Bunch of Ideas

The beauty of spitballing ideas is that it doesn't matter who says it as long as it's a good idea. I've listed a few of my ideas here with the intention to get the ball rolling on people brainstorming solutions to big problems. Come on, brainstorm with me. Let's fix stuff.

A few of the things I can think of off the top of my head

Do you make movies? Do you write scripts? Here's a great idea. Batman vs. Putin, but with a thinly disguised 50 Shades of Grey as the plot. It would make millions.
Here's another fabulous idea. 50 Shades of Grey as a theater production, but with every scene played out with narration by a chorus line of actual Navy cadets dressed as sailors, belted out at the top of their lungs and ended with "Sir!" and with more lewd scenes explained by the chorus line in the same way that aircraft emergency evacuation procedures are explained by flight attendants using helpful props and also Powerpoint presentations.
After this lousy couple years I have come to the conclusion that worldwide free education of the highest quality possible from preschool to Ph.D. levels is absolutely, completely necessary. We can do it, we have the tech, let's get it done. We start by ensuring high speed broadband gets to every corner of the globe. You can bootstrap a whole lot of stuff for yourself, but you cannot teach yourself things you don't know. It is impossible.
Also, we need universal free healthcare and contraception (birth control pills and condoms, not medically unnecessary abortions, don't get your panties in a wad) paid by taxes worldwide. Why? Well, sick people can't work or contribute as much to the welfare of the human race, often being a current drain on the system instead of a net plus which would happen if they were properly treated (story of my life, ugh). And super poor people often wind up having kids for reasons of either a. no contraception available or b. their future children are the only future health insurance and retirement option they can afford. And guess what happens when the population explodes? The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. War, famine, death, and plague. With certain Socialist policies that are well considered like this one, the world is less of a shithole, and everyone, including the rich (who usually "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps" living in a first-world country with opportunities galore and plenty of Socialism and inherited and nepotistic benefits), lives better.
By the way, many disabled people can still work, especially remotely. If you own a business and need remote employees for any reason, advertise those jobs, because if they don't suck, disabled people will jump in there and do some good work.
The same can be said for a large chunk of the population that hasn't found their 'niche' such as the homeless, the disenfranchised, and the just plain misunderstood. This thread illustrates just how much human talent is being totally ignored in the economy. Do you "know a guy"?
Along with this, worldwide we've got to keep the environment healthy. For all of our posturing and arrogant bravado, the one keeping us alive on this planet is nature, not human beings. WE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO TERRAFORM. WE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SURVIVE IN A SPACESHIP LONG TERM. We do not have that knowledge yet, not even close, and until then, this planet is our only lifeline. Even then, we would be incredibly foolish to get rid of this planet as a backup plan for our species' survival. At our current rate of technological, social, ethical, spiritual, and scientific progress, I estimate we might achieve that goal of space colonization five hundred years from now - if and only if we don't regress as a civilization, which is entirely possible at this point thanks to MAGAts. Do you eat food? Do you drink water? Do you enjoy living in this nearly completely self-sustaining biosphere that provides for all of our survival needs? Yes? Exactly.
We also need worldwide infrastructure. Sewage systems, running clean water, roads, high speed internet, reliable cell phone service, trains, planes. This would change everything. Everything. Human rights violations and disasters would decrease dramatically. Economic growth would boom. New advances in technology and innovation would be everywhere and cause enormous positive change. We wouldn't be able to recognize the world of today as even being realistic.
How about we expand the International Space Station or create another one with even more international collaboration? We seem to suck at nation-to-nation work but this works out well.
8/30/22 Saying that reverse racism does not exist is like saying that human beings are not capable of bullying one another for any superficial nonsense whatsoever. It's a garbage sentiment peddled by terrible people. It directly implies that human beings are not, as a matter of fact, all fundamentally equal (and equally likely to be fucked up), which is itself racist. Racism is racism, regardless of skin color. If you don't like it, get the fuck off this site, because you'll be allergic to all the other truth on it too anyway. Heck, it's exactly like the nonsense stating that it's impossible for Feminists to be misandrist. Doublethink intended to get the victim to swallow it wholesale so the peddler of this crap can power trip and make someone else feel lesser-than. Lies! And frankly as every year goes by with more and more people explaiming that the superficial whatever-it-is they were born with and have nothing to do with gives them "power" and makes them "better than" other people, I get more and more vehemently sex-blind, colorblind, age-blind, and circumstances-bestowed-by-birth-blind. It's all garbage. It's all crap. MLK Jr. mentioned something about how he wanted people to judge others not on the color of their skin but on the content of their character. I have always done that. If you don't like it? Well you can just go to hell.
It is clear that none of our current methods of government are actually working that well. Communism, Fascism, Dictatorships, unregulated and undiluted-with-Socialism Capitalism (we need libraries and a regulated stock market!), they all have serious flaws, mostly due to corruption, but invisibly because none of these create meritocracies, and none of these protect the individual's right to be weird, to be creative, unique, individual, original - in other words, none of these sufficiently protect, or even allow, individual freedom. I don't know what the solution is, but whatever we latch on to next has to be more intelligent because regressive idiocy such as "let's try Communism again" or "let's make everyone else be JUST LIKE US" is not it.
Deadbeat parents should not be allowed to vote. If you've made such a shitty and harmful decision that ruined a child's life, that's proof enough you're an unethical little shit and would only harm the country by voting.
This is a weird one, but bear with me: because over a certain amount of money in your bank account, you have been "voted for" without being voted for and now have lots of power you did not earn via merit, thus can destroy everything for everyone else, there has to be a net worth limit for every human. ~~Ten million dollars~~ actually let's go with 30 million (cause watching rich people cavort is an unofficial and very important national entertainment in the United States), and everything over that goes to the government for the sake of public projects only, such as maintenance of state parks, of roads, for schools, etc. I can practically hear them screaming "Communism!" now. No, it's not you fucking idiots, according to my calculations you can live off one million dollars comfortably in retirement and another one million throughout the course of your life. Then you still have ~~eight~~ 28 million dollars with which to do whatever the heck you want, and you can do a lot with that much. Plus considering most of the country earns less than $60,000 a year and most of that goes toward expenses, that's a huge cap. We currently have monarchies masquerading as democracies and this would solve that problem. This is actually the single largest step we can take towards creating a meritocracy that we can do. If you have any other, better, brilliant ideas, then please feel free to critique it but if you don't kindly shut the fuck up because obviously the system as it is, is not working for anyone but the richest. This will not hold forever but it should be a good stopgap measure until we figure out how to survive without money, which is partially what this website is for. Notice how Ayn Rand did not depict her super-rich factory owners to be pampered party boys without a single shred of work ethic or merit, which is what we have going on right now. She depicted the factory owners to be self-made men who directed their factories themselves, made the processes themselves, even in the case of Atlas Shrugged rescued an employee from a deadly situation themselves. We have pretty much none of that now, just parasitic rich people with a lot of wage slaves relying entirely on their wage slaves to "give up, give up, give up" for the good of Others. This is not what Ayn Rand would have wanted.
If we ever managed to make it so that the amount in your bank account actually was directly correlated with your merit as a human being, then yes, we could get rid of the income cap rule. But when has a person's net worth ever indicated their intellectual, moral, social, or spiritual merit?
Business owners, corporations, and franchises should give all their employees the day off to vote for local, state, and national elections, and also give discounts and freebies to people who come around with "I Voted!" stickers. The biggest problem in the US is not hyperpartisanship, it's lack of education (with which to do proper research of candidates and to understand the issues at stake), but the second worst one is the fact that too many of us don't fucking vote.
END THE GOD DAMNED COMMENT SECTION. We don't need a comment section for news articles, entertainment websites, or articles posted anywhere. The people who write the articles have to put some effort into it, in most cases, and also had to be selected for the weighty responsibility of informing the public via hiring, and in many cases had to go to college and earn their credentials. The commenters do not, and have absolutely no verifiable credentials, then go on to misinform the public as loudly and stupidly as they possibly can because they "believe in themselves," getting views based on another person's hard work. If people want to create crap content that's what blogging is for, amen.
We have white supremacist "Christian" terrorists in this country. There are plenty of Muslim terrorists in the Middle East. Crusades time? :D :D :D
I refuse to pay for the retirement benefits of Baby Boomers. They're richer than most of the rest of us put together thanks to a slew of Socialist benefits they did not earn or even need, crashed the economy, made housing unaffordable, polluted the hell out of everything, voted in idiots who got rid of every protection for the middle class so there's essentially no middle class anymore, got rid of every social safety net so that being poor or unlucky in America is now essentially a death sentence, and they voted in a madman who almost brought about a pandemic armageddon. End Social Security. End it now. Elderly people who are physically unable to work can get on disability benefits. Guess what? I've actually been disabled and unable to get on disability benefits so this is actually quite fair, relative to what I've been through. And relative to what people in other countries go through. Get a grip. Pull yourself up by your boostraps, Boomers.
Open-source free online blueprints for engineers are the key to saving the world. Instructables is the closest thing we have to that, but the Creative Commons is also an option. In particular we need blueprints for these: solar ovens, passive solar technology in general, rain collection and storage systems, rainwater treatment systems including solar heliostats to boil the water followed by drip purification/filtration chambers, directions for safely storing and then treating stored water, water purification apparatus for grid-tie systems contaminated with chemicals/lead, window-sized wind turbines, backyard wind turbines, off-grid wind turbines for those with lots of land, riverside electricity generators, and recipes that cook in solar ovens.
Another thing that will save the world: eco-friendly logistics that just get faster and faster and go everywhere, plus the same for lightning-fast internet. When shipping costs go down for everything, and information sharing increases at an exponential rate, living conditions improve for everybody. Make this happen and in 2031 we won't even recognize the crap conditions of 2021 as being realistic anymore because things will have changed that much, and for the better.
People in supposedly resource-poor areas of the world often have plenty of natural resources. People in supposedly resource-rich areas of the world often have few natural resources. In all cases, there are plenty of resources. It's all about how we use them that matters. Therefore, the best policy is to go full speed ahead on educating everyone as much and as well as possible.
Can't tell you the number of times I've seen a person absolutely fail in school but pwn at video games, having learned the lore and mechanics and strategy of everything in the game. Video game industries are missing out on the educational component of video games big time and app producers are filling the void. The day a video game company comes out with an educational video game people actually want to play repeatedly and want to buy, the rest will follow suit and the world will be a lot better educated. Really the sky's the limit here for how video games can improve people's lives.
Bribe people to get the covid vaccine with candy and stickers by making it known that candy and stickers will be given free to anyone who gets fully vaccinated
Serious incentives such as tax breaks for modifying existing roofs to be green roofs and for mandating that new ones also be green roofs, to reduce the heat island problem in cities
Four-day workweek. Apparently, it works better for everyone, employers and employees alike. Icelandic study
Roundabouts instead of traffic ilghts, because they reduce traffic accidents and traffic jams
Iridebike on Reddit link suggested we put solar panels over every parking lot, in a thread where it's noted India put solar panels over their water canals. Yes! We can put those over drainage ditches too, of which there are many here in the States
Miyawaki forests and hedgerows every place where they are reasonable
Commuter bike paths everywhere as a necessary part of sustainable infrastructure, and not just in towns. Wherever roads go, bike paths and sidewalks must also go, but not parallel to roads until asthma-inducing pollution-causing vehicles are totally obsolete.
Ditto sidewalks
Drip irrigation widely used to irrigate landscapes and crops on earth that doesn't get plowed more than once every ten years, such as tree crops, perennial shrubs, and herbs
Mandate laws that all new construction especially in cities, large-scale construction projects, and infrastructure adhere to principles of Rainwater Harvesting (see: books by Brad Lancaster). This will be helpful for dealing with the massive problems caused by global warming.
Online superior competitors to Youtube, the Internet Archive/open library, Reddit, and Facebook
Actual playgrounds for people from the age of 16 on up that are designed for adults so that you can still play at the playground despite having grown up
Replace all statues of Confederate people with Underground Railroad heroes like Harriett Tubman, mothman and cryptid statues, American heroes like Dolly Parton and Elijah McCoy, comic book superheroes, and bad triceratops statues
Businesses we could really use: more bookstores, hemp product makers (no, hemp is not psychoactive), bamboo product makers, farmer's markets esp. year-round, upcycled everything, eco-friendly everything
Play video game music inside elevators and the Pointer Sisters as the music when you're waiting on hold
If you live in Israel, you should probably do everything you can in politics to ensure this kind of bullshit Theme park over demolished Palestinian homes stops. My eyes bugged out when I read this headline, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. Then again if it's a theme park dedicated to looking like King David's gardens, it's not much worse than what King David did when he made this huge harem, and sent a woman's husband to the front lines of a war so he could have her for herself. Woo. Good job. There's also this bullshit and coming from an Israeli farming family like I do, this really makes my blood boil. Let them get water for fuck's sake, what the hell? That being said, on the border between Israel and its surrounding countries is notorious for Arabs coming over and destroying Israeli crops, so this Hatfield's and McCoy's bullshit isn't one sided. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I am very disappointed that the Israelis have decided to give as good as they got to the farmers though, seriously who cares about the fields, let them grow?
Apparently once upon a time Israel offered citizenship to all Palestinians who both wanted citizenship and who passed a security background check. They refused en masse, but that is no reason to give the civilians in Palestine the cold shoulder. In every population there are people who are super gung ho to fight for the state etc., and people who just want to live in peace. Therefore, Israel could leave the door open and extend an open invitation to all Palestinians who meet the above criteria. They once tried but the United States objected. If this sounds good to you and you're involved: Citizens in the US and Israel can pressure our governments to just do it. Citizens in Palestine and their relatives can also ask the Israeli and American governments for this, since their own government is a little... strange. I would like to take this opportunity to shake my fist at 1940's Great Britain that decided to promise Israel's land to both the Jews and the Arabs then give it to the Jews, creating the humongous Hatfields and McCoys bullshittery that has lasted to this day.
If you live in Israel, "NO U" aka "they did bad so I'll do bad back" is not sufficient argument for doing anything nasty to the Arabs. If you really think so, get fucked. You dishonor the people who founded Israel, you dishonor my family, and you dishonor the legacy of the nation of Israel. You are a disgrace.
I'm the kid of Israeli immigrants who survived pogroms and the Holocaust. I've been seriously disturbed by the rise of far-right conservatism in Israel. I can still remember when the place had this attitude of "holy shit, we're still alive, what a miracle!" and few took anything for granted, and the majority of people I interacted with mixed humility with a serious approach to being as good of a person as possible. I mean, I come from Israeli rednecks (farming village, long story haha), they're not out to kill you just because you look at them wrong unlike some OTHER rednecks I know. And yes, they are all just as rude as me, actually worse. Few in Israel I spoke to thought that Arabs were a monolithic 'bad guy' enemy or were against peace in the region; quite frankly they just weren't that stupid. They actually focused on politics and on hatred as little as possible, being weary of that bullshit. It's changed, and I'm concerned because I don't know how much it's changed into "Israel first, Jews first" like Trump and his little cocksucking Fascist bugmen. Personally with my background I view those guys as even more traitorous than the January 6 terrorists. It goes against everything Israel was founded in order to provide. Glorified refugee camp becoming the bully of the region? Please, WTF. Here's my recommendations. End the damn settlements, give the Palestinians all the vaxxes they need, give them infrastructure, hunt down the terrorists in Palestine but give the civilians everything they'll accept including full citizenship in Israel if they want, don't discriminate against Arabs inside Israel or in other countries and severely punish the Israelis who do, and give refuge to other refugees from the whole damn world. Land mass is small, but Israel can build up with skyscrapers. In fact, Israel can approach other countries and ask for land for Israelis to expand into that is NOT in the middle of the giant clusterfuck that is the Middle East, places like the Alaskan tundra; then fill 'em up with the world's refugees. It's not like Israel's desert is easy to survive in either; land is land. Be the humanitarian of the world. America's slacking on that front. Make an Israeli Peace Corps that works with ours. Vote in leaders that don't absolutely suck with diplomacy and PR. Clean up the spectacular amounts of government and business corruption and nepotism. Get involved with activism and charity galore worldwide. I know there's a tendency for Israelis and expats to ignore all bad news about the region because of the decades of literal fake news about Israel and the Blood Libel against all Jewish people but start paying serious attention to that stuff and figuring out which is not bullshit, because if any of the bloodcurdling stuff, even 1% of it, written about Israel happens to be correct, it is anti-Israeli to allow it to continue and allow injustice and human rights violations. Crack down hard on that and have absolutely zero tolerance for it, like, how dare they make the rumors be true? How dare they. If I'm right about my suspicions and Israel has like a 33% Fascist population, wrest control from them like how we are trying to in the US, and be even nastier to them than we are to our QAnon idiots; crush their morale and make their lives hard at every opportunity because fuck them; ultimately ruin their lives, again because fuck them, and also to show the world that you do not tolerate that. Try to right what injustices you can with the resources available to you. Get rid of the mandate that allows the ultra-religious to avoid the draft into the IDF; if they want to enjoy their freedoms without putting their lives on the line like everyone else, and thus exploit everyone in Israel so they can get some R&R and vote in their favorite Fascist politicians that make arrogant and shitty decisions, they can instead rot in jail. For those of you in the IDF, just do your best to do right. Yeet the motherfuckers from your country too or throw 'em in jail; Fascists were what Israel was literally founded as a refuge from.
For those of you who are like "ugh, Israel, why that country there?! also they're evil!" firstly, know that I empathize with the first part. It was the worst place to plunk down a Jewish country and I wish they chose somewhere else. Again, blame Great Britain, my family didn't have much choice, til my parents decided to leave. But secondly, have some family knowledge from my family to you. My folks grew up reading all kinds of accusations against Israel made by international newspapers and the news from other countries. None of it was true. My folks saw what was happening in reality and compared it to what was in the papers and - bullshit factory. It was all just blind hatred. (And this isn't a real argument, but how could a nation that produced a band like Kaveret be 100% evil?) These days? Given the far-right conservative leanings of some Israelis and some of the more disturbing videos I've seen, I am increasingly worried that some of that stuff might actually be true, and if it is, I'll be more disappointed than I could ever say. So I level this challenge at you: go visit Israel. They speak English [badly]. It's pretty safe because there's you know, a fucking draft, young adult male and female enlisteds everywhere, metal detectors, and a really difficult training process for their soldiers. Also as a result of the draft nearly everyone in the country is a veteran. Culture? Closest analog in the United States is the Marine Corps, but in recent days they've been becoming more like the Chair Force, which displeases me. They are rude, but in Israel, being rude is actually a signal that you're being honest, which is seen as polite. Probably a legacy of the origins of the place which go something like "We are Jews, can we exist?" "No." For real. I once told a guy that Israelis insult their friends as a compliment and he didn't seem to buy it. It's like that tho so prepare yourself before culture shock sets in. Take videos yourself, see how the conditions are, and don't believe anything you read or anything anyone says more than your own experiences. And while you're there have some truck stop hummus.
For those of you who are Israeli, break with tradition. For some reason there's a belief that no one will care what an Israeli says or believe it, so Israelis might as well not bother to try to prove or disprove foul rumors about the place, and that may have been true when Israel was made, but it is not anymore. Stop ignoring the blood libel, bad press, and bad reputation of the country; it is dangerous not just for Israel but destabilizing to the whole region. Not only that but there is a very disturbing chance that Israelis don't even know the truth about what's going on at their borders as a result of this 'let's not look at all that libel' policy - enough. Pay attention to the news, all the news, about Israel, including from Israel's enemies and the people who hate it. Take videos of what's going on inside the country. Blog about it. Spend a lot of time on social media documenting your personal life experiences if you can. Directly refute bad-faith claims when you find them. Take pictures. Grow a big mouth, get on social media, and use it. Tell the truth about Israel in as nonbiased a way as possible. If you find evidence that news from another country is true or false, tell the world about it. Fact-check the news and rumors and accusations from every international and foreign national paper you can, and prove to the world what's really going on for good or ill. Really prove it, don't just say "they're wrong, boo hoo!" or "Israel never killed anyone ever!" because come on. It's a humongous risk to not report what's really going on; to not have transparency; it's arrogant and furthermore, it's stupid.
Here's an example of something that matches up with stories from people I know in Israel about serving in the IDF. The Wonderful IDF Experience
Source for the following: I am either related to or good friends with more than a few veterans of the IDF. Something like 40 years ago, the Israeli army often held "shadow trials" for those they were intending to kill. They would summon Israeli Army reservists and active duty soldiers involved with the case and actually hold a full trial in Israel, with the person on trial in the other country as the potential target, to determine if the person in the other country truly deserved to die. The Israeli Army back then also held a 3% civilian casualty rate for the other side and did not go over that, which is pretty good (as far as war can ever be "good") considering the sheer amount of terrorists and suicide bombers attacking Israel that did their best to well, blend in with civilians. It is unknown to me whether the Israeli Army still does these things; still has these policies, but these policies are good ones and in my opinion should be adopted by all armies trying to do the right thing, or at least adopted as much as possible.
Everyone worldwide can take the pressure off the Middle East by supporting increased immigration quotas in their country from both Israel and the countries that surround it, and by sponsoring immigrants from these countries by employing them or housing them in their homes. Some countries, like the US, have policies like that. Also, student exchange programs, and supporting college students from those specific countries so that they can get educated abroad more easily will do a lot to help. The hatred there is perpetuated from parent to child, often with extreme amounts of bias and bullshit, and by getting the kids away from that toxic environment so they can see it from the outside will mean the world.
Another thing that will take the pressure off the Middle East is for people worldwide to figure out exactly how to live a life that is mostly self-sufficient and off-grid as cheaply and easily as possible, not just for themselves but their whole communities and even the world, and then share that info on the internet. Why? Because the Middle East is a fossil fuels hub and most of the hatred is perpetuated by people pulling the strings from far away in order to achieve nefarious goals and earn a lot of money. Russia, China, Iran - these are greedy dictatorial places that are using the whole region for sport. If the oil in the Middle East is no longer bought, they will lose a lot of their power and the conflict will reduce quite a bit. Not entirely though thanks to the fact the Middle East is in the middle of the map and thus a logistics hub and important point to capture for strategic purposes. So yeah, shifting to renewable energy and infrastructure ASAP is helpful, but going completely off the grid is even more so. Soon I will be putting a large amount of places to shop on this site too, for the sake of doing business only with good guys and letting the baddies go broke. Maybe that will help; feel free to do this yourself too.
For you guys in the Middle East reading this, here is what peace means. Essentially another Islamic Golden Age. Why? Because idiots abound in every country that want to kill each other over stupid shit, but there are also nerds. And nerds are more interested in science. And scientists don't argue about the effectiveness of science! They can have fistfights over personal disputes but at the end of the day the science is more important, so they go back to the lab and work together again. Collaboration between Israel and its surrounding countries, or better yet allyship between them, means a technological boom, a Renaissance, innovation in every field especially technical ones, scientific breakthroughs, cultural creations of astounding beauty and meaning, an end to poverty and lack in the entire region, and a major powerhouse on the world stage. This isn't implying that Israel has the monopoly on the geekiness over there; each culture has a long history of scientific achievement. Culturally speaking, Israel's culture actually isn't that different from the places that surround it. Yes. I've been there. I've met those from the places around it. At the very least each country can agree that family is everything and not harming the innocent is important. They also all take pride in their scientific discoveries. The whole region is wasting its potential. The main problem is that no one is fucking talking to one another or really listening and everyone is making stupid assumptions, or worse, playing the victim and blaming literally all of their problems on the other side in order to fuel their hate much like how intersectionality (I'm not to blame for any of my life's problems, They are keeping me down!) is taking hold of the United States. It's honestly a wash and the best thing you could do to promote peace is probably to move out or well, play some video games with people from the nearby countries. However, for the poor sods that are staying there, a shit ton of free education up to the Ph.D. level, especially in science and critical thinking, is the best policy for the entire region. Israel can certainly provide options for said education to the places around it, and the places around it can do the same for Israel. It starts with free huge libraries, and it continues to free college within those countries, as well as collaboration between colleges in Israel and its surrounding countries. If the librarians are daring, they can do inter-library loan between countries. If they're good with computers, they can make a Middle-East library in collaboration with the whole region that is entirely online and ahem, easily printable, but you didn't hear me say that. The enemy is not the countries that surround Israel or Israel itself. The enemy is stupidity. Fix that, and the Gordian knot of problems over there can be dealt with thanks to super smart, super educated people tackling it in a way that doesn't just make things worse.
Nothing is going to work in the Middle East, or heck, in the US, until people there realize that hatred makes you stupid. Also possibly evil. Just look at the MAGAts; do you see a small bit of yourself reflected there? Scary thought, yeah? Don't get me wrong, I understand the desire for revenge more than you could ever know, but it's not fucking healthy, and there is a difference between justice and beating on a dead horse. Justice is good, but revenge has a nasty tendency of hurting the innocent. The difference between the two is that justice cannot happen without critical, logical, nonbiased, impartial, scientific, non-emotional thinking and essentially, revenge requires the opposite kind of stuff. That obsessive hatred (again, I get it) also seems to be a precursor to mental illness as well. It blinds you to the truth because your mind snaps shut like a steel trap, you wind up delusional and confused thanks to too much stress, and then everything starts going wrong in your life but you can't see that the common denominator in all that failure is... you. The way out? Serious work on one's own mental health and again, education. I am speaking as someone with PTSD and a history of literal insanity here and a history of uh, let's just say extremely bad luck. You wouldn't know it to look at me, so trust me when I say I understand gaslighting as well. And the real clincher here is that it's impossible to get justice (or even revenge) at all if you aren't thinking clearly. Because the obsessive desire for revenge makes you stupid! Yes, I am speaking from experience! God, I've done some stupid shit! You don't know you're mentally ill while you're mentally ill; that's one hallmark of mental illness. So as insurance to make sure you're as sane as possible, even if you think you're mentally "perfect," get some mental health care going for yourself and keep it up for life. With each mental health milestone passed, your mind clears up, and you gain more freedom. More importantly stuff that confused you back in the day and made you have knee-jerk reactions that were not good for you (i.e. addictions) stops having power over you and you get freedom of choice instead of being triggered. You don't want to live like I did for a while. It was bad and that's the understatement of the century, like, I almost died. I learned all this stuff the hard way, so use it, my pain is your gain.
It is tempting, on the outside, to just say "fuck the two-state solution, make a one state solution" because the culture and traditions of Palestine and Israel have far more similarities than they do differences and Israel's infrastructure and relative safety can be extended to places like Gaza and the West Bank, just tear down the fuckin wall and build a new one around the boundaries of IsraPalestine when you're done. However I don't know if that would work. All I know for certain is that if someone managed to pull it off, that's one win for humanity, much like the moon landing.
Israel is more culturally similar to South Korea, China, Japan, and Brazil than it is to the United States. By a mile. It is also culturally extremely similar to the places around it, but since both it and the surrounding areas are absolutely fucking full of idiots, they don't see it.
Booksellers worldwide: you have an untapped market in the Middle East. Go there! They need textbooks more than anything but all books are important. CDs, movies, media, that too. Sell coffee and tea too, because the whole region loves the stuff
Therapists worldwide: you are needed in the Middle East. Intergenerational trauma is real. Consider providing free therapy for an hour a week, online is ok, to those living in that area because holy shit. That would be another major thing that could make peace in the area even possible.
People in Israel and its government who had family affected by the Holocaust can seriously help with the justice effort regarding Native American boarding schools and the related genocide (see: article). Israel, for the most part, got its justice on the Nazis that tried to kill most of its population. But it is not clear how it was done anymore after the dust of history settled over those events. Who better to make it happen than the people who helped get it done in the first place?
For those of us in the United States, look over there at the Middle East. You see that? We could become like that. We do not want to become like that. Don't eat hatred for breakfast.
Someone has to create a reality TV show called The Dumbest Conflict in the World, get a bunch of Arabs skilled in improv and a bunch of Israelis skilled in improv that don't actually care about the conflict at all but pay them to pretend they do as dramatically as possible and in the dumbest ways possible, stick them in some kind of Jerry Springer-like atmosphere with a host "doing their best," an audience of people from other countries shouting unhelpful suggestions, and let it all play out with all the hilarity and trashiness that would ensue. I bet half the Middle East would willingly pay to see it. I would. Yeah, you're damn right I have a dark sense of humor, but it worked in the Life of Brian with Monty Python, so...
Open up the US borders to every population afflicted with genocide. I doubt any other country would do it, and we do not want to create another Israel. Plus, we have the space. We can do it.
Make legal fees and fines a percentage of one's net worth instead of a set price. Also make lawyers a publicly paid-for thing with a very competitive government wage and not bought and paid for by the highest bidder. That way there's no "law for the rich, law for the people like you and me"
The lawnchair idea Minneapolis Lawnchair Violence Interrupters
9/23/22 Here's one. How about each business owner and government official that can do this, attempt to do this: stock all bathrooms with not only toilet paper and paper towels but also pads, condoms, dental dams, and tampons in various sizes? And have both the period stuff and the birth control stuff in both men's and women's bathrooms? It only makes sense. We don't expect people to bring their own toilet paper to every public bathroom, do we? I mean, people used to use dried corncobs and the Sears catalog pages, why are we in days akin to that with things like menstrual hygiene products, dental dams, and condoms? Just saying. Religion or no religion we are not a species that practices abstinence and ain't that the truth.
11/2/23 Have many doctor's offices train dogs to detect illnesses and certain symptoms (covid, high blood glucose, low blood glucose, drug use/abuse, etc.) by scent. Eventually train AI to do the same
7/22/24 One of the truisms of modern life is that there are good people but they're scattered around. Here's something you should know about being any sort of minority or person in need of understanding or assistance. Good people, and they are as a matter of fact in many places but tend to be hidden, want to help you be heard, understood, seen, and treated with respect. They do. But unless you, also a good person, speak up and say exactly what you need to the whole world, on the Internet for instance, those same good people will have absolutely no clue how to do it. Because until now, most of the speech online and in public is from assholes. Assholes everywhere. So essentially, they're the ones speaking for entire groups of people and feeling entitled to smash their own personal opinion on an entire group of people they haven't met but share some superficial resemblance to. So maybe consider changing that by speaking up and telling the whole world what you need and want and hope for. Another truism I'm pretty sure of is that good people have to stick together. And neutral and innocent people too, hey why not. It's to each other's benefit, and frankly, everyone else can just fuck off.

LazyLion says

Don't be a dick. That'll solve like 90% of the problems in the world.
Get a cat

Reddit says:

Some of the better Reddit ideas

Heckraiser

11/26/23 Regarding the debate between Capitalism, Communism and other economic systems, I don't know all the answers. However, I think the next revolution in economics is creating a viable means of production at home. You want freedom? You want the things you need? You want frivolous items or other human desires? You can get them, but you're going to have to work for them. I'm pretty sure at this point you can DIY basically everything your heart could desire except for a few things here and there which are important to rely on other members of society for (i.e. doctors, lawyers, politicians, true professionals in each field of expertise). In those specific cases, I do not think that Communism is a viable way of getting what you want since it forces those folks to pretend to care about you when really they don't, in fact they don't know you from Adam; if you can think of an ethical better way than Capitalism of motivating them to help you then I still haven't figured that out. But regarding solving the problem of "I need many things to survive and want things to be happy with" Here are several ways of at least starting to go about this:

Look at the work done and published by and for women, especially throughout history and in other cultures. Formerly and in many cases currently the home, the former (and in some cases current) domain of women, was and is a viable and complete means of production. Overlook this and miss out.
Help me bug the federal government to put together an online library for everyone with a valid passport, tribal ID, visa, greencard, driver's license or state ID card, in collaboration with Overdrive / Libby library software so everyone that's a US citizen or has a valid visa or greencard can learn what they want, when they want to, at any computer terminal. Funded by donations at least, at first, and by taxes from states that are ok with levying taxes for it. Also from things like the lottery. This means: free college level education. Free school. Free continuing adult education. Library quality differs from zip code to zip code. Having a federal online library would change that forever. Also if we had the best online library in the world, that more than anything would make American truly great again. Suck on that, you MAGA bastards.
However carefully you think you manage all your resources, try to get better at it. If possible, actually record in numbers how well you're doing with each of those each week or so. Try to make your progress on each front quantifiable in exact numbers. The most infuriating but most important resource to manage is time. It's been my experience that the worst part about time management is blocking off enough free time for yourself to stay healthy and sane. Consider giving yourself like three to five times as much as you think you need...
Get a home, as long as it isn't a death trap. Small is okay. If you can't do it yourself, pool efforts with those you can trust to live together without making life intolerable for one another. You might even want to get a job building homes to learn by doing to see how it's done. If you can't get a home, you could see about getting a farm allotment by talking to farmers at a farmer's market, bugging realtors in your area, and so on, or even seeing if you can find a parcel of cheap land. You can share this parcel with friends and family too, with a legal agreement. Food and water are important. I'm hardly going to try to persuade you to go out and homestead if you have a job in town, because that life isn't for everyone, but you can definitely take a step in that direction. That being said if you already have a backyard then that may be enough. Depends on your situation.
No matter how small it is, make a home workshop. A desktop sized one is fine; you can grow it as you go along. In fact, you could clear off a folding table. The idea here is to start
Be realistic about what you hate and love doing. It's your life.
Improve efficiency of at home endeavors and reduce waste
Embrace technology for at home endeavors
Automate as much as you possibly can
Machines are good. Machines prevent drudgery. Generally speaking if you aren't sure if you should get one or not and it's in your budget, it's probably a good idea.
Learn to maintain your machines and your stuff!
Doublecheck to see if you can do more with the machines you already have. If you're reading this then you already have one; cell phone or computer. Can you do more with it, be more resourceful with it? Are you using it to its full capabilities and drawing out its full potential? Can you use it in a strange unexpected way? There's a lot you can do with what you already have
Sometimes it's helpful to ask the same set of questions for any tool or item in your vicinity. Or, for your own mind.
Set specific, detailed, realistic goals for yourself, and if your family is interested set goals with them also. Make step by step realistic plans on a time frame that makes sense and won't burn you out to achieve each one of them. Stay flexible about getting to the goals or altering plans or goals as time goes on. This is a scary process, much like building a staircase before climbing it but it works.
Using that goal setting process, give yourself assignments for things you want to achieve under the domains of self-sufficiency, health, wealth, happiness, luck, spirituality, virtue, protection, love and relationships, and wisdom/learning/education. Don't be surprised if you wind up discovering thousands of new goals that you figure it's important for you to achieve. Human life is complicated, yeah? Also, these are the usual areas good Witches have people spell begging for, or people show up to Tarot readers or doctors hoping for some magic fix. Bluntly, there's no easy answer (even and especially with magic); work for what you want.
Keep yourself informed about new advances in technology
Don't be afraid of creating new advances in technology, inventing something, or coming up with new solutions for problems. If this requires that you draw something on paper, do some math or do some finagling with equations, keep the tools like graph paper, colored pencils, scientific calculator handy, ready for inspiration to strike
Learn one DIY skill. Master it, and move on to another. Build on these achievements as you go along.
If this site hasn't yet convinced you to study and learn each and every year of your life as much and as well as you can, well, consider: that's very important for ensuring everything else on this list works

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