I agree with your last point so much. I also used the official app and had a 12 year account, but fuck if I am going to just stand by and watch another corporate board make our world a bit more miserable for the sake of their profit. Let them have dust.
US evangelicals have been operating both online and in EU soil for a while now. On Twitter a few years back they were not that sophisticated, with accounts pretending to be local citizens, easily unmasked by the handle names, poor understanding of local culture/references, and use of bad translations/US English terms.
In Ireland in particular they have been quite active since the marriage equality and abortion referendums, and now they seem to have switched gears to instigating anti-immigration sentiments.
It isn’t hard to see why France is taking action to manage visitor numbers. After all, locals and the environment should come first. If they can’t survive, will there eventually be anything actually worth visiting?
Excellent. This about sums it up. Portugal could take a page off France's book while it is not too late, but I won't hold my breath.
What are they to do?
Shrinking discretionary budget, more and more responsibilities at work (multiple roles condensed into one), and a looming sense you are easily replaceable with layoffs and AI tools.
On the other, if you are taught your only worth is your job, there is no point in exploring outside of that, and spending your energy on things that won't make you a good worker.
I get the argument for getting a job, though. Here is my perspective: I would find something I could do part te, and that I felt was really useful. I have consideredany times working in a nursing home with elderly people - being able to help them and hopefully even bring them some joy would benefit me, because my personal sense of purpose is tied to collaborating and giving back to the community around me. Plus, it's the type of job no one wants to do; if money weren't an issue, and I didn't have to put in 40+ hours a week, I would be happy to pick it up.
I had been trying to go off my antidepressants for a while, and tapering it off is the recommended way to do it. However, there are still side effects, and dealing with the side effects while having to stay on my normal work routine and stress was too much for me.
I took one month off on unpaid leave. Not only did it confirm that I didn't miss a thing from my bullshit software dev job, those were 4 busy and productive weeks, with many projects I had left on hold. Plus, I felt much better in terms of health. It allowed me to taper off an SSRI. And I lost weight too!