GreenBeard

@GreenBeard@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is MMA and UFC "somewhat" rigged like boxing was in the Don King era?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s just too many ways for it to be rigged behind the scenes in ways no one can see for there to be nothing dirty going on. How much? No one is ever going to be able to answer that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  There are many living things in the world, most of which we don’t really care about. No one asks a tree if it wishes to be a plank of wood. No one feels bad for eating a potato, and only some would feel badly about training an ox to pull a plow. There’s no evidence sentience is a product of the number of neurons; there are creatures with many more neurons than us that are far less self-aware. Much like the circuitry of a chip, it’s not the amount of copper and silicon that makes it work, it’s how it’s arranged. The cells themselves do not suffer, they are fed and functioning and that is sufficient, no different than a bacteria. Beyond that, a neuron based processor is no more sentient than copper and sand unless we design it to mimic a living brain.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  No, this is a bad idea. 90% of life is getting through the things you don’t want to do so you can get to the things you do. Also you might want to cut back on the edibles.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there anyone or any part of the Trump Regime that is not actively bowing down to him?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Someone didn’t read project 2025.

  No dissenters. Period. That was the plan since Day 1. If you would not literally follow fearless leader into a wood-chipper, you don’t have a position in the Trump admin.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How does the SCOTUS ruling on presidential powers say what he can or what he can't do? Or can he basically do anything? Like kill a person or multiple people shooting a gun from the whitehouse?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Short of impeaching the entire SCOTUS and running a do-over with justices that aren’t owned by a criminal (which would take not only the president, but the entirety of congress to pull off) there is no way to undo the SCOTUS ruling.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it just me or does it seem Google is either AI filled or becoming obsolete? Is there an up and comer that can be what Google used to be? Or are we stuck oogling stuff forever?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  If I recall correctly it queries the Bing API among other niche sources for indexing and acts as a proxy for ad purposes, so while there’s a lot of Bing results, it’s not one-to-one. Unless they changed things recently, it’s possible I missed a press release.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it just me or does it seem Google is either AI filled or becoming obsolete? Is there an up and comer that can be what Google used to be? Or are we stuck oogling stuff forever?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia are the two big ones that tend to come up in these kind of questions, although there’s a handful of smaller search platforms out there as well. Bing is even worse than Google at this point. If I recall correctly Ecosia uses a custom search algorithm but still relies mostly on Google’s index at this time, DuckDuckGo is entirely independent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does it feel like most art museums are for adults and most science museums are for kids?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Huh. I stand corrected. I was under the impression that expressed more in the 8-12 “Pre-Teen” range.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does it feel like most art museums are for adults and most science museums are for kids?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Targeting the cognitive level of the child is not the same as not teaching logic. Your hierarchy example works fine for some levels, not for others was the point. It’s a lot easier to teach a rote methodology than a hierarchy of trust.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does it feel like most art museums are for adults and most science museums are for kids?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, there’s a large body of statistical data that says most people do not behave rationally unless absolutely forced to. Children most definitely do not behave rationally unless deeply emotionally engaged. The idea of humans as “rational actors” has about as much evidentiary support as Luminiferous Aether and balancing humours.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does it feel like most art museums are for adults and most science museums are for kids?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, statistically the individuals most likely to frequent an alternative social media platform are those with a) the technical proficiency to do so, b) Weak social anchoring to the network effects of mainstream platforms, and/or b) people whose past social interactions have led them to no longer have access to those platforms, ergo by self-selection bias there’s a high probability of finding other high functioning individuals on the spectrum on this platform. Lemmy/Piefed’s primary use case is basically socially-awkward-networking.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ever watch Robin Hood: Men in Tights where Little John falls in a little stream? That’s an accurate representation of the English. The Scots, Welsh, and Northern Irish have enjoyed watching this for centuries.

  Note: As a Canadian, I’m allowed to make that joke.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you were in Jail would you stick withe bible or be interest in other religions?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If that’s the part you like, then you’d love the two battles of Mag Tuired. The absolute shenanigans the Tuatha De got up to fighting the Fomorians was legendary. Their analog of Tyr coming back with a silver hand that moves like flesh to replace his lost one and retake the throne of the gods was wild.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you were in Jail would you stick withe bible or be interest in other religions?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If you think Loki is fun, you should try the Fenian Cycle of Irish/Gaelic mythology. You’d probably get a kick out of the kid raised by his aunt the druidess and her warrior-woman “Roommate” who goes on to fight a giant boar, become a genius by sucking his thumb while cooking salmon, and to become leader of the high king’s own mercenary company after discovering his divine heritage.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Prolly won;t word this correctly. But when did the idea of a woman subservient to a man begin? And how come it seems its lasted longer that most relgions?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  There does seem to have been a pretty widespread shift around 5000-3000 BCE (7000-5000 years ago) where a number of different populations across Europe, Asia, and North and East Africa all shifted in a relatively small time window to a patriarchal (literally “father-lead” for people who aren’t familiar with what the term actually means) social structure. Interestingly this also coincides with a rapid loss of genetic diversity in the y-chromosome suggesting it was highly hazardous to the health of most men when this shift happened. Some have speculated that this is the point at which we went from minor territorial disputes and some mild raiding to the emergence of organized “warfare”, though the evidence is circumstantial. While cultures still often went back and forth between being more egalitarian and more patriarchal, that seems to be a major historical turning point. In the (roughly) 300,000 year history of Homo sapiens, and the several million year history of the Homo genus, that’s a relatively recent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why don’t tech bros wear suits?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The word professional is so ambiguous as to be effectively meaningless, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to its original definition.

  No one but the most shallow and superficial among us cares what you’re wearing. Thinking a suit does anything but make you look self-important and pretentious is an anachronism.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it the American way to complain about the US, or is it that other countries aren't worth complaining about?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard…” friend, you literally live in an information silo. Do you speak Spanish? Because you probably aren’t hearing anything about Spain if you don’t. Do you follow any British media? Because they’re not coming to an American forum to bitch about Britain. You probably don’t care enough to even notice if someone was talking about another country, so how would you hear anything?

  What’s uniquely American is making your internal drama everyone else’s problem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When if ever did "Throw Money at The Problem:" actually work? Instead of being about 75 percent useless?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I ask myself the same question every time a company raises its prices.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are there any open source word processors that have AI integration?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You killed a coral reef because you couldn’t figure out how to create headers and footers? No, there’s no AI integrated Open Source word processor.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do "rich" superheroes have to be rich in order for the story to work?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Iron Man and Batman can only do what they do because they have the time and access to resources to do it. Guardian from Alpha Flight, for example would be something like “Working Class Ironman.” Common engineer who found out the mining suit he was building was going to be sold off to the military so he stole the prototype and became a superhero. He’s kind of an “Iron Man’s brain, Captain America’s heart” kind of character, so if you wanted the non-rich Iron Man, it exists, it’s just not Tony Stark. Tony needs to be rich or he’s not Tony Stark.

  Same with Batman. The Shadow is a former soldier who uses stealth, martial arts and magic tricks to fight crime. But he’s not Bruce Wayne because being a billionaire playboy is what makes Batman possible.

  Why recharacterize heroes with totally new backstories when the not-rich version is already a different superhero.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some racist, classist, homophobic ect people do "good" things sometimes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  And now you’re completely characterizing my statements and lying to make yourself feel better. Good day.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some racist, classist, homophobic ect people do "good" things sometimes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean if your go to is to personally attack anyone who disagrees with you I don’t know why anyone would bother to have a serious discussion with you, but for the cheap seats I’ll try.

  Yes, Criminal Psychopaths can, in certain circumstances be good people, other than the fact that they brutally kill some people. No mass murderer has ever been arrested that their neighbours weren’t standing there saying “but he was such a nice guy!” That doesn’t mean I don’t think they should be dealt with harshly, but the reality is, there are people who are good husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and friends who also do absolutely monstrous things when no one else is looking. While we’re at it, there’s no such thing as someone who has never harmed anyone. We’ve all done things that hurt people, and no, just apologizing doesn’t make it all go away. Some harms are more serious than others but no one is blameless. There are absolutely people who tend more toward good, and some that tend more toward bad, but I’ve also watched “good” people rationalize and try to justify some absolutely wild levels of cruelty under the wrong circumstances.

  Look, I get it, you’ve been through some shit. I’ve been there and the idea that some people are good and some people are bad and as long as you find the good people you’ll be safe is really comforting. Unfortunately it’s not true. There’s no such thing as someone who is always cartoonishly evil, and there is no one who is perfectly safe, not even you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some racist, classist, homophobic ect people do "good" things sometimes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  There are no objectively good and bad people. Never have been, never will be. Every one of us is a grab bag of contradictions. Objectively good people are not rare, they’re fictional. If you seriously look under the surface, we’re all both monsters and angels on some level. Some of us just have better self-control and/or fewer opportunities to be actively transgressive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some racist, classist, homophobic ect people do "good" things sometimes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  As others have pointed out, there’s no “black-and-white” (if you’ll pardon the irony) way of categorizing people. Bad or good people are fictional. Even the best of us have ugly parts to how we behave, and otherwise terrible people can show surprising compassion. Our values can conflict and in the moment we chose to do something wildly out of character, or indulge in impulses we didn’t even realize we had.

  In the real world there are no absolute heroes or villains. A man who gave his boots to a homeless man one moment, could beat another to death a few months later. Human beings are wildly inconsistent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What’s the difference between anarchy and libertarianism?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  In terms of actual theoretical frameworks? Libertarianism is highly individualistic, anarchism is highly collectivist. Extreme libertariansim can be described as “Every man for himself” and anarchism as open ended, reciprocal (as opposed to transactional) community.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would you actually tax the ultra wealthy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  So, most billionaires just sit on unrealized assets and take out loans against them that are untaxable. This way they avoid capital gains taxes from spending down their assets, as long as they never sell them, they never have to pay taxes and can sit on them until they die. Then it’s their kid’s problem. If you put a tax on those loans that exceeds capital gains tax, now they’re losing money by living off loans, and they’re actually better off selling some shares and stock options to pay for their Bugatti and super yacht.

  The foreign investment profits tax means if they skip town and try collecting income from the companies they own from a beach in the Cayman islands, (or a brothel in Thailand) they are still paying tax on it before that money leaves the local market. That’s going to cool off the market for foreign investment but it’s also going to mean that even if they skip town, they can’t dodge the taxes on income from domestic businesses.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would you actually tax the ultra wealthy?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s going to take a lot of math and market analysis to work out the specifics of. I’m just one rando on the internet. This was more of a high level framework to start from. With a team of wonks and a bit of time you could pin down precise numbers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would you actually tax the ultra wealthy?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The specifics are going to need refinement, yes. The broad principles should hold though. One tax that forces them to spend down accumulated wealth, one to punish trying to offshore profits to tax havens.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is the "Gen z stare" a real thing?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As an elder millenial I might have some insight. You know how when we were kids people used to get all up in their feelings when you weren’t smiling. That’s this. “Gen Z stare”, is just “Resting Bitch Face” or “You look prettier when you smile darlin’” repackaged and rebranded. They’re mad that the young people in general and women in particular aren’t running around with goofy forced smiles on their faces to make them feel special.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would you actually tax the ultra wealthy?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Two prongs. One, tax loans against stock options and publicly traded shares. Two tax foreign investment dividends that constitute more than 10% of the total value of a publicly traded company. Step one makes them live of dividends and realized assets. They can’t live off other loans of other people’s money and just keep hording assets, two pins them down and keeps them from trying to take their money and run to a tax haven.

  They will eventually find a way around those, and you will have to adjust the tax code to accomodate, but that’s going to be true regardless. It’s a bit like digital hygene and cyber security. An endless arms race between states trying to build more effective risk management tools and people trying to exploit and the system and thus the people living within the system.