That doesn’t help you understand his supporters though. You have to wade in the shit they call news. You have to hear what they say to begin to understand them.

You’re in a media bubble. It feels like there’s no way anyone could see it differently. The people who disagree with you are also in a media bubble and don’t understand how you could believe what you do.

For everything you said they

• don’t believe happened
• think it was a deep state plot
• believe it’s good actually and believing anything else means you want to kill babies or destroy the economy
• have never heard of it

Reality may have a leftist bias but most people don’t live in reality. Most people live in a reality constructed by corporate media. Social media is largely derivative of it.

Basically.

For example, tens of thousands of people die every year in the US because of inadequate access to health care. Universal payer would be cheaper and result in fewer preventable deaths. Centrists do not support the policy and thus are willing to let people die in order to support the parasitic insurance industry.

The genocide in Gaza, homelessness, prison industrial complex, climate change, etc. all get people killed in preventable ways. But we have to protect the owner class so we’re not going to do any of the clear solutions. Letting people die needlessly is an acceptable result.

Bike poggies are worth looking into to keep your hands warm. Studded tires can help with slipping too

The bone conducting ones make me nauseous so I got a pair of Bose open earbuds. They’re not as good in loud environments but that’s kinda the point. I ride and listen to music with them daily

I don’t know what that has to do with anything. I’m a lefty, life has never mugged me. I’m a leftist because bad things happen to everyone and the solutions isn’t to hurt people until they’re better people. Giving people time and resources just makes people and society better.

I don’t think it’s the source. I think it’s a tool of social control that enables the powerful to create a bare minimum willingness to be ruled. For a long time the doctrine of Christianity was the Divine Right of Kings. Now it’s the Prosperity Gospel. The books did not change but the people with all the money and power ensured the church leaders who served their interest had most of the money and thus followers.

If we didn’t have religion, some other social construct would arise, and I’d argue, has arisen to fulfill it’s role. Modern economic theory justifies the current power order in an unfalsifiable way that reminds me of religion.

Religion could be a liberatory force in society. In fact it has been. The liberation theology movement in South America and numerous heretical movements in the late medieval period are both examples of progressive Christian social movements.

I hope rentable cargo bikes show up in my city soon. I can’t justify spending the money on a bike I’ll only occasionally use. Currently I’ll rent a car instead but there are plenty of times when a cargo bike would work fine

Yeah, I had to install a different launcher Bliss is not my style. I’ve been enjoying lawnchair tho

There’s another factor here. People who are vegan, sober, poly, don’t drive, and any number of choices are breaking societal norms. Most people don’t even think about these things as choices. They do the default. Realizing that there’s a choice, and that this person decided not to do the default, puts people off. It makes them uncomfortable. They begin to question things they’ve never had to evaluate.

Sounds like it would make repairing batteries harder unfortunately.

Unfortunately for riders, louder bikes have a negligible effect on driver awareness

https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a35952569/loud-pipes-do-not-save-lives/

The ones that are successful at enshitification have captive markets. They’re a monopoly, monopsony, or in another kind of inelastic market. https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/

One of the easiest ways to resolve this problem is artificially increasing supply. The government can subsidize the production of food, housing, medical care, and education. It doesn’t matter if people have more money if the supply of a good is always high. Having the government be a provider of these goods in monopolistic or inelastic markets would also be a good idea.

I don’t think UBI should be implemented tomorrow. Subsidizing things today would be a much better first step. Several years of increasing supply and then starting UBI is a better bet.

I fail to see why an acoustic bike couldn’t have been involved in a similar collision. This is a problem of car first infrastructure, not ebikes.

Sure, subsidize producers and give people a UBI. Problem solved.

Effective to the degree they have a material impact on the economy and psychological impact on the powerful and their lackeys. I would argue many of the BLM protests had an effect, if minor, because many cops quit and many cities still have fewer cops than they did before due to difficulty hiring.

Blocking commerce, looting, and arson of empty buildings have significant economic and psychological impacts. From an American perspective, successful social movements like, the suffragettes, civil rights movement, anti-slavery activists, and workers rights groups all engaged in such strategies. It wasn’t until well after that these movements were sanitized to be “non-violent”.

I really like Abus nufix to lock wheels and seatpost. Seatpost is less necessary. Compared to other locking bolts, the housing spins so there’s no way to get purchase with pliers. I keep a small wrench in my tool kit to remove the wheels when needed.

In addition to that I use a kryptonite lock and make sure I attach it through my bike frame and something really solid. If you try to lock to a sign, try to pull the sign out of the ground first and maybe check if you can use your fingers to remove the bolt. I like kryptonite because of their insurance program but there are plenty of solid lock brands out there. I’ve had good luck with Abus and Axa as well.

Lastly bike index , project 529 or a similar local org can act as a deterrent or method of getting your bike back if it’s stollen. I’ve got bike index stickers on all my bikes.

I bought a fairphone 4 awhile ago from Murena, the only US distributor. Other phones have more bells and whistles but I feel better knowing I can repair it if something goes wrong. If you’re in Europe the FP5 is a good bet but I don’t think anyone is selling them in North America. I don’t know about distribution elsewhere.

Thanks took me 3 rereads to find the typo 😅