Does it at least take a long time, thereby not entirely ruining my analogy?

Hedging is done in many different ways. One of the easiest, that requires zero insight is a future hedge.

Say I hold 1000 shares worth 5 bucks each in company Bob. If the price goes up, that’s great, but I’ll need to replace my car in three years, and I’ll need at least 3000 bucks for that.

So, I’m going to spend some money now on buying an option in 2 years 11 months to sell 1000 shares for 3 bucks per share. That way, if Bob company completely collapses, I’ll always have at minimum 3000 bucks.

Of course, those options cost money to buy, so I’ll have to pay to reduce my risk, but I don’t need any real insight into the market to use this kind of hedge.

Hedging isn’t about ensuring gains, it’s about reducing losses.

The classic non-stock example is the apple farmer. Apple trees take a long time to grow, years before they produce any significant amount of apples.

Suppose I plant an orchard of the new Awesome Amy Apple trees. I’m betting those will really take off in two years, so they’ll be really profitable. But since these apples are my entire income, and I’d rather not eat an entirely apple-based diet by then, I’m going to hedge my investment. I’m giving up some profit to reduce my risks.

I’m making a contract to sell half my apples for, say, 20 dollars per bucket. Now, they might be worth 40, but they might also be completely worthless if the Perfect Pete Apple becomes more popular. So I’m giving up some potential profit in exchange for certainty by hedging.

Another type of hedge would be me planting 75% Awesome Amy, and 25% Perfect Pete. I’m still assuming the alliteration will win the day, but by spreading my investment around, I’m reducing my risk.

To translate this to the stock market, the first examples would be to buy options for the future. The second example is simply spreading your investments.

The sewage treatment is not built to handle that kind of stuff.

They’re also not built to handle it in the US, but lower standards solve that problem pretty handily

A cat.

The neighbor’s cat managed to get through the screen window into our bedroom, but couldn’t get out again. And because I wasn’t thinking, I picked it up and decided to carry it downstairs. That was a mistake. It bit my hand, wrist and forearm, and scratched basically everywhere else. The bites were bleeding a LOT, especially the one on my wrist. And of course I had to get antibiotics and a tetanus shot, which meant that only were the bites hurting, I was nauseous for two weeks too.

Also a snake once. My partner made me go to the doctor, who said “yep, that’s a snake bite. Call me if it’s not getting better”.

I’ve always assumed the dongle uses bluetooth as well. Why invent a new protocol when there’s one that does exactly what you want?

Well, I live 5 meters under sea level. The most realistic disaster to happen to me would involve a giant crushing wave of water, and there’s not much you can do to get out of that.

But since I like backpack hiking, and buying in bulk is cheap, I have something like a month of food, some lifestraws, some water, extra cooking gear, etc.

Well, it’s a good thing OP is willing to try an innocent sports game, and not anything premeditated

one party

A well known issue with the left is that leftwing parties tend to split into a million different fractions.

corruption

Pretty sure a key feature of left-wing policy is transparency and removal of money in politics. Contrast to, for example, the recent US (right wing) supreme court ruling that bribery is totally legal as long as you do it beforehand.

executions

Unless this is your dog whistle for freedom to have an abortion, you’re just Imaging this. The death penalty is very much opposed by every left wing group or person.

burning of books,

Maybe, maybe at the far end, republishing books with disclaimers about the period they were written in…

those things happened in my country when we were under Soviet communist occupation.

And do you think the Soviet Union under Stalin was very leftwing? Or were they just extremely authoritarian? Did they practice much egalitarianism, or did they merely say they did? We’re they anti-war? Pro multiculturalism?

Do you Stalin think was an extreme liberal?

Fwiw, my IUD track record is 1 easy insertion, 1 easy removal, 1 “that wasn’t fun” removal and 1 “maybe giving birth would be preferable” insertion.

Your mileage may vary.

Oh fuck yes. I had a removed wisdom tooth get infected, and the dentist said “due to all the pus, the anesthesic won’t work as well, but don’t worry, we’ll go as fast as possible”.

It’s a phrase that features frequently in my nightmares.

Vehemently Anti-skub, like every normal, sane person

And if you must, just grab the cheapest supermarket multivitamins and take only one. It probably won’t do much, but at least you’ll only waste a few pennies per day.

Absolutely. You get first dibs on “I told you so”. But until then, I get the right to go “neener neener neeeeeener”" at the sea.

Living below sea level for generations, and only remembering when you see other countries flood.

Or US subsidizing your military defense,

I’m sorry to say, but the reason the US sucks isn’t because they “sacrifice” so much to help others. This is a super common argument to make, but it’s not true.

The US government spends more on healthcare per capita than most countries, in medicare, medicaid and veterans care. The reason everyone else doesn’t benefit, is because all that money disappears straight into the pockets of the super rich. You could have the same social programs without spending a single cent more, and probably spending less.

The answer is a whole-society approach, AND heavy regulation. You provide information from a whole host of sources, government and private, and you basically ban disinformation (read: advertising) from contradicting or subverting it.

Right on red

Not a cyclist, I see.