FourPacketsOfPeanuts

@FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What would happen if USA invades Canada?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Practically speaking since war is unthinkable is would result in as much economic isolation as Europe can bear. It would be the end of NATO. Almost immediately there’s be European voices saying ‘What’s the real harm?’ and other appeasers. I think the political lash back would only last 5-10 years as parties opposed would find the only tool at hand - economic punishment - to be unsustainable. It would legitimise nationalistic sentiments in Europe even further. Britain would, naturally, talk of betrayal but not be able to make any resistance of any substance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  ♫ … Now don’t be sad, 'cause two out of three ain’t bad… ♫

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How did people end-up agreeing on the name of rivers/mountains and seas ?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  And as a result there are 8 or 9 rivers called “Avon” in the UK…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve heard various explanations, I don’t know how accurate the following is. I’d be interested to learn more:

  • the very earliest colony settlements had to bargain hard and with precision in order to survive. It began a contractual culture that eventually extended into litigation

  • due to high immigration from many differing backgrounds, disputes had to be settled in litigation rather than relying on social understanding

  • the religious culture was largely inherited from the Puritans who had a legalistic and inflexible reading of the new testament. (This unwillingness to compromise is why they were persecuted in Europe and fled to the new world)

  • the American identity is ‘invented’ (in the sense that’s it’s an abrupt mixing of many old world cultures) and so national identity was initially based on cerebral activities (the Constitution, Bill of Rights) rather than evolved from a very long history of social bonds found in old world ‘nations’. This required a cerebral precision to be at the heart of identity which easily extended to legal rights and relations

  As I say, take with a pinch of salt. But this is the gist of what I’ve heard from people who know more than me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When will we have auto turrets mounted on plane engines to stop birdstrikes?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If anything like this was ever done it’s more likely it would be independent drones flying ahead of the plane at its 10 and 2 o’clock

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨More than 100,000 homes in England could be built in highest-risk flood zones⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  No need to crash it, they could build at a faster rate so that average house price growth is roughly the same as wage inflation, which seems moderately fair. The real problem is private builders with private investors will never be motivated to do this. The real problem is why they’re used at all…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why was Hitler so mean and hateful toward one group or another? I find it hard to believe he woke up one day and said you and you suck but these people over here are good. Taking it so far as killing?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t forget that for centuries Christianity considered lending with interest to be a sin and so delegated it to Jews so they came to dominate banking and finance. By the 1100’s Jews were considered the ‘property of the king of England’ and we’re granted special rights such as free travel and having their legal testimony given more weight than Christians because they represented the king in financial matters.

  Elevate an already hated minority to wealth and privilege as special servants of feudal power? What could go wrong?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do we put our hands on our heads when something makes us also want to yell "NO!"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s things like this that feel weirdly tragic, that our ancestors went through so much shit that only the ones with weird reflexes to grab their cranium made it. (Young enough to have not had kids yet mind you). And so here we are, grabbing our heads when our team doesn’t score, a chromosomal echo of some brutal day in the Kenyan Great Rift Valley…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are dwarf planets not considered planets but dwarf stars are considered stars?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How much bigger would Jupiter have to be before fusion started?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can I lose a beer belly working out one day a week?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Exercise in someone not particularly fit is also likely to trigger a stress response and their appetite will overcompensate. Exercise is good but for fat loss is pointless unless eating is well under control.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can I lose a beer belly working out one day a week?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The human body is absurdly efficient. Fat weight is tackled by reducing calorie intake (using whatever tactic works for you). Exercise only makes a small difference by comparison.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a metaphor you like in your language?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  We’re not here to fuck spiders

  Borrowing this one

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some people assume all immigrants are illegal and should "go back to where they came from"? Shouldn't that logic apply to all non-Native Americans?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Assuming that all non-white people are illegal immigrants is called “racism”. (Stupid too, but mostly racism)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m neither. Things could be worse in the UK, could be better. It’s bad, but “ok”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could Trump Force X To Become The Everything App For Government Payments⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It is not interesting to take a single prediction of a totalitarian leader controlling commerce and play games with the number 666 while ignoring that earliest manuscripts had 616 and the beast is mortally wounded / crowned with ten crowns / originates from the sea / persecutes Christians etc etc

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Could Trump Force X To Become The Everything App For Government Payments⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Trump had enough similarities with the anti-christ/beast without having to resort to silly numerology…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is deportation done instead of imprisonment or making people become documented? In other words, why does deportation exist?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If order is to be maintained then illegal entry cannot be perceived to be a route to citizenship (even via a prison sentence).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wimbledon school crash: Woman rearrested over deaths of two girls⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The whole thing seems incredible.

  How is “oh it was epilepsy” a defence when you’ve never had an epileptic fit before? No history of it.

  You’ve all seen a million YouTube videos of someone panicking and hitting the gas when they meant the brake. Unfortunately far far more likely than “invisible epilepsy”.

  I can’t believe they didn’t charge her (first time round).

  She was probably haring it along Camp Road (as well-to-do Chelsea tractor types are known to do). And completely fails to take the right hand bend properly. This leads directly into the school playground.

  Or by some miracle are we to believe that of all the moments for it to happen InViSiBlE ePiLePsY struck at the exact point where someone driving too fast might lose control?

  Pls…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI-based automation of jobs could increase inequality in UK, report says⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The thinktank have since moved on to their next study: “The defecation habits of ursidae in arboreal contexts”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, it’s a general feature though I’ve rarely come across evangelical groups that go as far as to make public proclamations of their predictions like Jehovah’s witnesses did (some do, no doubt)

  Amusingly it seems the JWs might have only survived because around 1886 it accidentally predicted 1914 would be the end of the world and the beginning of the favouring of the Jews (WWI and II culminated in the re-founding of Israel)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Looks like they have two: “Awake” and “Watchtower”: www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/

  In London in recent years I’ve only seen Awake. Maybe Watchtower is American or only in Kingdom halls?

  they clarified that it was 11 tribes and one “lost tribe”

  As far as I’m aware there are 10 lost tribes. Only Judah and Benjamin were not regarded as lost. They might have a different view on that of course…

  They agreed that it’s the gospel and many people weren’t good enough Christians

  They don’t see the “vast multitude” (who are believers besides the 144,000) as having a bad deal in any way. They get to live on the restored earth which is basically Eden paradise. That’s why all their magazines / tracts have pictures of an idyllic life in a park / nature type setting

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fairly recent (in the scheme of things) non standard Christian group

  • they don’t believe in the trinity: God is god, Jesus was crafted by god - used to be an angel, the holy spirit is more like an impersonal force

  • they don’t believe in everlasting hell, they believe the soul of unbelievers is annihilated

  • believe Armageddon is imminent and have repeatedly tried predicting it and failed

  • they originated from a bible study group in the 1800s and some things they are into are actually a literal reading of the new testament rather than a more pop culture or traditional view of Christianity. for example:

  • they believe the future of believers is on a restored earth, not heaven (based on Revelation)

  • they believe 144000 special believers are elevated to rule in heaven (Revelation again)

  • they believe a letter written by the apostle in Acts telling believers to “abstain from blood” is still in force (to be fair there isn’t anything saying it isn’t) which they take to mean refusing all blood including blood transfusions

  • they practice ‘shunning’ family and church members who won’t repent of sin which sees some parents totally rejecting their children, people acting like people don’t exist if they see them on the street. (Again to be fair, this is what the new testament tells Christians to do). For this they (rightly) get flak for being cultish and overly controlling

  • they believe it’s every believers duty to give people opportunity to repent hence going door to door (I think they’ve stopped doing this now) or standing on the street offering their standard magazine “Awake”

  • their central organisation is called the Watchtower, again a biblical reference to keeping watch for the end of the world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Understanding DeepSeek's effect on the Capital Markets⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Perfect lol

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gen Z far less likely to be atheists than parents and grandparents, new study reveals⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Saved you a click of the Independent’s usual clickbait nonsense:

  • the research is conducted by an author of a new book he would like to sell you

  • ‘spiritual’ has such a vague definition as to almost mean anything

  • one characteristic is “a yearning to connect with something bigger than myself”.

  • entirely unsurprising this is how a younger generation categorise the lack they feel as a result of covid isolation and disillusionment with unobtainable material life goals

  • ‘spiritual’ in this context means ‘life feels empty but I think there should be something more’

  • aside from that there’s a small minority of the conservative religious seeing a small increase (muslims, evangelical Christians)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “I want to get to know you”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does it seem constantly Israel makes bad deals? Like with Hamas handing over the hostages but Israel has to let loose like 1k?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Israel cares more about their civilians than Hamas does theirs

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it weird that I have to resort the idea of "Determinism" to be able to move on?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Invoking determinism is fine, just be aware it rarely solves the problem you think it does.

  Saying ‘some bad thing happened - the universe made it happen, it’s not my fault’ - what are you really wanting to achieve with that? If it was beyond your ability to do otherwise, then you probably want to process this some other way (mindfulness / therapy / talking it out with someone) until your emotions align with the facts. Because you don’t have a “responsibility” problem you have a “thinking it was my responsibility when it wasn’t” problem. And appealing to determinism isn’t going to change your habit of doing that.

  On the other hand, if you actually could have made a different / prevented it but knowingly didn’t (or were sufficiently careless that your culpability is real) then appealing to fate might be a short term plaster but it’s a bad long term fix.

  And this is because rather than dealing with a feeling of guilt or dealing with how you make choices you are masking the things by making yourself out to be a passive object that life happens to. Again, as a short term cope out can be fine, but do you see how making a habit of that just undermines your ability to believe you can grow and be better?

  At it’s extreme appealing to determinism can remove everyone’s responsibility. “Everything’s inevitable”… “We’re all just biological machines” … “I couldn’t help it”… And while, from a certain point of view, physics can lend evidence to determinism. It doesn’t actually affect how life works because even if we are all biological machines, we still need to ascribe what we call ‘responsibility’ to the biological machine through which something undesirable came. People will still want to avoid people who hurt them. The law will still have to segregate the wrong doer. Even if everything is now “deterministic”. (The Amazon warehouse sorting robots will isolate a misbehaving robot even if that robot has not one jot of control over it’s programming - if you see what I mean).

  So all I’m saying is belief in “fate” has an illusory power. Where it makes us feel less bad about something. But taken to it’s extreme it makes us not feel responsible for anything, while life carries on as normal and inevitably penalises us for that.

  So it’s better (for you) to expose yourself to the pain of “yes it was my fault” (if indeed it was). But then in that pain not to give way to hopelessness, but rather realise pain (if based on truth) is a fuel by which to change yourself. Get other’s help if necessary. But don’t give up the opportunity to grow. The pain is actually a sign you care, don’t deaden that. It’s the stuff of life.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Southport killer stopped engaging with mental health team, NHS trust says⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Mentally unwell person: acts mentally unwell

  Mental Health Team: “weelllll, what can ya do?”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any non-zero possibility Musk was not doing a Hitler Salute?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As with how Nazism worked in Germany, I think a large amount of power and influence is happy to go along with whichever way the winds blowing but are not as committed to certain ideologies as much as the demogogues and fanatics. Hitler hid the final solution from the German populace, even when treating Jewish people like shit was a fairly normalised thing to do. That’s because even amongst the population of German ‘nazis’, many believed in the superiority of WASPs, would turn a blind eye to a Jewish person being beaten and robbed, but would balk at women and children being systematically exterminated on just a human level. Many “nazi” civilians were horrified and ashamed when the extermination camps came to light, even if they accepted concentration (prison) camps via ‘out of sight out of mind’.

  I think it’s far more likely Trump and co will get into a situation where “natural” or mob “justice” does as much as they care to do in that regard. That is, if predominantly black areas of a city have high crime and murders “screw them that’s their fault”. If that leads to inequality and shorter lives “screw them that’s their fault”. If illegal migrants get turned back at the border and die in the desert “screw them that’s their fault”. If trans people suffer trying to fit into society “screw them they’re the ones who want to act different”. And so on.

  I think it’ll absolutely result in suffering and death. But run an actual extermination camp in the 21st century? Well a) it wouldn’t be a secret at all b) for all its blagging America still very much needs it’s trading partners in Europe who would be horrified and c) a good chunk of maga would be horrified (some wouldn’t but a whole load would). As much as it’s fashionable to cast them all as brainrot sycophants, this isn’t quite true in reality…

  I think Trump fascism is about power and about WASP culture prestige and superiority, but I think money counts for far more than ethnic ideology. By all accounts Maga has never had an issue with the EB-5 visa program (aka “buying a green card”). For about a million dollars anyone in the world can become a US citizen as long as they create 10 or more American jobs with their investment. Most of these visas go to Chinese immigrants, but applications are also accepted from Mexico, Vietnam, India, Nigeria etc. Last time he was in office Trump extended the program.

  It’s all about power (according to them). If you’ve got money and you tow the line you’re fine irrespective of ethnicity. If you’re the “right kind” (white kind) of poor you may get help. Everyone else will find any kind of help very hard to come by even as their neighborhood becomes more lawless and lethal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any non-zero possibility Musk was not doing a Hitler Salute?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it’s a hair worth splitting because I find it very unlikely that he actual subscribes to the goals that the Germany Nazi party had. And I think he relies on this in order to cultivate the ‘owning the libs’ narrative he keeps with his supporters and acolytes. He’s fascist, and mischaracterising him plays into his hand to be honest…