Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

To a certain extent, sure.  But some of them just have completely unrealistic expectations, that seem to come from social media sources, and/or their insistence on living within their own echo-chambers.

I have one nephew, he's now 30. He can't bother himself to wake up in the morning to get to a job, so he's usually out of work.  He likes to have long, philosophical discussions about how "creatives" are tremendously under-appreciated in society, there's no place for them to earn a living.  He's always been on the artsy side, was in theater and choir in high school, but he doesn't currently do anything "creative" so I have no idea what he really means or what his expectations are.  He's not an artist or a writer or an actor or a singer, has never tried to be any of those things.

He waves me off when I point out that our current society has all kinds of paying outlets for "creatives."  Graphic design, for example, is absolutely booming compared to where it was 20 or even 10 years ago.  And then of course there are the standard jobs for artsy folks, those I mentioned above, like actors/writers/artists. 

But what I really think he honestly believes, is that he should be compensated for thinking.  For philosophizing.  That society should place such high value on his thoughts that he is paid for thinking them and talking about them.

But even THEN, there ARE potential outlets where he might be traded something of value-- cash, lodging, food, whatever-- if he actually bothered to try and spread his "creative visions" through some consumable medium. It's possible, if he wrote a book about his ideas, that it might be published. It's possible, that if he started a Youtube channel or a podcast about his ideas, that he might get monetized.  There are now more opportunities than EVER BEFORE IN HISTORY, for people to be compensated for non-traditional work.  More opportunities than ever before, for the widespread distribution and potential monetization of "content" that is of value only to a select few, because it's easier to reach people now, than ever before.

And yet, he does none of those things.  He seems to think that just his existence and enthusiasm for talking about his philosophies, should be enough for society to be willing to support him.

I know he's unhappy with our current society, as are his many similar friends I've encountered.  I have no doubt they're among the ones expressing their unhappiness with current American society.

And it's all complete bullshit.

But I also don't think the CCP wants to put itself in permanent exile.  They'll rattle sabers but ultimately they need the rest of the world, they can't exist in isolation.

China might just be done for as a super power sooner rather than later. Their population is aging off rapidly and they don't have the young blood to replace it, they are about to go into population decline over the next couple decades and it's only projected to get worse each decade- I want to say their population is projected to like cut in half in roughly 75 years.

Get a hold of yourself, man.  Ukraine has stalemated Russia's "Second Army of the World" for 2 years using NATO's 3-generations-old technology strung together with clothes pins and bailing wire.  By itself Poland could take what little is left of the Russian army, and you better believe they're itching to do so.

And China won't make a move on Taiwan because they can't.  They can't get their forces across the ocean to occupy it, they'd be sitting ducks. 

well, I'm glad he rigged the election isn't going down for a while