Would still be a little difficult for people living in apartments. I always think about this when it comes to EVs, and owning “dumb” cars and maintaining them yourself, which I would like to do. My apartment complex has 3 or 4 EV chargers, which are assigned. So you would have to rent the apartment that comes with the EV spot, which I’m sure makes the rent go up by far more than it’s worth. And no way is there room to work on your own car within the assigned spaces. No guest parking either. I guess it’s just more stuff to add to the “cycle of poverty” list

Sociologist Matthew Desmond has an amazing book called Evicted that talks about criminal act evictions and profiles people who have been the target of them. The book follows very low income renters in Milwaukee through years of their struggles to find and keep housing. It also follows individual landlords from the same neighborhoods. It’s technically an academic subject and is impeccably researched (the notes section in the back could be its own book) but it reads like a novel. It won a Pulitzer iirc.

He also just published Poverty, By America last year. I’ve only just started it, but it’s just as readable. He explains overly-complicated regulations and social services red tape in a way that’s concise and easy to understand, and he illustrates their consequences through his interviews with real people. His books should be required reading for every American.

Freight trains. The funny thing is that I was never really interested in them as a kid, only once I got into my early 20s. There’s tons of adults who love trains, but for some reason it’s still viewed as kind of a childish interest and I’m not sure why.

The last time I drove out to watch some I was kind of disappointed though. It’s been a long time, so I was actually surprised that out of hundreds of freight containers, 90% of them are now just giant Amazon logos, and the other 10% are giant Walmart logos. It kind of sucks. The engines make it worth it though.

This just happened to me so I came here to see if it had happened to anyone else. Should have known it wasn’t a problem on my end.

What it’s like being a TA

When did this all or nothing way of thinking start in American culture? Has it always been like this and I’m just now noticing it, or is it much more prevalent now because it’s a side effect of a lack of critical thinking skills

Obligatory fuck psypost. The most click bait, sensationalized headlines for small sample correlational studies that almost always have a divisive basis, like “democrats are better at x than republicans,” or “men are better at x than women” or some shit. I got so sick of seeing it on the front page of reddit every single day because there were ten different subs reposting the same articles.

“Nothing happens in god’s world by mistake.” “God never gives you more than you can handle.” Etc etc.

When 1 in 6 women has been sexually assaulted in their lives (and many men and NB folks), that’s a really fucked up thing to say. You never know what someone’s been through, and I’ve personally been through a lot of awful things. I guess it helps some people to tell themselves this kind of shit, but it is impossible to me to think of any kind of meaning that would make being a victim of violent crime “positive” or “worth it” or “a learning experience” blah blah blah. I think the term for that is “toxic positivity.”

So either “everything happens for a reason” is utter bullshit, or god is a sadistic fucking asshole.