I’m not sure we should put much faith in these scores.

I see Canada looking pretty yellow here, but we just had a provincial government call an early election and send out $200 bribe cheques. Sure they don’t call it a bribe, but I haven’t gotten a paper cheque from the government in years (direct deposit, yay) and now I have a paper cheque and a voter card showing up in my mailbox just days apart. It’s getting pretty obvious over here.

This is a good point, well articulated and I agree with you.

When I say “it has nothing to do with responsibility” I’m thinking of what motivates the USA to provide this aid. Maybe I’m a cynic but I don’t believe they would ever spend money in a foreign nation simply because it’s the responsible thing to do.

But yeah, they are responsible for multiple reasons, as the ladder analogy explains, and as another commenter mentioned, for the part the USA and other privileged nations have played in creating the problems these aid programs are addressing, through colonialism and climate change. The USA specifically also did immeasurable damage to this part of the world going to war with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

This looks suspiciously like a map of whiteness.

And likewise thanks for actually being curious and posing the question in good faith! We need more adult discussions.

The point of USAID is (was?) to project soft power, it’s got nothing to do with responsibility.

Previous administrations figured it was worthwhile to run these aid programs. Good PR, or a vehicle/cover for more nefarious activities. People came to rely on it, and it getting pulled suddenly upsets things. The article does mention Thai hospitals picking up some of the slack, but presumably they aren’t set up to take on all of the patients overnight, so inevitably the abruptness of the change leads to tragedies.

If voting could dethrone the wealthy, they wouldn’t let us do it.

Oh yeah, it’s just fun to imagine murdering a bunch of civilians, who have absolutely no say in whose oil just sailed into their harbour. Disgusting.

Would you rather buy Saudi oil? American oil? Yeah, like that’s any better.

This man is more serious than you think. Israel is a place, “somewhere else” to put all the Jews, so that they’re “not here”. That sounds pretty great to a nazi, actually.

Oh yeah, kind of like how fans re-edited One Piece to remove filler and improve the pacing. I wonder if something similar could be done to merge the two FMAs? Unfortunately I think most of the fanbase just thinks Brotherhood is it, and the original doesn’t matter, so I don’t know think there’s much demand for this.

This is what I did, would also recommend. I don’t even think Brotherhood is better, the original has some really strong points.

Oooh I’ve been eagerly awaiting season 2 of Arcane. Hadn’t seen the release date yet. Excited now. 😸

I’ve been wanting to re-watch firefly lately. It’s short but there’s just so much in it. It’s one of two shows I’ve watched start-to-finish more than once.

And since we’re here for recommendations…the other show I’ve watched more than once is Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Based on a book by Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) it’s charming and insane in ways you might expect if you’re familiar with Hitchhiker’s Guide but it’s absolutely not predictable either. So much fun. (Available on Netflix (in Canada…last I checked))

The word “terrorist” has an incredible power to shut off people’s brains.

I can’t trust a car no matter how Japanese it is, but… I watched a lil docuseries on dangerous roads, and it seemed like at least 80% of the vehicles (outside of heavy trucks) were Toyota. I dunno if it’s because they’re the most reliable, or because Toyota just has the market in many of these developing countries, but it was interesting.

I had to drive a truck recently, (needed to rent a vehicle, and they only had pickups left.) It was a chevrolet Colorado, which I understand to be one of the smaller trucks available in North America, and I was so happy to get rid of it at the end of the trip. It was fine on the highway, but in the city it was just incredibly awkward. Cumbersome handling, blind spots for days…I constantly felt like I was going to hit something.

I can’t even imagine how clueless you’d be about your immediate surroundings in a monstrosity like what’s pictured here.

The consequences of dangerous driving should be borne by the people driving dangerously, and no one else.

“any flavour you like, as long as it’s swamp water!”

Tons of young male characters are voiced by women. I’m curious which anime you’re referring to though.

It’s not just remote places that can get evacuated.

I don’t live in the north, don’t own a car, and don’t worry about it, but if something catastrophic were to happen here, I hope there would be options for the many non-car-having people.

💀💀💀