It’s okay! Really! Sure China has nukes and millions of flying drones to kick out asses. But here in the US Elon has a humanoid robot! One that properly run and hide just like us!
That rep trolled you… Don’t be naive. Homey probably clapped his bros and told his friends about “this pussy that sent a meme”. And then called you a f@ggot.
This world isn’t good, this world isn’t for well-being. Most aren’t treating you genuinely or honestly.
It’s every man for themself. Unless you represent hell on earth. Then the world is your oyster and the American dream is God.
Having been in the military, I find it hilarious and accept that it is not a place everyone should be. The recruiter likely has a very similar realistic understanding of where the military stands with people right now.
My roommate did a recruiter tour (mistake). He’d absolutely chuckle at that meme. Little did he know I was at the local colleges distributing anti-enlistment memes to the young folks.
Isn’t this why we should embrace EVs and other cars that can use renewable energy so we don’t have to worry about the middle east and other petrostates?
Yeah, EV’s are not, in themselves, the cure for our environmental woes. Too much electricity is still generated from fossil fuels for the carbon footprint to actually be diminished much and the environmental toll of mining for lithium also needs to be factored in. BUT, at the very least, it removes some dependence on oil in particular, where coal and natural gas are other forms of fossil fuels used to generate electricity. If nothing else, it takes some pressure off very specific regions, pressure which has contributed to invasion, war, international manipulation, extreme politics and oligarchies. It spreads the sources for resources around further.
Well, yes, but also the efficiency of the EV’s will factor in as well. Less efficient EV means more power draw for the same miles. But with things like regenerative braking and no idling, even the least efficient EV is probably more efficient then the most efficient gas powered car.
The best solution right now is to build out public and alternative transit. Busses, streetcars, lrt, greenways, woonerfs, etc are far superior and cheaper than anything we could figure out for cars.
‘Other Country’ being mainly China, which happens to sit on most of the lithium deposits on Earth if I am not mistaken.
Also to a lesser extent, Afghanistan. I remember a few years back a report of huge lithium deposits being found there but uh… yeah good luck with running that operation.
Biodiesel is not a good option imo the NOx emmisions are generally significantly higher. Also most of the oil thats used to create biodiesel is not sourced responsibly. The production procces also still creates toxic waste although usually less than normal diesel.
Source: i just wrote a report on this if you’re really interested. i can dig through my sources lmk
I’m mostly worried about the huge area consumption, tbh? Like, if you would replace all fossil oil with biodiesel, how much agricultural area would you need? Probably more than we have, I’d have to look it up, but it’s a lot for sure.
Biodiesel is not meant to replace all fossil oil and will never do so. But if you were to do so (with current oil sources) it would probably leave you with little agricultural land left. You could use algal bioreactors instead those dont take up any agricultural land but are very expensive to operate. You would also still need to grow energy crops for the production of alcohol needed for the transesterfication step.
Biodiesel also is pretty destructive to the seals on the engine as it has higher levels of solvents the eat away at rubber. Renewable diesel is a better option, as it has higher cetane levels and can burn cleaner, and is designed as a drop in replacement for dino #2, though I don’t fully know how it’s sourced.
All I know is my truck ran like shit on B20 and not nearly as bad on R99. That, and the factory recommends reducing oil change and filter intervals by 50% on both bio and renewable. It’s a clusterfuck obscured by marketing.
It’s not that easy. Sprawl needs to be addressed. Our cities are build around cars. You can’t slap a few busses in a town expect shit to work.
I work an hour away from my home. I would take a train but there isnt one that is reliable or cheaper than driving.
Having a light rail system that connected the east coast would take centuries unless the government acted with unprecedented action and speed even then it would be decades.
I’d love more public transportation yes.
I am saying right off the bat I think biodiesel would be a more viable alternativ as it could be relatively easily adopted as the infrastructure is already in place.
Edit - I was probably a bit verbose when I wrote this. Clearly it won’t take centuries. Decade or two at the most
Edit two: I was also misinformed about biodiesel - thanks for the helpful information, I appreciate it.
I would just remove one word from everyone you wrote. “Unprecedented”
Look up how much time it took to build the initial interstates. Same shit in Canada and the Trans-canada highway. It didn’t take centuries to build, it won’t take centuries to fix either.
Yeah, I dunno if it realistically takes that long. We pivoted from a world where cars didn’t broadly exist and public transit in the form of trams and trains was extremely common, to one where cars were hyper-dominant, in like, less than a quarter century, with nothing but publicly targeted corporate propaganda, huge amounts of government lobbying, and a post-war economy. The thing we lack isn’t really the ability to rapidly construct a large level of infrastructure, the thing we lack is the political will to make it happen. Most infrastructure needs to be rebuilt to be maintained like every 25 years anyways. I dunno, 25 years seems like a pretty fast turnaround time to me, in the grand scheme of things, especially when you consider how gradually it can be done just by changing zoning laws or engineering standards and practices. I mean, centuries? That seems extremely hyperbolic.
I’m a big fan of hydrogen for stuff like cars. Install more than enough solar or hydro or whatever, then use the surplus energy to create hydrogen cells that can be stored long-term, so that the hydrogen itself is also created with clean, renewable energy, usable on demand.
Unless you produce hydrogen from fossil fuels, you’ll have to take energy into account as long as we don’t have massive overproduction (which we’re far, far away from). By using the less efficient process, you’ll keep us reliant on fossil fuels for a longer amount of time.
I mean it’s just not generally energy efficient compared to batteries, and the majority of hydrogen tends to come about as a byproduct of, I think it’s propane and natural gas extraction and production. Electrolysis is pretty far off from being an effective competitor to batteries. I do still think that theoretically the specific energy is high enough that it doesn’t really matter, since that seems to be like the major limiting factor keeping electric from going mainstream, and me personally, I would probably also use the oxygen made by electrolysis for some cool rocket fuel cars, also cutting down on the lack of , but everyone’s against that because “The cars would explode you psycho/moron!” and other stupid idiot considerations that I don’t care about. But yeah, generally we don’t have enough of an energy excess to be able to run cars off of it in a reasonable way. Energy density still sucks also, but then, it’s not like modern cars tend to really use a lot of their space anyways, so I don’t think that matters too much.
Mine comes from the many Hydroelectric barrages we have here in Quebec, because we ended our use of coal and methane for generating electricity. 99% of our electricity is Hydro and the rest is wind/solar. I think maybe we have one methane plant somewhere but I don’t know for sure.
The US have basically every climate on the planet at your disposal except the poles. You could create new interesting ways to generate electricity cleanly, but your government doesn’t. It baffles the mind.
And then even with coal and methane, burning it at the station in troves is still less damaging than burning gasoline or diesel in individual vehicles because of the tiny bit of carbon the stations that are well run manage to capture (It ain’t much, but it’s more than an F150 that’s for sure)
I agree that cars should become a niche thing, not used by everyone to get everywhere. That’s completely unsustainable, but it’ll take at least 20 years of good governance for the US to be connected in a meaningful way by fast, frequent, convenient public transportation. Until then, the people who are stuck unable to move closer to work for various reasons will still need to drive, and EV are a good option for more than 80% of them.
My power comes from the two sets of solar panels and batteries on my land. It is possible to do without fossil fuels. We’re not there yet for everyone, but the problems you point out are solvable, and if solar/EVs had the same amount of backing from the government over the same timeframe that gas/ICE cars have had, we would be in a very different place right now.
Right now? Primarily hydro with a strong solar and wind showing. Roughly 10% of my power is from Fossil fuels.
You are just shifting the shit elsewhere
Even with a pure fossil fuel grid, EVs still end up producing less CO2 than ICE vehicles. However, grids aren’t pure fossil fuels which means EVs are far cleaner than Fossil fuel vehicles. Especially in my current circumstance.
Less than 8% of energy consumption in the US comes from renewable energy. Another 8% come from nuclear.
13% while being one of the fastest growing energy production sectors.
I’m just saying right now more than 80% of all energy in the use comes from non renewable / non nuclear power. I’m glad your area has great renewable energy sources in place.
I’m powered by Sharon Harris nuclear plant.
I’m not saying that EVs aren’t better, I’m saying that it’s not a magic bandaid. Obviously there is not one fix or easy fix.
I don’t need to get into my corpo hate right now because I’m tired and I just wanna mine space rocks.
Oh no! No the third most abundant element in the universe! WTF are we gonna do? Use another metal with a large valency shell that makes it ideal as a dense storage medium for electrons? the horror
Oddly enough emissions standards are one of the major reasons vehicles are getting so big.
In 2012 fuel economy standards were changed as a response to the manufacturers calling everything a truck to get around regulations (seriously - they classified the PT Cruiser as a truck in the 2000s). So now standards are weighted based on vehicle footprint instead of by class.
Notice how around 2012 was when the American auto manufacturers stopped making the old Rangers, S10s, Dakotas, etc? And now that the Ranger is back it’s as big as the older F-150s and the F-150s are the size of a small airport? And as the CAFE standards get tougher over time the vehicles keep growing?
It’s easier to just make the trucks bigger every refresh cycle than to make them more efficient, so that’s what they do.
don’t have to worry about the middle east and other petrostates?
Emphasis on the word other - there's one petrostate we'll always have to worry about.
Personally I don't have much time for the economic nationalism argument for de-oiling.
We're in a whole-planet crisis and pursuing only what is in the limited interests of our nation is a brutally self defeating way to saddle the next generation or two with even more problems.
I think it’s naive to think that the imperial core will stop with the needless wars simply because oil is no longer the hot commodity. There’s always perverse interests to use the military for power projection and resource control.
Under your current voting system, this will never change.
I for one, refuse to be shipped off in our generation’s tribute to America. Our government (Australia) is still the US’ vassal state.
They’re usually dudes who got bumped there for being injured, for being psyched, or being incompetent but well meaning. Don’t be mean to them, they legit don’t want to do what they’re doing they know how stupid and shitty it is but they still have time left in contract and gotta trudge it out day by day like the rest of us.
Some of them, sure, but there are a lot of stories of how many lies recruiters will tell you to get you to sign on, so a pretty significant number are genuinely bad people.
For the same reason I don’t get upset at the drive through server when the cook makes my burger wrong. They’re just part of the process, not the cause it’s kinda hard to judge people for trying to survive.
On the other hand, the policing system encourages screwing over minorities and doing various other scummy things (through a quota system among other things). This does not absolve cops of guilt if they target minorities, lie, or plant drugs.
In the age of Google and where even the homeless bum down by the river has a smart phone, Googling to find out about a major life choice is easy to do. Failure to help yourself do nothing but use a phone for 10 minutes deserves zero empathy.
not surprised at all actually, but /s ruins jokes. i know what comes with the territory of not using /s thats why i very politely asked you to reread the comment
That’s literally when to use it, it’s specifically to use when you could come off like an asshole and do not want to.
You don’t use it in my best guess judging by your responses so far is because you get to act like the other person is crazy for taking you seriously.
Being the guy that jokingly hates Jews can be hilarious especially if they are Jewish but everyone has to know otherwise they might seem a bit… Mmm Hitlery right?
im dont think youre crazy. i dont think my responses ever indicated that youre crazy, i think youre just embarrassed to have made a response so harsh only to be found it was in agreement toward your original reply, and are now trying to make me seem crazy for not putting an /s. if youd like, i can edit my comment to ensure everybody knows its just a joke 😀
Good to remember that not everyone is aware of the bullshit by 17 or 18 when recruiting is at its height (gotta pay for college somehow, right?). I know I wasn’t but, luckily planned to do ROTC instead of enlisting, then, educated myself out of being willing to do that.
If “ignorance isn’t an excuse” doesn’t get you out of any law you break, it also doesn’t get you out of accidentally joining a terrorist organization due to propaganda.
Because that’s exactly what it is.
It is no different than the teenagers that join ISIS. Propaganda takes them in, they join voluntarily, they live with their consequences for life.
My GF would kill me if I wore it, however much I love the shirt. She was army reserves for 8 years. She is so happy to be out though now. She was deployed to Kuwait and Afghanistan. She’s officially VFW with all the VA benefits. But yea, totally one weekend a month, lol.
this actually was in mildly infuriating a while back from the original screenshotter, complaining abouth the fact that the army reqruiters can do this trough messaging apps. so I think it’s very real
Last time a recruiter harassed me via text he tried to convince me of all the kickass benefits and fun of being in the military. Straight up just told him “Dude, if you put a gun in my hand, you’re going to be responsible for a suicide. Not happening.” For some reason he never replied.
Why I refuse to have guns even though I’m really interested in learning to shoot. I would love to go to a range and get better at target practice but I just don’t want to go down that path. Maybe I should consider archery
Idk if this is something that would be legal in every state, but most shooting ranges I’ve seen have firearm rentals. This typically helps them to sell guns because you can see how they feel, but there’s no obligation to purchase. They also might let you rent stuff that you couldn’t legally purchase without crazy licensing, like fully automatic machine guns.
I have a friend who doesn’t think it’s a good idea for himself to own a gun for similar reasons. Others here seem to be alluding to that being a huge issue, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. It’s weird to assume that the people who don’t want you own guns must have mental health issues. The data is clear that owning a gun makes a person significantly more likely to be harmed by a gun, whether it’s self-inflicted, an accident, a robbery gone wrong, or any number of other events. If you feel like your health and safety are at risk because of anxiety or depression or anything like that, I hope you’re able to help yourself by even just chatting with somebody who is qualified to help you, maybe getting some medication and lifestyle tips also. I found that I had a vitamin D deficiency, and just taking a standard supplement every day has had a big positive impact on my mood and attitude. Like, I still feel helpless in a shitty world that we as a species are actively making worse every single day, but now I know that that’s a problem that’s way too big for li’l ol’ me to solve. But what I can do is take a few minutes to type something to an internet stranger to tell them that they matter and that they are worth the effort of helping. You matter and you’re worth the effort of helping. Even if you don’t think it’s particularly dire, check in with yourself. Therapy is not for emergencies, so don’t wait until it’s an emergency to talk to somebody.
… a very, very small subset of the skills, if any.
Is there a VR gun app that simulates guns having… weight?
How About how to handle misfires, squibs or jams? Does it go over safety precautions, proper storage, handing, transit and relevant local laws?
Oh how about recoil management and shooting stances and shouldering? All the intricacies of reloading different kinds of weapons? Trigger pull and break?
If you got your gun training from VR, you’d still probably want to take a firearms familiarization course IRL before actually using a gun, as all that VR can really offer is the general concept of aiming.
Also, depending on your VR headset of choice, you could probably actually buy a decent pistol, rifle or shotgun and a day at the range’s worth of ammo for the same cost.
Honestly, a pellet or bb gun would be a far better way to learn a lot more applicable basics of shooting for cheaper than a vr headset.
Shooting a gun in VR is nothing like shooting a gun in real life, and if you ‘train’ in VR and then actually try to shoot a gun IRL you will realize this basically immediately.
I am trying to imagine someone with ‘VR Training’ going to a gun range and it looks like the vids of people waving loaded guns around on range and sweeping people with a loaded mag, shooting a gun and having it fly out of their hands or into their faces because they have no idea how stances and recoil work.
If you want a pretty close experience without the real risk of suicide, you could always go with lower caliber airguns. The lack of muzzle energy means it’s not a ripe candidate for killing anything but small game at most, it requires you to be pretty on top of your shit as far as consistent follow through, holdover, windage. Shot per shot cost can be pretty low, especially if you get a swaging die and make the pellets or slugs yourself. The only downside is that the guns can get pretty pricey, up in the realm of very expensive normie guns, especially for something very high quality and with all the cool stuff, but overall it’s a pretty cheap and less dangerous hobby if you like shooting. Most people have this conception that they’re only for kids or whatever, based on what they see at the sportsman’s warehouse, but with a bit of googling you can find some guns that are pretty performative for not a lot.
I suggest if youre looking for a shooty type hobby that doesnt involve actual guns, yes archery is very neat, though modern compound bows are comparably pricey to many guns…
Perhaps try paintballing or airsoft?
Frankly I’ve always found airsoft and the community around it pretty cringey, but I had a blast ‘woodsballing’ as a kid. The indoor competitive ranges I found silly… but it can be great fun to stomp around in the woods for a day, if you don’t mind huge bruises from getting hit haha!
Even so, probably most outdoor ranges have an area for chronoing (dialing in your gas pressure so your paint is flying at an appropriate speed) or just target practice, and you can probably just plink at such a range if you wanted to.
Jesus, there is a non-zero number people, in this thread, that don’t get guns because they are afraid they might suicide? I hope you get the help you need, keeping a gun out of your house is a good thing but it is just the tip of an iceberg.
Edit: Everyone on this thread is acting like this is normal, THIS ISN’T NORMAL OR OK. PLEASE take care of yourself.
I think it’s more of a don’t trust themselves with that power sort of thing, I’ll bet most of them have a hard time making the big calls and hard shots of life and work.
Men who own handguns are eight times more likely to die of gun suicides than men who don’t own handguns, and women who own handguns are 35 times more likely than women who don’t.
I’m not sure if it’s fair to say that people are “acting like this is normal” - it is a real danger, and it’s good that these folks are aware of it and are acting accordingly. Even if you get help, you won’t just magically get better and will never suffer from suicidal thoughts again. Making sure you don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger seems like a healthy strategy to me.
I don’t know if it’s a people who already have issues and have guns are more likely to use the gun instead of other means kind of statistic you have there, but owning a gun does not want to make you want to kill yourself purely by existing. It is a problem that exists regardless of the gun. And people who just… don’t have a gun have a thousand different ways to accomplish the task. You aren’t like, a healthy individual then get a gun and suddenly have … urges.
I don’t know if it’s a people who already have issues and have guns are more likely to use the gun instead of other means kind of statistic you have there
Well, you could easily figure that out by reading the link I sent. But I’ll gladly clear it up for you: the statistic isn’t about “likelihood of using gun for suicide”, it’s “likelihood of suicide”. Men who own guns are 8x more likely to kill themselves than men who don’t.
but owning a gun does not want to make you want to kill yourself purely by existing. It is a problem that exists regardless of the gun.
It is, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the statistics. Owning a gun dramatically increases your chances of suicide, mostly because it’s the quickest method easily available. Suicide is extremely often an impulse. If you have a quick and easy method available, you’re far more likely to commit suicide than if you don’t. This has been researched for a long time.
And people who just… don’t have a gun have a thousand different ways to accomplish the task. You aren’t like, a healthy individual then get a gun and suddenly have … urges.
Okay, so people with suicidal thoughts should just buy guns and go through with it, or what? I’ll repeat myself: you don’t just get help and are magically better the next day. Improving your mental state is a process that takes at the very least multiple years. Knowing yourself and statistics well enough to not give yourself an easy suicide method is good.
Is it just me or this statistic kind of… useless? It’s the same as saying “people who own a car are eight times more likely to die in car crashes”. No shit. Surely we should be comparing the raw (successful) suicide rate of gun owners versus not. Later in the article they do cover this to a point, stating that it is still a 4x increase.
The researchers found that people who owned handguns had rates of suicide that were nearly four times higher than people living in the same neighborhood who did not own handguns. The elevated risk was driven by higher rates of suicide by firearm. Handgun owners did not have higher rates of suicide by other methods or higher rates of death generally.
Basically the out of a simple pull of the trigger is too easy. Easier than jumping off a bridge, relatively painless, quick and doesn’t injure bypassers.
Having the gun is too easy an out, so people with suicidal thoughts will stay away from them. I was like that too at 22. Here’s just one of many stories. Trigger warning for suicide (duh)
If Quebec, Canada had the same access to handguns as the US, I would be dead today. Simple as that. Instead, I failed an attempt to jump from a viaduc because I was scared of causing a collision and taking someone else with me, was sent to the hospital by the police, got a psychiatrit’s help. Turns out I wasn’t a lazy worthless piece of shit. I had an untreated, very powerful case of ADHD blocking me from accomplishing anything of value.
I am no longer suicidal. I’ve overcome that. However, I always worry that those feelings will one day come back after a series of bad decisions. I am, therefore, keeping things that would kill me in an instant without pain away from myself. You just never know when you’ll have a moment of weakness. If I thought to off myself once, I can think of it again.
I guess my initial comment, for me, was the perspective that it is common enough to have this many people openly talking about it in this thread very nonchalant, like that is the norm. There are a thousand reasons not to own a gun, that reason seemed a little specific, then others chimed in that were on the same page. It just surprised me. I am glad you are doing better and I hope you remember how temporary those feelings are if they ever come back.
Idk if you’ve ever had suicidal thoughts, but they can are generally really impulsive, and not really well thought out. Obviously everyone is different, but many suicides are done on impulse.
I’m doing perfectly fine right now. I’m happy and have a pretty good life. But I know that when bad events happen, those suicidal impulses are just that…impulses. they aren’t something that most people who attempt suicide sit down and take the time to thorougly think out. They can happen unexpectedly when you’re in a vulnerable stste. Unexpected and intense life events happen that can push even “normal and well adjusted” people over the edge if they have access to something dangerous like that. Imagine suddenly and unexpectedly losing your spouse or your career or etc. Shit happens.
When somebody contacts me out of the blue without my input, tries to sign me up to get murdered for the benefit of the military industrial complex, and reads “No, I’m not interested” as “tell me more,” I become less likely to be as polite about matters. No means No, and if you keep pushing I’m gonna be as blunt as I need to be.
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