At this point, I think most people who qualify as merely conservative are Democrats. The Republican party in general has moved far right of “conservative” and well into “fanatical”.

I honestly can’t tell if he’s trolling, or just unhinged. Either way, he’s getting blocked.

Lmao what a shit take.

Great summary of every comment you’ve made in this thread.

Pretty sad that providing a better life for children than we had is apparently a controversial opinion.

I take great joy in providing my son a life free of the home life experiences that made my youth hell. It still remains to be seen how well he'll avoid the pitfalls of social interaction I suffered through, but I do feel like I'm preparing him far better than I ever was.

I’m confident that the amount of things you cannot imagine is quite substantial; certainly far more than that of an average person.

We advocate for freedom of speech, and not just the limited one currently granted by the 1st amendment of the constitution of the USA.

“People should be able to say whatever they want without having to fear consequences” is a garbage take on “freedom of speech”. Even if you clarify it as “people be able to say whatever they want without having to fear consequences from large organizations”, it is still a garbage take.

a “platform” like mail which has been determined to be a right.

When was mail determined to be a right, and by whom?

I’m just arguing that, for certain very large monopolistic corporations, maybe it should apply as well.

Instead of treating huge corporations that actively suppress competition like they’re a de facto form of government, we should instead… prevent them from getting to the point where their size and market share grants them power over the lives of citizens comparable to that of the government.

“Freedom of speech” doesn’t mean “I should be able to say what I want without any consequences”.

Do you understand how much effort you’re putting into being “right” rather than having an actual discussion?

For context, you started with “EV is bad because it uses coal”, implying that it is worse than ICE vehicles (somehow).

Then you had to change it to “EV is bad because it uses non-renewable energy.”

Then you had to change it to “EV is bad because it uses non-renewable energy and renewable energy, but not really much renewable energy.”

Then you had to change it to “EV is bad because outside of California, which doesn’t count (for some reason), it uses non-renewable energy and renewable energy, but not really much renewable energy.”

Now that someone is pointing out that other places besides California use significant amounts of renewable energy, your argument has become “I only will accept arguments that provide citations, even though my own various, shifting arguments, have provided none.”

This is in no way a good look for you.

OG Travian was the shit. I made a lot of friends there that persisted long after I left the game.

It’s funny that someone is so triggered by implications that ABA even exists that they downvoted you for factually pointing out what the acronym stands for.

Way to double down on your hypocrisy.

As I pointed out, your demand for examples of licensed doctors providing formal referrals as the only acceptable proof is ridiculous. In the US that is covered by HIPAA, and illegal to share without permission from the patient. You’re essentially saying “the only proof I will accept is anecdotal evidence provided by a patient willing to share their confidential medical records.” The fact that you skipped right over addressing that when it was pointed out suggests that you are operating out of a position of emotional investment, rather than actual interest in discussion.

The fact that I actually provided you the google searches I used, then to have you not only refuse to bother trying then but also pretend that I never supplied them in the first place (pro-tip: “I googled the phrase ‘aba therapy clinic’” is functionally the same as “https://www.google.com/search?q=aba+therapy+clinic”) just makes it more hilariously clear that you started with a position (that doctors are reliable and would never do anything abusive), and are simply approaching discussion by looking for ways to immediately discredit and dismiss any and all statements that don’t agree with your preconceived worldview.

The funny part is that I don’t even know if ABA is “abuse”. There’s certainly a lot of literature about how it was, but more recent material claims that the most egregious elements of abuse have been removed. I only chimed in to point out that ABA is absolutely a current thing, despite your hilarious attempts to insist otherwise. Your imaginations of my own “prejudice” mixed with your mewlings about “the reality of today’s healthcare” only add to the humor of your clownish responses.

Picking a random location (New Haven Connecticut), here are some clinics advertising ABA therapy: https://www.achievebeyondusa.com/locations/connecticut/ https://cultivatebhe.com/locations/connecticut/new-haven/ https://www.autismlearningpartners.com/locations/connecticut/new-haven-county/new-haven https://www.autismspeaks.org/provider/proud-moments-aba-new-haven (of course the ultra-shitty “Autism Speaks” currently endorses ABA!) https://www.abrandnewdayaba.com/

Here’s a couple of “top 10 ABA therapy providers in New Haven”: https://beaminghealth.com/aba-therapy/new-haven-06510/all https://m.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Aba+Therapy&find_loc=new+haven%2C+ct

But yeah, let’s just go with “ABA doesn’t exist any more because no one is showing me an actual physical referral from a doctor specifying ABA on it” so you can pat yourself on the back and feel safe from being wrong on the internet :D

I just searched “aba therapy near me” and “aba therapy clinic” and got dozens of results. They’re not close-but-not-exact matches, either. These are places that literally describe themselves on their home page as focusing on delivering ABA services to children.

Considering referrals issued by a licensed doctor are considered confidential, and illegal to share without patient consent in many areas, the ability/inability to present such a referral as evidence is not a good criteria for whether it happens or not. But the prevalence of specialists that offer these services certainly indicates that specialists are finding it a profitable business model. I suppose it is possible that the vast majority of their business does not come from doctor referrals, but that seems unlikely.

There’s a pretty significant difference between “I don’t trust neurotypicals” and “I don’t trust a specific neurotypical person who diagnoses without extensive hands-on experience in the relevant target population, particularly when the population in question tends to intentionally learn to hide their defining characteristics as they get older.”

That’s how defense of this stuff always works. They subtly change the meaning of commonly accepted words and terms. “Service available to the public” becomes “public service” and “Nazis are good” becomes “an opinion” instead of hate speech.

The real problem here is that Twitter/X user’s data can be easily revealed by organizations.

The publicly posted data being easily revealed by organizations is a problem?

Nah, wombats just lure you into sticking your head in the hole they’re hiding in, and then crush your skull with their muscly ass. https://theoatmeal.com/comics/wombats

Okay, that all I can agree with. And I feel like there’s a huge difference between buying items on Amazon, and buying groceries on Amazon. I find it really hard to justify the later, but I can still imagine some circumstances where it would be justified (e.g. someone with a disability who can’t travel/carry groceries, and no other local store has viable delivery options).

It’s a shame. I used to love Amazon. Back when they just sold books they were one of the sites that really highlighted just what the Internet could be. More than a place for entertainment, but a place to obtain things that were otherwise unavailable. Their transition from ‘we sell books’ to ‘we sell everything and we’ll actively destroy anything that might compete with us if we can’ was terrible.

They managed to even screw up the cost of gas for me. I live in a small town that happened to be chosen by Amazon to be one of their major distribution centers. Our area is filled with their delivery trucks, and as a result the cost of gas is a full $0.20 USD more here than if I drive to the next town over.

Fuck Amazon. But I refuse to judge people who shop there as harshly. Judging them requires too many assumptions about their personal circumstances.