We are nowhere near advanced enough to say that life, complex or intelligent, doesn’t exist anywhere near us. There is no reason to believe an intelligent spacefaring race would make themselves so obviously detectable that us stupid primates could see them. And for non-intelligent life, we’ve been able to confirm mere thousands of planets. We have a very long way to go before we can start talking about the meaningfulness of a lack of life signatures in the atmosphere.

We haven’t progressed far enough to be detectable by intelligent life in other star systems, even the closest ones. The filter can easily be in front of us. It could just simply be that interstellar space travel is too infeasible, so intelligent species never reach beyond their home system.

I generally tell people the only reason to do it is if your career pursuits require it, and even then I warn them away unless they’re really sure. Not every research advisor is abusive, but many are. Some without even realizing it. I ended up feeling like nothing more than a tool to pump up my research advisor’s publication count.

It was so disillusioning that I completely abandoned my career goal of teaching at a university because I didn’t want to go anywhere near that toxic culture again. Nevertheless, I did learn some useful skills that helped me pivot to another career earning pretty good money.

So I guess I’m saying it’s a really mixed bag. If you’re sure it’s what you want, go for it. But changing your mind is always an option.

Sounds an awful lot like the political positions I hear all the goddamn time in the US.

Using racial slurs isn’t only damaging and insulting to the person being directly talked to or about. I suggest adopting a blanket position against racial slurs in any context.

More directly, we can’t agree if Sunday or Monday is the first day. IMO Sunday is the first day. Calendars look better with the weekends acting like bookends.

They claim Hillary lost because she went a little left and it is the fault of… left wing voters? Hmm.

I do the same, metro commuting and a short trip to visit family (~50 miles each way) every couple weeks or so. I don’t even have to plug in every time I get home, I only need to make sure I am charged up at least to 75% for the family visit. Level 1 charging is more than sufficient, I’ve only ever used a charging station just to see what it’s like and try to use up some credit I got for them through my dealership.

For those without EVs: level 1 charging is just plugging into a standard 120V outlet. I have no special equipment at home, though I did need to confirm my breaker could handle it. For my 2023 Bolt EUV I charge about 1% per hour on the reduced charge setting (8 amps). If I do need to charge a little faster I can swap it to 12 amps, but I typically don’t need to do that.

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Then I’ll say this one more time since you seem to be having trouble: that’s your opinion, and other people see what you’re doing as an existential threat to American democracy just as much as MAGA.

That’s the point I’ve been trying to make this whole time. Your personal opinion on the only path to protect democracy happens to involve some steps that I think will also destroy democracy. And in the meantime I think we have very little time left to stand up against the anti-democratic practices of the Democratic party, and they’re continuing to inflame extremists in the opposition to give themselves cover.

By the way, for someone who is constantly yelling about bad actors in a discussion of US politics, you’ve got some pretty suspicious grammar in this comment.

I have an uncommon but not unique name and I have firstlast@gmail.com. As far as I know, others with my name usually include a middle initial in their email address but they sometimes forget it. I’ve gotten family event plans, car maintenance reminders, digital receipts, contractor quotes, and even once added to a daycare group (that one I did reach out to the coordinator to let them know and then removed myself from the group).

My team has one day per week where we have our regular team meetings and the expectation is we are usually in the office on that day. Outside of that, we all set our own schedules based on our needs. Some people just like being in the office or have job duties that necessitate it. Others like me have little reason to be in the office other than specific meetings so I WFH 4 days most weeks, coming in on those if needed.

It’s the best work setup I’ve had so far, and a lot of that is because our manager is actually great at her job.

Not gonna retread the entire conversation on the points you decided to stick your head back in the sand for. But on “your kind,” it’s the people who go around spreading vitriol at anyone who expresses an opinion counter to your own. And you immediately proved me right in your response by assuming the worst intention for me stating that I’m voting.

I’m not defending anyone, I’m standing against your call for authoritarianism. Because plenty of people are completely genuine in their disillusionment with the system but your characterization of them as “bad actors” is based solely on them saying one specific thing (that’s the litmus test).

Again: we do not need more authoritarianism. We need honest discussion of ALL of the flaws of our political system. The Democrats are not above criticism, no matter how batshit insane the Republicans get.

What words did I put in your mouth? You called them bad actors again even in this reply and in your first one you advocated for pushing them off of Lemmy. The rest of the comment you just replied to were my words (“bullying” and “you are not the arbiter of what people are allowed to think”).

Is it the last one you’re complaining about? That’s not me putting words into your mouth, that’s me calling out what you’re advocating for. You are advocating for pushing people off of a social media platform when YOU have decided to label them a “bad actor” without actually knowing their intentions. Your entire premise seems to me to be predicated on the idea that no one could possibly be so disillusioned, disenfranchised, and dissatisfied with the system that they go on social media and state those feelings. Therefore, anyone saying that MUST be a bad actor.

Labeling people “bad actors” simply for expressing an opinion counter to yours and then trying to run them out is 100% bullying. You are not the arbiter of what people are allowed to think.

My intent was to push back on your unfounded retort to someone saying they wish there would be one election where the Democrats didn’t try to guilt people into voting for them based on fearmongering. You responded to them with… fearmongering. I responded to you to point out that your fearmongering is the same tactic used in every election ever. I didn’t make any claims about the validity of Trump’s threat to the US.

You then kept putting different words and claims into my mouth to argue against. So I kept saying “no, I’m just saying that this fearmongering is the same as has been used in every election.”

Once again, you’re saying I’m saying things that I’m not.

Oh, gotcha. So bullying people who don’t pass your litmus test (whether or not they actually believe or are what you claim) until they leave isn’t silencing the voices of people who disagree with you.

Everything is decidedly not fine. Where was that in my comment? I merely pointed out that your rhetoric is the same as we hear every election.

What lie? Please tell me.