TheDemonBuer
@TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
- Comment on An uplifting message for you. 4 days ago:
As a species things do just keep getting better for us, except in periods of systemic transition.
I think that’s been generally true since the first agricultural revolution led to the emergence of civilization, 10,000 or so years ago. But, progress has not been linear, it’s been exponential, with most of the progress occurring in just the last few hundred years, since the industrial revolution. In that regard, the progress that we’ve experienced over the last few hundred years has been anomalous.
The way of life that we take for granted today is very different from how most of humanity has lived through the vast majority of history (and that was itself very different from how our species had lived through the vast majority of our existence, with humans living in small hunter-gatherer tribes for most of our time as a species).
Modern life has existed for only the blink of an eye, on evolutionary time scales. Yet, in that time we have used up an incredible amount of natural resources, and we have made significant, irreversible changes to the Earth’s biosphere and climate.
It took our species nearly all of the 10,000 years of civilization’s existence to go from a few million people on the planet to a billion, but it only took a little over two centuries to do from one billion people to over eight billion. That kind of exponential growth simply cannot be sustained indefinitely on a planet with finite resources. Even at maximum possible resource use efficiency, and even with the maximum possible environmental impact mitigation efforts, the Earth still wouldn’t be able to sustain our growth forever. We would reach some hard, physical limit to growth, eventually.
- Comment on An uplifting message for you. 5 days ago:
I feel like our whole lives here in the US we’ve been told to expect things to just generally keep getting better, seemingly forever. Like, that’s the narrative of “progress.” The economy just keeps growing, the nation just keeps getting richer, technology just keeps getting better, living standards just keep getting better, so forth and so on. But, that was probably never realistic, or even feasible. I mean, no civilization progresses forever. Essentially every civilization that’s ever existed has followed a pattern of ascension followed by decline. Many of the most notable civilizations ascended very quickly and dramatically, and then collapsed just as quickly and dramatically. Why should we expect to be any different? What makes us think we won’t follow the same pattern as basically every other civilization in history?
- Comment on God bless the Midwest 1 week ago:
I’m drinking my dinner plans right now. But I drive by a Culver’s all the time. I’ll definitely stop in someday soon and give it a try.
- Comment on God bless the Midwest 1 week ago:
Yeah.
- Comment on God bless the Midwest 1 week ago:
I’ve never been to Culver’s. Is it any good?
- Comment on Also, in my state, all the drivers are the worst 2 weeks ago:
It is a scientific fact that Tennessee has the worst drivers. Not my state, btw.
- Comment on I'm in! 3 weeks ago:
It’s fairly straightforward: they don’t want restrictions placed on their rights to own and carry a gun, but they absolutely want restrictions placed on the rights of their political enemies.
- Comment on BASED? 4 weeks ago:
I’m sure it’s true for some women. But I wouldn’t be surprised if most working women were either married or in a committed relationship. Plus, a lot of households have two incomes out of necessity. Both partners need to work full time just to make ends meet.
- Comment on American exceptionalism 1 month ago:
“American exceptionalism” has always been a euphemistic propaganda term that really meant American supremacism. It has been the justification, used by both of the two major parties in the US, for continued US global hegemony.
Supremacism of any kind is a flawed and dangerous concept. The fact is, we are neither exceptional nor superior.
- Comment on ICE Supreme Commander spotted in Minneapolis 1 month ago:
They’re a parody of themselves.
- Comment on Canada PM's Speech at the WEF 1 month ago:
The EU has some important things that it needs to get sorted out, for sure, but the rest of the world can’t wait on the EU to start building the new world order. In fact, it’s happening whether anyone likes it or not.
- Comment on Canada PM's Speech at the WEF 1 month ago:
Its huge and he said what everyone’s thinking. But i think the reason people werent saying it was because they dont believe the second part of his statement. I think they dont believe we(democratic countries) CAN build a new democratic rules based order.
The world needs to try. Declaring failure before we even start is not the way to approach this. You want to proceed with caution, I understand, but you must also proceed in good faith. And that means not entering into a democratic world order with suspicion of every country that isn’t white, Western and liberal. The world is a large, diverse place. There are a lot of different cultures, ethnicities and political systems. To limit participation in a democratic world order to only Western style liberal democracies means excluding most of the world. How can we ever hope to have a democratic, rules based world order if most of the world isn’t allowed to participate?
- Submitted 1 month ago to videos@lemmy.world | 7 comments
- Comment on I can still get down with the best of 'em! 2 months ago:
- Comment on If you are a guy living with a woman you know THIS 2 months ago:
I always put the lid down. It’s got a lid for a reason, it looks much nicer with it down.
- Comment on He's on a mission 3 months ago:
Probably someone who lives in the southern US, where it rarely snows. This wouldn’t be unusual for someone living in many northern states, especially those around the great lakes. But to a southerner, this might as well be a different planet. They will close schools and businesses even for relatively light snow in the South. It frightens and bewilders them.
- Comment on Linux gamers on Steam finally cross over the 3% mark 4 months ago:
I wonder if Valve will ever release an official desktop version of SteamOS? I think Linux adoption would really increase fast if there was a gaming focused Linux desktop distribution with the support of an established company. But does Valve want that? A full featured operating system is a lot to maintain and provide support for.
- Comment on How did easy access to Porn while growing up impacted Gen-Z ? 5 months ago:
Isn’t a child acting sexually often a sign they were sexually abused? Maybe the problem isn’t gen alpha watching porn, but either more sexual abuse by their parents
The two things are not mutually exclusive. One of the ways a parent can sexually abuse a child is showing them. Porn is often involved in child sexual abuse.
- Comment on How did easy access to Porn while growing up impacted Gen-Z ? 5 months ago:
I never said that the health professionals didn’t consider the possibility that these children were themselves sexually abused. Of course they did. I never said that the health professionals asked only about porn consumption but not about past sexual abuse. They make both inquiries. I wasn’t even necessarily making a causal argument, only pointing out the strong correlation. I can’t tell you, because I don’t know, how many of the children who consume pornography have also been sexually abused. I don’t have access to that information, I don’t work there. All I do know is that significant porn consumption (including kids being caught watching porn in school) is very common among these kids.
It’s not fake, I’m telling you what I know, you can choose to believe it or not, I don’t give a shit.
- Comment on How did easy access to Porn while growing up impacted Gen-Z ? 5 months ago:
I’m not sure about gen z, but I worry about gen alpha. My wife works in a hospital for behavioral health and she sees an alarming number of kids (as young as 6 or 7) who are acting out sexually, and most of them consume a considerable amount of online porn. Many of them are there because they’ve sexually abused a sibling.
This is anecdotal, and of course in a behavioral health hospital my wife is going to see only the children who are acting out the most, and those children are by no means representative of the average child. It is also likely that some children have always acted out sexually, for various reasons, long before Internet porn. But the number of children they see for sexual predation is very concerning.
- Comment on Political discourse 5 months ago:
If you think the next US civil war will be fought between Nazis and Marxism-Leninists, you don’t understand American politics very well. The US in 2025 isn’t Stalingrad in 1942.
- Comment on Happy Birthday! 5 months ago:
Welcome to back pain, Mario.
- Comment on 6 AM Monday. Dreading whatever fresh hell awaits this week. Cranky, definitely getting a cold. Barely awake. Husband starts blasting this song that is now stuck in my head for all eternity. 6 months ago:
“DO IT ROCKAPELLA!”
- Comment on President Trump shows President Zelenskyy and President Macron his 4 More Years hats 6 months ago:
Yes
- Comment on President Trump shows President Zelenskyy and President Macron his 4 More Years hats 6 months ago:
I hate this country so fucking much.
- Comment on Happy No-more-USA Day 8 months ago:
I was born and raised here in the United States, just like my father, and his father, and so on for several generations. You fuck off. You and your disgusting fucking federal government. May you all rot in hell.
- Comment on We live wasted lives 8 months ago:
I think most reasonable people would agree that there are many objectively good things about the modern world, but progress isn’t a strict good/bad binary. Often, progress results in both good and bad circumstances.
For instance, I think most reasonable people would agree that modern medicine is a very good thing. Vaccines and antibiotics have saved countless lives. Also, more advanced agricultural technology has allowed us to grow more food and feed more people. However, progress has also resulted in significant ecological damage, depletion of natural, nonrenewable resources and a significant loss of biodiversity. I think most reasonable people would agree that these are very bad things.
I don’t think the point is to ignore the very real, important positives about the modern world, but to point out that there are still things that need to improve, and unintended negative effects of progress that need to be dealt with.
I appreciate that for you the modern world is overall good, but that’s not necessarily everyone’s experience. Some people do feel purposeless, depressed and worn down, despite being relatively wealthy and comfortable, especially compared to humans of past eras.
- Comment on [deleted] 8 months ago:
I stopped buying consoles and moved pretty much exclusively to Steam because it gives me many more options. Thankfully, I don’t think that’s changing anytime soon. Consoles are great for some people, but I need more flexibility. I sometimes wish I could (legally) play Nintendo first party games, but it’s really not that big of a deal.
- Comment on Switch 2 Breaks Records By Selling Over 3.5 Million Units In Four Days 8 months ago:
Nintendo has spent decades building an extremely loyal, multigenerational consumer base. They also release very popular, high quality games. I have no interest in owning a Switch, but I get why so many people do.
- Comment on "And my dick fucks your wife more than you do. What's your point?" 9 months ago:
I couldn’t care less.
