KelvarIW

The silver lining in my head is that at least the USA can dissuade other countries from voting conservative. And if Canada/Australia take in US refugees, the progressive parties would get a huge boost in support.

Absolutely Horrible. I was already struggling due to ADHD, but since November I've felt completely awful. Some days I feel "I'm in the end of times" and force myself to indulge in games and food, but it never makes me feel better. Other days I run myself into the ground trying to plan some way to fight back. My next "to-do" is getting a pistol, but that's hard in my state.

The only upside is I have felt less socially anxious about reaching out to new people. Having a real existential crisis does cause those fears of "what if they think I'm annoying" to subside.

YouTube has a pretty strong hold because video hosting and streaming is extremely expensive. That's why most platforms have strict file limits for them. In the pre-Google days of YouTube, most accounts could only upload <15 minute videos, and that limitation is still in place if you have an unverified account.

I don't see how we'll get any alternative to YouTube unless it comes from another large corporation, though I'd love to be proven wrong in that.

Using the tools is fine IMO because the moment those tools stop working, people will move their time to Twitch/Instagram/Bluesky/TikTok/etc. 60-120 second ads will push away all, except for iPad toddlers.

Makes me wonder if Google knows this, and is deliberately adding these ridiculous ads, but not patching those tools, so they can keep their user metrics up while pushing the uninformed/indifferent into YouTube Premium subscriptions...

okay Switch to Linux if you can and are willing to undergo constant troubleshooting. I chose not to, and this is how I managed that.

my two cents - install an older version of Windows 10. I use 20H2. You can find clean ISO files on the Internet Archive. Disable automatic updates, and use services like Blackbird (getblackbird.net) to de-bloat your instance.

"if we’re happy together we stay, if we’re not we split." Beautifully put. You and your girlfriend have been together for 5 years, which seems like a commitment in itself.

Personally I seem like marriage is an outdated practice, from a time where women were treated as property. It's a legal contract, like you'd make with a business partner. Marriage isn't even permanent (nor should it be). It just makes separation more expensive. Even if both participants want to split, and they agree on how to do it, now they need to get a judge to dissolve that contract.

And in the modern economy, many couples are choosing to forgo marriage, and put the money they save toward a shared house, which is a commitment in itself. People might argue that it's necessary if you plan to have children, but most couples can't afford that, some others don't want that. And if children are a future goal for you and her, wouldn't you have a commitment to that child? Plus, there are child support systems in place, whether the child was born in wedlock or not.

I could ramble on. The whole system of marriage only ever mattered because society said it should, and now that women aren't forced to be a "side-piece", and people don't gasp at the idea of premarital sex, it's just an expensive celebration. Marriage won't make a relationship more stable. It will just make it harder for both people to leave.