Yes. The American suburb model is probably the worst of all options. And people who haven't really lived other ways might not even realize how bad it is.

I never want to live somewhere car-first.

Remember that comic that shows two people riding bikes through a nice area, and one of them says like "if anyone proposed building this where I live I would kill them"?

WhatsApp, sms, and Google chat (hangouts? Meet? The thing built into Gmail)

None of them are great.

One of my friends is some sort of neurodivergent and just... won't install signal. It's "too much". I don't understand this. It's 30 seconds of "click this link I sent you, then click install".

The "american dream" has always had a problematic contradiction. You should work hard. Working hard is good. You should work hard so you don't have to work anymore. Working sucks and you don't want to do it. You want to be the guy on a golf course getting money while those hard working people assemble widgets for you.

Well, which is it then?

The freedom was always kind of dicey. Sedition act of 1798, for example.

Women also historically had a bad time of it. And the native peoples. Queer folks, too. Religious freedom is hit or miss.

It's been pretty good for wealthy people, historically. They've been pretty free.

I've seen some funny comments, but the ones that are like "ur so hot" are baffling.

It almost certainly was not a sincere threat of violence. No one is asking you to condone threats of violence against children. You can narc on your friends all you like, but that's a separate discussion.

People respond to peer pressure. Try to thread the needle of telling your peers you don't use AI without making them feel defensive. (If you make the average someone feel bad about themselves, their thinking shuts down.)

Played it a bit. Mouse and keyboard. Computer details:

Firefox 153.0, 
Operating System: Pop!_OS 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 7.0.11-76070011-generic (64-bit)

• Sometimes clicking to attack.. doesn't. Not because of stamina, but feels like the input was lost. One-two-three, one-two-three, and then i can't attack anymore. It's not missing stamina, but you might want to add feedback when that is the case. Edit: Some areas might be no-combat and maybe I was on the border of one?
• Dodging is very stamina expensive
• Stamina regen is slow
• The dialogue is.. passable. I might be an outlier, but I really don't care about story until after I'm invested a little. The protagonist is kind of a weird mix of blank slate and has-a-personality, which is odd.
• Fetch quest for honey? ...okay
• Why do i have to explicitly equip the sickle and pick? they're in the inventory already. Would prefer that was automated.
• These starting bees are kind of sturdy. Seven or so whacks to finish them off seems excessive. They also have big iframes on their dodges. Even with the axe, they take quite a few hits. Feels like trash mobs should go down in at most one combo.
• Wasn't able to get the riposte to work after the tutorial
• I prefer the estus model of healing. Have a set number until you hit a checkpoint. Is this going to turn into grind-detours to get crafting materials? The signposts only heal you once?
• There seems to be no benefit to fighting. No xp, no items. Guess I'll just run past everything. Feels weird.
• Killed the big bee after getting the axe. Competent fight, but not that exciting. Not a lot of counter-play. Mostly just whacked it and walked away to let stamina recharge.
• Bandit-mook guy has incredible poise. Finishes his move even when I'm hitting him in the face with an axe. Also, like the bees, very sturdy. I only fought one because the bandits are too sturdy, and there's no reward. Feels weird, though.
• Killed big bandit by spamming attack and potions. Don't have enough dodges to feel good avoiding his smash. Not sure why I have 99 potions.
• I don't get anything for killing him? No xp, no cool sword?
• I didn't explore much because it didn't seem like there was a point
• And then I lost interest

Games I'd want more inspiration from:

• CrossCode. Similar visual style. Combat system is more robust
• Titan Souls: If you want complicated boss fights
• Valdis Story: 2d side scroller, but has a rich combat system. It has animation canceling as a core concept, which feels great.

Overall it's a very technically competent game - better than I could do - but it's not enough to make me keep going after the big bandit.

Is the joke that you're not communicating and expect us to read your mind, as referenced in the original post?

Jane Jacobs wrote about this in like the 1960s. More regular people on the street makes people feel safer. It probably actually makes people safer, too.

So, yes, car-first culture makes crime and fear worse. A local neighborhood with people walking about doing their business is safer than one where people just drive, park, and leave.

Conserve what works, discard what weighs you down, build newer and better, rinse repeat.

It's really a marketing coup for Conservatives that that's what people think conservative means. Unfortunately, that's not what conservatives typically mean. And when it is, their idea of "what works and what weighs you down" is usually like "let's not let women vote"