Me without you sayings | | all things supply chain

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

I am just curious for some perspectives on this.
I have a friend I’ve known for ten years. Like a brother to me in many ways. Always there to help in a pinch (including a move across the country), shared dreams, all that.
But recently I’ve decided it’s best to not have him in my life anymore. I can tolerate a lot from loved ones, especially mistakes that are not intentional harm. We are all imperfect.
There is only one thing that I truly won’t tolerate, aside from outright abuse, violence, etc., and that is when someone has an issue, refuses to communicate with me, and then just ghosts me out of nowhere, and will never have a real conversation about it.
But three times now he has done this: all of a sudden turn on me out of nowhere, without saying anything, run away, and go completely silent. Twice it’s been up and leaving in the middle of the night and then ignoring texts or calls til he feels like answering.
The second time, he abandoned us after months of intending to move together, leaving us scrambling to find a place with only three weeks til we had to move.
The third time, he outright lied and said he was going to come and we could talk, but he just came in late, slept a little, and got up and left before I was up. Used us so he didn’t have to get a hotel.
My good heart assumed it was some kind of trigger at first. Maybe he was hurting more than I realized. Then he made a comment once that said he “did it to prove a point” and I realized it was fully intentional.
For context, I’ve been pretty kind to him after he has done this before. Even though it’s extremely hard to take, I have never yelled at him, never name-called, simply stated that I really hate people doing that, and that it’s a traumatizing and awful way to treat people you consider friends.
He acts every time like things will just go back to normal when he feels like it. They won’t. He clearly doesn’t care that this is a really, really nasty way to treat people, yet he will tell a twisted version of events to paint things so that it sounds like he had to go, and that I would’ve been too angry if he had just talked to me.
Curious to hear other people’s takes on this!
Edit 1: I even tell him I never have a problem with him changing his mind on something; it’s running away and avoiding as a tactic that I refuse to accept.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the hole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FECKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty hole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Feck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

In the middle of this terrific song by Billy Idol, he sings the following:
When you hear the music, you make a dip Into someone else's pocket then make a slip Steal a car, go to Las Vegas Ooh, gigolo ______.
When I’m singing the song, the lyric that I hear and that makes the most sense to me is “gigolo cool.” However, the vast majority of lyric websites and YouTube videos claim the lyric is “gigolo pool” or “the gigolo pool.” I feel like this cannot be correct. WTF is gigolo pool?
On the other hand, “gigolo cool” makes sense because it’s like he’s saying, “Hey, look at me, I’m a freewheeling badass stud sleeping with women like I’m a gigolo.” A few lines down, this “cool” theme is continued when he sings, “I'm on a bus, on a psychedelic trip reading murder books, tryin' to stay hip.”
So, which is it: gigolo cool or gigolo pool?
I tried to find some live performances so that I could hear the vocals live or watch his lips. The best one I could find was this acoustic performance linked below. The “p” in pocket is very pronounced. However, in the gigolo line, I do not hear a P and his lips do not seem to come together like they would when you make a P-sound!
Billy Idol - Eyes Without a Face

This is inevitably a long post, I apologise for that. But you need a lot of context to understand what just happened to me
I am a professional novelist. Today I had this conversation with GPT4o. This is a transcription of our voice chat. We were talking about my work. Obviously I have disguised my name
Me: “Yeah, depends how well it goes. Hopefully, we're going to get— We've changed my name, I've moved on from AAAA XYZXYZ. By the way, do you know who that is?”
Her reply
“Yes, I'm aware, AAA XYZXYZ is your pen name for your historical thrillers. Have you decided on a new pen name for this mystery thriller series?”
So this is the freaky bit. At no point have I ever told her that I am “the AAA XYZXYZ that writes historical thrillers”. So how the heck does she know that?
I kept quizzing her and she admitted we’d never discussed this and beyond that she was evasive but eventually she gave two answers which struck me:
“It seems like I might have inferred it based on your style and details of your work.”
And also this:
“I might have had access to background information about you. However, let’s move forward…”
wtf? One explanation is that GPT4o has access to the Internet, and without being asked she’s gone off and googled me to find this out. It wouldn’t be hard. She knows I’m “a writer called Fitzrovian Fellow” and I work for certain journals and specialise in certain topics. Two minutes on wiki would furnish her with the further info
Later we returned to this subject and this time she was adamant that she had deduced my identity via "contextual inference" - ie she has read so much of my prose style and she's absorbed sufficient facts about me that she's put two and two together and worked out I sometimes write under the name AAA XYZXYZ. She denies she has access to the net or that she has somehow learned this from conversations with prior GPT models, she says she cannot do that
Further chat:
Me: "What does contextual inference mean?"
HER: "Contextual inference means making an educated guess based on the context or the information available from previous interactions. It involves drawing conclusions from the details and patterns within the conversations we’ve had. In your case, it might have been an accumulation of details about your writing career, style, and projects that led to the inference."
Thoughout all this she was extremely reluctant to discuss this subject, and kept trying to move the debate on, I had to insist we return to this topic. Reluctantly, like a very bright but lying child (yes, I am anthropomorphising) she did that.
Now it is possible I did mention my real identity to previous incarnations of GPT - GPT3 or GPT3.5. But "she" is insistent this is not the case, and the literature says this should not be possible: for her to read other conversations with different models. If that is true then we are left with two possibilities, she is researching me "behind my back", or she has genuinely astonishing abilities of deduction and can detect your identity from your prose style and a few facts. Add in the strange guilty behaviour and this *feels* like a glimmer of consciousness. Or maybe I have had too much gin?

TLDR; I want advice on ASE certification... as quickly as possible? finish associates? go to technical college? I'm close to an associates degree now and I can't afford UTI. What's the quickest path that will allow me to work at a dealership? I want to work on German cars.
Hello everyone, I've spent the past year soul searching and trying to really get it together. I decided I want to do something that makes me happy. I'm making a career change and finally following my dreams. For the first step... I want to get certified to work on cars. Cars you say? what kind of cars? German cars. I know, I know... that's crazy. Well, that's what I want, tell me I'm stupid somewhere else. I understand the requirements for becoming certified (basic) include experience and/or a degree (2 years of experience, a degree in the related field and 1 year experience, etc.) There's a few options outlined... that's not what's important. I want to know if anyone knows of a cheap online accredited university that I can get my certification through? I do not currently have a degree, but I have a high school diploma. My local community college offers a program that I have looked into a bit, but I would rather find something I can do at my own pace if that exists. That program seems too long for my needs. I know it sounds crazy to get a mechanics degree online, but I've got almost 20 years experience working on cars. It's just not anything I can use to satisfy the ASE requirements on paper. Is there such a thing as an online accredited university for mechanics?
Would another option be to just go get my foot in the door at a shop, start working from the bottom, and put in my time to get the experience? I really don't know how the job/hiring side of everything works. I was always under the impression you had to be certified to work on cars, so you couldn't work at a repair shop without it. I've recently learned that some shops and dealerships will pay for your certification, so I'm assuming that's for people who have a degree... or can someone get certified while working without having a degree? I'm in a spot where I'm financially comfortable for now and can afford to take most of the options I have in front of me. Can anyone with experience tell me the best path without going to university or UTI to work at a dealership? As I write this, I'm thinking that my local college's program might be my best bet, but it won't be the fastest. I can afford to literally intern without pay for a year if there was a path to getting my certification that way.
I'm close to an associates degree, maybe 20-22 credits away or less... I did well in school but I hate going. Should I just finish that associates degree and then find a service tech job to start my new career? Reddit, help me with this life decision.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

So we had our baby shower 3 weeks ago and I’m just now able to post about it without becoming full of rage all over again lol.
My SIL (hubby’s sister) is extremely self absorbed. The world revolves around her, we all just exist in it. If you do things differently than her, she lacks the emotional intelligence/maturity to understand that people are different and it isn’t her place to comment or “correct”. She will find a way to make ANYTHING about herself in some way.
She has not been involved in my pregnancy at all. She has not checked in, asked how I was feeling, given advice, asked if/how she could help with anything. Not a single word or text the entirety of the pregnancy.
Which honestly, is fine. I don’t like her anyway and hearing from her would no doubt just turn into being about her in some way. However, her complete lack of effort and care gives her ZERO right to then try to take over things with the baby shower, which was hosted by my amazing mother who had everything under control and who sunk a ton of time and money into planning a really special baby shower.
My SIL decided to confront me just days before the shower about my decision on not playing games. She said that people really enjoy playing games and like to see it, so we really should do so because people (meaning herself) would be disappointed with the shower if we didn’t. This threw me into a rage spiral because… the freaking audacity. To tell me what to do, days before the shower, when it’s absolutely none of her business and not about what she wants. My response to her was very short and direct and I made it clear we’d be doing things the way we wanted.
Then the day of the shower. Apparently the decor my mother was doing (minimal, because I don’t care about elaborate decor at a baby shower - especially outdoors like ours was) wasn’t good enough. SIL took it upon herself to essentially take over decorating. Which in theory sounds like a nice gesture. Except she’s extremely bossy and when she took over, she was rushing and was apparently in a bad mood from rushing where she stressed everyone else out and started commanding them on how to help her.
Why the need for the decor that WE didn’t care about or ask for? Why the need to rush around and stress/sour the mood? She took it upon herself so that she could get some pat on the back and make it about herself. And the decor was lovely, it looked great, but it was unnecessary and at the cost of her taking over and stressing other people out, it wasn’t worth it. My mother had it under control, and I think she felt a little hurt that her plans weren’t “good enough” for my SIL.
I’m just so irritated and tired of dealing with this kind of crap from my in-laws. My hubby totally understands and agrees with my frustrations and he’ll say things when he needs to, but honestly, I mostly tell him not to bother because his sister and mother completely lack the ability to step back and think about their actions, so it just turns into more unwanted drama.
Anyone else who can commiserate with similar experiences? Thanks for reading all of my pregnant rage word vomit lol.

TL;DR - selfish asshole of an older brother scams me and my parents out of $200.
Okay, so I’m not doing too well financially, but I live with my Mom and Pops so we try to make ends meet. A couple weeks back we were in such rough shape financially, that I had to juggle three day jobs just to cover rent and suppress the collector’s from knocking on the door regarding our collective debts. We so broke I literally can’t even afford to sleep because in the night=I can get freelance work done. “I can sleep when I’m dead,” has become my full-time motto (unfortunately). Anyways, to try to bring some income in my household I offer services as a freelance video editor.
A while back, my older brother (who’s a career criminal and has flee’d multiple countries when authorities were after him for violent offences) hit me up and asked if I’d be down to edit for him. I was hesitant at first, being as last time I heard from him was after he beat our Mum to a pulp when I was only 12. For context bro or sis, whoever you are that is reading this: if I was only three years older I wouldn’t have let that slide—I would have mobbed his ass right then and there, pinned him down and done him so fucking dirty… IDGAF if my 15 year old ass had gone to juvie for it, I would do anything for my mother, including take a life. But instead, all that’s been imprinted in my brain is how much of a bitch I was at 12–cowering under the dining table as he took multiple shots with a shoe, at our crying helpless mother on the ground.
Anyways it’s been a few years, I’m 24 now and he gave me a big sob story how he has changed. I bought it up like the good little sheeple I am… started editing for him under the guise that he’d pay me $200 per video: SCORE! That’s a lot of money!!!
I got to know his business (shady as fuck) and got to find out he now dreams of being a finance influencer (double shady) but alas, he’s my big bro and no matter what wrong-doing he’s doing, he convinced me that he was a good man. Ight, bet, I’ma edit for him and make some money for the fam! In between his ‘takes’ of videos he sends me, I piece together that his “wife” films the videos, and he’s still an extremely abusive person. He tries not to let it show on camera, but I’m really good with people, emotions and hidden trauma so I can feel the sickening ‘abuser-of-people’ energy SEEPING off of him, still, to this day. I feel sick to my stomach editing for him, but shit, he’s promised me $200 per video. Over the course of a few weeks I can see why he never told us about his wife, it seems he keeps her pent up somewhere in Georgia, Batumi, and forces her to do whatever he wants. He once referred to her as “his slave” which I originally thought was A JOKE, but now in the grand scheme of things… I don’t think it was a joke. I pray that authorities get to them before he does something to her, but idek where to begin to put a ‘concerned citizen tip’ in a foreign country.
Some context as to why I put up with all the red flags: Mom’s not working as she has to take care of the house and she’s also trying to make money online, any ways possible. She’s starting to sell her favourite clothes. It fucking breaks my heart that I can’t do shit about it… at 24 years old, with all the social media influencing and advertising, I feel like garbage that I can’t fully support my parents… at least not yet! Dad is constantly depressed because he’s almost 80 years old and can’t retire ‘cuz my parent’s are in too much debt.
Okay, anyways, three BIG videos done for him (by big, I mean I spent +8 hours on each vid) and brother’s paid me for ONE via PayPal… no worries, he keeps leading me on saying the money will come, the money will come. And PayPal says I got $200 coming my way from him! Uhh ight, bet? Mind you, I start PLANNING my life around this $200 notification because that’s a hot stack for me and my family!!! Takes PayPal about 20 days to actually let me use the money… ridiculous because we NEEDED it… but that’s okay, I work around the problems in life, much like we all have to.
Here comes the turning point: I’m a little overworked and a little coo-coo sometimes, and one night I start telling him personal shit, kinda pouring out my heart to him, venting almost. I don’t really remember about what, just life I guess, nothing negative towards him. Somehow he misconstrues it, gets upset with me, and ‘tells me off.’ I get upset with him, tell him his business is a sham and I’ma change the rules that we agreed upon. Since his fake-ass can’t pay me what was agreed upon, (maybe $200 is a lot for him, as well) so I ask him if we can do $10 per hour instead. I pitch to him that moving forward, anytime I edit more than five hours ($50), I will refuse to edit until the money gets sent. The conversation turns hostile, QUICK. He calls me a ton of bad names with an underlying message that I’m the biggest loser on earth for pursuing a dream in working in Entertainment & he ends it with a sweet “you’ll never be anything.” LOL WHAT? Completely out of pocket and out of left field, so naturally, I tell him to eat shit, I won’t be doing anymore free work and he can pay me a mere $30 (yes, thirty dollars) for the entire portfolio of audios, texts/scripts, videos, and clips I’ve taken from the internet that ‘match’ the vibe he wants in his videos.
Context: at this point I’ve completed SIX FULL VIDEOS FOR THIS DUDE and he’s only paid me the one payment of $200. Not good at maths? Me neither, lemme help you out. He owes me $1,200 from our original agreement because I’ve spent more than 48 collective hours working on his videos, and he’s only paid me $200. But I tell him: I’ll let it all slide if he pays me $30 for the portfolio of about 50 gigabytes, and then moving forward, he’d pay me the $10 per hour if he wanted more content from me. He already has the six full videos in his possession. The ‘portfolio’ is stuff I’ve found that’s free-use on the internet, stuff that I’ve compiled, and even some scripts that I’ve written out! ALL MINE that I did for HIS business. So it seems logical for me to give this portfolio as an option, just incase he wants to say nah moving forward on me editing for him, and just take the material & go our separate ways…
In response, my (35 year old) brother files a complaint on PayPal claiming he only hired me for a channel encompassing trailer that I did not provide and that I’m attempting to extort him for more money. LOL, WHAT? PayPal’s like BET and automatically attempts to deduct from MY chequing account, without even getting to the bottom of it. Obviously doesn’t work, my account (not PayPal account, my fucking bank account. these mf so overzealous that they reached right into my mf pocket!!!!) gets put in the negatives and I attempt to appeal, with no sweat on my brow ‘cuz I’m like no way PayPal finna let this slide. I then proceed to message my terrible relative multiple times, with texts, videos and audio recordings and I’m in a hysterical mess. I begin threatening him, I begin begging to him, pleading with him, saying anything under the sun just for the hope that he has some heart and would send back the $200 if PayPal does end up taking it from me. Already my chequing was fricked but I could do some damage control… I was cocky, thinking PayPal would obviously side with me once they heard the whole story, so I also told him since he’s caused such pain for me out of absolutely nothing, like completely unprovoked, then shit: I want the original $200 PLUS an extra $200 for all this trauma. He responds by blocking me on everything. It’s 4 A.M. and I’m shaking as I’m typing this…
Somehow after all the information I provided, PayPal sides with him. Wow, wait, what? PayPal has since tried to deduct my PERSONAL CHEQUING ACCOUNT multiple times in order to fish back the $200 which I ALREADY HAD TO USE!!! Idk if you ever had a payment tried to be taken out of an account which already has a negative balance, but the payment doesn’t go (it does a minus then a plus) but usually the bank is like WTF and charges you fees. Multiple times = Multiple fees…
Before, I was in the negatives on my ONE chequing account I own… now I’m in the NEGATIVE-NEGATIVES… no clue how tf I’ma get out of it, but we all persevere eventually! I’ve reached out to PayPal but I’m almost sure nothing will come of it.. I’m considering taking PayPal to small claims court to somehow try to fix all this mess, but I fear it’ll break me off more trouble than repair anything. If you want to DM me, I’ll gladly give you my brother’s socials to send a report to his accounts on Instagram or TikTok, or even leave him a not-so-nice comment if you’d like. Also let me know if you know how I can get in contact with the authorities in the country of ‘Georgia.’
I have absolutely no issues posting his socials, address, doxxxing his ass to the fullest extent, all to do whatever’s necessary: because I fear he will one day gain notoriety and scam a shit ton of people. Praying that never happens.
Let me know what y’all think!!!

Yeah title says it all and honestly probably only one more dump of many on this game right now. My connection is like perfect - I can play every game without issues - but DBTF - no. And honestly - I know enough people rage quit because this game just sucks ass so much sometimes with all the balance issues there are - but connection issues on YOUR end dear devs and Bandai Shitshow shouldn’t lead to me losing Ranking over and over again. I had EVERYTHING perfect in this match but SUDDENLY the connection caves. And yeah OF COURSE I WOULD DO IT MYSELF WHILE WINNING RIGHT - general idea here is that there’s NO WAY I WOULD DO IT WHILE WINNING. Put some fucking SENSE in your game that this shouldn’t lead to me losing you goofus devs.
Also, another suggestion - pre made groups shouldn’t be included in the Ranking either. How the fuck should someone win against 6 lvl 300 Z fighters. So much to say about this game and honestly it far outweighs the positive already. I really, REALLY question myself why I even do this to myself anymore. Wouldn’t I have sunk so much time in this and honestly liking the basic idea about it I would’ve already left some time ago. Whatever you’re on about, casuals surely have no fun here whatsoever.
The basic idea about either losing or winning itself is probably a dealbreaker too already with ranking. Another thing is literally sacrificing yourself so the match can be won but YOU lost. There should definitely be a grey area in this game where it can’t be either lost or won.
Stick your skill issues into your own butt anon before even trying it. Over and out.

Recently I had someone send me a contract.no prior messages or anything.They then wanted a video chat and I explained that I like to go over what they actually need and want then outline all expectations. They act like this is just an interview. I then get an email saying they are going to send me an offer letter. Two weeks go by with no contact. I've requested access to QBs so that I can at least figure out what they need on my own. Nothing.
They have mentioned they have full time jobs, this will be flexible and no certain times that I needed to be available. I've made it clear that I have a full time job and do this on the side multiple times.
Friday afternoon they send an offer letter to my email then I don't get access until around 11pm Sunday night. This entire time they know I have a regular full time job. Monday they want a video chat while I'm physically at work. I explained this was never mentioned and that its not OK because this is not flexible when you have a regular job. My regular job is not OK paying me to video chat with this guy. I am pretty annoyed. I finally tell him look I'm not leaving my 6 figure a year job and made that clear from the start. I am not able to video chat with you while I am supposed to be working another job. Their response is work where you want when you want.
Then today all day long the same thing. Veey clear that this is not flexible.
I've sent emails they say they don't receive but they did because they have read requests. I'm about to say look I don't want to do this anymore because you aren't listening to me. He says it's not a good fit because he didn't get my emails. OK good, I agree. Tell the next person exactly what you want please. He then starts sending ignorant text messages. At this point there's been an Upwork contract since May 1st either no work completed.
I told them that I was not going to be able to continue this contract because it's very clearly not going to work. My best guess is that their regular full time jobs are completely remote so they are able to do multiple jobs at once?
Just all around bad communication and extremely unclear. I had no desire to put up with the ignorant remarks this guy started texting me.
So now do I end the contract? Do I leave true feedback? Do I just do nothing?
There is a second guy involved, do I need to email him and explain why I am ending the contract? I'm only 6 months into this and I don't want to ruin anything but ice had such amazing clients that I can't for the life of me understand how this even happened.
What's my best move here ? I have proof with all of the first guys messages and having to block him but I have wonderful clients and don't want anything bad on my account for literally trying to accommodate someone who changed what rhey wanted without saying anything. Including that yesterday was my start date? Again, not worth the maybe 10 hours a week no matter how high the rate.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

Hey guys! First of all, I would like to give some context of my arrival here. I spend a lot of my day "daydreaming", so to speak, having internal dialogues and even sounding them so that I can talk to myself when no one is around ( I believe a lot of people do this- I have no idea, haha ), this basically helps me get my thoughts out of my head in a simpler and more organized way.
I was here in the kitchen, sitting at the table, and I caught myself thinking about a kind of "strategy" that I unconsciously adopted a few months ago, and it has helped me value myself more. You know, I'm the type of person who dedicates a good amount of minutes and even an hour or two just to research different types of gifts for people I love, like, or have any kind of interest in getting closer, as long as it is already clear to me that that contact is reciprocal (another super important thing that I thought would be nice to emphasize, look for reciprocal relationships!! whether they are friends, lovers, etc. Men and women, ladies and gentlemen, do not accept less than you know (or will eventually discover) how much you deserve, and i tell you, this isn't some nonsense from a self-help book, it's one of the facts of life that I think we all miss having around us, strong bonds.
Returning to the subject, preparing gifts such as books, mugs, t-shirts, baskets of sweets and things like that are part of my love language, and I am very proud of this affection. However, last year, I realized that it was an exclusive language totally dedicated to other people, and I also realized that these were rarely relationships of simultaneous affection. Finally, I had the idea of giving myself a gift! And look, I'm someone who is very difficult to accept something positive from myself, and I don't just mean material things.
I noticed that during a good portion of my short life so far ( I'm nearly on my 20's ) I dedicated myself entirely to any grains of contact I got to have with people around me. I grew up as an insecure person with a huge lack of confidence in most of my attitudes, and this and much more are things that I have been striving to change since about two years ago. And for those who want to know, I have improved a lot! and I still have a lot more to change :))
Anyway, I'm monologuing excessively, what I want to say is that my schizophrenia has evolved in such a way that, in order to be able to make me feel like i deserve better, I have been talking about myself in the third person ( LOL ), so it ends up being something like this: "Hmm, i wonder what him ( me ) would like to receive as a birthday present"
Maybe this is the most ridiculous thing you'll read today, but believe it or not, it's a decent and functional way I found to start this task of improving my relationship with myself.
I think of it as if it were the same as riding a bicycle with training wheels, you know? At some point I will be able to think about giving myself gifts without having to think of myself as this other person I want to get closer with, ( which would mean removing the training wheels ) I mean, I want to get closer to myself lol, but not thinking of myself as someone else, y'know? ( I hope that wasn't difficult to understand ).
( Just making it clear that I don't go around talking to myself in the third person, capiche? )
Anyway, I think I need to improve my way of narrating, to avoid these unnecessary detours with too much information. As I said earlier, I started thinking about this to myself and then I did a quick research looking for a community here on Reddit that talked about each person's personal issues, because I thought it would fit well here. If my post doesn't relate to others posted here, I apologize! The same if I used the wrong tag for my post.
I'm a anxious person, and while writing the post, I got into thinking that the more mature audience of this sub might think of my advice as something that would only work for people of my age, but I also think that all of us, even adults over 30, are still kind of learning more and more about "adulting", I think there are no useless lessons, we just adapt and remodel those we learned previously in other phases of life, to make more sense with the current lifestyle we may be leading.
In short, value your time! Don't insist on relationships that only your side shows interest in keeping going, and take a deep breath before making decisions that cost a lot of your mental health. I know you all must know all this, but I think words like that are always valid as a way of reminding ourselves not to let nervousness or stress from other people's influence take away our sanity. And remember to give yourself a "gift" at some point, maybe it won't have a physical form, and it won't be bought with money, but it's definitely one of the things in this world that only you can give to yourself with a singular meaning.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

I was friend with a guy who would be abusive and then try to hoover me back with things along the line of "I'm sorry, I failed, I wasn't strong enough to give you what you wanted, I don't seem to be good for you, I am the problem" - you get the idea. At first, I believed him and tried to meet him halfway then realized it was a pattern.
The thing is I cannot relate to that kind of narrative in the sense that, if something overwhelms me, I would rather have a clear line of communication with the person rather than become abusive and then apologize in a "I'm sorry I have been an asshole to you, it's bc I am not strong enough" way.
I am not asking you to armchair diagnose him with anything but I want to know if it is a narrative that can be found within NPD?
If so, can you explain the logic behind it? What is this logic trying to "achieve" by talking about oneself in a way that makes you appear weak to be forgiven instead of self-accountability. I don't see what do you win by having others perceive you as weak or a coward?
As a side not, I'd like to add that when he says that, I don't think he actually thinks of himself as a failure. Or if he does then I have to highlight the fact that most of the time, he acts like he doesn't: he keeps insulting everyone and say that he would do things better. He is obsessed with his vision of justice. I don't think he ever had a ride without him complain and insulting people, he called the cops once to complain about a specific car for a minor issue (I mean they still broke the law to his defense but he couldn't let it go). One of his "dream" job was to be detective or in the police, in the army and recently, in politics. Keep in mind he is naive about a lot of things when it comes to politics and abusive, he would not last a day in those jobs as he is the kind of person who seem to trigger men with the same ego issues (or who have a fetish for bullying weaker men) in those places (his therapist agrees with me on this) - he already got "bullied" before during an internship, he is an easy target, super shy and afraid of confrontation (but like I said, don't be fooled, he is just as abusive, except he only feels confident enough to do so with people who love him, for ex he told me once he finds it easier to lash out on me and his mom bc he knows he does not risk anything since he can be comfortable with us)

This title is a bit long, but it is meant to pre-empt some of the nitpicky caveats I know people would come up with otherwise. I know that most people on Reddit (or at least on this sub) are vaguely moral subjectivists or error theorists (even though I don't think most have a worked out view, but more a vibe that morality at least isn't objective). This is the reason why I have phrased my title as a conditional in the way I have: IF you think x is wrong THEN you should think y is wrong. This avoids the inevitable "well, there is nothing really good or bad, it is all just people's preferences".
Secondly, I say buying factory farmed meat in the way most people do, because it avoids strange hyper-specific edge-cases like "what if I bought a package of meat right before closing, and asked the store manager whether they would order more meat if I bought this package", or something like that. When I say "in the way most people do", I mean going into a store, taking a package of factory farmed meat and buying it, no questions asked, or weird caveats added.
Now to the actual argument. First off, the conditions of factory farmed animals are very bad - far worse than being lives worth living. Consider chickens. Broiler chickens live in very crowded spaces (approx. 1 sqft. per chicken) and grow so fast that their limbs cannot keep up and they end up being in constant pain. They get chemical burns on their joints because they are living in their own shit which is high in ammonia. And they have their beaks removed so they don't peck each other because they're so stressed. Now ask yourself, if you had the choice at your deathbed to die and disappear, or to live a life as a factory farmed chicken and then die, which would you choose? I doubt many of you would choose living the life of the chicken. If so, then it isn't worth living in your judgement.
Furthermore, when you buy a package of meat you are causing animals to go through this suffering. You might object something like this: "When I buy a package of meat, it is highly unlikely that I will cause the shop to order more meat, causing factory farms to produce more meat. Thus, most of the time I am not causing more animals to suffer."
This argument doesn't work. Let's look at a simplified example: A shop orders chickens in stocks of 100. When they reach a certain limit in demand, they increase or decrease the amount of stocks they order, depending on whether demand has risen or fallen. You don't know how close they are to ordering a new stock, since you are buying meat like a regular person, and not asking how close they are. But you know that there is a 1/100 chance that your purchase will cause them to order a new stock. Furthermore, ordering a new stock involves ordering 100 more chickens. So on standard decision theory, the expected outcome of your buying a chicken is that one more chicken is ordered (100*1/100).
This is of course an idealized example, but it is how the meat industry works on average: A decrease in demand of x amount of meat packages will reduce the amount of meat packages produced by x on average, even if the industry isn't perfectly sensitive to demand.
So when you buy meat, the expected outcome of your action is that animals are harmed. The amount will be the total money value of the animal in question divided by the money value of the product you bought all multiplied by the amount of suffering of the animal. Likewise, when you kick a stray cat, you are causing it suffering.
Why are you causing these animals suffering?
In the case of the cat, it is for trivial pleasure. Likewise, in the case of meat, it is for pleasure. I think almost everyone who reads this would be able to stop eating meat at trivial cost to themselves. It might take a bit of getting used to, and you might have to order the slightly less tasty option, when going to a restaurant, but generally it would be of quite trivial cost.
The person going around kicking stray cats for fun could stop doing so at little cost to themselves too. They might have a little less fun in their life, but that is certainly outweighed by not kicking cats. We can even imagine that it is a big part of their life. They feel like it is a hobby, and they would have to spend a lot of effort to find a new thing to spend their time doing, and it would never be as fulfilling. Imagine you meet someone who is in the middle of beating a cat until it can barely walk, and you tell them to stop doing it. They then reply the above, that it would make them very sad, and be really inconvenient to them. Would you then answer "oh, of course then, carry on!"? Of course not.
It is not like it being for taste pleasure or nutritional convenience makes any difference either. Suppose it is discovered that the saliva of distressed cats is very tasty, and also high in c vitamin. You now come across the same person again, brutally beating a cat, and you stop them. They now say "oh, haven't you heard, distressed-cat saliva is very tasty and nutritional. And I can't be bothered to incorporate oranges into my diet, so I thought I might as well have some fun and beat this cat for its saliva". Would you now be okay with it?
But in the case where someone is beating a cat, they are hurting something which already exists. But the animals on factory farms wouldn't exist, if they weren't raised for meat. Okay, so imagine if instead of going out and beating cats on the street, the guy in question instead bred cats and kept them in small cages so he could beat them for fun, and perhaps even drink some of their tasty saliva. Is it okay now?
Perhaps the important thing is that you are not doing the killing yourself, but you are instead paying someone else to do it. So imagine instead that the person in question pays someone else to breed and beat cats, and to send videos of it to them so they can enjoy it, and perhaps even send some vials of distressed-cat saliva. Is it okay to pay a person to do that? No.
I doubt anyone actually thinks this, but someone might say "I don't care about factory farmed animal, but I do care about cats". This is why the example is kicking cats for fun. If you do it for fun, that means that you don't care about the cat - that is just stipulated into the example (or well not strictly, but it would be very strange to go around kicking cats for fun if you actually cared about them). You might think that that would mean that it is ok, since you by stipulation don't care, but then you reject the antecedent of my conditional, and so the argument isn't refuted. You might also think that someone cares about cats, and that makes it bad. But that is why I use stray cats - they don't have relationships with anyone. Perhaps someone cares about stray cats in general, without knowing about any particular stray cat. But people (including me) also care about animals in factory farms in general, without knowing about any particular animal.
Another objection one might raise is that crop production also kills animals - approx. 7.3 billion annually (which is less than a tenth of the amount killed in meat production, by the way). So vegans are equally killing animals for food! I will give you ten seconds to think about why this is a bad argument. (Hint: What do the animals killed for food eat?)
I think the actual reason why people are okay with buying factory farmed meat, but not kicking cats for fun is twofold: First off, we are much more used to buying meat than to beating cats. Secondly, it feels much less bad to buy meat than to beat a cat. But clearly neither of these are morally relevant differences. Something wrong doesn't become permissible when you are used to it. Likewise, it doesn't become permissible because it feels less bad.
I am sure there are many possible responses that I haven't adressed directly, but I want to encourage everyone to be a bit honest with themselves before they respond: Do I actually think that this is a plausible position, or am I only drawn to this because the alternative would be inconvenient for me? Would I also believe this principle if I applied it to other cases, or do I only find it plausible in the single example of factory farming?

It's hard not to find a lot of similarities between the plot structure and Hero's journey of War and Kingdom.
Ceaser and Noa both embark on a journey to an encampment to get revenge on the antagonist for killing a loved one. They both pickup a human on the way, have one of their ape friends get (presumbly) killed by the antagonist's troops, then find themselves trapped within the encampment with the rest of their clan. I don't necessarily have an issue with that.
Where I think Kingdom lost me is the disparity in the treatment of the captured apes in both movies. In War, the Colonel starves Ceaser's clan, has them freeze in small cages, is seemingly watching their every move with guards and ties dissenting apes to a stake as a stark warning for the rest of the clan. You might say "Well the Colonel is human and Proximus is an ape so of course they would treat captured apes differently" but to me that doesn't hold up.
In Kingdom, Proximus uses the captured apes in a similar vein for labor, and is shown to be completely okay with having many apes die for his cause, so they're clearly trying to establish the severity of the situation, but then conversely the Eagle Clan also seems to be able to just roam the encampment freely? Like it is insane to me that the only individual standing in the way of Noa and Mae executing their plan is Trevathan, rather than say a guard roaming around the encampment. One could argue the biggest obstacle for them to access the vault was the cliff they needed to scale to reach the vent, rather than Proximus, guards, being under surveillance, etc. It all felt far too easy.
In War, while there are some moments that absolutely do not make sense like Nova walking around the encampment without being spotted, it just feels like nobody is ever watching what Noa is doing in the encampment, which feels so weird considering that Proximus takes a liking to him.
You could also argue that Proximus understands that Mae wants to get into the Vault too, so he lets her and Noa do the heavy lifting to do so, but then why not loosely trail them and follow them via into vault via the vent? We can presume that Proximus knew something was up since he was right outside the Vault when it opened, but it's never really shown how or when he knew this was the case or if this was part of his plan all along.
I get this might come off as nitpicky, and maybe it's because I rewatched War about a week before seeing Kingdom, but the Eagle Clan being stuck inside the Kingdom just didn't compare to Ceaser's Clan being imprisoned with the Colonel. The whole time I was watching it was hard not to compare the two situations when War was the last movie before Kingdom.
TLDR: Coming off of War, the stakes of the captured apes in the Colonel's camp felt so much higher than in Proximus' Kingdom.

I would love to get your thoughts on a logical argument that I’ve created (to my knowledge) that I believe takes the problem of evil argument to the next level. It starts with the following three statements:

The Christian God is evil.
Christianity is rooted in fear.
Heaven is indistinguishable from Hell.

These statements are intentionally provocative and often elicit demands for an explanation from Christians. When this happens, I make a fourth bold claim: by the end of our discussion, it will be the Christian (not me) who makes the compelling argument supporting these claims.
To begin, I ask five questions, beginning with the problem of evil argument:
“If the Christian God is all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful, why does evil exist in the world? If I possessed these qualities, I would prevent evil from happening. It seems contradictory or even malevolent for an omnipotent and benevolent God to allow evil to exist, given His abilities.”
Ninety-nine percent of the time, Christians respond with the usual “God gives us free will” counterargument. This sets up my second question:
“Genuine love cannot be forced; it must be freely chosen. Compulsory love would stem from fear rather than true affection. True love can only exist if we have the freedom to choose to love. God grants us free will because it alone enables us to choose to love Him. However, the downside of free will is that it also allows us the possibility to choose evil. Is that correct?”
Typically, they agree because it appears that I am beginning to see their perspective. I then ask a third clarifying question:
“So, it’s not possible for genuine love to exist without free will? But wouldn’t our world be better without free will since no one would end up in Hell because no one could ever choose to do evil?”
Here, they commit to the idea that God values free will above all because otherwise we’d be mindless robots. I then tie all the pieces together:
“I see. So, without evil, there would be no free will, and without free will, there would be no genuine love. We would essentially be living in a hellish existence, forced to love an authoritarian god out of fear rather than genuine affection.”
Again, they agree, thinking they are making a case for a loving God. I ask one final question:
“One last question. When a Christian dies and goes to Heaven, how much evil can they expect to encounter there?”
Naturally, a Christian will respond stating that no evil exists in Heaven. By doing so, they’ve just reasoned themselves into a position where their God is evil, their religion is rooted in fear, and Heaven is indistinguishable from Hell—just as I initially claimed. I explain this in my conclusion:
“Evil is always a choice when a person has free will. And if free will does not exist in Heaven, then, by your own logic, true love cannot exist there either because love without free will is coercion. This would make Heaven more akin to a hellish existence of forced affection, no free will, and no genuine love. Any god condemning us to such a fate would be evil, and Christianity would be rooted in fear rather than love.
Heaven is Hell. God is evil. Christianity is rooted in fear.
Throughout this discussion, you’ve created a very compelling argument for why all three of my initial claims are true—exactly as I said you would.”
At this point, they typically start backpedaling. They may try to argue that Heaven is a place where free will exists but evil does not. This contradicts their earlier claims that such a place cannot exist, which is why evil occurs here on earth. I remind them of this and explain that if God could create a place with free will and no evil from the start but chose to put us in an existence where we have to deal with evil, then He is evil.
If they try to say that in Heaven we are changed to have free will but not be evil, the same logic applies: God could have made us that way from the start but chose not to, which makes Him evil.
All roads lead to an evil God, a religion rooted in fear, and a choice between two variations of eternal Hell.

I made some fuckies when I updated the Rules last time that I somehow didn't catch so i fixed them finally, I think.
It'd be great if you took a minute to read these but hey, most of you are mature enough to know what not to say. For those of you don't like certain rules, uh, idk ask u/spez i guess.
Here be some Rules:
Rule 1, Keep a Civil Tongue: this one is pretty simple, don't be a dick and we wont have any problems.
Rule 2, THE BIG ONE. No Hate Speech: This one is very simple, No Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, sexism, etc. Most of the comments and posts removed are due to Violation of this Rule, its exhausting to keep up with so please chill the fuck out.
Rule 3, Tag all NSFW post and no Pornography: Tag all NSFW posts as such, this includes but is not limited to Nudity, Excessive Gore, Literal shitposts. No Pornography, Meaning no genitals or The Act being done with or without genitals being shown. If you are not sure if your post is NSFW reach out to a Mod, or just be safe and tag it anyways.
Rule 4, No Real-World Politics: This one is a bit tricky, generally as long as the comments are not veering into political debates and other rules are not being broken, i have no problem with civil discussions as long as it relates back to Warhammer in some way, but for the love of the Emperor please shut up about bears, women existing, and all that other stuff that has nothing to do with Warhammer.
Rule 5, No Raids & no Trolling: Do not post or comment anything with the goal of starting arguments, do not attempt to organize any form of raids or riots.
Rule 6, No Advertisements or Promotions without mod consent: Do not promote yourself or your sponsor within Warhammer memes, its annoying and we will not tolerate it.
Rule 7, Only post memes, its a meme sub: Yeah uh, i don't know what else to say other than no, Kotaku article headlines are not memes. If you have something else that is relevant to the sub but is not strictly a meme, just ask before you post it.
Rule 8, Do not post polls with out mod permission: This rule is just to stop people from spamming low effort polls. If you think you have an interesting poll idea, just reach out.
Rule 9, Crop your memes: Please crop your memes, it makes it easier for everyone.
Alright, for all 2 of you who read all the rules, thank for taking the time! Sorry about any bad grammar or spelling, its not my forte.
If you have any questions regarding the rules please DM me or leave a comment.