You’re traumatized and overthinking it. They are not that smart. A good thing is happening. Enjoy it.

You’ve clearly never tried to use Wikipedia to help with your math homework

What evidence do you have that it is unnatural? How can you tell the difference between brigading and simply lots of vegans showing up by chance? If we assume 2 out of 5 Lemmy users are vegans or think we should eat less meat to save the planet, and almost all lemmy users simply scroll the front page, then this seems like a completely expected phenomenon

I think some market-based leftists have proposed various solutions for this problem, like mandating that all companies be run as coops. But I’m still skeptical of these for a number of reasons.

Even if they don’t win the case, court cases in general can be extremely costly. So companies will try to avoid getting sued as much as they try to avoid doing things that would actually lose them a lawsuit.

It definitely does not require coordination.

You are on Lemmy, which attracts leftists. Hence all the communism memes. Leftists heavily overlap with vegans. Hence, there are a disproportionate amount of vegans on Lemmy, ready and willing to spread anti-meat talking points at any given moment. This is all quite straightforward.

These are all good points, but I’m still quite skeptical. I’d need to see an actual projected cost breakdown, and then a followup 10 years later to review actual costs and savings.

Yeah, but it’s not that special. Heated surfaces like this are ungodly expensive, both to construct and run.

Source: I priced doing this for my driveway.

It should be noted that the season for comfortable walking and biking could be greatly extended also with the addition of street trees and a reduction in asphalt.

I always find it strange when I find someone in the wild who likes Amtrak. I have only heard and experienced horror stories.

I’ve never heard any libertarian say the free market would provide trains. Maybe an ancap would go so far…

You probably think that freshly mown grass after a spring rain smells good. You would probably be weirded out if your chocolate cake smelled like that. Just because women like flowery scents doesn’t mean it is a good idea for a man looking for women to wear one.

Yeah, I mean, a relationship is based on liking and respecting each other - an interest and respect which can develop out of time spent interacting based on physical attraction. Beyond that, a relationship can take any form that the involved parties choose.

I have a feeling that you were a very horny teenager.

Lol, guilty as charged. And the horniness has not really abated. I never wanted to fuck a 50 year old, but I definitely had some teachers I woulda been stoked to shack up with.

But I think it’s weird that you seem to be saying that this is weird. I am well aware of the fact that people who are asexual or who have a low sex drive exist, and I think their sexuality (or lack thereof, as it may be) should be legitimized and supported. But at the same time, I find it hard to believe that most other people aren’t approximately as horny as I am. Outside of bots, the majority of internet traffic is porn. People spend billions of dollars on sex and sex-adjacent pursuits, from dildos to ED drugs to gym memberships to strappy sports bras to hair plugs. As the old Oscar Wilde quote goes - “Everything in the world is about sex…”

So when someone starts talking about “X is just because of sex” or “Y is the thing we care about because it isn’t about sex”, what I think is “yeah, sex is important. Of course that’s what we’re talking about.” And denial or push back starts to sound like “my puritanical sex-negative upbringing has trained me to be uncomfortable talking about sex, so I’m going to delegitimize sexual desire as a significant factor in any interaction.”

So, first off your example takes advantage of a common yet sexist belief…

I was trying to avoid the common knee jerk response people have to a young woman being with an older man. But fine, I’ll make it as controversial as possible - a fine young woman who is 18 years old, graduated high school and moved out of her parents house a week ago, puts on her nicest black leather collar and matching eyeliner and heads to the local kink house to find herself an over 50 daddy dom. She finds one, and they go on to have a wonderful relationship for 7 years until she decides she wants something else in life and they part amicably.

But younger women are objectively more beautiful than older women so why would anyone not want the youngest, prettiest woman they can get?

I would argue that this makes complete sense (assuming the individual in question actually does find younger women more attractive), so long as one is not actively pursuing long term romantic partnerships. As long as everyone is consenting and having a good time, I see no reason why two people can’t simply share a common carnal attraction to each other.

Meanwhile, nothing precludes two people with a significant age gap from having a lot in common despite their age difference. I have a friend who emancipated herself at 16 and immediately went to travel SE Asia for years on a shoestring budget. I have another friend has started his own contracting business at 23. People mature at different rates, and can be very interesting at a young age. Again, assuming everyone is a consenting adult who is happy with the relationship, I see no reason to shame them.

Why do you think that?

Uncle Ruckus vibes

I’ve heard this argument before, and I don’t think it parses. After all, we have power imbalances in relationships all the time. Men are typically stronger than women and can physically overpower them - are all heterosexual relationships therefore creepy? Should people only date others of similar levels of physical strength?

Suppose one person is a high earning investment banker, while the other gives schoolchildren piano lessons. Surely this makes a financial power imbalance? Should these two dating be frowned upon?

Maybe one partner is a highly intelligent physicist who works at the large hadron collider, while the other is, by all accounts including their own, kind of dumb. Is a power imbalance in intelligence creepy? But wait! What if the “dumb” partner is bad at academic thinking, but is brilliant at connecting with people, while our physicist has a touch of the 'tism and is shy and awkward - would this constitute a “creepy” power imbalance in social/emotional power?

Are stay at home moms all in “creepy” relationships because their partners control their finances?

Also, nevermind the fact that huge amounts of kink is based around power imbalances - being physically overpowered, being punished, being humiliated, being subservient, etc. It’s fucking hot. Power imbalances are for many a fundamental part of their attraction.

And even specifically with the age gaps, and age gaps involving young adults in particular - I have talked to so many young adults who adamantly defend age gap relationships. And after all, why shouldn’t they? They are adults. They want to date who they want, and they don’t want society judging their relationships as creepy, or judging their potential partners. Say a 19 year old guy has a thing for older women. So he goes to a bar, sees a smokin hot 35 year old, and goes to flirt with her. She thinks he’s cute and flirts back. They go to bed together and have a lovely time. How is that creepy? It’s not. It’s just two people having a good time together.

That’s the thing. They don’t really do the whole “thinking” thing. Their argument is based entirely around emotion, parroting words they’ve heard before which correspond with the emotion they are feeling rather than actual meaning. If you tried to engage this person in a meaningful dialogue, they would likely dodge your questions, or start engaging in ad homenim attacks, or start talking in circles.

I dunno, there are lots of dumb people too.