Nils

Some good takes there:

People who gravitate to downtown do so because their supports are all within a walking distance - health care, food, shelter for a bit, government services.

Ironically, those living hand to mouth embrace the 15 minute walkable city other wealthier residents eschew. They live a sustainable lifestyle because they must.

But some arguments and conclusions are a bit weak:

Downtowns have been dying for decades due to shifting buying habits to online, to malls, to going out of town to IKEA and outlet malls.

Cleary it is not the marginalized fault, downtown's declined has a lot to do with how the city is managed. And there are plenty of functional downtowns around the world where people buy online, Ikea and malls - so it is not their fault either.

I feel like Atlus filled the space Square left after the merge, and it is living the golden age similar to what Square enjoyed in the 90s early 2000s. A bunch of quality titles coming each year in the most diverse genres (I think just missing something like Ehrgeiz, maybe they pull it out with the Sega merge).

Not really sure what is different between the management of Atlus and Square Enix, but I feel like a bunch of Japanese companies are banking more on diluting their IPs and counting on the goodwill of people's nostalgia. At least Square Enix did not drop everything to pursue the pachinko business (I hope).

It seems that this article as based on this investor release, it has way more details omitted by the gamespot author https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/20250514_01_en.pdf

From ground news summary:

• Brazilian police arrested a man and a teenager on May 3, 2025, foiling a bomb plot targeting Lady Gaga's concert in Rio de Janeiro.
• Authorities uncovered the plot after identifying an online group spreading hate speech, radicalizing teenagers, and encouraging self-harm.
• Authorities conducted raids at nine sites across multiple Brazilian states such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, confiscating electronic equipment and other items connected to the planned bombing.
• Around 2.1 million people attended the free concert on Copacabana Beach, which aimed to boost the local economy and drew 500,000 tourists.
• The arrests prevented a potentially large-scale attack involving improvised explosives, highlighting authorities' efforts against extremist online networks.

What the ground news summary did not describe that most publications seem to list are:

• The Brazilian federal police was already investigating other groups like this
• Authorities suspect the group was targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
• The arrested teenager was in possession of child sexual abuse material, and was charged on that.
• Another member of the group (not sure if he was charged) had religious motivations.

Yeah, the admin team of .ca is great. They are organized, open to input and always take the initiative (.ca toughened up on disinformation this election cycle).

Yeah, but our ...

It was not supposed to be a negative critic of our instance/admins, on the contrary.

I was replying to the message who said this kind of trolling would be removed and banned right away in any instance, which is not true, I was even surprised that hexbear banned the troll just for that post...

But I just looked, the xiaohongshu2 was not banned for the post, xiaohongshu2 was banned for impersonating another user in bad faith. Hexbears took the post quite well, and the text is still there for people to read.

Some countries allow you to vote in primaries if you will be at voting age by the time of the main elections. It also helps when they have consistent voting days, and alternate elections every 2 years (federal/province for example).

If the provinces and cities also lower the voting age, they will be able to vote much sooner than 18/21.

Nils, if you cannot explain how this voting-age change ...

I guess my first paragraph could be a bit more detailed, so all could understand.
It is hard to imagine you ignored it just to throw a tantrum.
So let me go more in depth, and please let me know if you need further assistance.

Context,

The news in Canada reported that young males might vote conservative, from polls, to schools simulations where the conservatives formed a minority government. I imagine this was part of the reason our friend was afraid of young voters - ironically, just as the right-wing voters, victim of their own unfounded fears.

People that took the time to open past the headlines would see a few things, the percentage of males voting conservative is still minimal compared to the total of other parties, and less than other age group. Young women avoid conservatives more than any other group.

The simulations involved kids as young as elementary, depending on the province here in Canada, they might be as young as 5 years old. And even there, the conservatives got only 36% of the votes across all age groups from elementary to high school.

Last, election turnover is very low with the younger audiences.

There are a bunch of "ifs" and stars to align. It is a fraction (16 and 17 years old), of a fraction (males), of a fraction (that lean conservatives) of a fraction (that would go vote), that you and our friend do not want to have the right to vote. And because of that, everyone else from the 16 and 17 years old age group would not be allowed as well.

It is funny that people like you want to limit other group rights because of what a small fraction of the constituents might do, and call it for the good of "progressive initiatives".

Suppressing voters is not Progressive. As far as I can compare around, places where people have more rights and power, (more democracy) are more progressive.

Lowering the voting age is usually a Progressive instance, in most cases brought up by progressive parties, just look around the globe. Here we have the examples of FairVote and Sunshine.

Progressive does not mean "things I don't like must go".

Well, to be fair, I wrote this for others. By the way that you behave, it does not seem like you are interested in understanding, and just went crazy with slogans. I am not sure if you are a troll or a toddler throwing a tantrum.

I find it hilarious users claim progressiveness, while curbing people's rights.*

American ICE is coming to deport you

Sadly, we already have other groups coming here to kidnap or murder inhabitants, and I am not sure if I will be alive long enough to give ICE a chance to get rid of me.

* You see how I repeat that a few times in the text, I noticed some people like slogans. So I will put in bold here.

Curbing people's rights is not progressive

Young males voters are swaying...

No rights for a whole group because you do not agree with the political leaning of ~1/4 of them (poor young folks that vote centre and left). Add to this that younger men have a lower turnout voting, than any other age group.

A while we are at it

Young drivers are notoriously bad at driving,

With this logic, I imagine you also want to remove the license from people +50yo. Maybe their voter card as well.
Given their turnout and right-wing tendencies. Also, how bad they drive, given the number of accidents.

Hey, I all for a walkable city, possibly you are right with this license takeover.

but not for North Americans

Oh, yes, we are different because we live on this arbitrary piece of land.
Other countries have internet (better than here) and right-wing pundits as well.

I don't think irrational fear of what others might do should be the gatekeeper of their rights.

I also do not agree with them paying taxes with no representation.

It’s THEIR future that we vote for

Given that you want to reduce the rights of a group that are active members of the society, can join the workforce and pay taxes, and studied for most of their lives. Just because you do not agree with what a fraction might do. I don't think you have their best interest in mind.

There are a few .world doing that non ironically. In .ca they always create their own communities. And they usually stay around unless they break the instance rules too many times.

As far as I know, they only get downvotes, nothing more.

That rain smell, I remember being happy when my mom allowed me to play in the rain.

Thanks, great read.

Here we are still having problems to get the referendum going. Because the major parties were alternating for a while, so they always vote against it. It will be difficult to screw them both with disproportionate seats. This recent election, benefited them both.

Is this really your experience with +16 years old? If so, you should get your province to invest more in education.

They(16yo) can drive, they can enlist.

In most provinces, they are choosing their career, trade, university, and with fresh knowledge of history and geopolitics they get from schools.

And there is no magical switch that flips when you turn 18. The sooner they start thinking about their future, the better.

Many countries already allowed 16 years old people to vote, for more than 20 years, and they did not become a misogynist hell-hole.

local candidate

I used to think like that, until I realized that I never met the past 3 representatives from my riding. They sent representatives to knock on my door during the campaign saying yes to any issue I brought up, they never hold town halls, and only returned generic messages when we tried to contact them - when they answer.

The person elected this time does not live in my riding.

All of them voted with the party, and never proposed anything useful.

That was one of the questions I had for the candidates knocking this time, would you vote against the party if their decision would harm "us"(the riding)?

Today, I rather vote for anyone (or party/independent list) in Canada that would relate to my expectations. I do not care where they live, only that they do a good job.