Purely speculating here:

The patriot act made it so that the US government had ownership of any data that passed through US land. Is this just a way for the US to monitor all traffic going through into and out of Russia?

It's actually a big deal inside any privacy space outside of the US. For instance, any healthcare data in Canada can't go through the US. Same thing for EU countries. Bigger corporations like MS know this and have data centers available for those countries to access within their own borders.

Fair.
I've found a lot of gems with 60% ratings. Usually the type that's really well crafted, but requires people to watch and pay attention. The first thing that comes to mind as an example is the first season of the witcher. It was all laid out to understand, but you had to pay attention to the name drops. 68% critic score, but I thought that first season was excellent

I've seen very few critics opinions that I've agreed with, and fewer I disagree with but voice their opinion in a way that isn't purely subjective.
Just mentioning because I'm seeing a horrible amount of journalist and journalist adjacent professionals doing very bad work.

Saving isn't the same as profit. Saving is much more beneficial, but our society is focused on profit.

It actually is monorail. It looks like the stabilizing arm is for when the vehicle is off and not moving. It uses a gyroscope while moving for stabilization

It sounds like your reasoning is similar to how a lot of people feel about the word 'moist'.

I wouldn't be happy if the descriptor for me was viscerally hurtful to myself.

I think the big difference is the world we live in. Lgbtq+ are being targeted by rightwing fucks all over the world. Talking about how you don't like the word sounds a lot like 'Im just asking what a woman is'. It's not exactly transphobic, but those phrases are often used by people trying to legitimize their hate. For example, take a look at JKRs change in rhetoric.

Srsly Wrong's latest podcast talked a lot about how oil companies funded grassroots pro oil campaigns and then linked it to our larger culture and how we can't trust anyone anymore.

I never thought I'd be able to say not trusting each other is big oils fault, but here we are

I agree with you, but you might find the history of Zionism interesting. Before Israel, there was a sizable portion of Zionists that didn't want Israel to exist in the middle east. There were also Zionists that didn't want a 'state'. They thought it was more important to have a safe place for a sizable Jewish population. There's probably a lot of flavors of Zionism that you'd agree with. It's the dominant Israeli Zionism that's horrible.

It's a lot easier to say 'Zionist' though. Just thought I'd share in case you weren't aware.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks essentially legalized it though.
Nobody likes Stalin. If you do, think about your life and your place in the world

Exactly. All we can do is try to improve.

Southern Ontario checking in. We did that too. 'Gyped' and 'indian giver' were also things.
Although, I had an indigenous friend one summer who quickly became popular because he was very funny. He used to use slurs against all of the white kids all of the time. It was the most effective anti racist tactic I've ever witnessed. None of us were comfortable using a lot of the slurs that were baked into our culture, unless it was with our friend and a smile.