darthelmet

@darthelmet@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨White House website publishes a page on "socialism". They think it will scare people to hear that if we tax 1000 billionaires, $355,000 worth of benefits will be distributed to 150,000,000 households.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That and the fact that they can’t extract profits from services which have been made public. If we get free healthcare there are a bunch of leeches insurance execs that will be out of a job.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨10 reasons why we should move Israel to Utah⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It would be perfect for them. We have so much empty space because we already finished our genocide!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do dogs actually like having their belly rubbed or do they just know we really like to rub their bellies?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My cat too. He’ll roll over to specifically ask for it. The other thing he likes is chin rubs and he’ll tilt his head up and look at me when he wants that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨103°F in Los Angeles all week⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m more charitable in my interpretation of the average human.

  There’s a difference between being greedy or selfish and taking the path of least resistance out of necessity.

  As far as being “idiots,” I just want people to cut people some slack. It can be easy to despair about all the things people don’t know or are misinformed on, but take a step back and look at how big and complicated the modern world is. There is a massive amount of knowledge that makes up our society, more that any individual can ever personally know. So instead we build a kind of collective knowledge through our relationships with one another. You might not have gone to the moon, but someone else did, and they shared their experiences with the rest of us. Most of the people involved in the supply chain needed to build a computer almost certainly don’t know how a computer works or how to design and build one from scratch, but that’s ok because through everyone doing their specific part of the process, it still gets made and we get to use it.

  However, a critical component I think people forget about this collective knowledge is trust. You need some reason to trust that the information someone else has given you is accurate or that the product someone else made for you works. Without the tools and expertise, you have no way to personally verify every claim made, so you must decide whether or not to believe the source of the claim.

  There are all sorts of reasons that you might form such an information trust relationship with another, some more valid than others. You may know the person personally and believe they wouldn’t lie to you, but they may also be wrong. You may know that the person is accredited by some reputable institution, but that just kicks the can down the road to whether or not you can trust the institution. Ultimately this isn’t about people being stupid or uneducated, it’s about how people choose to trust various sources. What makes one more valid than the other?

  One way to somewhat break out of this issue is to build up a foundation of core knowledge through education that can act as a framework for evaluating how reasonable claims are, even if you don’t have specific knowledge about them. You might not know the details of how someone’s supposed perpetual motion machine works, but if you know the basic physics rules about energy, you’d know such a thing is impossible. But the problem with this is that it once again kicks the can down the road back to how you originally learned the information that goes into your framework. If you start with incorrect information, you will not be able to properly evaluate later claims. For example, if you grew up religious and were taught that god created the universe and then someone comes along and tells you that actually there was a big bang that created the universe and that evolution is responsible for the development of life, then those claims would seem absurd to you. I wouldn’t call you inherently stupid for rejecting those ideas based on your prior incorrect understanding. It’s incumbent upon us to find ways to build that trust such that we can educate you in the correct information.

  When it comes to climate change, there are various sources of information that also overlap with each other. Scientists, news media, governments, NGOs, corporations, etc. They all have different expertise and motivations. They all use different methods to communicate with others and build trust. It may seem obvious that the output of the scientific community should be relatively trustworthy if you have previously learned the processes involved in generating scientific consensus, but if you aren’t familiar, you might not get why one scientist says this, but these other scientists say this. If you thought you could trust your gov or news outlets, then them telling you climate change isn’t real seems trustworthy. It may seem obvious why corporations can’t be trusted to someone who is familiar with how capitalism works, but if you don’t have a firm understanding on that and say, grew up in a country that absolutely idolizes businesses and business people, then you might look at these successful companies/CEOs and think that they must know what they’re talking about.

  There’s a reason the right is constantly attacking education. There’s a reason why businesses spend tons of money on advertising, lobbying, etc. They know what they need to do to keep people from agreeing with each other on correct information. You can lament that people are led astray by them, but it clearly isn’t a trivial endeavor.

  The point is, throwing your hands up in the air and saying that people are just “selfish idiots” is little more than doomer shit. If that’s true then there is genuinely no hope. But if you understand the systems and dynamics at play in producing the world we see, you can better work to change it. How do we do that? Fuck if I know, but it’s what we have to figure out and do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨103°F in Los Angeles all week⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m sorry, who has the hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on buying elections, lobbying politician, and putting out propaganda to make sure that policies continue to favor consumption of fossil fuels, use of cars, lax environmental regulations for businesses, wars, and growth at any cost oriented consumption?

  Is it the people driving in the cars on their way to work because they can’t afford to live close to where they work and there’s no adequate public transportation to get there? Last I checked it wasn’t.

  People do have a responsibility to organize for collective action, but simply blaming them for living in the environment they were born into is missing the point on both moral culpability and practical action.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tin foil not needed⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I always find it really funny when they don’t even bother with arguments anymore. They just present left policies as is, but say it in a way that shows they think that it’s obvious why these are bad. Like they shouldn’t even have to explain themselves.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is gud⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This has some 4chan green text food horror story vibes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Broomsticks? What is this? The Dark Ages?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There are two characters like this in Little Witch Academia and one of them literally rides on a flying roomba.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The reason the right are so anti Mamdani is obvious: they don’t want you to see what your tax dollars being put to work the right way would actually look like. Then everyone would want it everywhere.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  When basic competent governance is seen as radical, you know how bad things have been/are. I’m so jealous of the city right now. I’m seeing videos pop up every day about some new project. Meanwhile my town wont fix potholes unless you very specifically ask them to do so, and then they will only fix THAT ONE even if there are others nearby. There are not nearly enough trees and basically no functional public transportation, so getting anywhere without a car is a pain. I can’t get anyone in the town gov to answer my emails and while I haven’t been to a board meeting yet, I’ve been told by someone else who has gone that they’re so disinterested in what people have to say some of them have literally fallen asleep on the job. But we’ve just been stuck with them because my town are a bunch of NIMBYs who don’t care as long as their taxes don’t go up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨wet the drys⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That and making cold things hot and hot things cold.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon hates tiktok⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I just don’t like how much video is vertical now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Diablo V Teaser⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Personally I liked D3 after it got rid of the AH bullshit. For the same reason that a lot of people disliked it: It’s relatively low complexity. People will look down on that as dumbing it down, but to me it’s just getting rid of uninteresting filler. I can’t stand those giant skill trees full of +x% this and +y that. It’s boring AND overwhelming. I have no interest in trying to make my own build in those games. D3 had a small number of choices that for the most part felt distinct enough to understand why you’d choose one over the other.

  I also really liked that brief period in WoW where they changed the skill trees to those sets of 3 choices each level breakpoint. It was really interesting thinking about which choices would be most useful for any given situation instead of just looking up a guide then forgetting about it until next expansion.

  Alas, they went back to boring number increases because people mistake complexity for depth. This is why I really enjoy roguelikes. The well designed ones give you those bite sized choices with big impacts on your run and the depth comes from understanding the system and your current situation rather than mathing out the optimal set of stat increases.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does watching or partaking in mainstream media make me uncomfortable?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a condition called hipsteritis, and unfortunately it’s terminal.

  I do get you though. I’m not as extreme as what you’re describing, but I’ve definitely had this reaction to some things.

  For me, one version of this is sort of an overcorrection to unreasonable expectations. If something is super popular and a bunch of people recommend it to me, I’d expect it to be the best thing ever and… that’s just not how that works. The most popular things are the things that are acceptable to the most people, not necessarily the best or what would be your favorite, so I go see the thing and if it’s just ok I feel like I have to push back against everyone overly praising it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meme check point.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Whenever there is a fantasy action show and one character uses a gun I like to joke “I cast gun!”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Well if that isn't just about the most evil thing you could openly admit to doing.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah he got that wrong, but I think this still highlights the dynamic at play. Regan pushed the horrible cultural narrative around welfare, but then he was followed by Clinton saying he was going to “end welfare as we know it.” Softer language than Regan, but pushing in the same policy direction, enabled by Regan’s earlier propaganda, and in the act of making it bipartisan, he normalized it as a position that we’ve been stuck with ever since.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"feminine"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well obviously you get rid of the skull. That skull could be male or female. 50/50 removing it decreases femininity of the room.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Oh how the turn tables⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My dad brings this up when China comes up in conversation and I’m always just like “yeah, and…?” Like if we’re so smart why are they the ones with bullet trains and solar panels and not us?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Does the USA have gifted schools or was Spider-Man Homecoming lying?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it depends. Education is handled at a local level for the most part. That’s why school quality varies so much based on the income level of the area. I know NYC has such a system, but I don’t think my school district in the suburbs did. My parents did take me to go look at some special school when I was young, but it was nowhere close to us and I assume private. I didn’t like the place so I didn’t end up going and stayed in our local public schools.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drop your unpopular opinions here because c/unpopularopinions is filled with popular opinions⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Mars isn’t going anywhere, but people are. If you want to experience seeing humans make it to mars, it has to happen in your lifetime.

  That said, I do think you have a valid point. I do think we have some responsibility to carefully research potential signs of life on other planets before we potentially contaminate it or risk bringing anything back with us.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨President Trump reacts to President Biden’s cancer diagnosis: "I don't feel sorry for him"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We’re just Biden our time… I’ll see myself out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drop your unpopular opinions here because c/unpopularopinions is filled with popular opinions⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I suppose there’s that too. But even then, I think the same point about those products being made or localized to avoid associations with foreignness holds. I don’t think people were buying Nintendo and Sega games because they were japanophiles.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drop your unpopular opinions here because c/unpopularopinions is filled with popular opinions⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Isn’t that kind of just a problem with an upvote system being used for unpopular things?

  Also I’ll drop mine in here for the sake of it, although I get the sense that lemmy in particular will be more likely to agree with me than the broader population: I hate meta progression in roguelites. I still end up playing a lot of games with them because unfortunately that seems to be what sells in that market compared to more traditional roguelikes and if the game is good enough, I can try to look past the system. However, I do think that they just strictly make the games they’re in worse. I could get into a whole rant about them, but maybe not here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drop your unpopular opinions here because c/unpopularopinions is filled with popular opinions⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I kind of agree. I like pics and vids of dogs, but actually being around them is kind of gross and scary. Cats are more my speed. They clean themselves. They don’t need to be taken outside just to take a shit. They usually don’t smell. They sleep a lot and generally just act really chill. I haven’t had a cat jump and bark (or whatever the cat equivalent would be) at me in the way that dogs do. I feel like I have an understanding with cats.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drop your unpopular opinions here because c/unpopularopinions is filled with popular opinions⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah, but what about ones about a HS girl who gets sent to a magical world full of charming pretty boys? See? There’s so much variety! (I say this as someone who watches way too much of that trash lol.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drop your unpopular opinions here because c/unpopularopinions is filled with popular opinions⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Most of it is shit, but I think your reasoning is backwards. I don’t think people (At least Americans/Westerners) like anime because it’s Japanese, they like Japanese stuff through exposure to it in anime.

  When we were kids and watching stuff like Pokemon and Yugioh, none of us knew wtf anime was or where it came from. They were just some more cartoons. In fact the localizers like 4Kids actively tried to scrub “foreignness” from the shows because they thought it would ick American audiences.

  And this pop cultural dominance has been very successful at rehabilitating Japan’s image, both erasing the past and glazing over some of the uncomfortable parts of the present.

  As for actual show quality, I’d say all mediums have mostly bad art with a few gems, but I do think anime is exceptional in two ways: First, it seems like the barrier to turning some random author’s bad ideas into a commercial product are much lower, I’m not really sure what the exact economic or cultural reasons are for that though. Second, most anime ends up being kind of bad in the same way. It’s a medium that’s practically defined by it’s tropes and they are shared amongst the good and bad shows alike. The difference is usually that the good ones have something else worthwhile going on and the bad ones are almost nothing but a reheated remix of these tropes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Still waiting for my Donny dollar check, any day now...⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Huh. This turned out to be a more complicated answer than I thought. My parents were born in the mid 60s. Lead paint was banned in 1978, so they would have been in their teens. Lead gasoline, on the other hand, was gradually phased out starting in 1973, so a little earlier, but shockingly wasn’t completely banned until literally the month I was born, Jan 1996.

  Lead pipes are even more wild. NEW installations were banned in 1974, but it allowed existing ones to stay in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Delicious⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The death of innocence is reaching the point where you could do that, but it wouldn’t even make you happy because of health reasons.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Disc drive needed⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We’re on lemmy. Our opinions on how widely used tech is don’t count.

  Personally my last 3 PCs haven’t had a disk drive and I can’t remember the last time I’ve SEEN a disc. It was almost certainly before college.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Still waiting for my Donny dollar check, any day now...⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Propaganda is a hell of a drug.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Still waiting for my Donny dollar check, any day now...⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I do try to explain that, but she just won’t listen. It’s like there’s a mental block stopping the connection from happening.

  The crazy thing is she’s worked insanely hard in her career and until a couple years ago barely made any money from it. (Although some of that is the gender inequality of her being out of work to take care of us when we were young for a few years.) She doesn’t understand how her being this hardworking professional who still only makes enough for a middle class income is different than someone who’s never worked a day in their life siphoning money off of workers so they can buy their 3rd mansion, private jets, and elections and somehow still has MORE money after all of that.