I wouldn't necessarily blame your niche interests or anything else like that. There's lots of people this applies to who just forgot how to socialize. I would put myself in that category. I like sports and many other popular things, and I used to be reasonably easy to talk to but ever since covid I'm considerably more awkward in social situations.

Someone I haven't seen in two years will ask what I've been up to and my mind just goes blank. It's not that I've been sitting at home doing nothing the whole time but for some reason none of the things I could talk about come to me in the moment. It's a strange thing to feel yourself being socially inept in a way that you didn't used to be. I've gotten better but it's still weird a lot of the time.

What's the better and safer alternative to nuclear power plants?

That's fair. We seem to have largely given up on police reform in general. I guess they wore us down and we've accepted it.

I give a shit and I believe a lot of others do as well but what practical difference are you expecting that to make? There's not exactly a feelings poll taken before a cop shoots a person, much less a dog.

One might argue that is the biggest problem we face

So did I but unfortunately we lost. That's democracy in action. The country we live in (the collective we) asked for this.

I don't have any good advice for you. My company held an all-hands call today during which the CEO said "Now that the election is behind us we can look forward to political stability", among other equally insane things. You could say I'm feeling pretty down about the whole situation as well.

I know what you mean but he does, quite literally, speak for us now. This is what we asked for.

There's not much left in the affordable category of any industry

If our politicians require coaxing to defend democracy then we've already lost it.

Are we spinning the actions of fascists as some sort of secret protection of democracy now? Because what you just said sounds crazy to me. 100% of so called reasonable Republicans have already left the party. The people who remain are corrupt without exception.

Fascism taking hold depends on a significant portion of people ignoring the threat it poses in its infancy. Saying Trump won't do what he's clearly trying to do, and even going so far as to say it might turn out to be a good thing, are both extremely bad ideas. Many Germans did not believe Hitler was the threat he turned out to be and as a consequence they did not react to his early actions as they would have had they known what was to come. Trump attempting to purge military leadership and install loyalists is an obvious example of an event that will come to be seen as a pivotal moment in history if we continue down this path we're on.

Trump won't be allowed to destroy the military. He will weaken it, though, and that can only be a good thing.

Real 1930s Germany vibes coming out today

Hello fellow Montanan. I wish you well in your journey. There are more of us than you might guess but it does feel like a losing battle a lot of the time

Hockey really is better than all other sports for fans. I say that as someone who did not grow up playing or watching hockey and only started watching about 4 years ago.

The games are exciting and not too long, regular breaks are built in but when play is happening there's not much down time, it hasn't yet gotten absurdly over-commercialized compared to many other sports (in both senses of that word), and attending a game is more fun than any other sporting event I've experienced.

Seriously, I've been to hundreds of football games from middle school all the way up to professional, along with quite a few baseball / basketball / wrestling / track events and I would say all but one of my all-time favorite sporting events were one of the relatively limited number of hockey games I've been to. They are a ton of fun even for new fans who have basically no idea what's going on.

It doesn't matter as much what Trump is planning to do with his powers. He's old and on the way out whether he likes it or not. The real problem is what the people set to take over when he's gone plan to do with them. Does Trump set up his successor or does his ego force him to shut the door behind him? Our best chance at normalcy in a post Trump world might just be that he's so unbelievably mean spirited that he takes his potential rivals down with him when the time comes.

They already have started doing that

Please read my previous comment again because the response to this statement is exactly the same.

They said the same thing about black people until a black man running as a progressive won the nomination. I think you've been learning the wrong lesson from all the elections since.

I cringe every time someone describes Trump as charismatic. I know what you mean and I don't disagree with the sentiment, but the fact that there are people in this world who find his demeanor appealing will never be anything but horrific to me.