HelixDab2

Just because something is expensive doesn’t always mean that the standard of living of those making the product is any better.

Oh, absolutely. But when mills, etc. are in the US, there's more direct control over the living conditions of the workers.

make everyone feel guilty all the time,

Then people just tune it all out, and learn to accept the inherent violence of the system. Sadly.

It is in part a consumer issue. Consumers want things as cheaply as possible, and companies that produce as cheaply as possible sell more product. We've seen the same issue with apparel; America wants cheap clothing, and so the mills in the US have largely closed, and most production has been moved overseas in order to make the final products cheap enough.

And while it's partly a consumer issue, the fact that wages haven't kept up with productivity--that is, more and more money is being skimmed out of the system by investors and executives rather than going to the workers--has been the driver towards making consumer goods more and more cheaply, simply because people have less purchasing power.

Frozen blueberries are about $15/4#, and don't go bad unless you forget them for several years and they get hideously freezer burned. Yeah, they're as good as fresh if you're just eating plain blueberries, but if you're making something that uses blueberries as an ingredient, they work wonderfully.

...No?

You aren't paying for the merit badge per se, you're paying for the physical manifestation of it. You have to do the work and meet the goals in order to get the merit badge. Once you've earned the merit badge, there's no need to pay for the embroidered patch if you don't want to. It's not going to affect whether or not you are able to get your Eagle.

720p? Pfffft. 240i. Rip them in '2014 YouTube over 2G' quality.

Bruh Crit Roll came out, your info is like 10yr out of date, women play TTRPGs now. Nerdy ones mostly but that’s cool.

It's still heavily stacked towards being men. If your end goal is to meet women that you can be friends with, and possibly date, you want to reverse those ratios.

Nah ngl I think you’re wrong about the whole “you have to look like them steroid using celebs” but who knows.

For a first impression? It absolutely helps. That's the whole point of a first impression; they have absolutely nothing to go off but your appearance, so you need to make your appearance look as good as possible. Being bigger than, say, Dwayne Johnson in his prime probably isn't going to help. And the kind of fitness I'm talking about can absolutely be achieved without resorting to illegal drugs or cosmetic surgery.

Unfortunately I can’t ride my bike that long as I have a job.

That was how I got to and from work. Work was 14 miles, one way, in city traffic. I carried work clothes in a large messenger bag and changed when I got to work. (This obvs. doesn't work if you have a job that requires you to carry e.g. tools to and from job sites.)

I’m not going to completely change who I am and become a gym rat, I don’t think it’s as serious of an issue as you make it out to be.

Look, that's on you. But the idea that, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me" didn't work well for Stuart Smalley either. A lot of people think that you shouldn't have to change anything about who you are in order to find or attract a partner, or that people should 'accept me as I am'; I disagree with that. If you aren't finding people that are interested in who you are--and that you are likewise interested in--then the problem isn't with other people, it's within you, and incumbent on you to make the changes in yourself. You want your own psychological needs and desires met, but at the same time, you need to be ready and able to meet the needs and desires of another person. And yes, that means making changes. And those changes can be difficult and uncomfortable to make.

You can argue about which changes are, and are not, reasonable to make, but ultimately, if you aren't willing to make changes, then you can't expect to find what you say you want.

Well cats gotta play,

I have 6 of them (three Sphynx, one Cornish Rex, a Siamese, and a formerly feral Manx, down from an all-time high of 10). I'm aware. But I still pick up their toys, vacuum the floors/carpet/upholstery, clean their boxes, wipe up the food they pull out of their bowls, etc.

Yeah, I have some hobbies. One is D&D.

Per my prior comment - "Find a hobby that often has some kind of social interaction and stereotypically attracts women in your age range." That is not D&D, my dude. To later points - that's where you need to be to meet people. I'm going to assume that you don't go to church, and you said that you were out of college. That said, taking personal enrichment classes can be a good place to meet people and make friends, like finding classes on pottery throwing, or jewelry making. (Lapidary tends to attract more men though, which is a little odd.) Classes on making stained glass, maybe? Or ballroom dancing.

I’m not exactly in shape but I’m not exactly out of it either [...] Supposedly dad bods are in however.

Yeah, no. Get in shape. I mean the kind of shape where you have a resting heart rate below 60bpm, can run at least a 5k and survive, lifting free weights, etc. In general people that are in good physical condition, and look like it, will have a far easier time dating, because that's your first impression. The 'dad bod' thing isn't about women preferring men that look like X, Y, or Z, but is more a statement that personality and how a man acts is more important than how he looks. HOWEVER, your appearance is going to be the first thing that people see, so you want to start on a high point.

For reference, when I was dating, I was riding my bike about 28 miles/day, 5 days/week, and in the gym about two hours a day.

I do take showers nightly

I would suggest morning rather than nightly. People sweat at night, and you want to start the day as fresh as possible.

I’ve seen worse though, and from women at that!

Irrelevant. You're trying to create a positive impression.

Not a supervisor, but yeah it just seems like a whole can of worms I’d rather leave closed.

It is not something I'd recommend if you work closely with a person.

Honestly, I think that the best bet is going to be trying to make friends through classes that you take for enjoyment, and just trying to be social there. Like, no pressure, not goal-oriented socializing, just trying to meet people and make friends socializing.

The things is, yeah, get a hobby. Find a hobby that often has some kind of social interaction and stereotypically attracts women in your age range. Foster a sincere, genuine interest in that hobby and don't treat it like a meat market. Get to know people, and make friends.

Also, while you're at it, get in shape; lift weights, do cardio, watch your macros. Take daily showers, and wear clean clothes every single day. Clean up your space at home, and keep it that way. Work on yourself, and make yourself a person that you would want to date if someone didn't know anything about you or your personality (because "nice" isn't a personality).

There's nothing wrong with dating at work per se, but you need to be very, very careful because it's easy to quickly go from light flirting to "hostile work environment", and I've known more than a few people that didn't understand the difference. If you're a supervisor, you should absolutely not, under any circumstances, date or attempt to date anyone directly below you on the org chart.

Wait wait wait, does that mean that being gay is the ultimate straight behaviour? Like, it's gay to like women, because only a man knows what a man wants? ;)

A lot of 2nd wave feminism does sound weird now, yeah. But at the time--this would have been the 50s-70s or so--it was a novel way of viewing power dynamics and what consent meant.

And I think you would have found that person doing the sexualizing was well past their 30s

...What are you even talking about?

Okay, let's put it this way.

Let's say you're a woman, and you've been pulled over by a male cop. He's got you dead to rights on possession of cocaine with intent to distribute after spotting the bales of cocaine in your back seat. He's willing to just give you a ticket for a burned out tail light, but only if he can fuck you, right then and there. Can you, in that moment, morally and ethically consent to sex with him, when he has the legal authority to arrest you and ensure that your life is fucked forever if you do not consent? Most people would say no, that entire environment is coercive, so there's no way that, within that framework I've presented, that the woman could morally or ethically consent to sex in order to make her 'little problem' go away.

2nd wave feminism presented all male-female relationships in that way, although usually with a less blatant abuse of power going on. If you assume that patriarchy stacks the power deck in favor of men, then there's very little basis for women to ever consent to sex with a man, because she is never able to have an equal position of power within society from which to consent. But that's also a problem, because it abstracts people to the point where it's almost meaningless on an individual level.