The PRC has the political weight to make others pick a side, at least openly.

The DPRK, on the other hand, absolutely does not.

It depends some on where you are.

Where I live, driving is absolutely a basic skill. It’s just not realistic to get anywhere via any other means in a reasonable timespan. So you either have to drive or be driven basically anywhere. The scale involved isn’t kind to biking, and public transportation is nonexistent. It would take hours to get a taxi that would be egregiously expensive, uber isn’t even an option last I heard.

And this is from the perspective of someone that hates driving- it stresses me out because of the exact reasons you’ve mentioned. I’m in charge of a ton or more of plastic and steel sometimes moving at 70mph, and ignoring the physics based implications, these things are fucking expensive.

I’ve heard of them having newbie games scheduled on certain days. I don’t know how welcoming general games would be to a complete beginner, though.

I just limit how much news I get- basically just what pops up in my lemmy feed and a news show I watch a few times a week.

Being exposed to awful headlines 24/7 is almost definitely going to be rough on your mental health.

I don’t think you’re required to do it, personally, but I agree that it would be rude to not even hear someone out. Especially with someone you know even as an acquaintance. It could be anything from, “can you hold this for a second” to “do you mind splitting this $8000 timeshare with me?”

If it’s just a completely random person on the street, and their first word is “can you do me a favor” that’s different. I think it’s still rude, I just also think that when you engage with entirely random people being rude is acceptable sometimes. Especially if there’s an actual reason for you to feel unsafe- if you’re alone/it’s a shady area type thing.

This probably depends on the area, though. I’m from the southeastern US and from my understanding people engage with each other waaay more in public here than they do in- as a random example- New York.

TIL. Kinda cursed. Then again, lots of stuff about language is weird asf.

No. That doesn’t make you a bad person. Frankly, I think it’s awful that she’s asking you to, but I imagine she’s going through some things herself at the moment.

I think you have the right take here already- your relationship with your dad wasn’t the one impacted.

…can I get that granola recipe? That sounds fantastic.

The only one that confuses me is “they”, but it’s still refering to just one person. Luckily I don’t know anyone like that, because that one I’m sure I’d constantly accidently fuck up.

I ran into a person a long time ago on Lemmy that asked that people use ‘it/its’ as pronouns. Even for second person- so not they/them/you/yours, it/its. Absolutely broke my brain.

It’s not about being open and honest. It’s about that not being relevant. Your opinion on how someone looks isn’t relevant, helpful, or necessary unless it’s directly asked for.

There’s nothing awkward, nervous, or repressed about not going out of your way to open your mouth and make someone feel bad about themselves. You can simply not fucking say something that crosses your mind.

“Brutally honest” people are incredibly annoying. They think they’ve discovered a social cheat code so they can get away with being an absolute ass because they’re just an Honest Person™.

Lots of sexual assault allegations. I wasn’t a fan even before all of that came out so I didn’t follow it too closely.