Knowledge comes from many places. You'd be a fool to not utilize and learn from any sources, materials, and yes games that you can.

I'm also basing it on having read and studied voraciously about peoples and their history since I was quite young. I judge people for their actions now instead of their ancestors in the past where the morals of that time instead of ours. It's really as simple as that.

Who are we to judge Shaka, Batu Khan, Cuauhtemoc, etc?

I've got 2000+ years of my ancestors being subjugated, enslaved, conquered, multiple genocides, hundreds of years of wealth and land passed down generation to generation gone in a matter of weeks (real structural systematic impact) ... and I still maintain that no one should feel shame about their ancestors - to Turks, Azeris, and even the Mongols.

Take the good with the bad and keep going.

You can always keep digging and find that the victims were victimizers themselves. It's an endless waltz. (I also might be biased on that because of how much EU4 I've played.)

Anyone ever bother to try to catch them and actually talk with them and see why they have all sorts of fucked up views? There's got to be some Darryl Davis types in Springfield.

Or you could present counter points instead of accusing me - a POC - of being walking talking propaganda for Patriot Front. ( I also have tons of privilege cards I can play, so check yours before you launch accusations. )

We at some point conquered that land. In turn we were conquered, displaced, subjugate, enslaved, etc by various empires and peoples. History is cyclical. Never have guilt or shame about the land you live on or who you ancestors were. Don't apologize. Ever.

I 've got 3 kids and this is a moral value I plan to install as much as possible.

Down vote all you want as I don't l expect any real counter points.

It's not and I'm Armenian.

I can go all day about stolen/conquered land - which is actually happening still right now having lost a war to Azerbaijan over territory that Armenian families' have built on and in for hundreds of years.

This 100%

I see people who all day talk and post online about how tolerant, virtuous, and activists for various social causes then treat working class service sector employees like absolute garbage.

Like if you are gonna explode on someone because your coffee was wrong in a lunch rush, you might want take off your Pride sticker cause you are actively hurting shit you are promoting.

Zoning laws in pretty much every city and suburb across the country literally prevent this. Churches literally can't do this. The closes they can probably come is what Warnock in GA was doing, but as we all know, there was some less than stellar behavior from the management company involved on his behalf.

Where did you find this?

This 100%.

So much of this reddit and particularly the MO reddit basically is "Why wont those horrible backwards ism/ist/phobe bigots vote the way I tell them to?!?!" The disdain is enough to immediately turn those people off to any points of agreement and often makes them want to do the exact opposite.

There were so many comments I ran into on this subreddit for the voting up to prop 3 (whatever the recreational weed legalization one was) about bashing ignorant MAGA types that were going to vote against the prop. I know quite a few MAGA types who are heavy pot users and were 100% voting to legalize here. That could have been an opportunity to talk and find something in common, but of course hard lefties here couldnt get out of their own head.

I know at certain points I've been so irked by some of the hard lefties on here when they toss out the various ist/ism accusations that I want to do/vote for whoever they oppose out of spite. Sometimes I stop myself and try to think about their points/overall message and separate it from who is saying it, but that's pretty damned difficult - and most people won't bother to do that.

Need more of these threads. Its easy to complain, but takes alot more time to brainstorm, organize, etc actual solutions.

You might want to brush up on CRT - both its actual concepts as well as what people put into and under the CRt umbrella. It's a minefield you are gonna have to navigate and it will pop up alot from enough potential voters.

That said, if you support having our kids learn about their privilege in school and that involves race, gender, identity, etc I'll have to resort to voting GOP cause at least they don't go down that avenue.

Not gonna let my kids get harrased and degraded by curriculum that shames or guilts them in anyway for their ancestors and overall history. (Basically what CRT does with the "power+privilege = racism so its okay to discriminate/advocate for racist policies against "white" people because they supposedly have structural and systematic privilege". (This is a big deal to me cause my kids can pass for white and im not inclined to let insane progs punish them for it.)

So its only my body my rights when it comes to abortion, but not everything else regarding what goes into one's body.

Very interesting.

Woah, Actually a consistent position on the issue! Don't see that too often.

One gripe that always really bothered me is that someone could advocated for "muh body muh rights" when it came to abortion, but then not when it came to vaccines.

Either you have rights over your body or you don't.

What about second amendment, workers rights/unions, Medicaid for all/public option giving kids puberty blockers, foreign policy, all that fun stuff that people yell into the void over on twitter?

1)We have a yearly pass to the Bass Pro's Wonders of Wildlife and Aquarium which has been perfect for young children. With a one year old, its stroller friendly enough that they have elevators for each area where there are stairs to the next exhibit. ( I wouldnt advise the wrap because you will have to wear your backpack as well and its like 1.5 miles worth of walking, though alot of places to sit all around.)

2. The Discovery Center is probably worth it as well. There's also Chesterfield. It's bit pricier for the membership, but there's actually babysitting on site there. (It's similar to a YMCA, though I'd argue much better as more features than the YMCA.)

Battlefield Mall actually has a play area for toddlers that's pretty close to the food court. There's seating right on the wall of the play area with charging outlets so you can bring your laptop and phone with you if needed while eating and keeping an eye on your little one.

3. Parks. Lots of actually really great parks in Springfield which surprises me considering how low property taxes are around here. (Shocking to us having recently moved from Illinois.)

People have already mentioned itty bitty city, jungle gym, and jump mania, but Id seriously look at some of the parks. Nathaniel Greene stroll gardens has alot of heavily shaded gardened areas that are free and a Japanese stroll garden thats a couple bucks. There's actually alot of gardens there and it initially surprised me.

Wilson-Rutledge is an interesting park that is almost a very small zoo/petting zoo with various activities depending on the time of year and a play area. I'd highly recommend it for young kids and its pretty stroller friendly. There's also the Jordan Valley park, just watch out in that area for tweakers/meth addicts who might accost you.

4. This may surprise you but.... Wire Road Brewery - on the southeast side of town - which also is a hybrid coffee shop. If you want to grab a drink at any point - or coffee, you can bring your kid with you. Id advise a stroller, but their inside is nice and the outside is really good too. (They dont sell food there so you'd have to bring your own, though they do have some great food trucks there often.)

This is valuable information. We've got a 5 month, 5 year old, and 6 year old and are always looking for deals like this. Thanks very much.

Ngl, my kids love those lights on Bass Pro with a passion. This is the kind of light pollution I can and well get behind.

This 100%. There goes getting a table this weekend now.

Love FDs.

Its extremely busy basically every day of the week because its reasonable price wise and the food is pretty good. So how do they do it?

A small limited menu. Seriously.

Whenever you see that at a restaurant, its usually a good thing. It means the food will likely be fresh and the ingredients of a better quality because they arent worried about wasting a ton of money on daily food waste for a large massive menu.

If you ever have watched Kitchen Nightmares, you'll notice the restaurants often lost alot of money on food waste of already crappy frozen and premade ingredients because their menus were so big. The food already wasnt good, so they would get into a kind of doom spiral. (Bad food quality, less customers, less money for any quality ingredients, repeat.)

FDs keeps cost down by buying enough of what they need, making alot of it on the same day of order, and no more. If they run out, they run out. I noticed this with their fish fry. I'm not sure how fresh the food actually is, but the quality of ingredients is far better than most places around and often compares to your much more expensive restaurants in the area.

They end up with a very loyal and expanding customer base that fills up the place constantly and havent had to adjust their prices as high for inflation as others. It's a winning recipe that keeps people coming back for something thats hard to find around here: Quality food at a very reasonable price.

Wages in Springfield for alot of entry level jobs - especially ones that require no experience - are actually not bad. Moved from NW suburbs of Illinois a few months back and the wages here are basically the same for those positions with some of the manufacturing, distribution, etc jobs actually paying a bit more.

Then there's odd cases like Buckys- a big gas station with shit inside basically. A wealthy suburbs like Vernon hills in Illinois doesn't pay its retail associates and clerks 18$ an hour though the new Buckys opening up here starts at that. Store managers here will make 100k. Why the disparity? No idea.

The grass always looks greener I suppose, but this still prominent labor shortage means Springfield is in a position to still grow despite a wealth of issues plaguing it.

Working remotely helps - but it doesn't pay as much as people think. Entry level manufacting jobs here make almost as much as I do.

What's really key is the cost of living here, lowish housing prices (not rents) and property taxes that aren't basically the equivalent of having a permanent second mortgage on top of sky high interest rates for potential homeowners. (Illinois property taxes on just a condo is like 2500$ a year for example. 1800 Sq foot house with 4 bed and 2 bath? 5-9k a year and the schools aren't any better than the ones here, the parks are lacking, and the roads are still in need of desperate repair.)

Correlation doesn't equal causation.

It's definitely an important factor, but there are so many poor people and communities throughout the world that don't rob their neighborhoods blind because there are either severe consequences for doing so or they are part of a high trust society. (Think Denmark, Finland, Norway, Japan, etc.)

Literally, all the generational wealth and property built up over a century on my mothers side was wiped out in a few weeks in just one genocide. We don't get any of the usual sympathy either with charities, grants, scholarships, etc just for Armenians like specific other marginalized communities have here.

Are we stealing left and right from our neighbors because we are poor? No.

Yes being poor limits our options as it does mine everyday, but if you cant trust your neighbors or people in your community, it eventually breaks down beyond repair.

Poverty will never be entirely eliminated, hence strong robust social safety nets in places like Denmark, but those are places that are high trust because they have centuries of people living there with the same morals and values.

Danes trust their fellow Danes would never take advantage of the system. Us? We literally have 100s of billions of fraud during the pandemic loans and bailouts again that allowed major corps to buy their stock back instead of putting into the workers. (The bond across society is broken.)

We don't have what countries like Denmark do and probably won't for another 100 years and with Americans having less and less in common based on geography its gonna get worse.

25k bond? That's it?

Need to start making examples of these people and stop excusing that they are "poor" and their social circumstances and their "mental health". The excuses have to stop being accepted. It's time for accountability.

Plenty of people in the same position who don't do anything like this.

This is definitely a great mugshot.

Wire Road Brewery (also a coffee shop) is actually pretty impressive. Has huge outdoor area and features food trucks, sometimes live music, and you can bring your kids and dogs. (I've seen people bring other pets as well.)

They also have some unique coffee infused beers that are phenom.

So it's not just me. I felt the burger was way overpriced for the quality of the ingredients.