A US paratrooper makes a practice jump during training - Highstown, New Jersey, USA 1941
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this seems self-centered you know “stereotypical American bs” but I’m curious
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Americans!
You have until tomorrow (Friday 8th March 2024) to voice your support for a national intercity train service.
You can do so via the link below, use your voice!
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Though the proverbial "showdown at high noon" is largely a media invention, many famous gunslingers of the American Old West did engage in formal duels at least occasionally. The main differences from the popular media version are twofold:
Formal duels were rare; most famous gunslingers duelled only once or twice in their entire careers, and a gunslinger with three or more duels under their belt would have been considered extraordinarily prolific (and also extraordinarily stupid – see below);
Those gunslingers who did duel typically made a point of accepting challenges only from opponents of demonstrably inferior skill; there was something of an unspoken agreement among prolific duellists to avoid duelling each other by any means necessary, as they knew the surest way to cut short one's career was to duel someone who actually knew what they were doing!
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because some day I want to write a semi-competitive tabletop RPG where the player characters are all rival gunslingers living the high life on manufactured drama and exaggerated tales of their legendary prowess while going to elaborate lengths to avoid having to actually fight each other.
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Something about the idea that voting for president only matters if you live in a swing state, and that all the people in blue states or red states can indulge themselves in principled nonparticipation because the outcomes are preordained, strikes me as akin to playing with fire.
Is it really coherent to say "both sides are awful, write in Mickey Mouse or burn your ballot or just stay home and get drunk, unless you live in Pennsylvania, in which case maybe consider taking one for the team and compromising yourself by voting for the lesser evil?" Is that really the message that will lead to a preferable outcome?
What it sounds like to me is a sign that 1) you take your local electorate for granted, and 2) you see avoiding the worst case scenario as somebody else's problem.
I remember when Florida was a swing state. I also remember when Pennsylvania wasn't.
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All the tarp you see are human bodies. How many of those tarp covered bodies didn't make it to see their 18th birthday? How many didn't get to see the 1st birthday of their child? How many didn't get to celebrate retirement? These are human lives being ripped away at an alarming rate.
There should be no reason you can't step outside without seeing a decomposing child, mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, friend, or lover.
They had lives and yet they are buried next to the sidewalk? Would you be okay with your loved one being buried next to the sidewalk? No. No you wouldn't.
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