volvoxvsmarla

I’m not sure what country you are from, but as someone whose vote literally is counted before I even see a ballot, let me tell you, please vote or at least do something. If you don’t like the way politics in your country work, go out and demonstrate. Take it to the streets. Talk to your neighbors, make leaflets. But please don’t just go bitter and sit in your corner because everything is shit anyways. Because this is how we ended up with a lot of the messes we are having now. I “voted” for the first time this year in a rigged election and before that I also always thought the way you do. Democracy is dead, why bother, my vote doesn’t count anyway. But once I stood in this fucking line and smuggled in a non erasable pen and voted and went out knowing no one will even look at this ballot something changed.

I’m honestly baffled by how immigration in Germany is supposed to be a problem. We have a horribly low birth rate. Our retirement security is basically gone because there won’t be enough working people. Retirement homes, hospitals, kindergartens, all these places suffer from a lack of personnel. These jobs are notoriously stressful, have horrible working conditions, and underpay extremely.

The free market has obviously failed to solve this problem. Even with unions and tariffs: An increase of 1€ per hour does a good living not make. Neither are bonuses a long term solution. And even if you made these jobs attractive af: we will still not have enough people choosing them anytime soon. And even if we did, it’s simply still not enough people in the workforce to secure pension for the elderly and generations to come.

And let’s be very real for a second here. Skilled immigration from third countries (i.e. not EU, not talking about third world here) isn’t an easy ride. These high paying job offers of privileged jobs like IT or science are not going away but they are also rather rare. It’s a niche thing compared to the waves of immigration of, well, low paying and often low skilled jobs.

And while I can “understand” if an asshole wants to cut the former, why would you want to cut the latter? Jesus, no one is stealing your job because I doubt you want to work cleaning toilets at McDonald’s. If you want to go wipe asses in retirement homes you’ll find a job stat no matter whether the Ukrainian, Romanian or Syrian girls apply too.

We are literally insanely exploitative of immigrants. We either have a brain drain from countries that immensely need them, or cause them to have a demographic crisis of their own by buffering our birth rates with their people, or we simply give them jobs that pay so little that they hardly survive. All that while doing shit for their integration into society. But they still pay taxes and buy products in the supermarket and ride the tram and everything. We get all the positives and they get all the negatives. Why would you even want to get rid of that if you’re a cunt?

Oh fuck off

Man, a guaranteed 5 mins of a quiet break and coffee that I don’t have to bring myself sounds kinda nice

May I add: Hitler was largely supported by the youth. Putin is mostly supported by the elderly.

I’m sorry to disappoint you there but that’s not how childbirth works, even after the industrial revolution. This here might be a good start to see why a conveyor belt system isn’t feasible with kids

Honestly give me a 24 hour work week with a median salary income and I’ll become a birthing machine

For real man. We were so overworked when both of us had a full time job and no kids. Now we have one kid and one full time job. It is easier, hard in another way but somehow easier. Soon I’ll have to go back to work and I don’t even know how we will survive. We would love to have another kid but we either can’t afford it or we will go insane trying to afford it.

The other part is that stupid part time career pit. Ideally we would both work half jobs, but this will mean none of us can have a well paid job (per hour). But this also means that if my husband is laid off while I am at home, were fucked. Job security is a huge factor in work life balance.

But also, we are the “risky” ones. Most of my friends from school wanted to wait until they are “settled” financially. I don’t have one mom friend from school/university. They are either still settling in their careers or have given up on feeling settled and now have fertility issues.

Just for context, our kid arrived shortly before I turned 30. My friends are in their 30s and 40s. None of them is really “financially secure” since job security is just not a thing anymore.

I would argue it is a problem in a capitalist society where constant and eternal economic growth is necessary.

Then again, I would also argue that capitalism is the problem.

It’s grey and looks very cheap, like Kik style, with some glitter. It was actually a free clothing swap so it didn’t cost anything. My two year old likes cats right now so it has a lot of potential to become her favorite shirt. It gives me “precise dwarf bravery” vibes but by now these companies produce them on purpose. I am cherishing this shirt because I found it in the wild and it is very obviously an actual mistake. Especially since it’s a toddler shirt.

The only thing that I don’t like about that shirt is that it doesn’t come in my size.

I’m not sure if your colleague wore the shirt as a joke or in all seriousness. I kind of hope the latter, simply because its genuity would save the cringe.

Absolutely agree. Mallorca has so much to offer apart from Palma, and it’s a disgrace how they massacred that city (and island). I am happy there are protests now.

I remember back then (it must have been like 2003) it was offered to my parents at a travel agency. I even remembered how they called home to ask my sister and me whether we would like to go since they knew we both were kinda anti Mallorca (since we then also didn’t know about the beauty of the other parts). We still agreed because it was a really cheap deal and we were like lower middle class back then, so a good deal’s a good deal. I’m still grateful because I would have never travelled to that tourist place by myself, and I would have never been scarred for life by that dildo. I think it was the first time I saw a sex toy in real life. There were still some really cool memories and moments, and even having diarrhea and watching One Piece for a week was pretty chill.

On the topic of t-shirts, I found a kid’s shirt saying “sample text” under the drawing of a cat at a flea market yesterday. Not too related to what you mentioned, but I hail that shirt so much and needed to share.

When I was in Mallorca when I was 12 I literally didn’t hear a word of Spanish over the course of the 2 week holiday. Ok, granted, I spent 1 week in the hotel room sick and watching One Piece on TV (also in German) but I’d say a whole week in Playa de Mallorca and only hearing perfect German was wild.

Almost as wild as when I opened that plastic bell pepper in a souvenir shop and there was a dildo inside. Like, why. Why would you want to have sex with a bell pepper. Why did they have red ones and green ones but no yellow ones.

I’ve never heard of Buckfast tonic wine before but buying tonic wine and then whining that it doesn’t taste like wine makes you the weirdo, not the producer.

He is, the Iranian media and government confirmed

Thank you! It feels good to hear someone calling FDP assholes destroying the sense of community. FDP is working hard on keeping the working class poor, powerless and desperate. Trying to “save money” on the most disadvantaged people is disgusting. This alone is enough reason to disapprove of them.

I’d be more grossed out if I had to sit on a toilet seat that was licked by an FDP member than by someone licking the toilet seat.

You know, I agree. But also, you can’t imagine how much I want to scratch the cars that just park illegally in my neighborhood. They park on the curves and crossings and in such small distances that I literally cannot pass through with my stroller without scratching them. So I end up going around the block(s) further and further away just to pass through some gap of illegally parked cars that’s just big enough if I am very careful. But then I end up thinking, wtf. Why do I have to be careful to not scratch their wrongfully parked cars, a private property that they left outside on a place designed and protected by law to be solely for pedestrians, with my private property that should be able to walk this road? And also, why do I not get the same protection if I want to park my bike or stroller outside? Because no one cares if my private property is damaged when it is left outside. If I scratch my stroller on an illegally parked car when I cross the road at the place I am supposed to be crossing somehow I am the one who has to pay damages.

To be honest, conscription aside, I think a gap year of civil service would be a good idea. It gives you a break from school - university - work, you don’t feel like you lost time since everyone has to do it, and you get into a mindset outside of your preplanned route, which might do you good.

Maybe it is going to be solved by a brilliant political activist or leader. Jokes aside, of course it won’t be a couple of people who will magically solve something. Strong leaders will however ease the cause by promoting issues best.

Absolutely agree, but the reason why they turn to AFD is because they literally have no trust in any of the classical parties. I think it is more of a longing for an underdog or almost a poker move - just bet everything on that (unfortunately rather racist) card because maybe they’d change something. It’s already going down the drain if we continue the way we have continued for the past decades, so let’s try something very new. Maybe we will have luck in this Russian roulette.

Now, this is stupid af. I would never in my mind consider AFD as an actual option. But for a lot of people it feels like this is the only Fuck You they can give the current government (I am including the CDU/CSU in this definition of “government” too).

Basically all other parties are moderate-middle at this point. They have some small differences but none of them actually fight for the working class, for underprivileged people, and basically all young people know they are or will be underprivileged. Yes we have a left party called Die Linke, but they have been notoriously busy with themselves and a split because a big chunk of the party was circling around Sahra Wagenknecht who was very controversial and shared some far right ideals. Maybe they will get a grip of themselves and become “vote-able” again in the future. But honestly, I’m not sure they are really left either.

When you basically vote for capitalism, either way, just in different shades, it feels like your vote does not matter. Desparte people turn to desperate and stupid measures.

For real, we don’t have an actual, valid socialist party. I honestly wonder why. Most young people are so fed up with how things go. Yes we don’t want to work anymore. Why should we? To get fired at random when a company goal isn’t met? After we studied engineering for 8 years to get minimum wage +1€? To be part of a company that produces the 35th version of a shit emoji cushion, well knowing that we create a bullshit product that just unnecessarily wastes resources? So we can partake in killing the planet? So that we, after we have been fired for no reason, have to fight to collect unemployment for a short period of time, before we are being forced into a bullshit job under threats? So that we work full time until we are 70+ to hardly collect any retirement? When we have kids, we are supposed to not see them but give them to childcare asap to reenter the workforce. For all that bullshit. So I honestly wonder why there isn’t a real socialist alternative to the classical parties. I have a very big feeling that a lot of young people would gladly jump over.

The headline really is misleading. Abortion is allowed and performed regularly before 12 weeks pc/14 weeks pm. It is more of a formal change because an outdated paragraph makes it a crime, yet it is decriminalized and not prosecuted.

The more problematic part of that paragraph was that “advertising abortion” is illegal, i.e. mentioning that you perform abortions in your office on a website etc was illegal and could still be criminalized. That put people in a position when they had to call office after office to ask whether they perform abortions instead of just googling it. That was a hassle and impractical and punishing women when they are in a vulnerable place to begin with. (Hell I can’t even make a phone call to make a regular doctor’s appointment.)

But the first part is mostly about language. Abortion being a crime that is not punished implies that women, despite having legal access to abortion, still do something wrong (and de facto illegal) in the eyes of the state and the law.