harder to just pop into an interesting looking shop when you're cruising along at 40mph. All the space dedicated to parking could be used for other stuff- housing, commerce, communal space, whatever.

They make spaces less safe. Other than the direct impact (no pun intended) of people getting hit by cars, or crashing into stuff, a space that has steady foot traffic is generally safer. If everyone was in their car instead, you'd probably be alone on foot with no one to help if something happened.

They're bad for the environment. Air pollution, micro plastics, whatever.

Drunk driving is way more dangerous than drunk "riding the train".

The more non-car options are built out, the better it will be for people who need to drive for whatever reason.

Cars culture is trash and if we ever escape from it, it's going to take years.

I wonder if it's exceeded the max length and caused a poorly handled error

My cat certainly seems to have forgiven me for all the times I made him move, at least.

Ed Zitron wrote a blog post I've been thinking about, where he said that a lot of decisions are made by "business idiots" now. People that don't really use or understand the product, and don't really understand the users or their needs. It's an interesting read, even though the guy is rather verbose: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/

dangit i was going to make the same pun. well done.

The other day I woke up to a bunch of text notifications from people, and my first thought was "Did it happen? Did someone shoot him??"

No, it was a bunch of unrelated personal life stuff. But for one dreamy moment...

I see what you did there and I'm not going to fully fall for it.

I read about this concern (for the us) in like 2004 when I took a basic poli sci course in undergrad, and wrote a paper about how climate change is a national security threat. People knew. Most people don't care or have no power.

My old pandemic D&D group was the best. They cared about everything. But I remember specifically one time they arrived at a large party. I was describing the scene- large tables set with food, small groups of people mingling, and off in the corner you see a man talking to a woman, her back is against the wall and he's got his arm on the wall so he's kind of trapping her there. She looks uncomfortable.

The players all beelined to those two to rescue the NPC from the guy. Oh, Pretty Paul. They hated him so much. Such a good villain. (Started as a riff on Handsome Jack, and it worked so well. One of the players wrote a song about how much they hated Paul)

Order of the Stick is so good, and has such surprising emotional depth for a stick figure comic about D&D.

Just be aware that the updates are intermittent.

I feel like trump could completely destroy the economy and cause the US to split apart and fall into ruin, and people would still think the Republicans are "good for the economy"

I guess it's like the difference between a parasite that doesn't kill the host, and one that does. The current breed looks like it's going to kill the host.