America & the World V: DOGE Business

[Neon Ignition]

I've never really understood the desperateness people have to assign some sort of weird conspiracy theory to the COVID vaccine. It's literally just an edited flu vaccine meaning many have already effectively had a version of it pre-COVID and if they wanted to kill vast numbers of people they would A-need a reason to do it and B-need to ignore the literally millions of other jabs for a multitude of ailments issued annually.

It's literally the most convoluted and inefficient way of achieving any of the ills theorists attribute to it.

[fishbowlhead]

I've never really understood the desperateness people have to assign some sort of weird conspiracy theory to the COVID vaccine. It's literally just an edited flu vaccine meaning many have already effectively had a version of it pre-COVID and if they wanted to kill vast numbers of people they would A-need a reason to do it and B-need to ignore the literally millions of other jabs for a multitude of ailments issued annually.

It's literally the most convoluted and inefficient way of achieving any of the ills theorists attribute to it.

No the conspiracy is real i tells ya, because white Jesus said so.

[QualityChimp]

No the conspiracy is real i tells ya, because white Jesus said so.

[Asura]

I've never really understood the desperateness people have to assign some sort of weird conspiracy theory to the COVID vaccine.

I feel one of the biggest problems that social media/the internet has created is how it's empowered that person.

Remember how, when we were kids, we surely all knew one - we all knew a kid where, if a house nearby was being demolished, the rest of us just thought it was being renovated, but this kid... They knew. They knew it was because someone was killed there, and no-one wanted to buy the house, so it stood empty until someone eventually had it knocked down. (this was not the real reason).

When one of your teachers left school, they knew it was really because they'd said something in front of the mayor that had got them sacked. (again, not the real reason).

Not the bull****ter kid. We probably all knew a bull****ter kid too, but their lies were more straightforward. They knew James Bond, their dad worked for Nintendo, etc.

No, this was the kid who always wanted to "know". Like they always wanted to look like they had "the inside track", like they had hidden knowledge. Whenever they were told something about a situation, they made up their own reason and would tell you it later, and say they heard it off someone else.

Most kids go through weird phases and I'm sure, like the bull****ter kid, most of them grew out of this, realising there's nothing smart in trying to look like you know the inside track without being able to back it up.

But it's really clear that many people don't and they still harbour this weird desire to pretend they're in the know. They take great pleasure in being the one who "knows" when everyone else just believes the commonly accepted reasoning.

They didn't want to wear masks because it made them look silly and they're a whiny pissbaby because they know. They know, apparently, that it's useless, that all the doctors and medical professionals are lying. They don't know like this individual knows.

Gawd... Some people really need a ****ing slap

[fishbowlhead]

Gee whiz thanks for the facts Abe.

[Neon Ignition]

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin makes state of the nation address; Biden arrives in Poland – live (theguardian.com)
What happens if you put a man with a fragile ego and poor wartime track record in front of a nation who were originally told that the special operation would be over within weeks?

You call him Putin and let him lie through gritted teeth


Putin announces, seemingly without context or real point that the West announces paedophilia as a normal thing. He then says that the west supports same sex marriage.... but that's okay because so does he before going on about the unrelated discussions going on in the church.

He now finally refers to the Ukraine War as a war instead of a special operation but now claims that the West started it



The head of the Wagner security group that has been aiding the Russians turned on Putin and his military the night before, saying that they weren't be supplied with enough ammunition by the military and that this was in effect an effort by Russia to destroy the Wagner group and an act of treason by Russia.



Japan poised to raise age of consent from 13 in overhaul of sexual offence laws | Japan | The Guardian
Away from Russia and Japan is about to raise the age of consent to 16

[QualityChimp]

No wonder the war isn't going well for Russia - look how clumsy the people in charge are:

Russian defence official dies after falling from St. Petersburg tower window

[Yakumo]

Japan poised to raise age of consent from 13 in overhaul of sexual offence laws | Japan | The Guardian
Away from Russia and Japan is about to raise the age of consent to 16

About time, too. Still as it states at the bottom of the artical, regional laws ban “lewd” acts with people aged 18 or under. This doesn't go for the whole country mind you.

[Cassius_Smoke]

The age of concent in Japan is 13?? That's... Wow.

[QualityChimp]

About time, too. Still as it states at the bottom of the artical, regional laws ban “lewd” acts with people aged 18 or under. This doesn't go for the whole country mind you.

I had no idea about this.
That's pretty primitive in such a modern country.

What's the general tone like in the media over there?
Are people up in arms, supportive or indifferent?

[Yakumo]

I had no idea about this.
That's pretty primitive in such a modern country.

What's the general tone like in the media over there?
Are people up in arms, supportive or indifferent?

People in general support the higher age of concent but I'm sure those sad lonely peados aren't happy.
I mean, Japan is quite liberal when it comes to sex. Love affairs are common with women just as much as men.
But that doesn't mean the average person is for sex with a 13 year old. That's just sick!

[Neon Ignition]

At what point do we think Russia will make any attempt at all to mask its assassinations of its own officials?
Hell, who even wants those jobs at this point?

[briareos_kerensky]

Some US States still have the lowest age of consent at 13.

[wakka]

Feel like I'm on a watch list after visiting that page.

[Asura]

The age of concent in Japan is 13?? That's... Wow.

It's a bit more nuanced than it first appears.

My understanding from my time as a teacher there (though others here may know more than I) was that the age of "don't pass go, go to prison" was/is 13. However, you could still get sent to prison for sexual acts with a young person up to 18 in various contexts; it was case-by-case. For instance, a doctor, who has a position of authority, would probably go to prison if the child was 16; but an 18-year-old builder might not, because their job has no position of authority over kids. We were always told (as teachers) to treat 19 as the age, if we were dating someone.

On the one hand, at one end of the scale, the idea of someone sleeping with a 13yo makes me feel ill. But a teacher I worked with defended the practice on the other end, saying that in the UK system, just having a line at 16 was weird to him, because it implies that if a person sleeps with a child who is 15-years-and-364-days old, they go to jail, but 16-years-and-1-day, legally the 16yo can consent.

Looked at that way, I can understand the idea of having a "soft criteria" as opposed to a line in the sand. However, the "low-end" side of it is still a stumbling block for me.

Japan has a complicated relationship with this, as Yakumo says.

Even in 2022; the OVA prequel chapter for the Fruits Basket anime released, which shows how the mother and father of the main character in the show first met. The father is ~25 years old and working as a student teacher, while the mother is a delinquent student in final year, which means she's freshly 15 years old. And this is framed as a romance.