I use them to worsen my personal impact on climate change, since those things are consuming vast quantities of energy. It makes me feel more manly to know that I'm contributing to the slow destruction of our habitat every time I use them. It's like having a second SUV to go to the closest corner store multiple times a day. These changed my life for the better, made it easier, and I can't live without them now.

Bah, no worries. I was doom scrolling and didn't know this community existed before I replied. Pretty much anything can be political if we dig deep enough. I also didn't need to point it out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism

Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.

I'm a middle age Québécois and we learn about that system in secondary school when we talk about the early ages of New France. AFAIK it was however a bit different from empire to empire. In New France there were seigneurs (lords) holding vast pieces of land for the crown, called a seigneurie (lordship). Within that there were censitaires (serfs) that had to make use of the land and pay taxes.

A co-worker was like this a few years ago. He was arguing that the gym had AC and was always at the same temperature; that outside was too hot/cold/rainy/snowy, never perfect.

He is also the type of person that wants to look and act like Rambo and couldn't see the irony in wanting a perfect pampered environment.

But the pandemic came and the gyms closed for months so he started running outside, and never went back to running in a gym.

It's just that sadly people are used to drive everywhere for everything. And this is unfortunately more political than one might think.

If it's like a car alarm it does nothing but annoy the people around.

More like it doesn't want to get the money to maintain those infrastructure by going into further debt.

I'm not following German politics very closely but the article mentions that this restriction is in their constitution.

There was something in that genre in my province decades ago when a government dedicated itself to 'zero deficit' by cutting on infrastructure maintenance for many years. A bridge eventually fell. Classic story. It seems like a common thing.

A rich phoque

This can also be practical in places where the police can force you to unlock your phone with biometrics but not with the PIN.

Ever since I've seen the police here force people to delete the videos of them abusing citizens, I have been very wary of biometric identification.

So far my 'emergency' procedure would be to restart my phone, as it's asking for a PIN after a reboot.

The last proposition to reduce food waste is

urge companies to donate more food.

Before that we're gonna try to make it last longer, and compost more of it, then maybe companies could think about donating more of it.

But they have to be careful because if they donate too much nobody is gonna want to work to buy food anymore!! Or people could sue if they get sick from old food. Better send it to the composting site instead of giving it away.

Obviously we can't force companies to give unsold food, we can only urge them to do so.

No money to buy that tempting watermelon about to expire? Ok then, we'll send it to the composting site to reduce food waste.

Seriously though, it's better than nothing but... aaah sweet capitalism!

Meh. I have a cabin in the countryside 130 km away from my apartment and I can cycle the whole way, or take a coach with a foldable bike and pedal the 30 km left.

It's actually in the region where I grew up so I have to get there frequently to see my family. It's a hassle sometimes but it's only because my government can't adequately fund and maintain a decent transit network.

I also bike to national parks nearby, and sometimes haul my inflatable kayak with a bike trailer.

People overestimate distances and think the country side justifies a car but it's usually just excuses. I did move in a big city eventually but I lived in small towns and cities for a decade before that. I still hated cars and didn't have one.

For example, my mother lives on a rural road outside a village of less than 2000 people. And she works in the next town that is 7 km away. Meanwhile I live in a city and work in the same city but I have to bike 9 km to get to work.

So sometimes distances are shorter in smaller cities and towns but people still insist they need a car. People will give any excuse to use their car. It's like cocain.

Also, here Uber is only available in major cities where it's competing with public transit anyway. AFAIK you can't take an Uber to a small town or a rural road.

EDIT: Also, most people DO live in a city anyway. And they still have excuses to use a car.

Today, some 56% of the world's population – 4.4 billion inhabitants – live in cities.

I prefer to be compared to Diogenes of Sinope, thank you.

Jokes on them, I hate cars, don't have one, and would never take an Uber.