Even if you failed to believe the government telling you so.
People chose to smoke not because they don’t understand the risk, they find the reward outweighs the risk. Why they think that varies, some like the stimulation, the ritual, the escape, same as the use of any drug (or other “vice” like overeating, sex, gambling). It’s what makes confronting these things difficult, not everyone has the same reason for indulging.
Personally, I’m well aware of the risks of smoking, and that the likelihood I might have a reduced lifespan due to that choice is higher than that of a non-smoker. But it is my life to live, same as it is everyone else’s own lives to live. The information is out there, most of us have seen or know someone who’s experienced the consequences of smoking, alcoholism, drug abuse, reckless sex, gambling, food addiction. If they want help to stop and change, be there for them. If they don’t, no amount of coercion, force, or external consequence is going to make someone who doesn’t want to change do it. No amount of vice legislation has ever thwarted vice, it just turns regulating it into a revenue stream for the state because they’re in the business of law enforcement, not crime prevention.
Mantrap: “Fool, no man can escape me!”
Eowyn: pulls off her helmet
An even greater amount of cropland is being used for animal feed, something ethanol crops double dip in because they use byproduct from that process in feed. Eliminating ethanol and the luxury of cheap meat would go a long way in reclaiming our crop lands.
That’s why I referenced plants, not animals. Also, don’t fool yourself. The bulk of your meat is not grazing in a field even if the packaging label makes it look that way. It’s knee deep in shit-mud and shoulder to shoulder with it’s kin in a CAFO or tearing up the native vegetation on the public lands out west.
Defendant: “Your honor, ChatGPT agreed I was totally good to drive. If you indict me, you’re indicting Silicon Valley.”
Judge: “Well… Yeah, nevermind. Dismissed.”
Families of the middle school marching band that died in an inescapable inferno: “😐”
There’s still zombies, but now you can fight them with the cast of the Walking Dead! Also, if you left 30yrs ago you’d be sorely disappointed to see how shit the art has gotten. So much AI or “AI enhanced” slop.
Getting heavily tattooed, not having kids, not getting married/“settling down”. I grew up in an extremely conservative Christian home that pushed the standard “American Dream” plan but never embraced it. I’m aware there’s experiences that I’ll never have that are a source of joy and life defining for others, but I knew very early on those things weren’t calling me. Decades later I have zero regrets about what I didn’t do and what I did do.
Who’ll claim it first? Death metal? Black metal? Punk? Lotta commentary to be made about one picture. Bad Religion could get a two-for-one out of it.
Donnie threatening the Pope, Bennie threatening Spain; Polymarket taking bets on if we get a sequel to the Thirty Years War or 2 Spanish, 2 Inquisition first?
Sing, drink, fight, and fuck (without discrimination). Bards are the punks of the fantasy world.
Right? It’s clearly stated in the lore about what they bring to the party.
It’s true. For the first 18yrs of my life I never encountered another kid, just whacked it and played Sabbath records backwards to summon the devil. As soon as I turned 18 I was ready to join the greater community of godless dopesmokers, D&D players, and pornography connoisseurs.