Thanks for introducing me to this phrase haha

Ah yes, some Targets getting broken into is equally as damaging and extreme as racist christofascists attempting to overthrow the government and subvert democracy multiple times. How could I be so silly as to forget.

BLM: Stop killing unarmed citizens and being racist.

You: Why won’t the leftists stop being so extreme???

The Tuesday/Monday example being arbitrary is my point, glad you pointed that out. This is the casual way that I “have faith” that there is no God. In my eyes your choice of deity to worship is just as arbitrary, there are thousands of religions. The fact that some of them promise “hell” to “sinners” is not a reason for me to operate as though these things are true. There are just as many if not more spiritual practices that have nothing to do with eternal damnation, why would I operate as if any of these are the reality when they’re all claiming to be The One Truth? I’m expected to pick yours just because you said so? That seems silly, and it’s also silly to call this thought process “faith” I think.

Regarding the dinosaurs, we have fossil records, and that’s a bit different than “God is gonna getcha, better be a good boy, believe me bro,” but I do in fact believe that Jesus existed, because we have extensive historical context and documents talking about him. As stated elsewhere this is sufficient to generally consider a person to have existed. Most historians also claim as much, and I’m not a historian so I will defer to the experts. Whether or not he is the Messiah though, and has magic powers as stated in the bible, is a much more ridiculous claim. When you tell me a reality-bending zombie that is his own father exists, the burden of proof for that claim is much higher than “Did this person exist historically?” This is the point that FlyingSquid is making, which I agree with.

I think you’re operating on a different understanding of the words ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ here. Do you believe that Tuesday comes after Monday? Do you believe the Earth orbits the Sun, or that puppies are cute? Belief in something does not require faith, faith is a specific kind of belief. This is the kind of belief I have when talking about God.

I do not need evidence to disprove the existence of God, much the same way that I do not need the same for Dragons, or Magic, or the Flat Earth. I am not claiming these things do not exist, I am simply not going to believe they do until there is some evidence of their existence. I would suspect you do not think that I am religious in my lack of belief in dragons.

I also do not “believe” in science. That is a misunderstanding of science, which is simply a methodology. One cannot believe in it any more than they can math. It just is.

Do you live in an uber-HCOL area? I ordered Jets the other day and it was not nearly this expensive… I just priced out a delivery for your order and it came to $34.07 w/ taxes and fees, less tip. Even opted for the bone-in wings.

Pretty sure it’s been going on a while, but unless you’ve changed jobs in the last two years it’s unlikely you feel these effects. Employers dont give raises in line with inflation but they’re sure paying new employees a lot more than they used to.

https://www.epi.org/blog/average-wages-have-surpassed-inflation-for-12-straight-months/#:~:text=Real wage growth continued to,wages%2C not adjusted for inflation.

Atheists do not have theological beliefs, atheism is characterized by a lack of religious faith. If one is lacking in faith then they cannot still have faith, that is an incoherent position.

Lots of writers and other crew have agents. It’s not clear from the article if that’s what’s being referred to though.

I’m not as sure of that as you are, but I hope we get to find out soon.

No, did you read it? The US government also advocates for a two state solution, even if it isn’t by means you like they’re still aligned with you.

Edit to add: You are deflecting from the point I made also

Yes, basically the whole planet is aligned with you there. Is there an actual point that you have? Why not discuss these two different entities in terms of the unique problems within their societies? You can’t just say “Israel” if you disagree with someone, you have to use your words bub.

I mean, that ship has sailed though right? Israel will never agree to that unless it’s destroyed.

Israel is a different government and we should consider it as such… Unless you think there should be no Palestine? What is your point exactly?

Under this thought process, if Gaza isn’t Palestine, should the Palestinians’ state be recognized, what happens to Gaza? Is it absorbed into Israel? From what I can tell I don’t think this is gonna fly, almost anyone talking about this and the Gazans themselves don’t agree it seems

Do you honestly think the UN is that effective when it concerns international human rights? They approved a ceasefire in Gaza and nothing happened. There’s a two-year long genocide in Ukraine and the UN just let’s the Russian Ambassador carry on, and they’ve done nothing to stop them.

Things like food aid and whatnot they’re obviously helpful with, but if the League of Nations was toothless then the UN is wearing dentures in my mind lol

Can you link me some reading material about this?

we literally suffered 9/11 because of Israel

I’ve never once heard Israel come up in the story of 9/11

I mean yeah, you yourself are here arguing the wrong facts, and I assume you consider yourself educated. You think a high school graduate in Iowa is going to have received financial literacy education? I severely doubt it.

I also am actually going with the fact that the data you gave me is highly partisan in nature. Republicans are in another reality man. I think we’d be doing ourselves a disservice falling for their talking points.

I don’t really think that the Gallup poll you linked refutes Carter’s point, actually. Gallup and Carter are examining completely different data, and honestly, Gallup doesn’t make a claim about what the cause is for these findings.

The poll states that 68% of Americans thought in December that the economy was worsening. But looking a little further, actually 64% of Democrats thought it was getting better, compared to only 8% of Republicans. It kind of feels like this is the actual information we should be concerned with in the poll, and that you’re only giving me part of the information for some reason.

Regarding the CPI, it does track food and beverage as a core category.

https://bls.gov/CPI/questions-and-answers/

The CPI represents all goods and services purchased for consumption by the reference population (U or W). BLS has classified all expenditure items into more than 200 categories, arranged into eight major groups (food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communication, and other goods and services). Included within these major groups are various government-charged user fees, such as water and sewerage charges, auto registration fees, and vehicle tolls.

I agree we have a lot of work to do still, but I’m sure we can also agree that a significant portion of Americans are also not very informed and generally make poor financial choices.

You said the reason people are upset is that

the economy is not good for them. It’s really that simple. Shit is expensive and most people did not get pay raises. Most of the ones that did get raises haven’t gotten enough to tackle the increases in food, rent, and utility prices.

The article states however that

Even accounting for inflation, wages are higher today than they were before the coronavirus pandemic, and the biggest wage gains have accrued among the lowest-paid workers, resulting in a dramatic reduction in overall wage inequality.

Are you saying that the author is lying? Can you provide any evidence to support this one way or the other? Because your position and the article can’t coexist, only one can be true. One is an investigative report and one is a Lemmy comment. You must understand how this looks?

Biden sometimes deserves criticism for sure, but not here.