That purple apartment was rent controlled because officially Monica's Nana was still living in it and the janitor knew and used this as leverage to make Joey dance with him so that he could impress a girl. Iirc...
I mean that's not the point but I just wanted to add this. You're of course correct that times have changed dramatically.
In their defense, the AfD did indeed get over 20% of the votes, and won almost every single district in former East Germany.
For me it's the other way around. That pizza is looking at me replacing the finished pea package yet again for months and months on end.
This will be a stable, centrist, boring government, typically German. Too little progress, but no catastrophe
And this will be the problem and drive even more people to the AfD. If nothing ever changes, people want to look for something else. For an alternative. And on the surface some points of AfD sound appealing, and if you aren't a foreigner, you can "turn a blind eye" on the nazi stuff. With a Groko and standstill for 4 more years, I'm afraid that next time we won't be so lucky and AfD will actually be the strongest party.
It is very ironic because for the first time after 16 years things did change but somehow the government was still blamed and bashed. Let alone that the biggest problem was not SPD and Greens but that the minister of finance was only focused on politics for the minister of finance. I'm happy this fuckwit finally resigned, but we could have had a great minority government that would have actually enabled change if he had just decided to do this earlier. Instead, thank you Christian, you've driven the whole country down a path where we are supposed to be happy that a conservative party who fucked the country for 16 years is the strongest power yet again and that "they promised" to not form a coalition with AfD. DeMoCRaCy wOn.
Best case scenario this will not end well for Elon. Worst case scenario this will not end well for the world and we'll all die in nuclear war or something.
Thank you!
I'm afraid you won't have time. It will take minutes. And I'm not even sure it would be announced.
Man I can't remember the original meme/context to this one, can you help me out?
Absolutely agree with you, but, unpopular opinion probably, I also don't want a lazy ass who can't or doesn't want to get a job to be homeless. Like, I don't care how much of an asshole you are and how many drugs you take and that you don't care to hold a job, I still want you to have shelter, food, and basic necessities. Let alone kids of these people.
So, in the best case scenario, the US as we know it is done and, after a hard fall and hitting rock bottom, will emerge as a country that is less of a capitalist hellhole. Ideally, in the process, other countries will find more independence from the USA, be it trade wise or security wise.
The more realistic scenario is that everything will stay the same/similar and just get slightly worse all the time but every other country will still suck up to the USA and everything gets a little worse. Oh yeah and climate change will fuck everyone up the ass.
The worst case scenario, I would argue, is that this ends in the destruction of the world via nuclear war within less than an hour. This is what I am scared of the most.
Funnily enough, the day before you posted this, I was reminded of Return To Oz (I was at the zoo and someone... Scared the crap out of me). That's probably not exactly post apocalyptic or solarpunk, but definitely takes place after a societal collapse of Oz and has creepy weirdos on something like rollerblades. Just in case you want to expand - or dare I say, roll towards the horizon.
Is "here" in the US? Or somewhere else in the West? I'm mostly asking because I could probably give more concrete tips if it were in Germany.
Have they ever met a refuge from Ukraine? Did they talk with them?
As for things like wind parks or climate policies or economics I think it is important to find a way to present that as "this is directly financially beneficial for you". Here in Germany, let's say, different independent financial institutions have calculated the total tax burden based on your income bracket if different parties were in power and went through with their plans. And lo and behold, of course FDP, CDU and AfD would have very much increased the tax burden on low to middle income people. Or they calculated that the great sounding plans of these parties would cost like 150 billion euros - which is an incredibly high sum - and explaining this away with "oh we'll make the economy prosper" doesn't work either (more calculations that are irrelevant if you're not in Germany).
My honest tip is don't make it about ideology. If you want to keep talking about politics, don't talk about liberation. Don't talk about foreigners, nazis, climate change, DEI or LGBTQ. Your best bet is money. And safety maybe. But as others have suggested - reconsider whether you even want to throw pearls at swine and try to convince them of something different.
And don't forget that a lot of behavior is a reaction of fear. In the beginning of the war there was a great podcast episode of Екатерина Шульман where she tried to emphasize that in times of aggression, it is a very natural response of the psyche to align with the aggressor. Your parents neither want to see the country they came from, love and probably idealize (as we always do with our past, especially when we don't fully beling somewhere new) as the Bad Guy, nor do they want to be scared - for their country, for their future, for their relatives, for you.
Also, I just want to say, my condolences, and I deal with similar stuff. My family is either apolitical or opportunistic, and the best case scenario is "well both sides are bad". I've been scared to call my grandpa who has первый канал running 24/7 for a year after the war started, I can guess what side he is on. If you ever want to just vent about how awful and difficult it is, feel free to write me.