Not really, I can distance them in my mind to some degree while still appreciating the art but only if it doesn’t require a bunch of mental gymnastics. J.K is past the level for me because I took positive lessons from her books that she ironically didn’t learn herself. Her stance irl seems to be antithetical to the books, she would be the villain in her own stories.

Kanye… more complicated for me. I can still separate art from artist when I listen to his old work. I’ve struggled with some pretty similar things to him, mental health wise. It’s hard to imagine being in his position. Now he’s apologizing for the nazi shit, and yeah words are great but they need to be followed with actions, and a lot of them. If what he said is true (walking around with an undiagnosed TBI for years) then what he did makes sense, but just apologizing isn’t enough. Not even close. His trump arc did immeasurable damage, so for the apology to feel legit, he needs to put in enough positive work to balance it out plus extra. And I haven’t really seen any actions to follow the apology yet.

The more I like your art, the more I am willing to put up with some bs from you as a person. But the line, for me, is hypocrisy. Because then the art loses meaning as a piece of the artist.

The way you’re quoting this implies sarcasm or derision. Okay then, we should do nothing? The ecosystem is a wreck, yes, and acting our entire species took part is disingenuous at best.

Ah fuck it, I’ll take one Login with Caution please.

That’s exactly the reaction they want. That aspect of the scam helps filter out people who might be smart enough to properly retaliate if they were to get scammed out of 20k or whatever.

“in some cases” yeah you’re talking about a tiny percentage here, just the ones at the top. Why? Why do some sports players get paid so much? Why do some movie stars get paid so much? Society places incredibly high value on appearances. You’re free to disagree on a personal level (as do I, the beauty culture is horrendous) but it’s important to realize the reality of how most people think.

As for the devs, people are often broke. Years ago, the reason I first learned about open source was looking for free alternatives to word, when I found libreoffice. I had absolutely no money to spare at the time. These days, I’m in the hole again. But I give when I’m able. I try to give proportionally to my use of whatever it is, that feels fair. I make bug reports with needed relevant info, I’m learning c++ for myself but also to one day make contributions of my own.

Open source being discovered as a no-cost alternative to paid software makes it difficult to fet funding, even though that’s a pillar of what makes it so great. Bit of a paradox.

I feel your pain. The really good ones plan for this, some pop up immediately when you scroll up and that sucks. The proper thing to do (imo) is to wait for the user to scroll 80% of the viewport back up, only then letting it begin to slide in, and have it slide in at a rate 1/2 of the page scroll. I do like having it easily available, but it should feel like it’s trying to stay out of the way.

I think you make a fair point here, partially. However, Marlboro could also advertise on snapchat if they wanted. Now there’s no doubt something like that would catch massive eyes, landing them in hot enough water to probably change the law around it. If Marlboro leadership saw Juul as a threat, that would make sense to do. They lose a pittance in advertising and court fees, and cut off a competitor from an advertising stream.

But they’re not a threat, they’re an asset. Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris and NJOY, has a 35% stake in Juul. Altria is incentivized to keep their piles of shit separate.

Vaping has the potential to be healthier than cigarettes, socially and physically. But not when it’s almost entirely controlled by companies that have a history of marketing to children. It’s physically healthier sure, but only 107 countries have laws regulating the age for vaping, vs 188 for cigarettes. The e-waste factor is also huge, something that a lot of people who vape choose to ignore and I wish they couldn’t. I vape myself, have for years, and it’s a shit state of affairs with how popular disposables are. But I don’t know what the realistic solution is. People are going to use tobacco products in a dystopia.

Oh, the horrors.

Bonzibuddy.

Advertising to children is significantly more tightly regulated, for the very reason that they’re so damn thirsty for it.

Yes and no. I like certain stars, not because of how they look though, it’s because of how they act. Mike Adriano, Bryan Gozzling, Alex Adams because of how they handle the girls on camera, various girls because of their enthusiasm or just the way they act. But I don’t limit myself to them, I look for plenty of random shit. I just know if one of my faves are in it, it’s probably going to be a good time.

As a smaller guy with a slightly feminine appearance (that I try to lean away from but how much can I do), I also fear men I don’t know (bad experiences) and wish that somehow I could choose too. But any sort of ‘qualified selection’ would guarantee someone malicious slips through eventually, and that’s obviously not worth it. I’m not going to let jealousy and whataboutism get in the way of progress. On that note, I do worry slightly about how they’re verifying gender? If it’s by DL, this will affect trans folks in some states much more than others. If it’s not, then verification becomes a very big question mark.

I also can’t help but notice all the language is very passive, on one hand it makes sense they wouldn’t be able to guarantee anything but at the same time I find it so hard to trust passive language from any tech company, they’ve all abused my good faith of it into the ground. But I digress.

No flak just thoughts, concerns notwithstanding this is good to see overall. I’m sure Lyft will have to deploy something equivalent to stay competetive.

Don’t be too hard on yourself, they definitely put money and effort into influencing opinions in all the subversive ways they can manage. But also, let this be a lesson to always check alternatives and their reason for existing. I consider it part of best practices.

So I need to preemptively wear anti facial recognition makeup if ever called for jury duty. Gotcha.

It seems somewhat realistic to expect an actual punishment for this, even if not properly scaled. It’s worth fighting for. But being prepared alongside that is important.

My initial reaction is to be thankful; now the unknown thousands of people who don’t see the toxicity of their own dependence can begin to be free. The subsequent models seem to be less prone to inducing that kind of deep infatuation.

But then I realize most of them will probably never recover, as long as this technology persists. The base model will be wrapped in an infinite number of seductive agents sold in an app, with a subscription, as a loving companion. Capitalism smells blood in the water. If I was a hedge fund manager witnessing the birth of a new market demographic with a lifelong addiction that possibly hooks harder than cigarettes, which is not federally regulated, and won’t be for the forseeable future; I would be foaming at the mouth with this opening in the market.

Flat earth. At the point we’re at now when it comes to personally accessible technology, anyone still believing it is 100% making a choice to do so, because it makes them feel better about things for some reason.

Man that chart has not aged well at all, just in the last few years. Also the artist’s motivations are pretty visible.

Most of these are hyper-exaggerations of what real people believe. Or purposeful misunderstandings of the underlying point. Take ‘Jet fuel can’t melt steel beams’ for example. Used since its inception as a meme to undermine 9/11 conspiracy theories.

Ultimately this is a tactic in itself. My conspiracy theory is that all the antisemetic theories, insane-sounding theories, theories that have no attachment to reality, rothschilds etc, are not perpetuated by ordinary people (though they unwittingly participate). They are perpetuated by the very parties the conspiracies are about. If someone hears that being a 9/11 truther is inextricably linked to antisemitism, and they think of themselves as a good person, they’ll shy away from ever looking into it any further than that; it’s a normal reaction if someonebis already stressed, busy, or otherwise precluded from more critical thought.

Edit: Yes some of these are totally insane, I am just referring to things that have roots firmly in reality.

Thanks for the new rabbit hole! :D

Right, I know this from experience. I was talking about the genes thing which I have been informed is Epigenetics (thanks Crankenstein!)

I had no idea it could change over time, that’s really cool. Makes me wonder what other genetic factors can change like that.

Totally depends on the scenario, I use all 3. If we’re talking about music, hobbies, personal interest type stuff, it’s usually C, without the “tell them you already know”. I try to show that I know instead of telling. Like if someone’s telling me about a band I already know about, I’ll let them finish and then say something that requires deep understanding of the source. If the discussion is academic, B, but like in a respectful way? Not ‘cutting off’ the other person, more so ‘jumping in’. And that’s so we can both establish what we both know and move on to the more interesting stuff. A is used for authority figures that I have no respect for. I have nothing to say to marching orders.