underlipton

On money. How about stocks?

It's entirely possible to construct a straw man of things you have personal experience with.

Irony of ironies, McConnell's seat is up for grabs Tuesday, with a bright young go-getter on the Democratic ticket, and a wishy-washy, Trump-brown-nosing nepobaby on the Republican side, in a state that stunned everyone by electing a Democratic governor last go-round. One might say that the Democrat is about to get stomped for obvious and unmentionable reasons (it's Kentucky, he's black), but it's actually because the DSCC is still bitter that he almost beat their preferred candidate in the 2020 primary; they've contributed a fraction to his general election campaign of what they spent defeating him so that Temu Mitch could lose to the Real McConnell.

Everyone is complaining that the current Democratic candidate has had basically no ad presence. The Republican would be in the same boat, as they both received about the same amount in individual donations, but the latter actually got national and PAC support to run ads.

We do this to ourselves.

I would read the comments on that article. The conclusion you've come to seems murky at best.

You are correct. And it's not that they chose for the Matrix to exist in the first place - humanity fought a brutal war against machine rule and lost utterly, and signed away their bodies under duress ("Hand over your flesh, and a new world awaits you. We demand it." -Animatrix) - but, at least according to The Architect, everyone within is presented with a chance to leave, one way or another. Most choose to stay.

It's worth remembering that the Matrix is an allegory for systems of labeling and control (notably, gender), which make life (and specifically life with others) easier, though not necessarily better. The Matrix sustains the large human and machine populations amidst Earth's ecological collapse; people who choose Zion choose a harder life where they are free to be themselves. However, when Zion grows large enough to threaten the system, the system comes after its residents and wipes them out.

One person's freedom is tolerable, even necessary for the system to continue; everyone's freedom leads to everyone's doom. The movies have some weird-but-rational implications.

...Sorry, I lost track of my point, which is that we're already in The Matrix. The Matrix is society.

>Try to find insightful reflection of humanity and truth in a Marvel movie...

I can name several, as well as something profound to be discovered in the execution of the MCU as a whole, but perhaps more salient is why so many people feel the need to tear down the straw man version of Marvel that they have in their minds.

...Oh, fine, I'll give you one:

  "What is grief, if not love persevering?"

66 vs 52 is a pretty huge difference.

At some point, we need to face the functional corruption of many of our basic institutions. Defund/Abolish the Police tried to force that reckoning, but no one wanted to hear it. This, in the same country that dismantled many of its own public school systems when racial integration was ordered, proving that such sweeping changes are possible when there is the will and funding behind it.

An outside observer could credibly conclude that Americans actually favor corruption in many instances. Certain instances.

I'm putting my money on either Scott Pilgrim or The Big Short.

This is the economy that's inevitable when investment is driven by Boomer retirement finds and not working consumers. Desperate workers with no leverage just have to accept the crap decisions leadership makes about what to make and what to use. At some point, you have to decide if you want sanity or "stable returns" (rent-seeking on the young, regardless of the hare-brained decisions up top).

Write a book. The only thing they hate more than accountability is a tarnished legacy. Disbarment is temporary, the public dancing on their grave lasts as long as the scandal and plot location are known.

>No "Neutral, neither oppose nor favor" option

It's a bad poll and you shouldn't base anything on it.

See also: settlement in lieu of judgment in civil cases. There is an entire industry (debt collection) built around using the courts as a cudgel to coerce people into settlements for debts that they might not have a legal obligation to pay (because of the debt collectors' poor record-keeping, running afoul of procedural issues or consumer protection laws, etc.). Particularly for smaller amounts, attorneys will not represent consumers for defense, and (no matter what anyone tells you) judges defer to fellow lawyers if the issue goes to trial and a defendant is self-represented. Perversely, it's sometimes in a person's best interests to rack up larger debts, so that their case is worthwhile for an attorney to pick up, at which point they will likely try to negotiate a settlement rather than go to trial.