Because cops in America all fancy themselves the Punisher (don’t even get me started on that) where everyone is out to get them and every one they shoot is one less bad guy on the street.

No incentive to change when they can get away with killing with impunity and fulfill their murder fantasies.

Asshole who shot this kid probably bragged to all his buddies about smoking a dude with a knife and got attaboys all around.

Not really. People forget that most of the rest of the industrialized world at the time was devastated by one of the most destructive wars in human history. Essentially the rest of the world was dependent on US manufacturing, which was virtually unscathed.

That being said, the current situation is absolutely unacceptable. We are fully in the late stages of capitalism, and wages have not be remotely linked to productivity. The only reason anyone in the United States is living in poverty is greed. (I can’t speak of other places as I don’t know enough about their economies to have an informed opinion).

We live in the richest nation in the world, and the shrinking/struggling economic middle class is a direct result of Reaganomics and under-regulated free market capitalism.

Not 40, but weather news hits different when the cold/humidity fucking hurts your bones.

Exactly that. Homelessness isn’t a social issue that needs to be solved, it’s the consequences of the unhomed’s poor choices and absolutely nothing else.

Arguing with willful ignorance is fucking exhausting, you literally can’t get them to see past their blind beliefs because most of them wear “you can’t change my mind” like a badge of honor.

I see boomers posting “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” on FB all the time, and they genuinely, unironically think they were here >strong men create good times< instead of where they really were, here >good times create weak men<, and so now we are absolutely here >weak men create hard times< thanks to them.

They’re just so close to seeing the point.

A decent flashlight.

A streamlight stylus pro is $20, uses 2 AAA batteries, is barely bigger than a pen, and can be an absolute life saver. It produces way more light and throws it way further than your phone’s light, and I’ve been carrying the same one every day for nearly 15 years now with no signs of it failing. I use it nearly daily in my personal and professional life, you will genuinely wonder how you manages without it if you make it a habit of carrying it.

Or go nuts and get yourself a something like a surefire G2. Bigger, heavier, but more durable and incredibly bright.