Tim R

What about cuckoos? Cuckoo babies are parasites but they grow up and once they leave the nest, they aren't parasites anymore.

@Origins You said that which is simply not true. That was my only point

It's the other way round

Yes, I've also experienced that. The visual distortions make it difficult sometimes. On the other hand, I sometimes get "visuals" with closed eyes, but it's way more pleasant - my head sometimes fills itself with white light. Haven't figured out what that might be but it's kinda nice.

@Leo Gura Thank you so, so much!! Now I can take you everywhere with me <3

No they're not. Babies are, unlike parasites, part of the mother, during pregnancy they are literally the same organism (and yes you could go "oh but aren't all organisms basically the same organism, where's the boundary? It's only concepts!" or whatever, but in that case you wouldn't have to declare anything as a parasite in the first place), whereas a parasite is a foreign organism which feeds off some other organism, either from within the body like worms or from the outside, like that fish in the picture Leo posted above. A baby is not a foreign organism. Even when he baby is born, it doesn't feed off the mother like a parasite, because parasitism is a one-way relationship, only the parasite gets something out of it. A baby is part of the mother's strategy, so it's more like symbiosis.

Is this actually a conceivable possibility? I think I read about him in the forum being a possible candidate but I really thought it was a joke? Because... if it actually were to come down to Kanye or Carlson as the final candidate for the republicans, you guys are properly f'd.

I pray for America and the rest of the world that Trump was just a glitch in the history of the US. “If history teaches us one thing, it is that history teaches us nothing.” - Peter Ustinov I sure hope he's wrong this time. Just imagine, maybe Trump was just a foretaste of what is yet to come?... Who knows, with a country as deeply split in so many regards as the US?

The best and most difficult) way is to try to unite both intention and interpretation. Have a good intention and try to get it across in consideration of the way your collocutor might interpret it.

What do you think reality is?

@Shin Wouldn't go that far tho

Lol And what do you have to say about Trump's interference in social media and the press? I'm not an American and (hence) not as conversant in American politics and laws, but as far as I've understood, the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to restrictions imposed by non-government actors/organizations (such as social media and the press), right? Which means that Trump can't interfere with social media censoring their users posts. He still does it tho. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-preventing-online-censorship/?fbclid=IwAR0x1LYue5Nrq45LPJ_-bIiAd4pTYGpjxm1h0SigOMMbz9i703kht61J5Ds How exactly is this aligned with freedom (of speech) and he constitution? He is a sneaky liar who has no interest other than himself.

Couldn't have said it better. @bejapuskas @Preety_India Totally agree. It can be incredibly frustrating to try to raise awareness, no matter the regard. Being confronted with so much ignorance can drive you mad if you're not carefully detached. Maybe that's an explanation. Edit: Ok hang on.. I think I might've been overlooking something. To say there's no compassion when calling someone dumb and in the same reply admitting that it's utterly frustrating to be confronted with so much ignorance, ignores the difficulty of this whole enterprise. @Leo Gura As long as you don't sail under false pretense I understand why you would call someone dumb. I get it now. At the same time I still hold the position that even if your intentions are good - calling someone dumb won't work in most cases, neither for you nor for them.

Yup. I'm starting to think about how to take this information into account when interpreting the replies on certain questions. On one hand it doesn't really matter how old a member is, on the other hand it does. Experience comes with age and nothing can substitute for that.

I'm curious about the average age of the users in this forum? The names of the voters won't be made public, so it's anonymous.

How would you've done it? Didn't want to take leaps of 10.

As for today (Oct. 26th, 08:35 UTC) 63% (n=57) are under 25 y/o

Now I'm the one who doesn't understand? Could you elaborate please?

@Carl-Richard It's not out of proportion to ask (although I was being sarcastic) whether we'd also get to call people dumb to "wake them up" from their deeply deluded state of mind. Leo claims this to be his intention, whenever you see him do this sort of thing. I (and apparently a few other people) don't quite buy into this explanation, since a) it doesn't target the right people b) it's not done the right way Or have you witnessed a case where it actually worked? "How can you be so dumb?" or "People who buy into conspiracies are some of the dumbest people in our society." "Oh thanks, man! Now that you've been rude to me I can see that I was deluded, thanks again!" This just doesn't fly.

What exactly don't you understand?

Trump knows the answer to that one??

Ohhh this gonna be juicy af?

Well in that case it's not necessary to call them dumb either.

Lol this is great??