Got_Bent

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to memes in Would the world be a better place if Christians acted upon their beliefs?

I’ve thought of that in philosophy as well. I once pointed out to a professor that it was a mathematical impossibility for every person to be completely altruistic. He mostly stopped speaking to me for the remainder of the semester.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to memes in Would the world be a better place if Christians acted upon their beliefs?

I am not even remotely Christian or any other religion, so the following is meant to be nothing more than a thought exercise.

Suppose somebody in the United States took Jesus up on his word and sold all their possessions, gave it all away to the poor, and spent their remaining days helping others.

In the US economic and social environment, how would they even survive?

Reiterate: I am not Christian and I do not support religion of any kind. I’ll add that the foundation of this thought is my general disdain for this late stage capitalism in which we exist.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to worldnews in Rishi Sunak considers banning cigarettes for next generation

Man, my freshman year of college, in California of all places, we had cigarette vending machines in our freshman dorm. The only smoking policy in your dorm room was that your roommate had to be cool with it. Zero designated non-smoking rooms. There was a smoking section inside the cafeteria. You couldn’t smoke during class, but the professors could smoke in their offices and we had a coffee bar in the building that was one huge cloud.

How things have changed, eh?

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to memes in Too controlling

Some of them want to corral you

Some of them want to be corralled

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to worldnews in Rishi Sunak considers banning cigarettes for next generation

The first smoking bans were sections of airplanes

Then they were for domestic flights under two hours

Then they were for domestic flights

Then they were for all flights

The first restaurant bans were only the dining area

Then they included the bar area

Then they hit stand alone bars

The smoking bans you know today did not hit all at once. They got progressively more restrictive over a period of many years.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to worldnews in Rishi Sunak considers banning cigarettes for next generation

All these progressively restrictive laws have been good to me. I’m of the generation who remembers smoking on planes, and my grandmother smoking in her hospital bed.

I was probably at two packs a day in the nineties because it was cheap and acceptable.

These days, a pack will last me a week, and I only ever smoke in my backyard at home, in clothing dedicated to the habit that get washed separately from my other clothes.

Bans and social stigma have forced me into near non-smoking without ever consciously trying.

Do I ever have an occasional night of celebratory drinking where I exceed that trend? You betcha, and I don’t feel sorry about it. But I’m glad that I’m not the chain smoking beef jerky with a voice three octaves lower than it should be that my grandparents were.

I still believe that people should be able to enjoy vice and that you shouldn’t be completely ostracized from society for not living a perfect organic free range fair trade intoxicant free perfectly vegan whatever else life.

But to phase out tobacco as it has been going, I have found that I haven’t minded at all in the long term.

(As to the occasional celebratory night, for completely different reasons, I hardly drink anymore. Also was not a conscious choice or effort. It just lost its attraction for me)

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to news in Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events

Shhh… Nothing to see here. We’re busy setting the coals to the feet of a Democratic senator!

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to technology in Amazon to introduce ads on Prime Video in 2024

My experience with prime delivery in 2023 is that it has gone from two days to four days to two weeks to completely lost fuck you trying to get a refund.

Further, I stopped using eBay in the late 2000s because everything there became “fell off a truck in China” quality. This is what a vast percentage of Amazon product has become.

This is the crux desire to cancel.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to technology in Amazon to introduce ads on Prime Video in 2024

I’ve been planning on cancelling prime at the end of the year. This closes the decision making process for me.

I’ve been sticking to Pluto and Tubi lately. Yes, they have ads, but they are entirely free and have enough content to keep me entertained for the duration of my ever decreasing television watching habits.

(End of year because due to terms and conditions, there is no benefit to cancel early)

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to news in Biden announces $600m for more free Covid-19 tests in anticipation of surge

It was just one of those things. I needed to test same day, so I had to pay the premium.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to technology in Google Flat-Out Refuses to Bargain With Workers, Prompting YouTube Music Strike

I really didn’t think we would ever see a return to the days of the robber barons. Now I think that era was but an open mic amateur hour opening for the headliner that’s coming.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to news in Biden announces $600m for more free Covid-19 tests in anticipation of surge

It was about fifty dollars for three tests at CVS

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to news in Biden announces $600m for more free Covid-19 tests in anticipation of surge

Good. I’ve come down with something that mirrors what COVID felt like and have exhausted my supply of tests. They were pretty expensive to purchase.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to memes in why can't I

The comments on that are really difficult to understand.

Got_Bent , 11 months ago to memes in Really makes you wonder...

I was using the archaic had to get up at three in the morning to go to work spelling