25+ yr Java/JS dev
Linux novice - running Ubuntu (no windows/mac)
Based on your description, I’d doubt any surveillance so far rises above going through any of your socials they can find. AFAIK, that sort of thing is generally for someone who has really pissed them off. Like if you were to become outspoken about them.
I’d probably just keep the whole affair (pun intended) at arms length and let it blow over. Chances are this will be an amusing anecdote in a few years.
Teens can be complicated. I know. I have 5 kids. Youngest two are 14 and 12.
How close is your relationship to your daughter? If you are close, you can probably do nothing other than point out how weird things are, such as they way they won’t discuss their beliefs, or the slavery thing. She’ll probably eventually exit the situation on her own.
If you aren’t close or you are prone to flying off the handle, that can be used as a wedge between you and your daughter.
Either way, this only ends in a few ways:
Scientology is a cult. And not just a cult, it is a vicious cult who take revenge on anyone they perceive as an enemy. People have found themselves surveilled and having their bosses called making things up to try to get them fired. They are extremely litigious.
Obviously I wouldn’t want my kids in any cult, but Scientology would probably be the worst one. At least most other cults, if you make yourself available to help when they decide they need to leave, they can escape. Scientologists will literally house them on a prison ship.
Good luck, friend.
I’ve tried this. Now my house is full of consumer garbage that doesn’t make me happy and in fact frustrates me by cluttering my life.
At least I don’t have to find a place to store likes.
Survivor bias in action. It might be delicious, and you can choose to take the risk, but the science is undeniable.
I don’t think there were rebadges of the Volt or Bolt. Don’t recall one of the Cavalier. None of the Sonic. I honestly didn’t know until I just looked it up that they rebadged the Equinox to the Terrain, else I’d have said the stuff they felt was worth rebadging was just not great stuff. I won’t say the Equinox was a blast to drive, but that thing was a workhorse that got the job done for about 12 years.
The old Blazer and Jimmy I wasn’t a fan of.
But these days, their line of SUVs is pretty good and those all get rebadges, but my opinion of GMC has been settled for about 20 years.
Next new car I’m eyeing is the EV Equinox. Needs a better heater than the Volt, though.
Trump doesn’t leave that shit to amateurs.
The fuck? I drove a mid-80’s Escort wagon. I raced against my friend’s Chevette once. Pedal to the metal and we still haven’t made it past 40mph.
As someone with just as much federal authority as the non-existent DOGE, I also propose defunding expenditures that “don’t advance the interests of American citizens.”
And I would like to start with fucking Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon fucking Musk.
Our elections are some of the most secure in the world. It looks a shocking number of people went to the ballot box and just voted Trump, and not straight ticket or any down ballot race.
In Michigan the two Democrat Supreme Court justices win by almost a million votes. Almost everyone who voted for Harris, voted for them. But 1.1 million people voted for Trump and no Justice at all.
Which honestly feels like a very Trumpist thing to do. They are not Republicans. They are only Trump voters.
My Chevy Volt is great and was one of the best reviewed hybrids. Still untouched on battery range, I think. And GM’s battery management system is top notch. Heater in my volt is shit unless I’m running ICE, though.
Wouldn’t buy a GMC, but Chevy has never really done me wrong. Cadillac seems overpriced for a rebadged Chevy.
Ford’s got good stuff but I’ve never really owned one since the Escort. Guess I might if they ever transition me from contractor to full employee.
Chrysler… has a van. Guess it’s been fine but I’ll personally never get another one.
Probably never buy a Japanese car unless those plants are staffed by UAW. I hear they are good but I’ve never been in one that seemed any better than an American car.
I would never, ever buy a fucking Hyundai. I’ve been in two and they were the most cheap pieces of garbage I’ve ever seen. But I guess they were cheap pieces of garbage. They might’ve gotten better since I was only in the first couple of model years.
That was the whole of his last administration.
“What he’s done is just awful. It must stop. This is the last time.” For four years.
I’m just going to spend the next four years treating it like comedy. Nothing else I can do until the mid terms.
Yeah, maybe I didn’t make that clear. I don’t think 90% of Trump voters are fascists. I don’t think being a Nazi is necessary to be concerned about immigration, but assuming it’s not sheer racial hatred my question was what was driving this concern about immigration?
Fascism has a clear definition, however there’s a bit of nuance between that definition and saying a person is a fascist. Like I think Trump only gives a fuck about himself. I don’t think he is motivated by fascist belief. But if it’s in his self-interest to advance a fascist agenda, which he then does, he’s enacting fascism, which makes him a fascist even if maybe you could dissect his psyche and say but he doesn’t believe in fascism!
Fascist is as fascist does. But it takes a pattern of behavior and at each step you have a few more people agreeing it’s fascism. At what point will history agree he’s a fascist? I don’t know. He’s clearly not literally Hitler, but if he does stuff Hitler would do, how much makes him a Nazi? That’s for future historians to pointlessly debate. The fact is he does an uncomfortable amount of fascist stuff.
I get that lots of people here think every last trump voter is a fascist and white-supremacist, but I think in truth it’s probably well less than half. So why are almost 90% of them concerned about immigration?
I get Florida and southern border countries. Old people fucking hate to hear Spanish. Why do Pennsylvanians and Ohioans care about it?
Show me on the map where the brown men hurt you.
Trumpets don’t value knowledge. They value commitment and loyalty and the ability to blame others.
This is an insane take. No, the military isn’t going to coup over this. If the generals were getting executed, perhaps, but they’re just being retired or shuffled off to other duties.
I can identify with a lot of that. She was a recent divorcee, though, and I was supposedly the one with my shit together.
But I will say that there was a point in my late tens or early twenties where maybe I was going to go a different path. I could’ve turned bitter had I had to deal with loneliness at the time.
I was doing a lot of work on myself and it was messy, trying to figure out who I was. So I guess maybe I feel a certain amount of sympathy for young men in that situation. But also I’m really beyond such things at this point. It just struck me as something that gets attention but sufferers from fundamental flaws (like either they are going to find the one and have sex anyway, or they just aren’t all that interested in sex with men to begin with and this is just a way to sort of turn their lack of interest into leverage).
But I’m just not twenty any more. Times are different. Kinda glad I don’t have to navigate it.
I feel like a person would know, or at least could know. But I guess you have a point. I have a much different perspective on dating at fifty than would have at twenty.
I’m not really looking at it through the lens of fairness, I think, other than maybe sympathetic. I’m just not sure it addresses the problem. Seems to be the biggest issue for liberal men who wouldn’t date a conservative woman. And they aren’t likely to be the problem, nor is creating a rift the solution.
But I can 100% see a woman who is simply unwilling to risk pregnancy in this environment regardless of partner.
It makes sense to me to not date men who won’t stand up for your rights, but that’s not my read of 4B.
This for sure. My mental health was so awful during Trump’s first term. I spent 4 years just… breathing. Barely able to focus on work or family because I felt there were just bigger issues to worry about. I’ve pulled way back from social media in general and I feel healthier for it.
I’m always going to help people at a local level. I’m always going to be a safe place or safe ear for the few folks it’s actually in my power to help. But I can’t take on the rest. This is what the American people on average want, and it is clear to me that until they get their blood, they won’t be satisfied.
I’ll see you fuckers in 4 years to try to elect someone who can fix… whatever is left.