And they're smart enough to take people when they aren't able to do "2A people" type stuff. It's hard for an illegal to own a gun in the first place, much less have it at work when your boss will use any excuse to crack the whip at you to keep the others oppressed and in line.

It's funny, because alabama (or maybe a part of it?) has (had?) the highest density of Ph.D.s in the country because of research and government (I think a NASA facility). I wonder, with our current bullshit about research funding and our government's anti-truth approach to things that don't make companies money, if there is already a notable reduction in educated folks in these already education-barren locations.

But a Marine in bargain-bin decade-old hardware will absolutely walk straight up the barrel of a “less-lethal” loaded rifle and physically manhandle the cop in luxury fascist tech who thinks <40 hours of range time means they’re ready for combat.

You're letting your fantasies escape through your skull holes, comrade. The military is going to point their guns, just as the cops next to them will be, at the people protesting the kidnapping of their neighbors by the gestapo.

I think my dream is more along the lines of the internationale, and many hanging with red necks.

You could set your story in a historical setting in which the countess and the gardener are truly forbidden from passion, or a fantasy world where the ogopogos and sasquatches are sexy rivals.

The amount of pirates on the covers of romance novels is the direct result of this.

Or just have a lukewarm type of forbidden-ness, like “his family’s greeting-card store is in competition with my family’s greeting-card store” or “we’re coworkers.”

And the hallmark channel answer. I had a coworker who would watch those every single day. I vomit at the visuals (how do they get them so consistent and apparent? You can tell just from the opening shots and title!) of a hallmark to this day.

I mean, that was bad, but I hated the movie more for turning it into feel-good drivel about the boss actually being kind and caring about her employee(s). The book ending, where the character realized her own self worth and started making her own decisions, was so much better than the american bullshit about putting up with a boss' bullshit because they're actually such good people and will throw a few dollars off the balcony for you to catch.

They're already putting in ads on the dash screen in Jeeps... I'd imagine electric cars (well, teslas, anyway) are going to start getting grumpy that radio stations and spotify get so much 'free' ear time, and start putting in their own ads in the speakers that will play when they feel like it.