Yes.

and part of that is that adults absolutely do buy stupid status symbols to flex on each other.

Exactly. And when they do, we don’t say “Well, that’s just what humanity does”.

We say “Despise these covetous pricks”.

I use “philosophy” to mean one’s individual, personal relationship with reality: how they choose to interact with the world around them. I understand this is a somewhat atypical use. There is probably a better word for that concept. It eludes me at this time.

As I used the term, “Christian teachings” (etc.) would only qualify as a philosophy if the individual actually adheres to those tenets. If not, those teachings are just a work of fiction.

There certainly are “striking similarities” throughout the the populace and time. My point is that we don’t need to accept, excuse, explain, or tolerate those widespread behaviors simply because they are widespread. As I see it, “Human nature” is a slightly more egalitarian synonym for “boys will be boys”.

What’s the culture where people don’t covet meaningless status symbols?

While there are numerous examples of such philosophies and cultures around the globe, I don’t actually need to identify such a culture to demonstrate my point.

If one can remain human without engaging in this behavior, this behavior is not a characteristic of the human condition.

The question before you is whether the members of such a hypothetical culture are inhuman specifically because they do not engage in that covetous behavior.

The abhorrent behaviors being described are conditions of ideas held by certain members of the species. The species is not lessened by the rejection of such ideas. The “certain members” are lessened by their adherence to those ideas.

Jet-A is kerosene and a handful of additives, mostly to prevent gelling at low temperatures. The ability to produce jet fuel from sea water would be extremely useful, but I highly doubt they have developed a feasible system on board a carrier.

Don’t pretend we’ve ever been better than that as a species.

Will you make the argument that people who refuse to follow such fashion trends are somehow inhuman?

If you are unwilling to make such an argument, I will not accept your premise that this is a trait of the “species”.

What you (and the parent comment) are describing is a characteristic of certain childish behaviors, philosophies and cultures.

The sophomoric behavior of these geriatric children is not an indictment of humanity in general.

Those aren’t adults. Those are geriatric children.

Don’t touch our boats.

If you get rid of the US’s 11 CATOBAR supercarriers and only use its STOVL “amphibious assault ships”, the US Navy still has more planes than any other navy in the world.

With the supercarriers, the US Navy has nearly twice as many naval aircraft as the rest of the world combined.

Nope, sorry, Israel isn’t going to be enough of a distraction from all the

Child Rape.

That would be my preference, too. But I can settle for the latter.

Child Rapist attempts yet another distraction.

I’m not an unreasonable person. In lieu of the Epstein Files, I’m willing to accept your obituary.

Antelope eats vegetation, which means antelope is a vegan and a vegetable. Tiger eats vegetable-lope, which means tiger is also a vegetable and a vegan.

Pig eats cheese, which was produced by the milk of a cow, which is a vegetable because the cow eats vegetables. Milk is therefore a product of a vegetable, making it vegan.

It’s vegetables all the way down.

Yes. The relevant metric:

99.55% of posts are on a single instance. That is not “federated” in any meaningful sense.

I’m home now, but if someone is going to give me a 10 minute warning, I won’t be when they get here.

Single use foil pouches.

I’ve tried this repeatedly. I’ve answered “No” to their upsale. I’ve sat there in silence, waiting for it to time out. I’ve asked for a human. Every time the AI takes my order, it adds nacho fries that I didn’t order and specifically rejected.

The problem isn’t that I need a human to fix it. The problem is that the AI is specifically programmed to ignore a rejected upsale. Their AI is smart enough to recognize the rest of my complicated order, but it can’t understand “No”? Horseshit. They are using this fraudulent programming to increase their upsale metrics, expecting us to docilely accept the sale rather than raise a fuss.

Drive-offs are another of the metrics they look at. Since I’ve communicated with nobody but the AI, they have nobody but the AI to blame for the drive-off. They don’t get to blame a human for failing to remediate the problem.

Or, and hear me out: I can drive off, flip them the bird, and go down to one of the other 15 fast food places within a 5 minute drive, that doesn’t use a speech recognition AI to take my order.

The fucking taco bell AI likes to ask if I would like anything else, then ask if I want nacho fries. Then, hearing “No”, go ahead and add them anyway.

Then it likes watching me drive away, giving the store the finger.

Romeo and Juliet laws are fairly common. 24 states allow a 2 to 5 year age difference. AFAIK, federal law allows up to a 4-year age difference.

The other 26 seem kinda stupid. Two kids can be in the same class and dating since 6th grade, but for 6 months in their senior year, it’s rape. How does that make sense?