Alue42

You pulled out the main point here - the idea of him, particularly the early idea of him. Back before he started speaking publicly, and I’m not even taking about the past 5-10 years when he’s been vocal on Twitter, being political, or spreading his personal beliefs (pro-natalism, anti-trans, etc)

I mean the early early days post-paypal but when he just got involved with SpaceX and Tesla and he hadn’t been paraded around the interview circuit yet. No one really knew anything about him, but because he had used his money and bullied his way into being named founder of companies, when people heard of him through these and looked him up, they assumed he was this brilliant man who must have founded these groundbreaking companies and invented incredible things. He was just going around doing his thing and these companies kept doing things that seemed great and people could create any story in their head. They were fanboy-ing about an idea they had created for themselves, about an image that has been curated and created. Investments came in, his stock went up, all he had to do was keep quiet and it would have stayed the same.

But he didn’t - he started doing interviews, during which he couldn’t answer simple questions that somebody how claimed to design the rocket should be able to answer. He got on Twitter and started lashing out at people. He started claiming he had amazing ideas for designs for projects that would save all sorts of things and became furious when the flaws were pointed out (eg, the soccer team stuck in the cave and the mini submarine). Then he went all in and letting the world see all of him.

A lot of us that liked the idea of Tesla (an EV for a relatively lower cost so everyone could get it, but still look super sleek, and then have tons of upgrades for the ones that could afford it) actually looked into it when we could finally see it and realized it was just junk-it was made with the cheapest parts in the cheapest way possible with an unbelievable number of flaws, there was no way someone brilliant oversaw the production of these. With SpaceX we were already horrified at the idea of putting something as important as a service to our country and people into the hands of a single CEO that could decide to simply change his mind and decide to cancel the launch of a resupply mission. Sure, even in the 60s there were contractors working for NASA, but it was contractors that NASA hired to work on a NASA led project, this is not a project we should be outsourcing.

I think too many people stuck with him beyond that though and were in a sunk-cost fallacy thinking that they’ve put so much time into being a fan and singing his praises that they better stick with it. I feel like they have to claim it was his charisma because what else could it have been? When really it was just their idea of him.

Could it be because of the 77% decline in migrant entrances into the country?

Even though you technically can purchase this over the counter - this should not be used without a doctor’s advice. The intricacies of jaw placement and how it impacts important nerves and arteries around one’s brain and heart , in addition to tooth placement for long term issues like dental wear and tooth decay patterns leading to infections that can impact the heart and brain, are fast to important to play with willy nilly.

Given the financial situation (and the fact that it takes months to get a sleep study approved), you can try ear plugs or a sound machine. When I was in my younger years and would share hotel rooms with friends, I would preemptively bring these for them, which they say helped

As other people are saying, being tested for and treating sleep apnea is a good first step - IF IT IS SLEEP APNEA. What many people don’t realize it’s that loud snoring is not exclusive to apnea. It is an indicator of it, but one can indeed be a loud snorer and not have apnea. Additionally, there are multiple kinds of apnea that cannot all be treated in the same way. There’s the CPAP machine, the nose guard, wedge cushions to lay in your side, surgery, implantable device, weight loss of overweight, and so many more. When the snoring is not due to a one if the apneas or another easily identifiable cause, the are tongue and throat exercises that have become popular recently to a certain degree of anecdotal success. Drinking a certain beverage right before bed. Medications/supplements. Weird stuff

Because there are hundreds of potential causes (and even more potential solutions, more than half of which only kind of work with some people) and the only thing we know is that he snores - there’s no answer that can be given except to say a doctor needs to pinpoint the cause. My guess is your dad is an adult and know he snores, and still doesn’t feel the need to go to a doctor, you are asking because it bothers you? If it’s not leading to an effect in his health, then there’s not much to worry about (eg, he not waking up still exhausted, or waking himself in the middle of the night by gasping for breath, waking up with a sore throat or headache, etc) and going through those tests is going to be crazy expensive even with insurance (assuming you are in the US)

With the family I grew up in, it be hard to convince you the house wasn’t a sawmill with how many logs all of us were sawing every night. My sister was the only one between my parents and my siblings and I that didn’t snore. She used to complain about it, but now she sees it as reassuring because she can keep track of where we all are in the house and that we’re all still alive (this is mostly for our parents who are now much older - them snoring at least means they aren’t dead), if we’re still awake or if she can sneak Christmas presents down to the tree, in the morning she can tell whose woken up and whose still asleep. And yes - every single one of us has spent multiple thousands of dollars (after insurance) to found out there’s literally nothing we can do, there’s no position we can sleep in to change the fact that we snore, there’s no tongue exercises that will fix it, no magic pill. That’s not to say that will be the case with your dad, but trying to give you realistic expectations.

You are incorrect on each of those. Vietnam was approved by Congress with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964). Iraq was approved with the Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution (2002). Afghanistan was approved by the Congress Joint Resolution (2001).

Congressional approval is required for acts of war. I know the Republicans have Congress, but are they willing to go that far??

I’m making an educated guess that the 40,000 number is a complete exaggeration. That number is coming from Trump and Musk, not an actual spreadsheet or database. Look at by how much he exaggerated the square footage of his penthouse in Trump Tower, or the size of his crowd at his inauguration.

But it can dictate how federal agencies refer to geographic regions.

A private company or private citizen can do as it sees fits.

This year in particular, conservatives are not just a boomer thing. There was a surprising amount of young male voters for Trump this year, mostly led in by the podcasters/commentators favored by that demographic (Joe Rogan, Andrew Tate, ya know, assholes). So it’s no surprise Trump changed his tune on the tiktok ban because he now wants to make sure these people (and people taking about these people) can still share their ridiculous thoughts and therefore become a hivemind and then all support him. Initially Trump wanted to ban tiktok, and it had nothing to do with user security or Chinese data mining, though that’s what the people around him made it into - it was because tiktok was how word was spread to embarrass him at his rallies.

All this to say - age has nothing to do with conservatism. Even back when I was in high school and college, there were always those asshole kids that cared way too much about their parents’ wealth and how it was taxed and had the views of an old white man.

Didn’t this also happen on Reddit when people were posting the alternatives? Links/posts got removed, the subreddit about alternatives got shut down

This is an age group that does need guidance through, and it’s looking for it, and if not provided with a positive role model will latch on to any that they can find.

As an example, look at “Gregory’s Garden Goofballs” episode from Abbott Elementary. A group of the older kids start hanging out in Gregory’s classroom because he’s the “cool teacher” and he gets uncomfortable with it, especially when they start asking him advice about girls and because he doesn’t have his free time anymore. But then he realizes this can be a good thing and that if they are hanging out with him and he’s giving them advice, at least they are with a positive role model. So he sacrifices his free time to be the positive force for the older kids that aren’t even his students, because otherwise they might gravitate to a less positive source.

Others have given you a lot of info here on what it is your brother is referring to.
But what this is reflecting in your brother is that he has fallen into a pipeline of watching these videos or hanging out with people that watch these videos and had some insecurities that he’s dealing with that is making these ideas seem like the answer. It would be a great idea to be supportive of him in whatever other hobbies/activities he has outside of watching those videos and spending time with him. Talk with him about anything other than the content of those videos so that those thoughts aren’t even entering his mind. Introduce him to your friends that are also supportive in something other than those videos (you don’t mention your ages, so it’s unclear if you know the same people). Having supportive people around his activities and hobbies will help him lose some of those insecurities that made him gravitate to those videos.

If that fails, what I’ve seen others say works is if says he’s an alpha male say back “I’m not into that furry stuff, but that’s really cool your so open with your sexuality like that, and accepting of others’ sexualities like recognizing the beta males”