Thanks! It sounds like “liberal” in this thread is what I’ve always called neoliberal, and “leftist” is what’s known as democratic socialism?

Curious comment, so I looked at Wikipedia’s Liberalism in the United States. Still not sure what you’re suggesting.

Could you elaborate?

HP lured me away from Apple about 15 years ago, with promises of better pay and benefits. I made the mistake of believing their lies, and proceeded to work in one of the most hostile environments I’d ever encountered. Aside from the open and constant sexual harassment, I was horrified to see customer service maliciously transfer callers to dead extensions or to the branch in the Philippines, then laugh about it. “Tech support” was for selling more products, not for resolving issues. Management was a shitshow of nepotism, falling-over-drunkenness, corruption, office affairs, and massive cover-ups.

I lasted 8 months, then I fled back to Apple, but I’ll never forget how HP blatantly loathed the customers.

I was healthy, fit, worked from home for years, and strictly followed lockdown protocol. My only “high risks” were being married to a first responder and living in Texas at the time.

That state was a shit show.

For an unvaxxed perspective, I’m on day 1,276 of stuffy, runny nose with limited senses of smell and taste plus constant mild fatigue and brain fog. I was unable to carry a conversation or walk more than 7 or 8 steps the first 3 months due to breathlessness, and smelled nothing at all for 14 months.

I get EVERY vaccine now.

People forget, or just weren’t around, when only the rich had a mobile phone the size of waffle iron and it just made expensive calls. Even early cells had exorbitant rates for long distance conversations between states, so we had to wait until night when it was more affordable to talk. If I wanted to watch a specific movie, I needed a credit card with a $500 hold to rent a VHS player for 24 hours, and hope that Teenage Mutant Turtles wasn’t on a wait list. Ask Jeeves was better than encyclopedia brittanica, but digging deep required a trip to the public library. And scanning, copying, or printing anything meant driving to Kinkos with your checkbook ready. Anyone else remember pulling up MapQuest and writing down the directions before going someplace new?

Reminiscers can unplug, but I’m keeping my on-demand movies, cheap phone rates, endless knowledge, GPS, and streaming music.