"the left" is not a monolith. A lot of people have various relationships with"the left". I don't identify with "the left" much because I disagree, strongly, with being put in a groupthink box. I happen to have some beliefs that the groupthink box on the left has vhemently and painfully attacked me for. But I also REALL REALLY REALLY think the right is wildly wrong, because they're being simplistic, stupid, and very very corrupt. And I STRONGLY object to corruption. I happen to genuinely and unironically love my country and the promise of a fair chance for all. I love clean water. Clean air. A healthy wilderness ecosystem you can spend time in. Hard work that does good for the world. I love the freedom to research, honestly, and speak freely and without fear.

I don't see the right sharing some key parts of those values these days. But I'm concerned the left has become too inactive, too sullen, too much a party of victims who lash out reactively.

Don't have a solution yet except to vote.

I don't feel like I'm constantly sorting through low quality bot shit to find a human with authentic human expertise.

I do miss the long chains of wordplay, the sense of humor and fun. But Reddit gave that up for ragebait ages ago.

I live in the middle of fucking nowhere and I am SO EXCITED for this.

Great! You hate old people, awesome, that's absolutely how you ensure old people shrug when the lasers fry off your legs.

It's ok to try and find a way to communicate WITHOUT HATE.

It's a LOT easier to make bots fake being human than it is to detect bots faking being human.

Welcome! It's WAY quieter over here because it's mostly people, not bots.

I would tell folks on Reddit to come to the fediverse but I deleted all my reddit accounts.

Do you hate your bank? Go find a bank you like.

I am a pragmatist. My decisions on issues are entirely based on context. Right now I believe we need government services for necessary things to increase because the free market isn't providing them due to misaligned incentives, and if we don't want to live in a complete shithole world that needs to change. Absolutely nothing is preventing us from living in a complete shithole. There's no higher power out to save us. So we better step up and organize to save ourselves.

Perfection isn't always feasible for everyone. Sometimes harm mitigation is the right step.

The problem with age gaps isn't age; it's experience and power. Three years is still a big percentage of your life right now. In ten years time, three years will not be as significant a part of your life.

Think about how different you expect to be as a person in three years. Can you even realistically imagine who you will be?

As far as relationships - they work out when the people in them have common goals, and they fail- no matter how much love is in there- when the people involved are going in different directions in life. Part of your problem at your age is that the direction of your like is likely to change drastically over the coming years in ways you cannot anticipate.

Reddit is nearly 100% AI bots these days on the popular subs. You're good to get away. The interface over here is shite and takes forever to figure out, but the people are nice.