JillyB

The average worker is several times more productive than they were 100 years ago and women have entered as well. If we don't have enough workers, that's evidence the value isn't going where it should.

To a lot of rural people, I don't fully blame them. Rural areas have been gutted over the decades and left the people there feeling politically used and abandoned. Trump was something different. Hilary, Biden, or Harris would have represented more of the same decay and they knew that and were willing to take a chance. People paying more attention knew trump wasn't going to do anything for anybody but himself but most voters don't look into things that deep.

My brother is a rural redneck with rural redneck friends in the south. Even he has mentioned that the people he knows are saying things like "maybe he is acting too selfishly". A lot of rural people are borderline anarchist when it comes to government. They liked Trump because he would "drain the swamp" and get rid of the "elites" (and also many of them liked the racism). When just openly started enriching himself and not giving a shit about gas prices, they started to feel differently.

Same with Chicago CTA. Not sure if they still do but I've definitely seen Mullvad ads on CTA.

How does Antarctica have a West Coast?

No. Food has inherent value. A tool has inherent value. Kindness has inherent value. Gold has value in its practical applications but it's dollar value is largely because it's pretty and kind of rare.

Tbf, gold is mostly only valuable as a social construct like cash or the numbers on the screen.

That's awesome! My parents weren't very supportive when I wanted to do my own maintenance in high school. My first breakdown was a bad throw-out-bearing that grenaded and took out the clutch. With no experience, I was determined to do the job myself. I towed the car back to our house, jacked it up (with the one in the trunk), put it on cinder blocks (didn't have jack stands)...and immediately gave up at the first rusty exhaust bolt.

I later did a bunch of car work in and after college while getting my mechanical engineering degree. This skill was super useful so that I could own older cars that were cheaper to buy but had some issues. I could fix them and save money.

There's something meditative about being under a car. The whole world disappears and your only problem is this one stupid fastener. It's immensely satisfying to finish a job and the car just works again.

Soon your kid will be noticing how a disturbing amount of parked cars are missing a lug nut. He'll be the one to inform his friend that weird noise in their car is easily fixed but could cause big problems if not addressed. The lube tech will no longer be able to upsell him on some bullshit that his car doesn't need.

Btw how old is he?

I've heard (no idea where, might be fake) that the NYPD used to get special Glocks that had a very heavy trigger. They probably had a few incidents like this they wanted to address.

More cops should play this game

If you do want to go the belt-drive and igh route, you'll need to have your frame modified. You'll need to have a belt split added to the seat stay and the rear triangle modified for 135mm dropout spacing (probable you don't have 135mm dropouts). You would need the rear derailleur replaced with a belt tensioner.

Since you use drop-bars, that would limit your options as most IGH shifting uses unique cable-pull. Microshift makes drop-bars brake/shifters for Shimano alfine IGHs. I have this setup on my belt-drive bike. You could also have dedicated brake levers and a bar-end friction shifter which will work with any gear system. That would be a super cool setup but it isn't for everyone. A more clean setup would be something like the Gevanalle which has an indexed shifter built into the brake lever. Keep in mind that your IGH would need to be disc brake compatible unless you want to switch the rear to rim-brake.

None of this is impossible and you would have a super cool whip at the end of it but it's not going to be cheap compared to a frame built for belt-drive from the start.

A less committal option is a chain drive with IGH. You would still need the rear triangle modified to 135mm spacing but you wouldn't need a belt split. As long as your frame is steel, this can probably be bent by a frame builder/mechanic for cheaper than adding a belt split. This could use a single-speed chain which would be much more robust than most higher gear chains. It would also be more tolerant of misalignment since belts really need a good belt-line while chains can absorb a couple mm of misalignment.

Certainly many governments including the US, Israel, and Russia have been caught with troll farms, funding radical influencers, etc. I don't think it's far fetched to believe that a state actor is sowing discord within their own people. Just look at COINTELPRO for a good example of the FBI infiltrating and dividing leftist movements.

My main gripe is the jump from skepticism to conspiracy. Through a host of conspiracies, the right has eroded the concept of truth to the point that people only look to right-wing leaders for guidance. This is intentionally done to grab power from those that are more willing to deliberate evidence. I'm worried the left could fall victim to a similar fate if they get too ready to assume conspiracies must be true. If we assume without evidence, we could easily get swept up by a charismatic leader looking to tell us what we want to hear.