Has… Has the Economist not heard about mail order brides before? That shit goes back decades (and arguably further, but there was no major feminist movement to “avoid”, so the motives were different).

Spoiler alert: It goes poorly. Usually, the women are looking to escape the traditional values of wherever they’re from, with a cosmopolitan, open-minded Western man (and also money). So, there’s a bit of a mismatch.

The main risk seems like it would be pranks. You can definitely buy other unpleasant odours for pranks, and if the point is to make people thing there’s an emergency, smoke would also work.

Hmm. I wonder if they all got it on the same trip, or at least in the same spot.

Should it be?

Several?

Are you in a naked backcountry hiking club, or something?

If you’re attracted to women, and still thinking of him as a woman, probably not. But also, it’s a homosexual relationship.

Labels don’t actually mean anything, though.

Yes, it really does. It makes me want to do things. If I wasn’t tracking that some percent of my natural lifespan is gone now, I might be inclined to just hang out and do whatever, like when I was a kid.

I actually still do want to leave some kind of legacy, although who knows how much of one is realistic. It just seems like a reasonable goal, when there actually are no defined goals. There’s a moral dimension to that, too; if the world is just ever so slightly better because of me, that’s good.

(Since I’m about to concede morality is not actually very strong, I should make a note that an individual person still can follow a moral system. You tend to pick a worldview that allows you to do what you want, though, and most people, who aren’t fixated on minutiae, will juggle a few)

Failing that, seizing the day, and learning or experiencing everything I can is important.

I don’t consider myself depressed but after seeing and reading what humans do to other humans I don’t trust the better angels of our nature can make the world a better place.

The interesting thing about history is that it demonstrates very starkly that humans have no firm morality, but it’s also ended (as in, so far) with a couple hundred years of actual progress. Clearly, we don’t have to actually be good, or at least naturally be good, for good outcomes to happen.

Don’t take that the wrong way, it still all could go terribly. But, it’s more complicated than just “we build what we are”.

That’s clearly a tame donkey, not a wild ass, SMH.

/s

I suggest you expand your social circle. Solitude is addictive. At first your wellbeing improves so you start to make it one of your top priorities. As you chase the solitude dragon, it stops feeling as good but it’s become all you know and the negative effects kick in.

Huh. That’s actually a pretty great analogy.

Our whole society has a bit of a problem with this drug right now. Like, yes, relationships suck. Making small talk or dealing with a whatever institutional gatekeeper sucks. But in the process of eliminating those things, we’ve made it way, way to easy to have no connection to anyone.

It seemed more like OP blames their supposed superiority for it, which isn’t the same as directly feeling persecuted, but causes a lot of the same issues.

Now, they never said they’re superior, but the image they painted of what everyone else is supposedly like isn’t flattering.

Complains about lack of empathy.

Doesn’t actually offer advice or suggestions, just trashes OP.

Like, sure, there’s a lot of tells that OP has issues. But now we’re wondering about you, too.

On the title: One of us, one of us…

On the text, it should be said that not liking loud party situations is actually pretty common. There’s lots of people who like drawing and cooking; that alone doesn’t mean you’ll be lonely. If you want to meet people who are into those things, groups do exist.

You do have to listen to people talk, and care about what they’re saying, though. Unless you never talk to anyone else about your interests or problems (and this thread is literally about your problems), that’s just fair turnaround. Not doing so makes you a jerk, not superior or something, which, TBH, is the vibe you’re giving off.

Don’t show ass here

Okay OP, what’s the correct answer you want?

Travelers from elsewhere report Americans are unusually friendly and kind to strangers; very approachable. There’s much more of a guarded or even competitive vibe, elsewhere. Anglo North America is also a very smiley culture (as in polite smiles). You can like or dislike that, but Thailand is as well, and they advertise it as a selling point.

All the things people like about developed countries in general apply - it’s hard being gay in, say, Africa. Obviously the trends in the US aren’t great, but there’s a long way to go down.

It’s one of the very few major cultural divergences between the two. As in one severe enough it could cause a misunderstanding. Maybe the only one, IDK.

Позавчера (pozavchyera) in Russian. Pretty sure French has something as well.

Usually you do just say “the day before yesterday/last”, and it’s super awkward. Nothing else is guaranteed to be understood (people are being creative with the new words in this thread). It’s the same for “the day after tomorrow”. Two days ago might also work, but that could mean different things, depending on if you’re counting the present day or not.

In case you don’t know, there has to be more than one shitpost@lemmy. Like, I think I’ve seen the .world one.

They all have something. It’s like just statistically inevitable, since none of them were really designed.

Pretty much every culture other than progressive Western has stronger extended families, which is nice. Squatting is a great way to sit if you start young. Both eating everything with four legs except a table, and being vegetarian are more logically consistent dietary preferences. Toilet paper is dumb.

Languages are pretty similar. English has some nice features, but having a word for the day before yesterday would be handy, for example.

It’s usually pretty easy to get your voice heard in a municipal government. You should look into what the processes are to get on the microphone at a meeting.

In a city, there’s no promise you’ll get the time of day, though. There might be 20 other Karens complaining about too many tree leaves, or not enough open space by the sidewalks.

Mocktails are definitely zoomers, IIRC millennials drink more like gen X. If you’re in an area that had the OG hipsters, remember they were all guzzling craft beer.

Thrifting might go back further, but it’s definitely a trend that continues.