MossyFeathers

MossyFeathers , 42 minutes ago

My understanding is that it depends on context. Have you been sweating a lot? Are you super dehydrated? Sports drinks (actual “sports drinks” like Gatorade) are probably better for you than water.

The reason for that is because you lose a lot of salt and other electrolytes through sweat, and drinks like Gatorade are meant to replace those. That’s why professional athletes, especially stamina-based athletes like marathon runners, football players, etc, tend to drink some form of sports drink (the sponsorships help though). Additionally, if you’re extremely dehydrated then you may also be low on electrolytes (because you’ve been out in the sun, or you’ve been sweating a lot). I’ve also heard that sports drinks hydrate faster because they’re supposedly similar to saline, but I can’t find any sources for that, so take that with a grain of salt.

However, if you’re just kinda thirsty or want something to drink, then water is probably better. I doubt you’ll hurt yourself drinking Gatorade instead of water, but you don’t need it either.

MossyFeathers , 1 day ago

Imo, we should have one, or at most, two Olympic states. They’d be small countries that are more-or-less politically neutral, and instead of sending teams, their purpose would be to host the Summer and/or Winter Olympics. Construction, maintenance and upgrades of the facilities would be paid for by participating countries, as a percentage of their GDP. That way, the hosting country(ies) wouldn’t have to spend billions building the facilities, they get guaranteed tourism every 2~4 years, the facilities get reused, non-hosting countries have a place to measure their penis size, don’t have to spend outrageous sums to build their own facilities (they’re all paying together, after all), don’t have to bulldoze houses or forests, be concerned with water quality, and probably many other bonuses I’m not thinking of.

Bonus points if the facilities are open year-round for Olympians to train at, so that the athletes are more used to the climate, equipment, tracks, trails, etc.

The biggest downside is that hosting the Olympics is prestigious itself and generates a lot of tourism revenue (which in this case, would only be going to the “static” host(s)). It’s a chance for the host country to show off their economic strength, culture (like during the opening ceremonies), and more. You’d have to convince countries that they’re better off without the tourism and chance to flaunt their wealth.

MossyFeathers , 1 day ago

Probably icbm tech or something, it’s pretty much all they have left.

MossyFeathers , 3 days ago

This. If I’m not mistaken, the system was meant to operate like a hybrid between patents and trademarks. Iirc, things weren’t originally under copyright by default and you had to regularly renew your copyright in order to keep it. Most of the media in the public domain is a result of companies failing to properly claim or renew copyright before the laws were changed. My understanding is that the reason for this was because the intent was to protect you from having your IP stolen while it was profitable to you, but then release said IP into the public domain once it was no longer profitable (aka wasn’t worth renewing copyright on).

Then corpos spent a lot of money rewriting the system and now practically everything even remotely creative is under copyright that’s effectively indefinite.

MossyFeathers , 3 days ago

Dude, what the fuck? You’re being an asshole. Be better, I know you’re capable of it.

MossyFeathers , 4 days ago

one slice is missing

That looks more like 2~3 slices dude.

MossyFeathers , 4 days ago

This comment section gonna be spicy~

Tbh I kinda agree with you, calling someone a murderer or rapist for eating meat is overboard; however the biggest issue I have is the pretentious and self-righteous attitude that vegans have. Like, cool, you don’t eat meat, good for you! I agree that commercially raised farm animals are often abused, and that even animals raised by small, private farms don’t always get to lead their best lives.^1 At the same time though, you’re not making your cause look good.

Yes, I might honestly be a better person if I stop eating meat, dairy and buying any form of animal product; but I’m also gonna be associated with assholes with overinflated egos. I’m distanced enough from the slaughter that the overinflated ego is more of a turnoff than the slaughtering of animals.

Is that how it should be? No, but that’s how humans usually work. The object perceived to be closer is a higher priority than the object perceived to be further away. Animal slaughter is perceived as being further away than being associated with assholes, so the fear of being associated with assholes is a greater “threat” than the inhumane treatment of animals.

Be a vegan if you want, or don’t. You’re honestly probably a better, healthier person if you’re vegan (though you probably have your head up your ass about it), because your diet and spending habits are less likely to contribute to climate change, animal cruelty, and because you have to be conscious about what you eat, your food is likely healthier.

Just… Don’t be an ass about it, dude.

Instead of accusing people of being “carnists”, talk about a good (totally-not-vegan) dish you had recently. Instead of accusing people of murder, talk about the pros and cons of real leather vs faux leather.^2 Instead of telling people they’re animal rapists, talk about new sources of cow’s milk.

I swear I recently read about a technically vegan blue cheese that won and then got disqualified from a cheese competition because the milk it was made from was technically synthetic cow’s milk that had been derived from fungi or something. Talk about that shit. That is pretty fucking cool. Fungus milk that’s virtually identical to cow’s milk? That’s awesome!

Meat eating and the damage it causes is far off in most people’s rear-view mirrors, and many people don’t know or don’t have time to find ways of getting off the meat highway. They don’t know about alternatives or up-and-coming technologies related to meat substitutes. Being an ass is only going to turn people away; if you really care, then you’ll understand that you have to take people’s hands and take baby steps with them. And no, you can’t get angry when they mess up. You’re helping a baby to walk, if you get angry then they’ll just get angry, demoralized, frustrated with you or themselves, or something else, and you risk them giving up. If you actually care though, then you don’t want them to give up, and that means you have to grit your teeth and bear it when they complain about how something sucks or admit they have a “guilty pleasure” like dairy ice cream.

---

Some additional notes:

^1 imo meat should only be harvested from animals that have died from age-related causes. “But the meat will be too tough!” Yeah? Hispanic people figured out how to deal with that a long time ago. Make fajitas! I still eat meat anyway though, despite knowing they’re slaughtered and don’t die of old age.

^2 when it comes to leather, my experience is that natural leather lasts a lot longer than faux leather, and faux leather tends to use plastics. Additionally, I’ve heard that while “leather is a byproduct of the meat industry” is mostly a myth, it’s my understanding that there are “ethical” ways of getting leather, e.g. by taking cast-offs that’d normally be trashed, leather harvested from animals that have died from old age; you just have to be very conscious about where you’re buying leather from. I’d be curious if anyone knows about any non-petroleum-based faux or lab-grown leathers. I mean, it’s literally just skin, how hard can it really be to grow that in a lab?

MossyFeathers , 4 days ago

Republicans cutting funding to NASA because rockets are “satanic devil worship” and “are arousing to females (biological) and homosexual men because they’re phallic in nature” in T-minus 10…

(Spoiler: they were gonna defund NASA anyway)

Edit: also, just a reminder that space and space accessories actually make a lot of money for the US and push technological progress, which is why American politicians don’t like NASA; it’s a successful and profitable government program.

MossyFeathers , 6 days ago

In a written statement, the ADL said the decision by Wikipedia was the result of a ”campaign to delegitimize the ADL” and that editors opposing the ban “provided point by point refutations, grounded in factual citations, to every claim made, but apparently facts no longer matter.”

You of all groups should know that the last part of your statement is a common right-wing dog whistle that gets used when someone doubles down after their “facts” get rejected for bigotry and/or inaccuracy. By using that phrase, you’ve automatically cast doubt on the legitimacy of your actions and statements. At best you’re ignorant of a common dog whistle, which is embarrassing for an organization who should be well-versed in this kind of thing; at worst you’ve signaled to everyone that you’re potentially peddling “alternative facts”, which casts doubt on everything you’ve done in the past. Either way, you’re ultimately hurting the Jewish people by making that kind of statement.

Mira Sucharov, a professor of political science at Carleton University, said Wikipedia’s decision represents a major opportunity to reflect on why the ADL is facing scrutiny and rethink communal approaches for fighting antisemitism.

“This is a sign that the Jewish community needs better institutions,” she said.

They really do, and I feel bad for them. The places that should be defending them seem more than happy to ignore them or even throw them under the bus in the name of Zionism.

Like, okay, personal beliefs on Zionism aside, if your organization is tasked with defending a group of people, you should ensure your actions aren’t going to endanger, delegitimize or otherwise encourage bigotry against said group. That means that even if you’re a Zionist Jewish organization, if your task is to fight against bigotry towards Jews, you shouldn’t be ignoring non-Zionist Jews nor should you be dismissing their views. Instead, you should be listening to what they have to say, condensing it and releasing it in an manner easy for non-jews to understand (which means providing political, historical and religious context, because many people, myself included, don’t understand as much as they think they do about Judaism).

In the current context, you should be giving people statements from Zionist and non-Zionist Jews about Palestine, and attempt to include non-biased historical, religious and political backgrounds for events that are occurring.

I think ethnically Jewish people could make an honest argument that they should have some portion of Palestine based on historical origins (I think it’s a weak arguement, but I think you could argue for it). However, that doesn’t excuse the way that the IDF and Israeli government have treated Gaza and the West Bank.

You can criticize the Israeli government while also believing that ethnically Jewish people should be able to have a country they have control over. Other countries do this all the time (get criticized for poor treatment of the “outside” ethnic group(s)), why is this somehow different for Israel? Why aren’t we allowed to criticize Israel? I can talk about how France, a white, French ethnostate, is mistreating Muslims without being a racist bigot; I should be able to talk about Israel the same way.

MossyFeathers , 7 days ago

My biggest complaint about Sims-likes is that the visual style always looks too serious. It gives me the feeling that whatever I’m going to do with my not-Sims, it’s gonna be something that makes me regret my real life.

You wanna know what I did the last time I played the Sims 2 though? I repeatedly held parties at my Sim’s house and then lured the guests into a room they couldn’t get out of. I also used the moveobjects cheat to collect police cars whenever a cop showed up to shut the party down. By the time I was done I had amassed around 70 urns, many hysterical immortal Sims (Sims with households can’t die while visiting someone’s house in the Sims 2), 4 Police cars and a fire truck.

The Sims has a mischievous air to it that tickles the devil on your shoulder and begs you to listen to them. None of the Sims-likes I’m aware of seem to have the same air.

Edit: now I want to play the Sims again.

MossyFeathers , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

No. It’s easier to go after the “good guys” than the bad guys because they’re easier to beat. They won’t use all kinds of slimy, underhanded tactics to fuck you over.

Edit: I don’t approve of the lawsuit against valve, but that’s the way of the world. Scummy companies and people have many tools they can use to drag you down to their level.

MossyFeathers , 9 days ago

“raptor”

There’s more than one kind of raptor, buddy. Also why doesn’t the raptor have feathers? If you’re gonna mush all the raptors together into a single species, at least draw the feathers. This is offensive to theropods around the world as it turns us into a homogeneous, featherless caricature.

MossyFeathers , 9 days ago (edited 8 days ago)

Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 and 2; Need for Speed 2 and 3; SimCity 3k.

Also, check your monitor properties. Afaik most CRT monitors (not TVs; those run at 60hz/50hz depending on region) are meant to run at 75~85hz. If it’s running at 60hz when it’s meant to run at a higher refresh rate, then that might be why it’s nauseating (my crt has a very noticeable flicker at 60hz, but that goes away at 75hz).

Edit: to expand on this for any late-comers: CRTs work by using an electron gun (aka particle accelerator aka a motherfucking PARTICLE CANNON) to fire an electron beam at red, green and blue phosphors. When the electron hits a phosphor, it emits light based on the color hit. This beam sweeps over the phosphors at a speed dictated by the display’s refresh rate and illuminates the phosphors one-by-one until it has illuminated the entire screen. This is why trying to take a picture or video of a CRT requires you to sync your shutter speed with the CRT. If your shutter isn’t synced then the monitor will appear to be strobing or flickering (because it is, just very, very quickly)

These phosphors have a set glow duration, which varies based on the intended display refresh rate. A refresh rate that is too low will cause the phosphors to dim before the electron beam passes over them, while a refresh rate that’s too high can cause ghosting, smearing, etc because the phosphors haven’t had a chance to “cool off”. TVs are designed to run at 60hz/50hz, depending on the region, and so their phosphors have a longer glow duration to eliminate flickering at their designated refresh rate. Computer monitors, on the other hand, were high-quality tubes and were typically geared for +75hz. The result is that if you run them at 60hz then you’ll get flickering because the phosphors have a shorter glow duration than a TV.

Note: this is a place where LCD/LED panels solidly beat CRTs, because they can refresh the image without de-illuminating the panel, avoiding flicker at low refresh rates.

Edit 2: oh! Also, use game consoles with CRT TVs, not computer monitors. This is because old consoles, especially pre-3d consoles, “cheated” on sprites and took advantage of standard CRT TV resolution to blend pixels. The result is that you may actually lose detail if you play them on a CRT computer monitor or modern display. That’s why a lot of older sprite-based games unironically look better if you use a real CRT TV or a decent CRT emulator video filter.

MossyFeathers , 9 days ago

e;

MossyFeathers , 11 days ago

The alternative explanation is that the employers have investments in corporate real estate and don’t want their investments to lose value. Personally, I think that the the people at the top probably have investments in corporate real estate, while middle managers are the way you describe.

I don’t think the people at the top usually care what the employees are doing so long as they’re making money, and being in the office means they’re keeping corporate real estate prices afloat. As such, being in office makes money for the executives, even if that money isn’t made directly through the company.

Middle managers on the other hand, likely don’t have any significant corporate real estate investments, nor are they as likely get significant bonuses for company productivity. As such, it makes more sense for their motive to be more about control than it is money.

That said, I do know some executives do indeed see employees the way you’ve described them; an infamous example comes to mind about the Australian real estate executive talking about how they needed to bring workers to heel and crash the economy to remind workers that they work for the company and not the other way around. I’m just not sure that many executives actually think about their workers in that much depth. I think if they did then we’d see a stark contrast of very ethical companies and highly abusive companies instead of the mix of workplace cultures we have now; because some ceos would come to the conclusion that a happy worker is a good worker, while others would become complete control freaks.

MossyFeathers , 13 days ago (edited 13 days ago)

Imo it’s not the former (kids making content) that’s the issue; that’s something kids have been doing in games for a long time. Gmod, TF2, CS:S, Minecraft, etc. Most of those games have mods made by kids or people who started as kids, and some of them are very successful and have even led them to careers in the game industry.

The thing that’s actually bad is the fact that the kids can make money from it, and the cut they get is almost non-existent. The result is that it encourages kids to design their games in a way that utilizes the kinds of monetization we normally associate with greedy corpos (loot boxes, true microtransactions like charging for extra lives, etc).

If kids weren’t able to make money off it, or if the cut was larger and they restricted the kinds of monetization kids could utilize (no loot boxes, charging for extra lives, etc), then I wouldn’t see an issue with it.

That’s where I think a lot of people miss the mark. For some reason it seems like there’s a view that’s unique to people criticizing Roblox, which is that kids making mods for games is bad; but imo it’s only bad when coupled with a monetization scheme that encourages kids to nickel and dime each other.

Edit: but yes, kids do make content for Roblox and get shitty cuts for it. Also changed a sentence (in bold).

MossyFeathers , 13 days ago

Nah, most enbys are chill and recognize that pronouns can be easy to forget. You’re just upset that people get annoyed when you repeatedly misgender them.

MossyFeathers , 13 days ago

I’ll be honest, it took me a while to start remembering “they/them”, even for myself. However, now I have the opposite problem, which is that I tend to substitute “they/them” for gendered pronouns. Normally that’s not a problem because most people accept neutral pronouns, but some people can be very picky about their pronouns and then I have to remember that “they/them” can’t be universally applied to everyone.

MossyFeathers , 16 days ago

I’m… honestly kinda okay with it crashing. It’d suck because AI has a lot of potential outside of generative tasks; like science and medicine. However, we don’t really have the corporate ethics or morals for it, nor do we have the economic structure for it.

AI at our current stage is guaranteed to cause problems even when used responsibly, because its entire goal is to do human tasks better than a human can. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, even if you do your best to think carefully and hire humans whenever possible, AI will end up replacing human jobs. What’s the point in hiring a bunch of people with a hyper-specialized understanding of a specific scientific field if an AI can do their work faster and better? If I’m not mistaken, normally having some form of hyper-specialization would be advantageous for the scientist because it means they can demand more for their expertise (so long as it’s paired with a general understanding of other fields).

However, if you have to choose between 5 hyper-specialized and potentially expensive human scientists, or an AI designed to do the hyper-specialized task with 2~3 human generalists to design the input and interpret the output, which do you go with?

So long as the output is the same or similar, the no-brainer would be to go with the 2~3 generalists and AI; it would require less funding and possibly less equipment - and that’s ignoring that, from what I’ve seen, AI tends to be better than human scientists in hyper-specialized tasks (though you still need scientists to design the input and parse the output). As such, you’re basically guaranteed to replace humans with AI.

We just don’t have the society for that. We should be moving in that direction, but we’re not even close to being there yet. So, again, as much potential as AI has, I’m kinda okay if it crashes. There aren’t enough people who possess a brain capable of handling an AI-dominated world yet. There are too many people who see things like money, government, economics, etc as some kind of magical force of nature and not as human-made systems which only exist because we let them.

MossyFeathers , 17 days ago

I wonder if this was a case of someone seeing a “big name” but being clueless about his history and thinking, “I recognize his name, must mean he’s popular.” Then they hired him without vetting because he had a recognizable name and they believed he was therefore popular and “cool”. I mean, I know who Rob Schneider is because I’ve heard his name get thrown around a lot, but I had no idea he was a bigoted piece of shit because I’ve never (knowingly) watched any of his movies, nor do I keep up with celebrity gossip.

That said, it’s really stupid to hire people without vetting them in this day and age because people have become so insane and brainless that you have no clue what they might say when they get up on stage; but 10 years ago I could see you being able to get away with not vetting celebrities. As such, the person/people who approved him might have been +10 years out of touch and/or lazy.

MossyFeathers , 17 days ago

I’m pretty sure Dave Oshry would find a way to somehow fuck over whatever company tries to acquire New Blood, like employee contracts that give each employee a $5m bonus if the company gets acquired, required to be paid by the acquiring company. He just seems like the kinda guy who’d do that.

MossyFeathers , 17 days ago

Dave Oshry is outspokenly pro-union.

MossyFeathers , 17 days ago

Yeah, that’s not happening lol. Politics aside, public transportation is too shit for that and you’ll just get run over if you try to bike anywhere that doesn’t have a bike path/lane.

MossyFeathers , 18 days ago

I feel like in order for something to be retro, then it should have to be at least 10yrs after official support has ended.

MossyFeathers , 18 days ago

It hasn’t been that long since that happened though. It’s literally been less than 6 months since they shut the servers down. It was part of the previous Nintendo console generation ffs. GTA V released the same year as the 2ds. C’mon man, the 2ds is not retro.

MossyFeathers , 18 days ago

Yep, but it hasn’t been more than 10yrs since it was last officially supported. It’s only been a few months since they fully ended official support.

MossyFeathers , 18 days ago

Oh my god, wallet chains are going to make a comeback, but for phones this time.

MossyFeathers , 19 days ago

2026 they just roll around on balls like these guys .

MossyFeathers , 23 days ago

I’m really hoping valve does a public steamdeck OS release. I’d like to replace windows on my PC with Linux and have windows as a backup, but the Linux distro I’m the most familiar with is the steam deck’s distro, and that’s not available outside of steam decks yet.

MossyFeathers , 23 days ago

Fuck off. You can’t just say things like that without telling the class what the difference is.

Edit: it looks like the right one has white specks and the left one doesn’t? Can’t tell if the white specks are actually there or just image compression or different lighting though.

MossyFeathers , 26 days ago

They’re already making lists. Between apps like these and the kinda surveillance the US totally doesn’t do on US citizens, you’re probably already on a conservative’s hit list.

MossyFeathers , 28 days ago

Chips and queso

MossyFeathers , 28 days ago

I know you’re not the owner and so it isn’t your job to house-train the dog, but personally I would have asked if it was okay if I trained it for them. I like dogs and working with animals, so personally I’d be more than happy to do it for free so long as they A) aren’t demanding I teach the dog tricks (only basic house-training), and B) they follow any instructions I give them.

MossyFeathers , 27 days ago

Damn, that sucks.

MossyFeathers , 28 days ago

Hylics 1/2

Half Life 1

Myst

Jet Set Radio Future

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Factorio

Doom II (heavily modded)

OpenRCT2

Voices of the Void

The Sims (I like the series as a whole, I feel like each game has its own pros and cons)

MossyFeathers , 29 days ago

I’m not sure valve really cares at this point. I think they still enjoy TF2, but I get the sense that they don’t really know what to do with it at this point and no one really wants to give it enough attention to figure out how to fix the problems it currently has, much less figure out how to expand the game further. Tbh it’s an old game, and they may even feel like they’ve programmed themselves into a corner, where any major changes would require reprogramming large parts of the game or even migrating the game to a newer version of source.

That said, I’ve signed it, or at least tried to sign it. It gave me an error about being blocked due to bot activity, though that might have been my fault. I hit the button and waited for a confirmation but nothing happened, so I hit it again, nothing happened, and then on the third try the site refreshed a couple times before telling me I’d been blocked.

However, hopefully it got through.

MossyFeathers , 29 days ago

According to the New Zealand not-for-profit Gender Minorities Aotearoa, the wait time for bottom surgery in the public health system is 10 to 12 years.

Holy shit, that’s a long wait time.

MossyFeathers , 29 days ago

Tbh I’m always amazed by how trans care is so… whacky.

Like, the US is becoming more and more hostile towards trans people (especially trans women), and US healthcare means gender affirming care can be very expensive (especially surgery-related stuff). On the other hand, adults in the US can typically start HRT within a week of seeing a doctor because the US allows for informed consent; you see a doctor, request hrt, they inform you of the risks and effects, and if you consent, you can begin HRT. Then, if you have the money or really good insurance, you could be “”“finished”“” transitioning (be on hrt and have gender-affirming surguries done) within a year or two. You probably still won’t pass because I’ve been told it can take years for HRT to fully feminize/masculinize you, but at that point the only thing left is waiting for your body to do its thing.

Then you have Canada and European countries, where, based on what I’ve seen, they tend to be more accepting of trans people and trans care tends to be covered by the government (or so I’ve heard). However, they have all kinds of waiting periods, from being forced to wait several years to ensure you’re “truly trans”, waiting again to see if your surgery is approved, waiting again for an opening, waiting again because the doctor decided to take the week of your surgery off to go on vacation, etc.

Then you have Australia and New Zealand where you’re forced to wait and there’s no guarantee the government will cover the medical costs of transitioning.

Why is this so hard?

Why can’t people get their shit together so it doesn’t take a decade or more for someone to finish transitioning?

Considering the symptoms and side effects of gender dysphoria, it’s unlikely someone suffering from gender dysphoria will be functioning at maximum efficiency. As such, while it might appear more expensive on paper, it seems like the impact of prioritizing gender affirming care (similar to how I assume people with cancer and disabilities are prioritized) would be cheaper long-term. The faster you get them care, the sooner they can start working at their maximum potential; and the sooner they start working at their maximum potential, the larger the benefit they can provide to society.

MossyFeathers , 29 days ago (edited 29 days ago)

Time Cube

Edit: Archived site

Another version

Edit 2: y’all taking the low hanging fruit when y’all know time cube is the most unhinged. If you don’t know about how the earth has four simultaneous 24hr days duirng one rotation in sixteen space-times then I don’t know what to tell you.

MossyFeathers , 30 days ago

What an eloquent way of saying, “our guns aren’t good Sadge”

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago

What the fuck?

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago

Fyi, be careful about which version of Winnie the Pooh you use. While I doubt the Stephan Slesinger Inc or Disney will come after you for the patch, my understanding is that the “red shirt” Pooh is still under copyright because the red shirt was a later addition (which won’t be public domain until 2028), and the Disney version of Pooh won’t be public domain for a long time since it wasn’t created until the 1960s.

It’s kinda like how Steamboat Willy’s Mickey design is public domain, but the most iconic version (the one with white gloves, red pants and yellow shoes) is still under copyright. That said, be careful about using Steamboat Willy’s Mickey in branding because Disney still claims trademark on it.

As an interesting tanget about Mickey, apparently there’s been a fair number of legal arguments that later versions of Mickey are not under copyright because of a couple instances where Disney failed to renew or properly claim copyright ownership during the time when copyright was not automatic and had to be regularly renewed to retain ownership. However, unsurprisingly, the US courts have routinely sided with Disney when challenged.

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago

Valve, when are you gonna figure out that people just want more TF2, Portal, CS, L4D, HL, and maybe DoD? Like, I guess at least you’ve recently released a CS and HL game, but what about the others? TF2 seems like it’s been on life support while Portal and DoD are completely forgotten.

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago

…which is why cruelty is the point. They’re getting pleasure out of hurting others. Their pleasure from torment might not be the “true” motivator - I highly doubt the people making these decisions are cackling to themselves like a comic book supervillain while coming up with novel ways of hurting people (though their brainwashed underlings might) - but they get pleasure from power and control, and are willing to pursue it at all cost, which means they do things that are cruel in order to maintain it.

To put it simply, they get pleasure from power and control, which comes at the cost of hurting others. The result is that while cruelty might not literally be the point, cruelty is the end result.

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago

We can stop future generations from breeding today! Traumatize your children until the idea of having children becomes unbearable for them.

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago

Oh God, my parents (accidentally) did that with me.

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago

No. But they were always overestimating what I was able to do as a child and were always putting goals just out of reach.

MossyFeathers , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Everything is political.

Sigh

That’s only true in an academic sense. When a layman uses the term “political”, they refer to discussion pertaining to things like how a formal government is run, comparisons between types of governance, government policy, etc.

While deciding what cookie to eat or what color your cat’s litterbox is might technically be political in an academic sense, you’re just going to annoy people if you try to tell them that those are political decisions. I have found that trying to force academic definitions into common use is confusing at best, annoying on average, and infuriating at worst.

An example of where a word’s academic definition has no place in common speech can be found in “information”. The informal definition of “information” typically is seen as referring to knowledge and the transfer of said knowledge. This definition allows you to gain information from a lack of something.

However, it is my understanding that the scientific definition of “information” does not allow for the aforementioned action, as “information” refers to the properties of physical matter. The result is that you cannot gain “information” from a lack of something. You might be able to come to conclusions based on a lack of “information”, but you cannot actually gain “information” from a lack of something because “information” is inherently linked to matter.

Now. All of that said, this meme is related to something said at an engineering school, so on the one hand, it isn’t entirely out-of-place to expect the academic definition to be used because it is an academic setting. Yet, on the other hand, it is an engineering school, not a political science school. As such, while OP should be aware that the academic definition of “politics” may come into play, it’s also reasonable to expect that their professors and peers would mainly be using the common definition of the term.

However again, in my experience, trying to force academic definitions into casual discussion is confusing at best, annoying on average, and infuriating at worst. Please stop trying to do it. Thanks.

(Also, imo, genocide is like Schrodinger’s Cat; it is both political and not political at the same time. Personally, I think it mainly depends on the depth of the discussion; but its “political” nature varies from person-to-person. Imo, saying that genocide is happening shouldn’t be considered “political”, but talking about why it is occuring is political.)

Edit: whoops, somehow my comment doubled, within the comment. The fuck happened there?

Edit 2: I swear I need to find a new phone keyboard, and I need to read over my comments before submitting. I’m finding a lot of stupid auto-correct errors, and it seems like they’re becoming more common.

Edit 3: the reason I got hung-up on it, and I should have mentioned this, is because I often see “everything is political” used to justify bringing heavier topics into places where it’s inappropriate (like chatrooms where people are trying to just hang out and have light hearted discussions).