Rhaedas

How would he know? Oh, right...

Truly random. I would have never guessed that one.

Could have been Reddit data. Stack Overflow is more heavy on the probability of telling them it's a question that's been asked before.

Still is. Maybe even more, even though the pandemic was a perfect example to show its relevance to reality.

I think it's even worse. They didn't tell us what was and wasn't recyclable. They used symbols very similar to the recycling logo to stamp on various types of plastics to classify them. Most of the types used are one time use, they never were meant to imply recycling, that's just the symbol appearance.

Recycling started off as the third R and last resort, the first two were Reduce and Reuse. Those were not compatible with an economy based on consumerism and growth, so Recycling became the focus, creating an industry to pick through the few things that could be recycled and trashing the rest, and encouraging the public to buy more because it's not a problem as long as you participate.

And if you don't participate, all the problems are your fault. Not the companies making the stuff, they're just doing what you want.

Just to chime in on Covid - I think that was a symptom caused by a lot of underlying problems, and not a cause. Granted it had its effects, but under a rational leadership from the US I don't think we would have seen what we did ever get that far. The topic here (bird flu), measles, etc. are an example of how they are more of a fever indicator from a deep infection we've had for decades and just pretended things were fine. Hell, the failure of Reconstruction after the Civil War is the ultimate example of that bandage over a festering wound.

Reagan was in place thanks to the Southern Strategy begun a decade or so earlier to ensure a voting percentage for the GOP and religious right no matter what. There are unfortunately many other "turning points" throughout US history where we could have gone a different route but chose this one, usually because "it's always been this way" mentality.

The US has no form of vote of no confidence. So therefore no way to have consequences for bad governing outside of the voting period, which has its own problems. Importantly here is the need for quick backlash rather than wait two or more years to choose someone else (if there is anyone else allowed to be a pick).

A lot of the flaws in the government are inherent from the beginning because there were certain expectations assumed, and that a document of rules can't be perfect the first, second, or even only a third time. It needs consistent revisions to keep up with the needs of the group it is designed for. This is where the biggest failure has happened, and can be attributed to lack of attention, not wanting to change what seems to work, sacred holding of what was never meant to be set in stone, or just that it often benefited not being changed at the time by those with the power to change it.

Add to all that a very short attention spanned public, fine tuned to be ignorant and forgetful as well as easily manipulated by the simplest of sound bites.

The rot is in the walls. Not that the American Experiment was a bad thing, it's just that it wasn't maintained and updated, so you get eventual decay.

While I do think that it's simply bad at generating answers because that is all that's going on, generating the most likely next word that works a lot of the time but then can fail spectacularly...

What if we've created AI but by training it with internet content, we're simply being trolled by the ultimate troll combination ever.

This would mean any liquid in plastic is a large source. Bottled water has other options, not so much the rest. I mean they could have different packaging and some do, but cost is a reason plastic is primarily used.

Old conspiracy that gives agency to what is actually just a tool of the bigger operative. First the Southern Strategy, then MAGA, and a bit of Putin.