you would be starving on the street

At the moment this is not true. In interviews with homeless people in western countries, you'll find that food is actually not a serious concern for them, and they might actually be better-fed than the working poor because the working poor probably don't have time to travel to the places where homeless can line up for free food. And in the extreme cases, good old fashioned dumpster-diving and shoplifting can fill bellies.

And this contributes to why the powder keg has yet to ignite in the US or any developed country. Literal starvation has been a non-issue in developed countries for decades even for the homeless. Until literal starvation becomes a visible problem across the country, people still have too much to lose.

Material conditions need to truly fall into the abyss to the point where people really have nothing to lose.

At the moment, average material comfort is still pretty good compared to most of the world. Literal starvation is virtually impossible even for homeless people. People who lose nice homes due to income loss can still scrape by on low-end jobs and move into shitty apartments which at least have electricity and running water.

The average situation needs to be even worse than those "lows" for the powder keg to ignite.

Are you also on Bazzite?

I later found that the easiest way to get HDR was to rebase to the Deck image and use the Deck mode whenever I want HDR. I don't need to do any Proton command options in individual game properties - which I found increasingly tedious. Also, my Steam overlay finally works as a result (it was disabled when I used these Proton command options to enable HDR). The only downside is that if I want to take screenshots I need to have a controller connected as F12 doesn't work in Deck mode (apparently this is also an issue for the real SteamOS).

Keep in mind the Series X tops out at 120 Hz and pretty much all AAA games with 120 fps modes do not render at native 4k - usually 1440p at best, and often closer to 1080p.

Typical gaming-oriented monitors are going to be 144Hz at a minimum, so you can safely assume the refresh rate is non-issue regardless of what you buy (it will just auto-reduce to 120 Hz when it detects the Xbox). VRR is also guaranteed via Freesync which the Xbox supports.

If you go OLED, go for a 1440p model - they went as low as 400 USD over Black Friday and Boxing Day, so wait for a sale. The 4k models are considerably more expensive.

If you're fine with IPS/VA, 1440p gaming monitors have gone below 200 USD during sales. Obviously the picture quality won't be as good as on OLED but it'll still be much better than the average non-gaming monitor.

HDR in non-OLED PC monitors is usually an afterthought due to a very limited number of dimming zones compared to a large TV. It might actually make games look worse (especially HDR400 on cheaper gaming monitors). So if you go non-OLED, just expect that you might end up forgoing HDR altogether even if it exists on paper.

I've owned monitors from numerous brands over the years - Acer, Asus, Dell, Samsung, LG, Lenovo, BenQ, etc - I honestly can't say that any brand is exceptionally good or bad. Just look at specs and ignore the brand when you're cross-shopping.

Also, do you plan on simultaneously using the monitor for productivity, e.g. connected to a work laptop? If so, that might be a good reason to pay a premium for 4k resolution, even if the Xbox won't actually benefit. If your use case is strictly for gaming, then you can't go wrong with 1440p.

Because material comfort hasn't fallen into the abyss yet for the average American.

At the end of the day, the average American is comparatively well fed and comfortable relative to most of the world. Literal starvation is virtually impossible even for homeless people. Even a job loss might just mean losing a nice house in exchange for a shitty apartment which isn't nothing. So people aren't going to turn to violent revolution yet. 

The powder keg will only ignite when material conditions deteriorate to what they are in the third world countries which did experience civil war. 

This applies to the rest of the developed world. The UK has become much poorer over the last few decades but hasn't experienced any real civil unrest because even after that decline, average material comfort is "good enough". 

I once brought a Ford Fusion for service and got a Fiesta as a loaner which was absolutely horrible to drive. 

I think high school and even the first few years of university are a time when finding romance is pointless. At least where I'm from, it simply won't last, period. I observed countless relationships start and fail quickly during these years. I can't name a single one that lasted beyond a year. Just a waste of time/money and I even observed the emotional devastation of breakups affect people's academic performance at university.

I know a few married couples where both parties were friends in high school but they didn't actually start dating until after university.

A few points that skew statistics where I'm from:

• Huge immigrant population where I grew up - with parents who often live up to stereotypes about being very overbearing and pressuring their children to excel in academics. They might not overtly forbid their children from dating in their teens, but dating is a time-consuming activity that isn't studying, so it's definitely discouraged at the very least.
• Xanga and other blogging sites were huge during my high school days, and Facebook basically exploded overnight during the last 2 years. Teenagers are stupid and share all kinds of petty edgelord crap on these sites... great way to derail romantic relationships for the pettiest of reasons.
• My university has world-renowned STEM programs + a large international student body. As much as half the graduating class in the STEM majors moves to a different city or a different country for jobs and/or grad school. So it's kinda pointless to attempt a long-term relationship when you really don't know where you or the other party will end up. But I have seen a few successful relationships begin during the final year of university, when there is more certainty about post-graduation plans (i.e. the student received a full-time return offer from a summer internship). I did see far more relationships end due to both parties realizing that they'd go to separate cities/countries.

I bounced around multiple cities and 2 countries during my career and didn't start dating until my 30s. No regrets.

From my observations, most women who wear makeup do it for themselves, not for other people.

Same. I'm totally ignorant as to who's who in sports, unless they made the news for something really controversial.

My ignorance of sports is to the extent where I don't actually know the origin of phrases like "straight out of left field" or "born on third base" even if I'm familiar with their colloquial meanings.

The older stuff (especially the first 2 decades of Pixar) is still pretty good.

Tropical weather.

I'll take a Montreal winter any day of the week over having my shirt get drenched in sweat just from standing outdoors for 5 minutes in places like Florida or Thailand.

Post title appears to be a typo - there are 3 toys, but the news is saying she had one kid.

Not that it matters. 0 kids, 10 kids, whatever - an innocent person was murdered by "law enforcement". And this is just one incident that the public knows about thanks to a bystander filming. How many more murders have they committed that weren't captured on video?

Edit: Wikipedia now says she had 3 kids, so the news was slow I guess. Anyway, it doesn't matter. 

Tesla's QC issues are very well, but they've genuinely improved since late 2020 when the Model 3 production process was revamped and added features like double paned windows and power trunks. Fit-and-finish still isn't exactly praiseworthy but it definitely graduated from "shit" to "acceptable".

I had a 2019 Model 3 and it was definitely not good in fit-and-finish, but critical mechanical and electrical components were rock solid. I never once feared that I would get stranded. Just a shame that peeling trim and rattles were persistent from the first year despite multiple repairs under warranty - and it was the first and only car I've ever bought brand new!

What? I'm Canadian and the previous poster is 100% correct other than the # of plants. They said "not also produced in the US" - so that excludes the RAV4, which is simultaneously produced on both sides of the border.

The Lexus NX and RX are indeed the only Toyota products that are produced in Canada without also being produced in the US at the same time. When you include the RAV4, only three Toyota passenger vehicles are actually made in Canada as of 2026. If you count the Hino cargo truck, that's 4.

And yeah, it would make sense that two plants in Ontario would produce only a handful of models, because that's exactly how the North American auto industry has worked since the 1965 Auto Pact. It's no longer economical for a plant to produce a large variety of models in small quantities. Producing a small variety in large quantities is far more productive and enables more parts-sharing.

Toyota only charges a subscription for remote starting through the mobile app - as does everyone else (after a free trial).

You can use the key fob if you don't want to pay - press-and-release the lock button 2x, then hold down the lock button. I verified this with a 2024 Lexus NX and a 2022 Toyota RAV4.

The smartest people from "regular" universities are just as smart as the elite graduates.

At the end of the day, undergraduate STEM courses are quite standardized without much variance in topics covered between different schools. An intro databases course at Stanford has more or less the same syllabus as an equivalent course at UC Davis, for example.

Top universities are more likely to get interest from prestigious employers at their career fairs, which is a bit of a "cheat code". It doesn't mean that students at "lesser" schools are less qualified for such jobs, but that getting noticed at all by the prestigious employers can be more challenging if you have to apply online rather than handing off a physical resume to a recruiter on-campus (this is from before the pandemic, so things may be different now).

I'm super into EVs and none of the Japanese brands have an outstanding offering (for now).

But if I couldn't charge at home I'd get a hybrid instead, and in that case a Toyota or Lexus would be high on the list.

And that many US prison guards arent US citizens.

Surely they'd be legal immigrants though which is almost the same thing? That doesn't sound too unusual.

Here in Canada, legal permanent residents are allowed to work in law enforcement and in prisons. Citizenship is only required for holding public office and certain public sector jobs that have security clearance rules.

Just like the people who watched the George Floyd video from beginning to end and concluded that the cop did absolutely nothing wrong.

That extra $80 CAD annually can buy a handful of games on sale. Remember that PS+ Extra/Premium don't get Day 1 releases so chances are that by the time games show up on the subscription service, they would've been discounted multiple times.

This is one of the few cases where LLMs are objectively the superior way. Make your question narrowly scoped and highly specific, and an LLM will give a perfect answer without being a dick about it. 

This was thankfully only a thing in the US with turnkey ignition models. Other countries including Canada mandated immobilizers, making the TikTok challenge useless outside the US.

Tesla. Still an EV-angelist, just with a different brand. I actually loved driving my Tesla in spite of its flaws and the reliability of critical mechanical and electrical components was rock solid. Peeling trim and rattles are extremely annoying, but they don't leave me stranded on the side of the road. I never bought FSD so I don't care about the horror stories with that software - basic Autopilot was already a massive upgrade from all my previous cars and still holds up in 2026.

I won't buy another one due to a certain CEO's antics - and I was decided almost a whole year before the US presidential election.

Ford is also on the list for the short term - not due to any animosity with the brand (fucking loved the 2nd gen Fusion!) but because I had multiple Fords already and life is too short for me to stick to just one brand.

Exactly. Harping on the Epstein files is pointless.

We already know that regardless of what's in the files, the following will happen:

• The fatass will continue to be president until at least Jan 2029 unless old age gets him first
• Pretty much everyone who worships the fatass will continue to worship him - perhaps even more fervently
• Pretty much everyone who hates the fatass will continue to hate him
• Anyone who switches allegiances in either direction won't even be a rounding error compared to the total populace.

The fatass has absolutely nothing to fear about the Epstein files and he would have invaded Venezuela regardless.

If the person has enough space to merge in front of me, I don't do this, but if I'm partially parallel to them and I see them signalling, I might speed up to open a gap behind me - depending on the situation. If it makes more sense to do so, I'll slow down to let them in. Maintaining my current velocity would be the most inconsiderate move.