Can confirm - am poop knife.

You are talking about user-level blocking, whereas iirc defederation is an instance-level blocking that also stops user comments too, as well as votes.

The “election” is perpetual. People will vote with their participation.

As it should always be.

I wonder where they went?

Someone writing a wall of text when it is not asked for or appreciated may be being insensitive to their audience. On the other hand, I’ve literally had people ask for it and then someone else steps in to complain, so definitely there are Karens who feel entitled to whinge no matter what you do. Just settle in your own mind whether you are doing the right thing, and let being correct remain your guide as to what to do.

Counterpoint: this is from the NYT so… ofc that’s what they’d say, especially resulting from their own polling audience.

I AM pulling UP, but this is a Boeing, and every time I aim UP we somehow end up going DOWN!?!?

I am not the person you replied to but I wanted to echo and extend their statement: you may need to come to terms with the fact that you might not have the capability to help your friend, and it’s even possible that nobody does, unless and until they become receptive to that kind of aid.

I am not saying to do nothing, but do be aware of that, e.g. if you give them money and they gamble it away, will you just keep giving them money until neither of you has any at all? And then repeat for every single one of your friends as well?

Decide what you can do and what you cannot. In any case you may not be able to “save” him - that is something that as an adult he needs to do for himself, and may resent you for even trying?

Is this the new “Honey Badger Don’t Care” meme?

• It does blow my mind that the interpretation of who God is doesn’t seem to hinge upon the virgin birth, and in fact may be all the stronger if not.
• What was that vision though - that “she would have a child, and that God was in charge of the situation”? Or that “as a virgin she will have a child, by God”?

After this, you switched contexts btw, talking about Christianity as a whole, rather than the singular point of whether Jesus was born from a “virgin” vs. “maiden”. However, Christianity is not all one unified things - we know that it is good & pure & true when it does things like take care of widows & orphans, feeds the homeless, visits the sick & in prison, etc.; but we also know that “Christianity” is false if it includes things like priests having the right to sexually abuse little children. Also in the USA, many people are equating “being Christian” with “voting Republican, no matter who the nominee is (and what crimes they may have already committed)”. These behaviors persist despite verses such as Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19 that say explicitly never to add anything.

Rather, the Bible literally commands us to “Test everything against what we know to be true” (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and Matt. 24 gives explicit warnings against people trying to add all manner of falsehoods, etc.

So, not knowing any of Greek, Aramaic, the Jewish language and especially that of the ancient Semites, I cannot really “test” whether the Bible says that Jesus was a virgin. And seeing all the other ways that others are misusing the scriptures to mean whatever they want it to, I am skeptical. God is pure power incarnate and would not be diminished in the least if He chose to be born to a non-virgin, imho, but I could see how others who place more value on human superstitions than whatever may have actually happened could see things differently. Which, aside from my laziness to dig deeper into finding the real truth of the matter, is what keeps me stuck in my doubt. And anyway, as we both said, it doesn’t really seem to matter either way:-).

There’s a lot to that - e.g. transgressions passed down - but also there seems a lot that could be said against that as well, e.g. looking at David’s lineage including an actual prostitute, so not only is God not “above” using sinful people, but He in fact often uses the weak things of the world to show how foolish the “wise” are.

I am no biblical scholar, so I cannot weigh in on what the various likelihoods are - e.g. are the odds for vs. against 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, etc.? But the point I was making here is that the odds, to me, seem to not be infinity to zero. Even if they were very very high like 9:1, that’s still a good enough chance at being wrong that if someone saw that on a weather forecast they might legit bring along an umbrella, if they had something important to protect like a laptop or even a brand-new hairdo that they don’t want to ruin the day before the special event it was meant for. And this is so crucial that I do not want to miss it even at the risk of stating the obvious: people’s lives, especially for eternity, are far more important than a chance of rain.

So what are the chances that this INTERPRETATION is incorrect? It’s not like “the Church” has never been shown to be incorrect before…

So yeah, I do wonder.

Don’t forget: you can become one yourself, by running your own community.

This alone is enough to answer why people need to vote for Biden next term!!!

Well, you are holding it right now, and possession is 9/10ths of the law so…

What could go wrong with creating a treasure trove of data that AI miners would do anything to get their hands on?

So far… this time could legit be different.

We’ve Fucked Around with the planet (since the Industrial Revolution), and also invented nukes, so… I suppose we’re about to enter the And Find Out stage of FAAFO.

Aren’t we in the USA already at >200 electoral votes total that have pledged to put all of their votes towards whoever wins the popular vote? That said, I would expect a more serious resistance as it inches closer to where it might actually make a difference.

Also, I realize that isn’t quite the same thing as fully moving away from a first past the vote system, but it is a type of reformation and it does help get away from the electoral college system in particular, so seems somewhat related.

I think Capable should be downgraded to a Maybe at this point…

I have heard that that word most often translated as “virgin” is elsewhere translated as “maiden” aka young woman just out of girlhood. I always wonder how much emphasis has been placed on that translation effect:-).

I know in some places, like Texas, they seem to presume that you have a tall truck. Anyone with even a normal-height vehicle is thereby put at a severe disadvantage, especially when you try to see past the tall truck that has pulled way far FORWARD past the line, just to stop at a red light.

i.e., it is for measuring the size of one’s dick, even (especially?) for women drivers. Learn to swing it proud, or else never get anywhere in those places!