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They are not refugees, they should immigrate the normal (expensive) way like everyone else and not get a free ride on the American tax payer's dollar. Especially when we have, what, 30,000 refugees from south of the border living in warehouses awaiting a chance to legally immigrate. 50,000? 100,000? Probably even more than that.
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They're escaping South Africa with fortunes made by exploiting the people of South Africa and will suffer no consequences in the US. They stand at least some chance of being punished in their own country (even more so if they're running like this, seems like they can feel the noose tightening), and their money would stay in South Africa to help the country in such a case instead of disappearing into the offshore haven of the US.
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They're friends of people like Musk and Trump, and allowing them to more easily use their money to affect American policy will be worse not just for the US, but the world at large. Letting people with experience running an apartheid regime into the politics of a belligerent war hungry government who has already threatened numerous friendly countries over resources cannot end well.
EldritchFeminity
"If God truly does exist, then he more so loves the atheist who questions the world around him than the Christian who blindly follows." -Thomas Jefferson
More than half of the Founding Fathers were atheists or agnostic.
We knew this. Economists were shouting it over and over during COVID, when this productivity boom started as much of the world began working from home.
Microsoft said that people working from home would never work before COVID, and then they saw a massive boost in performance when people did. To the point where they eventually had to openly admit it. Before demanding people return to the offices as soon as they could.
The only people who refuse to listen are C Suite execs, middle managers, and people with a stake in commercial property.
Step 1: Ban "assault rifles" (no clear definition so specifics will vary greatly from place to place)
Step 2:??
Step 3: Mental health crisis, economic crisis, and various other underlying causes of gun violence are solved
Not to say that guns aren't an issue. They are, but this is no different than arming the police with military surplus munitions and vehicles instead of decriminalizing drug use, improving social security programs and education, etc. It does nothing to actually address the issue - especially since these gun laws never actually target the guns most frequently used in gun violence/crime (pistols), and are never followed up by any step 2.
It's security theater to look like they're doing something to address the issue.
You're thinking of Gandalf Big Naturals. Easy mistake to make.
It absolutely is. It's a thought process people use to make their actions easier to justify to their own sense of morality and empathy. Militaries drill that same thought process into soldiers for the same reason. It's much easier to shoot something than it is to shoot somebody, so your enemy must be less than human to make pulling the trigger easier. So you turn a group of people into the Other. And the more you do it, the easier it gets, and all it takes is somebody convincing you that the wrong group deserves the same treatment.
"My enemy isn't human. My enemy is less than human. Since the dawning of Mankind, this has been the battlecry."
Also, I take issue with the entire concept of "sin," so that argument holds no water for me. I mean, what a meaningless "argument". How does it absolve them of anything??
I don't care one way or another about the theology around the word "sin," but it's the perfect word to describe their actions. By reducing them to subhuman, you make it easy to remove their free will in the equation - it becomes the "just following orders" excuse - and it's incredibly important to remember that they chose to do this. Nobody is born hateful, hatred is learned. They made the conscious choice to be hateful and act this way, and they should be held accountable for that choice.
People have a hard time accepting that the worst people this planet has ever seen are as human as you and me, but to deny it is to turn a blind eye to the fact that the people in that video could be our neighbors, friends, or family. Because we know them, and they're good people, so they'd never do something like that, right?
This is only one study, but I saw an article a few months ago talking about a study by a major phone company that found that the vast majority of people (80% or more IIRC) either didn't care about AI features on their phones or actively disliked them.
I think most people don't really care one way or another but hate that it's being shoved into everything, and those who know the stats on how often it's wrong are a lot more likely to actively dislike it and be vocal about their dislike.
Funnily enough, I say the same thing about art.
I would also add just calling people by their name instead of their preference to your nickname example. Like, if your name is Matt but somebody only calls you Matthew and refuses to use Matt even after you ask them to. Matthew may legally be your name, but there's only one reason why somebody would do that.
My dad actually has a similar situation in that his first name can be turned into two different nicknames easily, so he can immediately tell how well somebody knows him or cares by which name they call him.
It's not about tolerating the intolerant, it's about not using their same thought process lest you fall prey to the same kinds of propaganda. Besides, removing their humanity absolves them of their sin. This isn't like a house cat killing birds on instinct, these people choose to do this. And they should be treated accordingly.
Broke: Nazis aren't human
Woke: The worst monsters to be born on this planet are all human, and they all seem to really like swastikas
As of the end of the second quarter of last year, the PS5 was apparently just behind the PS4 in terms of lifetime sales, 84.2 million to the PS4's 86 million at that same point in the PS4's sales.
However, going into and during the November/December holiday season, sales dropped off compared to last year - selling 1.5 million units less during the last fiscal quarter compared to 2024.
So overall, the PS5 seems to be in a pretty healthy spot, having sold more units so far than the PS3 did in its "lifetime", but it has not done as well as Sony wants it to. It hasn't sold as well as the PS4, and definitely hasn't outsold it. And if the downward year over year sales trend continues, Sony will find themselves in hot water. With the economic downturn, sales of everything will continue to suffer, and I think something that will hurt the PS5 (and PS6) that a lot of console players don't think about is that PC gamers tend to also own at least 1 console. Many PC gamers owned a PS4 and a PS3 as well. But, with money becoming an issue, they're not going to drop their PC for a console. They'll drop the console for the PC they already own and accept that they'll miss out on the exclusives. And Sony already had issues with people not replacing their PS4s with a PS5. For years people simply weren't doing it. So far there are only about 8 PS5 exclusive games that aren't also out on PS4 or were timed exclusives that are on PC as well. And we're 5 years into the PS5's lifetime, which is usually a decade at most for console generations. That's not a lot of incentive to entice people to give up their money for a PS5 for. Why buy a PS5 for 8 games when I have the entirety of my Steam library going back to 2007? Plus, PC has its own exclusives. Practically an entire industry of them. The sheer volume of indie games exclusive to the PC means that you could play a new game everyday for the rest of your life and never spend a single cent on any AAA studio.
One thing that you're missing is why Sony games sold "poorly" on the PC, and that comes down to the port quality, the delay between console and PC release, and the price. Many Sony releases had/still have performance issues. And there was the PlayStation account drama, which probably hurt sales. Add to that that it's at least an additional year before a Sony game comes out on Steam, and then they charge full console price. Is it any surprise why they "sell poorly"? PC gamers have already had to wait a year or more for the game, they might as well wait for a sale for it to be at a reasonable price. But look at a game like Helldivers 2. The PC makes up a major portion of the player base. There's a reason that Sony said "single player" games, not all games. Games sell on the PC. PC gamers just aren't willing to accept the quality for the price that Sony was offering for their tentpole games. If we base the size of the market on the total number of games downloaded last year, the PC makes up almost half of the PC/console market: 857 million downloads vs 626 million on Sony consoles, and 546 million on Xbox, for a combined roughly 2 billion total games downloaded in 2025. The PC market is no drop in the bucket by console terms. We won't talk about the 52 billion mobile games downloaded last year.
Sony will try again if the PC market doesn't go in on buying a PS5/PS6 like Sony hopes, which I don't think they will. I don't think it will be anytime soon, but the line needs to go up. Forever. They'll cut costs where they can and increase prices as much as their customers will let them, but eventually they'll turn to other options, and the PC market is a low-hanging fruit tempting easy short-term gains for little effort.