real world link rot, lol

have you considered the EU? here’s some routes for you:

if you are degree qualified, then look into getting an EU blue card. it’s the EU’s answer to the green card, and it’s probably the best way for anyone who’s got the chops. it gives you a near free pick at where you specifically end up. try this page to get a feel of eligible locations, some of the locations need big boy salary, so might be off-limits

do you have any grandparents (or great-grandparents) that are from europe? some countries offer citizenship through descent. if you can prove the descent, then you can register as a citizen. 100% worth checking this. it’s a long shot, with a huge payout if it’s valid. common ones you can check are italy, ireland, hungary, germany (maybe?)

third option for you - “digital nomad” visas are a thing that’s growing. you pick up a remote job for one EU state, and then you can get a visa to live in… a different EU state!? you pay the taxes to the state that is giving you the remote job, and you live in the state that provides the visa. the idea being, where does it even matter where you work, if it’s a remote job? so long as your dues are paid, you can go wild! some digital nomad visas even let you bring family along. not all EU states offer this, you would have to do individual research.

if you are serious about moving somewhere, genuinely serious, then take actionable steps to do it, today. i am a couple years down the path of taking steps to move myself. i don’t know how old you are, but you don’t want to look back and think “i could have took measurable steps when i was younger to get out of here, and i didn’t”. wherever your chosen destination, make it your mission. keep your eyes on the prize.

and lastly, if it doesn’t work out, oh well? at least you tried! you will have gained life experience some americans would dream to get, and you should be able to move back simply. you can’t shake US citizenship that easily ;)

ahh you must watch out for the “[fruit] juice” vs “[fruit] juice drink” meme

on the packet somewhere, it will specify, for the example of your case, “apple juice”, or “apple juice drink”

anything that is a “juice drink” is just not the good stuff. a “juice drink” can have basically anything they want in there, with some 0.0001% real fruit to cover themselves legally. always look out for “juice” on it’s own, that’s the 100% real stuff

i say this because i got bitten by buying the cheapest apple “juice” once, to find out it was a “juice drink”, i.e not apple juice.

oh god it’s not just “some people” are influenced, it’s “most people” are influenced?? 💀

it’s no wonder that “influencer” is a job title, yikes!

also, this line made me laugh:

Instead, the autistic shopper focuses on what really matters: ingredients, price, and the necessity of even owning the product. Time and again they select the best product for their needs regardless of how it is displayed.

when they spell out the reasons like this, it’s very funny because it’s written like we’re specimens in a zoo (imagine the david attenborough voice), and that we’re all acting strangely. no, we’re the ones acting rational, you’re the strange ones!

that’s a nice article. glad to see my reasoning validated. thank you for sharing ❤️

it’s simple. asking people to do the right thing (i.e slowdown), out of the kindness of their hearts, is laughable.

if you build the street in such a way that driving above it’s design limits is impossible, then people wont do it. surprisingly, the threat of their car being damaged or totaled will force compliance with the intended speed limit. if this was done correctly on a large scale, speed limit posts wouldn’t even be required - the street layout would naturally dictate the speeds you can drive at.

for UK streets, this can be retrofitted with chicanes, curb extensions, raised pedestrian crossings, etc. increasing the amount that a driver has to think to drive down a street, automatically makes them slower. oh, and none of those stupid painted chicanes and bumps either, you think anyone cares about those? lol. actually build the damned curb extensions

get this right, it genuinely shocked me too. some people just… look at the product, and then go “i’ll buy that!” and then they buy it. they are not even making a conscious choice when doing this. their brain intuitively tells them “yes, this one” and they don’t have to think it out.

more often than not, the product that wins is the product with the better or “flashy” packaging and style. that’s one reason why they spend all that money on advertising and branding. to me, it’s sooo strange. why would you not read up on your choice beforehand, or at least investigate each packet to check for food aversions, find out which one is the best $/unit value, etc? why should the packet the food is in, have any substantial bearing on your choice of purchase? (there are edge cases where the packet matters, i know)

to answer your question, yeah there is a lot of risk-takers out there!😱

sure, i get what you mean. but consider this viewpoint. a paraplegic can practise pulling themselves up a stairway by using the handrails. it will work, but it’s not going to be neat, and it will painfully out that individual as disabled either way. or, (jn this analogy) the building owner could install an elevator…

yes, we should do our best to understand the basic social script - but i think society needs to “install more elevators” to make this process easier. there’s a certain point where, no matter how hard we try to learn the social script, we’re still autistic, we’re still going to be outed as “weird”, and that cold truth is just not going away, regardless of how much practice we put in.

personally, i think seriously trying to blend in, is a fools errand. save your energy ❤️

i got searching, and i understand your concern, there’s a lot of chatter in EU countries about doing this too

however - it looks like it’s all chatter. i managed to find the specific proposal from the EU that people seem worried about, but it hasn’t got out of council yet. seeing major countries like italy and germany coming out against an E2EE ban, means that i have confidence this proposal wont get past a qualified majority vote. (germany + italy = 31% eu pop, qmv pop threshold of 35% to reject)

on the other hand, we have the UK, which has already demonstrated that, when presented with a seriously stupid choice, it has the capacity to actually take that bad choice. the Online Safety Bill is real, it’s in UK parliament now, will likely pass, and it will start hurting us by the end of this year

it’s this second reason really, that the UK has the capacity to pull the trigger on dumb issues, that has put me on the path to leaving. it’s not so much “EU good”, rather it’s “UK bad”. this encryption thing is icing on the cake for me, but it’s not the root cause.

same. where you thinking to bail out to? my top 2 picks are netherlands and norway atm. got any ideas?

i see a lot of commenters thinking this is a bot meme. so, i’m gonna explain the joke in excruciatingly painful detail for the normies, who i hope are never required to “get” this meme otherwise.

~

in hospitals, people sometimes decorate the floor with various liquids, sometimes willingly.

as a cleaner, you need to be able to dump a bucket of bleach on this hospital floor, and get scrubbing quickly.

to facilitate this, the floors are made out of a smooth material with minimal pores. you dump bleach, and it just works.

this comes with a side effect of the floor needing to be very, very slippy.

~

psych ward patients must have all their gear removed, this includes shoes and socks.

this is because you can use the laces and elastic to commit sudoku.

but now all your psych patients are at high risk of slips and falls instead.

to counter this, “hospital grip socks” are issued, like the yellow socks in the bottom left of OP’s meme.

these are issued to patients as part of their hospital uniform, to counter the slippy floor problem.

you can now navigate your room safely without slipping and injuring yourself.

these socks are also issued to regular patients like elderly, weak to stand, etc etc. but on the internet, these are “psych ward socks”

~

so, the actual joke is that OP is outing themself as a psych patient by demonstrating knowledge of the uniform.

sidenote: i assume the orange sandals are for bougie in-patients at private facilities? it seems silly tbh, i would want to throw them.

it’s frustrating to see rules on technology being decided by people not qualified in the field.

then, i stop and think about it further.

i realise that these same donkeys also legislate on healthcare, energy, water, education, _{police, transport, environment, ᶜᵘˡᵗᵘʳᵉ ⁱⁿᶠʳᵃˢᵗʳᵘᶜᵗᵘʳᵉ ˢᵖᵒʳᵗˢ ᵉᵗᶜ…}

…business owners and politicians in other countries are not compelled to help you make your policy work.

this is the take-home line from this article. i wish my family would understand this. i tried explaining to them once that it’s not the EU’s job to give us free work visas anymore. no luck though, lol

from the tinder algorithm’s perspective, it “wants” to select for babies that will grow up and use the app when they are older too

the implication of this, is that algorithms now have actual influence on the natural selection of humans. small influence of course, but, unsettling to think about for too long.

ik ben dom Engels, excuseer. ik ben leren Nederlands. ik vond dit, en ik hoop dat dit is grappig voor je

oh no, i’m old enough to remember when this cat was a cool post, and not a cool statue 😥

whilst the telegraph can be a bit sensational, broken clocks are right twice a day.

i am taking steps to leave here. it wont be for a couple years yet, but i am on the path.

welcome to the club ❤️

here’s a welcome gift: consider that every bit of advice that you have ever been given in your life, has been given to you in the belief that you are ““normal”” (read: NT, like them), and because most of that advice is not tuned for your autistic brain, most of it is complete trash 😀👍

consider this example: has anyone ever told you to “just read their body language”?

how do you spot a hexbear user? don’t worry, [he] will tell you 😅

yeah i mean opel rocks-e is cool… but what about the microlino?

the door is at the front! ❤️