Depending on the era, a small penis was seen as more civilized / refined. A generously endowed statue might have been regarded as bestial. That’s the long and the short of it, at least according to my Intro to Art History class from many years ago.

“Step down. Step down. Step down. Step down.” ad nauseam and “Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?” spring to mind as maximally cringe inducing examples.

A significant portion of the voting population will vote against their own interests as long as their preferred politician caters to their identity politics.

Needlessly rude and manifestly unhelpful. Poorly played.

I hate to say it, but the car culture genie is out of the bottle and putting it back might be impossible. EVs and self-driving cars at least mitigate the environmental damage and inefficiency somewhat.

That said, a simultaneous push for PT (possibly even self-driving PT!) needs to happen. Compulsory auto ownership and its attendant costs represent a significant financial burden to the average person. Giving people options other than the car can open the door to walkable districts, at least, if not entire cities.

I think it's important to avoid "Rapture thinking". For those unfamiliar, a certain subset of Christians believe the cataclysmic end of the world is imminent, but that they will be whisked away to heaven beforehand. Therefore they discount the future.

While I think technical advancement of the type we hope for is obviously far more likely than such a fantastical event, we should proceed as though it is an inevitability. We must accept that the climate cake we've mixed is baking, and we should plan for a worst case outcome wherein the effects of climate change are significant and no or not enough great technologies emerge to mitigate them. I believe there will be a way forward even so, but we will face significant challenges.