fonix232

I'd like to think that Bernie winning the primaries would've actually energised the left wing of the US. Most of the apathy not just in the US, but all over the (western) world stems from the fact that the right always has a charismatic populist mouthpiece while the left keeps bringing out all the old, broken records, pushing actual trailblazers to the back.

With what support Bernie had, he could've easily moved tons more voters than Hillary could've ever dreamt of. Not just in the presidential election but all the other House and Senate and governor and state senate and mayoral votes.

But let's presume that didn't happen and Bernie is now POTUS with the same level of support as Biden had in 2020-2024, and with the same congressional setup as you guys ended up with in 2016.

The reason why Biden's milquetoast agenda didn't go anywhere was because he already did 50-60% of what the conservatives wanted, and readily negotiated the remaining 40-50% down to 10% just to get things passed. Of course that would barely move things anywhere.

Now think, if Bernie came out with an absurdly social-democrat plan/bill. 100% opposite of what Rs want. Even if THAT gets negotiated down to 10% to get past... that's still a thousand times more progress for left agenda than Biden could've ever hoped to achieve.

I never really had a good relationship with my parents. I'm a first child, so they were literally learning the ropes with me, and being neurodivergent without appropriate early diagnosis and treatment... there was some major disconnect. Sure I was a "gifted" kid, but at every step they tried to force their own vision onto me, and thanks to that disconnect, I never had that truly supporting parentage. It was a constant barrage of high expectations with major punishments outlined if I didn't meet those, and given the disconnect, the only time I felt "loved" was when they'd provide me with certain things - but all those things were tied to expectations.

A great example for this is my first computer. I needed one, for studies, for chasing my own interests, and finally I was allowed to buy one from my own money at the end of 8th grade, if my graduation average was above a specific (incredibly high, think 16-18 subjects, graded 1 to 5 where 5 is best, my average had to be above 4.5), and if I managed to get certified in my chosen secondary language at a B level (A is conversational, B is professional/daily, C is for official translation work).

This plus my parents rarely expressing emotions beyond anger was... not exactly helpful in my emotional development.

Now, after a decade of living abroad, I'm trying to close that gap, but it's not easy. My mother... I get along with her much better, but she's got tons of trauma she refuses to see a therapist about, and instead is working herself to death in her 50s. The worst part is I can't even talk her out of it, and both my brothers are blind to it.

My father is the harder nut to crack. He's gone down the alt-right slide about ten years ago, and this intelligent man I grew up admiring has gone incredibly racist, xenophobic, illogical, in constant support of a kleptocratic government that literally took away all his savings and pension and is now giving him a pittance...

All in all it's not easy but I'm doing my best to build a passable relationship with them.

Just for a moment imagine if he ran against the orange turd in 2016 instead of Hillary, and WON.

Imagine the US not being international laughing stock between 2017 and 2021. COVID being handled properly, with a newly reformed healthcare system actually taking care of people, making your country one of the first to get out of endless lockdowns and furloughs, no record breaking death numbers and so on.

Not THAT much of a challenge tyvm.

Let's just stick with dicks.

No, not like that.

I like a challenge.

But also the ODM industry is massive too in China - manufacturers who design and make products, but don't sell directly, rather they contract it out to an "empty brand" (i.e. a company that's brand only, no real assets or manufacturing capacity), stamp the brand logo on the product and sell it to them en masse.

This is usually why you'd see the exact same cheap thing under many brands.

Counterfeiting is also a thing but those companies usually have good(ish) engineering, and aim to properly replicate expensive products, such as Apple AirPods (the AirReps community is pretty big, and you can buy AirPods Pro 2 clones that are 90-95% of the official one, for around £40-50).

The rules for me to like you are quite simple:

• having a huge dick is optional
• not being one isn't

Ah, so you've been debating in bad faith all along.

off you fuck then, troll.

With the same attitude one could campaign for ditching digital art tools, hell, even paint and paper, and going back all the way to cave paintings.

AI is a tool, period. Using it does not denigrate the process, and no, unlike your claim, does not take away from creativity, in fact it can trigger the exact same new ideas other creative processes can.

What's truly sad is that you, in complete lack of understanding of how and why AI can be used, are dismissing not just AI but people who use it, putting your ideology of "art purism" as something superior. My recommendation is, you look back in history and see how every single technological advancement that resulted in such outcries and purist movements, has ended up. Small hint: you're very much on the wrong side of things.

Wow. Way to be ignorant.

I'm not disagreeing that said mini scene isn't epic, but AI literally doesn't take away from such events - in fact it can help make them happen.

There's tons of people out there (including myself) who have the mental/cerebral creativity, but lack the ability to translate it to something hand-drawn. To take my own example further, I can't draw for shit - and this isn't for lack of trying, mind you, I've spent 4 years in an architectural high school, each year having 2-4 weekly freehand drawing classes, and while I can manage more regular objects in perspective... that's about it. On the other hand, I'm really good with CAD in general, or mechanical drawings. To me AI isn't something that takes away my creativity, or replaces the human element, because I know what I want on-screen, and simply require an aid, a tool, to make that happen.

With my TTRPG games (which are more sci-fi oriented), I still do 90% of the prep by hand. I plan ahead for the possible paths my players will take, generate backdrops to be used on my projector, and recently even started generating background music to play.

Even if I was a "real artist", the amount of work required to eliminate AI from the workflow is simply not doable by a single person.

But yet again, it doesn't take away from my creativity. I still have to come up with the scenarios, the possible outcomes, how my players might react, plan the backdrops and music and battle scenes and whatnot, and have everything I've envisioned, translated into something my players can see.

AI isn't providing the creativity, but a way to translate the vision to visual.

That girl hasn't been your best friend for a good while. Not since the moment she started taking advantage of you.