Ha. Yeah, there are certainly some topics that I'm pretty immovable on as well, but the willingness/openness to accept additional information is still necessary for a functioning society.

Who gets to decide what's worthless?

You do realize how nearly impossible it is to get out of student loans, right? Your options are 1) Pay them back. 2) Go into public service and get them forgiven, or 3) Die before they are paid off.

To you? Obviously, yeah.

Who the hell would want to be a cop? Or an accountant? Or an actuary? Or a port-a-potty cleaner? Or a miner? Or a farmer? Or a programmer? Or a doctor? Or an X? Or a Y? Or a Z? How many jobs could you come up with that you would absolutely abhor, but are required to have a functional society?

Sounds like they should have went to school for something else, then.

So is politics.

No. See previous comment. Unless you also see things like Law, Politics, and Religion to be "imaginary" as well.

But not correct, either.

I, for one, appreciate your effort to educate. But unfortunately you're probably wasting your time. My experience in trying to talk reasonably to unreasonable people is that it's generally ineffective. Getting someone to understand and acknowledge that their worldview is incomplete is a difficult task. It's like trying to explain the concept of "born gay" to someone who thinks reading a book about two boy penguins turned their son gay.

I wish I shared your optimism. With the Trump Family's integration with these companies, and the current Patriarch running the government like it's his to do with as he pleases, I wouldn't be betting on any meaningful regulation of these "markets" any time soon. But hey, at least if you wanted to there's probably a "contract" out there for you to get in on.

I think it's a good illustration of how better leadership can improve outcomes. Norway got a cool new way to generate electricity. Us, over here in the States, got "clean" coal.

I mean, that's not even close to what I said, but whatever. If you think you can make money selling aftermarket mirrors for Explorers, have at it. There's literally nothing stopping you besides lack of motivation, that's the entire point of my comment.

Well, yeah, there are for sure parts that only OEM sells. But I suspect that's because there's no money in aftermarket mirrors for Ford Explorers, vs Ford not allowing companies like Doorman produce them.

I would equate it to something like Ford requiring you to use genuine parts to fix their vehicles. It's anti-competitive, and bad for consumers.

Which specific part of their comment do you take umbrage with? It seemed pretty spot-on to me.

Seems like a useful feature. Especially for an EV.

[citation needed]

Good luck. Now that "money is speech" there isn't any one group that can yell louder than Wall Street.

I don't disagree with any of that. I think the general problem is that "congresscritters engaging in insider trading" so low down the hierarchy of bullshit that it's not a platform any candidate can run and win on. I do feel as though there's some momentum towards legislating it away, but I doubt we'll see any traction on it in the upcoming sessions. One can hope, but I'm not holding my breath.