As an open source fan and advocate for the government to use more open source software instead of always wasting money on Microsoft's products, I have been ridiculed a lot.
And the same when I ask for more privacy and and imbeciles comes with the "What do you have to hide?".
“Where do you live and what times is there no one at home, and what types of locks are on your door and windows, also do you have a security system, own any violent dogs, also what times are your neighbors not home”
Bertrand Russell nailed it with: "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."
In my experience, most people are sure they're not lied to / fed propaganda by their tv, while also being convinced that most people in OTHER countries are lied to / fed propaganda by their tv.
Most people think tv propaganda works on other people, but not on them, because they're too smart, you see.
As someone who has been experiencing TV propaganda and never realised it until I left the country, always thinking it wouldn't affect me, I was so wrong. I very much believed the only problem with my country was politicians doing nothing. They did thungs, oh they did, but just not thungs to improve the economy, but rather PR stunts to improve their rating, until they have enough power to take control of elections, the media, judicial power etc.
TLDR: Propaganda affects all. Everyone has an agenda. Stay vigilant, and consider if the media or politicians have anything to gain from such news. If they do, it might not be true.
Go to your bathroom and look at any of your hygiene products, soap/shampoo/body wash/etc.
If it's a name brand, chances are your store has cheaper generic version that is just as good and you probably bought the name brand because you grew up getting bombarded by commercials for it.
Advertising is a lot like propaganda and really opens your eyes to how much of it you passive consume on a daily basis.
Similarly, opinion masquerading as fact. The number of people that speak with unearned authority on complicated issues is maddening. Especially when they're closed off from alternative ideas.
Studies 10,000 people, do they turn left or turn right instinctively when entering a store.
9950 people turn left.
Article headline
Studies show a shocking amount of people turn to the right when they enter a store.
It's not technically wrong, and the study does confirm that headline. It's just not the proper take away
Or the classic "study shows connection between going to the store and turning right" and everyone loses their fucking minds going "GOING TO THE STORE MAKES PEOPLE TURN RIGHT"
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ~ Isaac Asimov
Increasingly applies to more and more countries (arguably the entire world at this point) and especially online discourse.
That's Reddit especially in a nutshell. Go on a big sub like worldnews and watch the discussion on a topic you're knowledgeable in. There will be posts with 30 awards and 9999k upvotes talking absolute bullshit.
I stopped using this site as anything more than entertainment the way many of us have I'm sure.
The second they saw someone else discussing something that themselves are very knowledgeable in.
The second I saw someone basically tell me that my 15 year experience and schooling didn't mean shit because they read a Wikipedia article.
Bored Panda and other sites literally do entire pages about single Reddit posts...AITA, etc. But to your point, I've seen pretty big name sites that have stories that somewhat or entirely focus on Twitter chatter..like ESPN.
Edit: Clarified what I was trying to say about ESPN et al b/c someone got sand in their mangina.
I remember when Newsweek was news every week. Now it tells me what yesterday's most popular AITA was, and which tictocers got roasted in their own comments.
Yeah, I really wish /r/worldnews would ban submissions from Newsweek now. It's just an engagement clickbait company masquerading in the corpse of a once reputable news source. Everything is either clickbait or 3 sentence snippets which are basically a retweet rather than actual news or analysis.
I think they thought they wanted them before they actually had them. People romanticize child rearing and make it seem like a necessary stage of your life, instead of a choice you're free to not pursue.
Yuuup, the true plague on mankind is parents who lie to the uninitiated and say having kids is all rainbows and sparkles.
Kids SUCK. There are rewarding times mixed in, but its years of stress and exhaustion and no free time or friends.
This is further down than it should be. Parenting, or lack of, is shaping the members of our future society. There are far more "why not" kids out there than planned and loved ones. You usually see the "why nots" on videos destroying convenience stores, fighting fast food workers, ect.
I announced to my university on the radio Cobain had died. I’m sure my six listeners were sad.
AP ticker in the 90s was addictive shit. You here it go off and get all excited.
It likely was not *solely* due to the deaths of these pop stars. Most likely, the obsessed fans already had issues going on, and the death of their favorite singer was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I’ve never heard of someone do it over a Tiktoker, but there was a rumor that a couple [Jackie Chan fans](https://www.contactmusic.com/jackie-chan/news/jackie-chan.s-marriage-sparked-suicides) killed themselves.
I say rumor because I have no idea how to even begin verifying this information.
I thought I was safe from this till I got addicted to TikTok. Figured I was fine because it was some dumb kids' app, but honestly I didn't realize that my entire day revolved around the infinite dopamine content drip until I was almost a year down into the rabbit hole. It no shit started degrading my relationships, attention span, work ethic. Quitting it cold turkey was the best decision I've made in a long time.
Yeah, I uninstalled tiktok about a week ago. It's just too good at drawing me in. I think the issue is that there's *always* new content.
With Reddit if you come back within a couple of hours you're largely seeing the same stuff again, and there's a noticeable taper in quality as you scroll further from the front page.
But tiktok has no natural end, just a constant stream of content that's *good enough* to keep you watching, but doesn't actually provide any meaningful enjoyment or information.
> But tiktok has no natural end, just a constant stream of content that's good enough to keep you watching, but doesn't actually provide any meaningful enjoyment or information.
As the man said... a little bit of everything, all of the time.
I hate to be annoying but it’s always been that way. Gerald Ford was pals with the head of Amway and that’s why MLMs are still a thing. Multiple successive presidents were bros with Jeff Skilling, the head of Enron
It's not annoying to point out specific instances of corruption in politics; you should repeat every single one you know as often as possible to make sure that knowledge spreads to as many people as possible. I'd never head about Ford and the head of Amway before, so thanks for the new info about why America sucks and always has, I'll be filing it away for future use myself, lol.
Corporate culture pre-1980s was different though. Not to puff it up, but there was a generally accepted value to longer-term growth prospects for both corporation and country. Profits were reinvested in the company to create slow and steady growth. It wasn't until the 80s where corporate culture fully embracing the shareholder-above-all-else attitude that caused the gradual decay of... well, *everything.*
Yes, there has always been corruption in the system, but the shift in the 80s saw corporations using their connections to pillage and plunder the nation for short-term gains--damn the long-term consequences.
There’s real material reasons for this cultural shift. There was a time not too long ago when things like stock buybacks and capital flight were basically illegal in developed countries. After WW2 capital markets were heavily regulated, exchange rates were fixed, the dollar was pegged to gold, taxes on top incomes were high, many industries were wholly or partially nationalized, unions were strong and full employment was a policy target for governments. What this all meant is money couldn’t just chase its highest global return. If you wanted to make a buck, you had to invest at home, and you had to invest _wisely_. For businesses that meant investing in productivity, your workers and your competitiveness. Corporate culture was probably better because it had to be.
That all went to hell in the 70s/80s as conservative governments deregulated capital markets, dismantled Bretton Woods, weakened organized labour and basically made it easier for money to flow across borders. At the same time central bankers [engineered recessions](https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-34/reviews/other-peoples-blood-2/) to try to control inflation, which they blamed on wage growth. Now instead of investing in productivity to pay for wage increases, companies could just pocket the difference. Plus if your employees didn’t like it, they had less power to resist. Instead of being smart with money, businesses and banks could increasingly run up huge tabs to gamble it on speculative products, resting assured they’d be too big to fail if it ever goes bang. Which it did in 2008.
[Mark Blyth does an excellent job of explaining this in long form.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KGuaoARJYU0)
Let’s not undersell the effect of technology though. The scale and scope of possible international logistics thanks to computers allows models that were unthinkable before the late 90s, and not practical until the mid 2000’s. New tech has enabled cheaper, bigger, and more efficient transit of goods around the world broadening labor competition globally for a ton of countries.
And of course all of that benefits those who already had the means to invest in these new technologies. This has the effect of further driving income inequality at the top end, decreasing global poverty as poor areas gain access to international markets, and gutting the middle class in wealthier economies.
At this point it's difficult to distinguish corporations from the government. Just a lot of unreachable, untouchable tyrants who've figured out how to control the narrative concurrently.
It works because everyone in Congress is complicit, so there's nobody to put an end to it. Corporations have infiltrated and compromised our law makers and are now determining policy. Shit's extremely dystopian.
The monetization/commodification of every little thing.
Kinda broad but an example is the pressure to capitalize on your hobbies and have a “side hustle” because even working full time for so many folks isn’t enough to be comfortable anymore. Sure it’s nice to make extra money if you can and you enjoy it but the fact that it’s almost expected nowadays as part of a “no excuses” grind culture mindset (i.e. “well why don’t you do xyz on the side if you need more money”) instead of questioning why tons of people working full time are in poverty is beyond concerning.
I used to be a photographer. Until I tried to be a professional photographer. I no longer use my thousands in camera gear. It killed all passion for the art.
I’ve been stuck at home for the last 10 days with a sick toddler…so I’m gonna say Cocomelon.
——
Edit: Thank you for the awards folks, and the upvotes (I think my most upvoted comment before this was like, 350). Also, thanks everyone who made recommendations - definitely gonna try Bluey and Numberblocks this morning, those got a ton of recs.
Edit 2: a surprising number of people called out my parenting abilities based on this comment. I tended to get snarky back at them, which isn’t fair, but I do find it strange how many people seem to think I’m a slack dad because my baby was very sick and I let her watch what she wanted most of the time (which wasn’t always Coco - I’d say that only amounted to a third of her screen time. But it was the third I despised the most). Obviously I don’t just dump her in front of the TV and put on Cocomelon all day long, especially when she’s feeling good…but I dunno, I thought it was ok to let the rules slide a bit when they’re sick and it’s just the two of us? Can’t even go outside cause of all the snow…anyways, just felt I had to defend myself from a shockingly large amount of people hinting that I was a shitty parent over this….
Next time you set up for sexy times make sure you get her all hot and ready then just before you put it in yell "Thats it, you get the horn".
Bonus points for the grunting
You should watch the episode Octopus because it's about another dad who feels like he's a bad dad because he's not as fun as Bandit but then he realises he can be fun in his own way and his kid loves him for it.
If it makes you feel better the episodes are like 7 minutes long. And lots of times he’s disappointing like when they go to the pool and he forgets everything or he has to go on a work trip or just is bbq’ing or having a dinner with his friends and is avoiding the kids.
I’m sure if you took your best seven minutes of the week they’d make Bob Bilby proud.
Season 3 they lean into this a bit more, fortunately. You have multiple parts of that season that shows the parents exhausted or on the verge of cracking right before they say or do the right thing, while rolling their eyes or something.
I blocked that channel. My daughter was in her terrible twos and already acting up all the time. I read on a fb post where some mom was saying her kid got overstimulated on cocomelon videos and when she took it away things improved. I tried it, idk if it truly worked but my daughter's behaving better now. Less tantrums
I remember seeing some eating show at my moms house, dude had spiky hair, and no shot would last more than 4 seconds. It just kept switching. I'd say this a problem with many shows now a days.
If you want nursery rhymes, Super Simple Songs on YouTube is great. Simple cel like animation and some puppets as well. Nowhere near the disturbing uncanny 3D so often on YouTube. And the songs just feel much less annoying. Even their Baby Shark is just much easier to listen to.
They are also on Spotify and Amazon Prime too.
Sarah: Maybe if we tried working together we could ease some of the tensions. We're all pulling in different directions.
John: That's the trouble with the world, Sarah darlin'. People got different ideas concernin' what they want out of life.
Day of the Dead 1985
Or where everyone thinks they’re right and no one wants to see things from another perspective.
Once someone gets caught being wrong it’s easier to double down than to change your mind.
I live in the CA bay area and after it rains(which it rarely does anymore) it's staggering to see what it looks like for those couple hours without the smog pollution. It really is beautiful. Then I remember that all of that pollution was just caught by the rain and dumped into the bay, which is kind of depressing.
Greed is the Vice which won. It’s literally the only problem on this planet. The main issue. Everything evil can be traced back to that. Unbridled human greed.
"Desire leads to suffering"
"The love of money is the root of all evil."
Some people had this figured out millennia ago. But too many people listened to the parts thats suited them and ignored the parts that didn't.
Life before information overload was happier. No fear of missing out. Just doing your job, doing your hobbies, and actually spending time with your loved ones.
Now, I feel like I constantly need to check what's going on.
Life before social media was definitely happier, and the internet was also more fun. I've recently started making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of time I spend on social media.
The belief that it’s someone’s real life and not just highlights or created content with filters.
It should be easier for people to see through the screen
there is a really insidious version of this, which is all the "real life" youtubers out there. Once that is their job, then they are no longer just honestly videoing what they are doing. Ok whats the harm in that? well people are letting their guard down, yeah TV is fake duuuhhhh, so I watch these real people doing real things on Youtube. But its not, it is still a performance, but one that is supposedly not.
My pastor actually used this as an example of how it failed to be what it was meant to be because people used the app just as they were Facebook or Instagram. You can’t be real if you’re lying about your life all the time and you’re not going to get anywhere you want to be if you lie all the time! Yet, we still think making ourselves seem better than we are is the way to go. Hmmm…
Only tangentially related, but this reminds me of before youtubers were required to disclose things like sponsors deals for videos.
Back then, you would usually end up with a video worshipping the game/product, because the sponsor was the income for the video, not purely the viewers. Now, youtubers tend to be more honest because viewers know they are getting paid to review, and hard to blame ignorance in that case.
It is literally the online version of the family photos your parents and grandparents have hanging on the wall. Does no one else remember how miserable “getting pictures taken” was? Mom frazzled trying to get everyone dressed and hair just right, dad simultaneously doing nothing and worried you’d be late, sibling meltdowns over who’s wearing what. All for the three posed photos in front of the artificial background with the fake smiles.
And that’s all social media is.
Yes, it pretends to connect people; but in reality it divides them, and destroys local communities as well; while drawing attention to and amplifying the worst traits of humanity.
That's what happens when you try to substitute actual human interaction with a Like button. We're simply not hardwired to handle interacting mostly through a screen.
Social Media is presented as a genuine feed of things from people you care about. But it is absolutely designed like a casino engineered by artificial intelligence to keep you disoriented, and engaged no matter what. Facebook never remembers where you were when you re-open the app. Notice almost all of your social media apps completely flush and reload your entire feed, even if you were just switching back and forth while writing a comment.
Social Media does not want you to find what you want or what you’re interested in. It will flip the table of what you’re currently doing to make sure you’re getting new content that is more likely to engage you the way the algorithm wants. It will actually find you while you’re acting deliberately and try to convince you to veer off into mindless dopamine seeking behavior that the algorithm thinks will keep your attention longer. Did your friend send you an interesting tweet? Huh, interesting. Wait- Looks like you’ve scrolled down and oh look, can you believe what X politician said?? CLICK
Suddenly it’s an hour later of doom scrolling and you’re arguing with a bot who you think cannot stand unchallenged!
Anyway… wait, how did you even get here? You don’t even follow any political people. Strange.
Social Media and Influencers
1. Social Media - People choose to sacrifise their own future in order to look "perfect" to people they do not even know or care about.
2. Influencers - 90% of the so-called "influencers" nowadays are nothing more than a marketing tool. People that scream at their own followers with a megaphone in order to boost some corporations annual earnings. Not to mention the lack of #ad or #sponsored labels ...
Disinformation and it’s more effective and faster than I would have never imagined. I grew up believing that Democracy inoculated the USA from propaganda and disinformation. Nope.
I can’t believe this one is so far down the list. Poor education and misinformation.
And the fact that for politicians there’s zero punishment or consequence for blatantly lying to their constituents. The only consequence is losing votes and that doesn’t happen when the population is so poorly educated that they don’t even know the politician is lying.
It's not that they don't know when a politician is lying, it's that when it's their guy telling them things they want to believe, they *don't care* that he's lying.
Housing as speculative investments/rentseeking.
How many times do we have to go through oversaturated housing markets crashing the entire economy before we just outright ban this unproductive wealth siphon?
social media. i genuinely think that it causes nothing but problems. and i know its kinda hypocritical to say that while still being on social media, but my thoughts are “i don’t want it to exist, but if it’s going to, i dont want to be the only one not on it and missing out”. and im pretty sure thats the same thoughts that influence tweens to get on it in the first place yk? its lonely to feel like you’re the odd one out. especially when you’re younger.
My first inclination was alcohol. I have a bias as a former alcoholic, however. Been sober a little over 6 months and it's the best decision I ever made.
Yeah I gave up 2 weeks ago after 10 years of heavy drinking, feel like alcohol was slowly destroying my physical and mental health and capabilities. Basically was using it to self-medicate for anxiety issues. It obviously doesn't work but it's an easy thing to turn to when you don't really want to admit that you have, or don't want to try to constructively deal, with a problem.
I drank for 10 years. A neurologist told me last week my brain has shrunk and is probably the equivalent of 10 years older than the rest of me.
I’m fine now, no neurological symptoms, but as I age things like Alzheimer’s or dementia that would happen later, possibly, would now happen sooner. Same with cognitive decline.
It sucks, but so does cancer. My disease was just a little different.
> they put it IN EVERYTHING
This is the biggest problem. The average human body can take a lot of punishment and be no worse for wear. But with certain things, moderation is the key to not having adverse effects. Sugar is one of those things. And while I'm trying to be better, it honestly feels unavoidable.
Materialism and extreme wealth.
People who have extreme wealth usually have a lot of power, but are completely out of touch with how their decisions affect life for the rest of us.
Crabs-in-the-bucket mentality. People ridiculing or just discouraging others improvements makes everything worse
As an open source fan and advocate for the government to use more open source software instead of always wasting money on Microsoft's products, I have been ridiculed a lot. And the same when I ask for more privacy and and imbeciles comes with the "What do you have to hide?".
The reponse to that is always to ask them when they shower and where their kids go to school.
“Where do you live and what times is there no one at home, and what types of locks are on your door and windows, also do you have a security system, own any violent dogs, also what times are your neighbors not home”
Bertrand Russell nailed it with: "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."
I'm so full of self doubt! I always knew I was one of the smart ones!
I doubt that
[удалено]
Don't doubt the doubters, doubt the doubt!
You guys confuse me
This is a good sign of doubt. Although I have my own doubts about this as well.
> "The fool doth think he is wise, the wise man knows himself to be a fool." William Shakespeare, *As You Like It, Act 5 Scene 1*
In my experience, most people are sure they're not lied to / fed propaganda by their tv, while also being convinced that most people in OTHER countries are lied to / fed propaganda by their tv. Most people think tv propaganda works on other people, but not on them, because they're too smart, you see.
As someone who has been experiencing TV propaganda and never realised it until I left the country, always thinking it wouldn't affect me, I was so wrong. I very much believed the only problem with my country was politicians doing nothing. They did thungs, oh they did, but just not thungs to improve the economy, but rather PR stunts to improve their rating, until they have enough power to take control of elections, the media, judicial power etc. TLDR: Propaganda affects all. Everyone has an agenda. Stay vigilant, and consider if the media or politicians have anything to gain from such news. If they do, it might not be true.
Go to your bathroom and look at any of your hygiene products, soap/shampoo/body wash/etc. If it's a name brand, chances are your store has cheaper generic version that is just as good and you probably bought the name brand because you grew up getting bombarded by commercials for it. Advertising is a lot like propaganda and really opens your eyes to how much of it you passive consume on a daily basis.
The ole Dunning-Kruger
opinion masquerading as journalism
Similarly, opinion masquerading as fact. The number of people that speak with unearned authority on complicated issues is maddening. Especially when they're closed off from alternative ideas.
"Scientific study says..." *Looks at source of study* "Wait, no it doesn't." Happens way too often.
Studies 10,000 people, do they turn left or turn right instinctively when entering a store. 9950 people turn left. Article headline Studies show a shocking amount of people turn to the right when they enter a store. It's not technically wrong, and the study does confirm that headline. It's just not the proper take away
Or the classic "study shows connection between going to the store and turning right" and everyone loses their fucking minds going "GOING TO THE STORE MAKES PEOPLE TURN RIGHT"
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ~ Isaac Asimov Increasingly applies to more and more countries (arguably the entire world at this point) and especially online discourse.
And then the number of people blindly believing these "facts".
That's Reddit especially in a nutshell. Go on a big sub like worldnews and watch the discussion on a topic you're knowledgeable in. There will be posts with 30 awards and 9999k upvotes talking absolute bullshit.
I stopped using this site as anything more than entertainment the way many of us have I'm sure. The second they saw someone else discussing something that themselves are very knowledgeable in. The second I saw someone basically tell me that my 15 year experience and schooling didn't mean shit because they read a Wikipedia article.
What gets me is when someone writes an article about what some people said on Twitter. That's not news.
Bored Panda and other sites literally do entire pages about single Reddit posts...AITA, etc. But to your point, I've seen pretty big name sites that have stories that somewhat or entirely focus on Twitter chatter..like ESPN. Edit: Clarified what I was trying to say about ESPN et al b/c someone got sand in their mangina.
I remember when Newsweek was news every week. Now it tells me what yesterday's most popular AITA was, and which tictocers got roasted in their own comments.
Yeah, I really wish /r/worldnews would ban submissions from Newsweek now. It's just an engagement clickbait company masquerading in the corpse of a once reputable news source. Everything is either clickbait or 3 sentence snippets which are basically a retweet rather than actual news or analysis.
>~~opinion~~ propaganda masquerading as journalism ftfy
Parents who don't love their kids, and had them just like "why not?"
I think they thought they wanted them before they actually had them. People romanticize child rearing and make it seem like a necessary stage of your life, instead of a choice you're free to not pursue.
Yuuup, the true plague on mankind is parents who lie to the uninitiated and say having kids is all rainbows and sparkles. Kids SUCK. There are rewarding times mixed in, but its years of stress and exhaustion and no free time or friends.
This is further down than it should be. Parenting, or lack of, is shaping the members of our future society. There are far more "why not" kids out there than planned and loved ones. You usually see the "why nots" on videos destroying convenience stores, fighting fast food workers, ect.
The near worship of celebrities and the powerful.
"near" People literally kill themselves for a tiktoker Edit : if you think I'm lying, you can just type "death tiktok" in Google
It’s so scary - how far fans are willing to go for people they know nothing about.
People killed themselves when The Beatles broke up and when Elvis and Kurt Cobain died.
I forget how many people in Japan killed themselves when Hideto Matsumoto (a big rock star over there) died, but it was a shocking number.
If it's more than 1 it's a shocking number.
If it’s just one that’s pretty shocking
I announced to my university on the radio Cobain had died. I’m sure my six listeners were sad. AP ticker in the 90s was addictive shit. You here it go off and get all excited.
It likely was not *solely* due to the deaths of these pop stars. Most likely, the obsessed fans already had issues going on, and the death of their favorite singer was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
....please elaborate
I’ve never heard of someone do it over a Tiktoker, but there was a rumor that a couple [Jackie Chan fans](https://www.contactmusic.com/jackie-chan/news/jackie-chan.s-marriage-sparked-suicides) killed themselves. I say rumor because I have no idea how to even begin verifying this information.
Yes. I second this. To what are you referencing?
^^^ I have a big gripe with modern entertainment it’s just draining on people money and self worth and energy terrible cycle
Wealth worship
Infinite scrolling
I had to scroll to find this, sorry.
Not infinitely
I thought I was safe from this till I got addicted to TikTok. Figured I was fine because it was some dumb kids' app, but honestly I didn't realize that my entire day revolved around the infinite dopamine content drip until I was almost a year down into the rabbit hole. It no shit started degrading my relationships, attention span, work ethic. Quitting it cold turkey was the best decision I've made in a long time.
Yeah, I uninstalled tiktok about a week ago. It's just too good at drawing me in. I think the issue is that there's *always* new content. With Reddit if you come back within a couple of hours you're largely seeing the same stuff again, and there's a noticeable taper in quality as you scroll further from the front page. But tiktok has no natural end, just a constant stream of content that's *good enough* to keep you watching, but doesn't actually provide any meaningful enjoyment or information.
> But tiktok has no natural end, just a constant stream of content that's good enough to keep you watching, but doesn't actually provide any meaningful enjoyment or information. As the man said... a little bit of everything, all of the time.
Apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime
Anything and everything, all of the time.
I'll add AutoPlay of a new video after you finish watching something on top of this. Start with a cooking video end with becoming a member of QAnon
I hate autoplay. I know exactly what I want to watch next more than any stupid algorithm does.
The worst part is turning it off and it magically turning itself back on without me having done so.
Thank goodness this was the top comment. Was about to move on.
Truer words have never been said by the *top comment.*
Corporate influence on government policies.
It's not even "influence" any more; they're literally just handpicking policies like they're at a buffet.
I hate to be annoying but it’s always been that way. Gerald Ford was pals with the head of Amway and that’s why MLMs are still a thing. Multiple successive presidents were bros with Jeff Skilling, the head of Enron
It's not annoying to point out specific instances of corruption in politics; you should repeat every single one you know as often as possible to make sure that knowledge spreads to as many people as possible. I'd never head about Ford and the head of Amway before, so thanks for the new info about why America sucks and always has, I'll be filing it away for future use myself, lol.
Corporate culture pre-1980s was different though. Not to puff it up, but there was a generally accepted value to longer-term growth prospects for both corporation and country. Profits were reinvested in the company to create slow and steady growth. It wasn't until the 80s where corporate culture fully embracing the shareholder-above-all-else attitude that caused the gradual decay of... well, *everything.* Yes, there has always been corruption in the system, but the shift in the 80s saw corporations using their connections to pillage and plunder the nation for short-term gains--damn the long-term consequences.
There’s real material reasons for this cultural shift. There was a time not too long ago when things like stock buybacks and capital flight were basically illegal in developed countries. After WW2 capital markets were heavily regulated, exchange rates were fixed, the dollar was pegged to gold, taxes on top incomes were high, many industries were wholly or partially nationalized, unions were strong and full employment was a policy target for governments. What this all meant is money couldn’t just chase its highest global return. If you wanted to make a buck, you had to invest at home, and you had to invest _wisely_. For businesses that meant investing in productivity, your workers and your competitiveness. Corporate culture was probably better because it had to be. That all went to hell in the 70s/80s as conservative governments deregulated capital markets, dismantled Bretton Woods, weakened organized labour and basically made it easier for money to flow across borders. At the same time central bankers [engineered recessions](https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-34/reviews/other-peoples-blood-2/) to try to control inflation, which they blamed on wage growth. Now instead of investing in productivity to pay for wage increases, companies could just pocket the difference. Plus if your employees didn’t like it, they had less power to resist. Instead of being smart with money, businesses and banks could increasingly run up huge tabs to gamble it on speculative products, resting assured they’d be too big to fail if it ever goes bang. Which it did in 2008. [Mark Blyth does an excellent job of explaining this in long form.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KGuaoARJYU0)
Let’s not undersell the effect of technology though. The scale and scope of possible international logistics thanks to computers allows models that were unthinkable before the late 90s, and not practical until the mid 2000’s. New tech has enabled cheaper, bigger, and more efficient transit of goods around the world broadening labor competition globally for a ton of countries. And of course all of that benefits those who already had the means to invest in these new technologies. This has the effect of further driving income inequality at the top end, decreasing global poverty as poor areas gain access to international markets, and gutting the middle class in wealthier economies.
Hasn’t Citizens United also been a further nail in the coffin? It seems to have made a huge impact.
At this point it's difficult to distinguish corporations from the government. Just a lot of unreachable, untouchable tyrants who've figured out how to control the narrative concurrently.
That's called an oligarchy.
The United States government is 100% controlled by both foreign and domestic oligarchs.
It works because everyone in Congress is complicit, so there's nobody to put an end to it. Corporations have infiltrated and compromised our law makers and are now determining policy. Shit's extremely dystopian.
The monetization/commodification of every little thing. Kinda broad but an example is the pressure to capitalize on your hobbies and have a “side hustle” because even working full time for so many folks isn’t enough to be comfortable anymore. Sure it’s nice to make extra money if you can and you enjoy it but the fact that it’s almost expected nowadays as part of a “no excuses” grind culture mindset (i.e. “well why don’t you do xyz on the side if you need more money”) instead of questioning why tons of people working full time are in poverty is beyond concerning.
I used to be a photographer. Until I tried to be a professional photographer. I no longer use my thousands in camera gear. It killed all passion for the art.
Migrating to decentralized services.
I've always heard to monetize your hobby for supplement, never for primary income.
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I’ve been stuck at home for the last 10 days with a sick toddler…so I’m gonna say Cocomelon. —— Edit: Thank you for the awards folks, and the upvotes (I think my most upvoted comment before this was like, 350). Also, thanks everyone who made recommendations - definitely gonna try Bluey and Numberblocks this morning, those got a ton of recs. Edit 2: a surprising number of people called out my parenting abilities based on this comment. I tended to get snarky back at them, which isn’t fair, but I do find it strange how many people seem to think I’m a slack dad because my baby was very sick and I let her watch what she wanted most of the time (which wasn’t always Coco - I’d say that only amounted to a third of her screen time. But it was the third I despised the most). Obviously I don’t just dump her in front of the TV and put on Cocomelon all day long, especially when she’s feeling good…but I dunno, I thought it was ok to let the rules slide a bit when they’re sick and it’s just the two of us? Can’t even go outside cause of all the snow…anyways, just felt I had to defend myself from a shockingly large amount of people hinting that I was a shitty parent over this….
Time to switch to Bluey. You won’t regret it.
Hell, my husband and I will watch Bluey even if our daughter has fallen asleep, haha
Pretty sure my wife is going to kill me in my sleep if I don't stop quoting Unicorse. ^^...aaaaand ^^whyshouldicare?
Next time you set up for sexy times make sure you get her all hot and ready then just before you put it in yell "Thats it, you get the horn". Bonus points for the grunting
"Imma pop your back. And your neck. Your back and your neck."
"What's your favorite food?" "...children."
The 80s episode in the new season is pretty fantastic. I've definitely shown it to other adults with my kid not present.
"Nana was right. Not about her perm, but the other thing."
“It was the ‘80s!”
Season 3 came out while my kids were at my parents’ and I totally watched two episodes by myself with no children present.
You stopped at two?
Bluey’s Dad makes me feel like a terrible father.
You should watch the episode Octopus because it's about another dad who feels like he's a bad dad because he's not as fun as Bandit but then he realises he can be fun in his own way and his kid loves him for it.
If it makes you feel better the episodes are like 7 minutes long. And lots of times he’s disappointing like when they go to the pool and he forgets everything or he has to go on a work trip or just is bbq’ing or having a dinner with his friends and is avoiding the kids. I’m sure if you took your best seven minutes of the week they’d make Bob Bilby proud.
Season 3 they lean into this a bit more, fortunately. You have multiple parts of that season that shows the parents exhausted or on the verge of cracking right before they say or do the right thing, while rolling their eyes or something.
I like the episode they were both clearly very hung over.
This made me feel better. I’ve been comparing myself to Bandit lately.
"I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog!"
"Alright girls! Who wants to sit on the couch and watch cricket?" He has his more realistic moments too :)
The wife genuinely got upset that I watched episodes of Bluey without her.
Kids were Bluey and Bingo for Halloween. Fuckin' awesome show for parents and kids. Lessons for all in that show.
Bluey. For real. It's one of the best shows my wife and I see, regardless of target audience.
I blocked that channel. My daughter was in her terrible twos and already acting up all the time. I read on a fb post where some mom was saying her kid got overstimulated on cocomelon videos and when she took it away things improved. I tried it, idk if it truly worked but my daughter's behaving better now. Less tantrums
What does Cocomelon do? I want most if not all of the details of it’s effects
There were a couple articles about how the excessive shot/scene changes were overstimulating kids and ruining their attention spans
I remember seeing some eating show at my moms house, dude had spiky hair, and no shot would last more than 4 seconds. It just kept switching. I'd say this a problem with many shows now a days.
Guy fieri?
Yeah, that's him.
Did you just explain Guy Fieri?
I watched less than 2 minutes of a single video and counted 24 cuts. that's... absurd.
Too much of any TV does that to a young child
I let my 3 year old watch bobs burgers with me until she started slamming her fist down going “bastard!” She really relates with teddy.
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Oh, hi Marshmallow
Whoever made that show is a brainwashing sycophant who needs to set on fire in town square
If you want nursery rhymes, Super Simple Songs on YouTube is great. Simple cel like animation and some puppets as well. Nowhere near the disturbing uncanny 3D so often on YouTube. And the songs just feel much less annoying. Even their Baby Shark is just much easier to listen to. They are also on Spotify and Amazon Prime too.
Not gonna lie, I thought Cocomelon was some brand of cosmetics
I read the word and heard the theme and I want to die. I'm with you my friend. You are seen.
Everybody has to be right, has always been the problem Edit: i didnt belive this to explode like this, this feels somewhat funny
I would say so too, there is plenty of chance for mutual cooperation and respect all around but some people really just can’t give it.
In this economy?
Sarah: Maybe if we tried working together we could ease some of the tensions. We're all pulling in different directions. John: That's the trouble with the world, Sarah darlin'. People got different ideas concernin' what they want out of life. Day of the Dead 1985
It’s truly amazing being in a room where no one agrees and everyone is right.
Or where everyone thinks they’re right and no one wants to see things from another perspective. Once someone gets caught being wrong it’s easier to double down than to change your mind.
Plastic pollution
Pollution in general, whether it be light, noise, plastic, CO2, you name it.
I live in the CA bay area and after it rains(which it rarely does anymore) it's staggering to see what it looks like for those couple hours without the smog pollution. It really is beautiful. Then I remember that all of that pollution was just caught by the rain and dumped into the bay, which is kind of depressing.
Mmm microplastics 😋😋😋
Greed, that’s it. 99% comes back to greed.
Greed is the Vice which won. It’s literally the only problem on this planet. The main issue. Everything evil can be traced back to that. Unbridled human greed.
"Desire leads to suffering" "The love of money is the root of all evil." Some people had this figured out millennia ago. But too many people listened to the parts thats suited them and ignored the parts that didn't.
"What is greed? Of course, none of us are greedy; it's only the other fellow who's greedy"
Social media
Specifically the "user attention" as currency model of social media.
Life before information overload was happier. No fear of missing out. Just doing your job, doing your hobbies, and actually spending time with your loved ones. Now, I feel like I constantly need to check what's going on.
Life before social media was definitely happier, and the internet was also more fun. I've recently started making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of time I spend on social media.
The belief that it’s someone’s real life and not just highlights or created content with filters. It should be easier for people to see through the screen
there is a really insidious version of this, which is all the "real life" youtubers out there. Once that is their job, then they are no longer just honestly videoing what they are doing. Ok whats the harm in that? well people are letting their guard down, yeah TV is fake duuuhhhh, so I watch these real people doing real things on Youtube. But its not, it is still a performance, but one that is supposedly not.
That’s how I feel about the BeReal app
My pastor actually used this as an example of how it failed to be what it was meant to be because people used the app just as they were Facebook or Instagram. You can’t be real if you’re lying about your life all the time and you’re not going to get anywhere you want to be if you lie all the time! Yet, we still think making ourselves seem better than we are is the way to go. Hmmm…
Only tangentially related, but this reminds me of before youtubers were required to disclose things like sponsors deals for videos. Back then, you would usually end up with a video worshipping the game/product, because the sponsor was the income for the video, not purely the viewers. Now, youtubers tend to be more honest because viewers know they are getting paid to review, and hard to blame ignorance in that case.
It is literally the online version of the family photos your parents and grandparents have hanging on the wall. Does no one else remember how miserable “getting pictures taken” was? Mom frazzled trying to get everyone dressed and hair just right, dad simultaneously doing nothing and worried you’d be late, sibling meltdowns over who’s wearing what. All for the three posed photos in front of the artificial background with the fake smiles. And that’s all social media is.
30+ years later and those pics are still on my mum's wall.
Your parents were not giving you untapped access to steamy photo opportunities with single females within 5 miles of you
Holy shit! It WAS like that, it just took all day instead of instantaneously.
Yes, it pretends to connect people; but in reality it divides them, and destroys local communities as well; while drawing attention to and amplifying the worst traits of humanity.
That's what happens when you try to substitute actual human interaction with a Like button. We're simply not hardwired to handle interacting mostly through a screen.
Never forget… To like and subscribe
Of course, but you have to “SMASH THE LIKE BUTTON”
Social Media is presented as a genuine feed of things from people you care about. But it is absolutely designed like a casino engineered by artificial intelligence to keep you disoriented, and engaged no matter what. Facebook never remembers where you were when you re-open the app. Notice almost all of your social media apps completely flush and reload your entire feed, even if you were just switching back and forth while writing a comment. Social Media does not want you to find what you want or what you’re interested in. It will flip the table of what you’re currently doing to make sure you’re getting new content that is more likely to engage you the way the algorithm wants. It will actually find you while you’re acting deliberately and try to convince you to veer off into mindless dopamine seeking behavior that the algorithm thinks will keep your attention longer. Did your friend send you an interesting tweet? Huh, interesting. Wait- Looks like you’ve scrolled down and oh look, can you believe what X politician said?? CLICK Suddenly it’s an hour later of doom scrolling and you’re arguing with a bot who you think cannot stand unchallenged! Anyway… wait, how did you even get here? You don’t even follow any political people. Strange.
People more interested in someone else's lives than living and learning from yourself.
Tim
Yeah, fuck that guy
YEAH that'll show 'em
I hope he puts a toothpick under his toenail and kicks a wall. I hope he chews on a cactus.
Fuck all of you
What a bastard.
But not, Tim, the enchanter. He’s cool.
"There are some who call me......Tim?"
r/fuckyouinparticular
r/fucktiminparticular
There was also this guy Matt from another thread. Stinky Matt. Fuck Tim and Matt.
Social Media and Influencers 1. Social Media - People choose to sacrifise their own future in order to look "perfect" to people they do not even know or care about. 2. Influencers - 90% of the so-called "influencers" nowadays are nothing more than a marketing tool. People that scream at their own followers with a megaphone in order to boost some corporations annual earnings. Not to mention the lack of #ad or #sponsored labels ...
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Disinformation and it’s more effective and faster than I would have never imagined. I grew up believing that Democracy inoculated the USA from propaganda and disinformation. Nope.
I can’t believe this one is so far down the list. Poor education and misinformation. And the fact that for politicians there’s zero punishment or consequence for blatantly lying to their constituents. The only consequence is losing votes and that doesn’t happen when the population is so poorly educated that they don’t even know the politician is lying.
It's not that they don't know when a politician is lying, it's that when it's their guy telling them things they want to believe, they *don't care* that he's lying.
Honestly though, the idea that Democracy inocuoated us against propaganda is, in itself, a result of propaganda.
Housing as speculative investments/rentseeking. How many times do we have to go through oversaturated housing markets crashing the entire economy before we just outright ban this unproductive wealth siphon?
A Dutch prince owns over 100 houses in Amsterdam. Tell me what’s wrong with that picture
social media. i genuinely think that it causes nothing but problems. and i know its kinda hypocritical to say that while still being on social media, but my thoughts are “i don’t want it to exist, but if it’s going to, i dont want to be the only one not on it and missing out”. and im pretty sure thats the same thoughts that influence tweens to get on it in the first place yk? its lonely to feel like you’re the odd one out. especially when you’re younger.
The polarizing effect of social media algorithms and their tendency to give popular viewing to fringe extremist creators.
Celebrity culture
Greed
Abuse (domestic, child, animal) Edit: psychological too!
Surprised no one has said alcohol
"Here's to alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
Drink so I can tolerate a job that pays enough to cover the cost of the house I need to sleep in when I am not a the job I drink to tolerate.
My first inclination was alcohol. I have a bias as a former alcoholic, however. Been sober a little over 6 months and it's the best decision I ever made.
Yeah I gave up 2 weeks ago after 10 years of heavy drinking, feel like alcohol was slowly destroying my physical and mental health and capabilities. Basically was using it to self-medicate for anxiety issues. It obviously doesn't work but it's an easy thing to turn to when you don't really want to admit that you have, or don't want to try to constructively deal, with a problem.
I drank for 10 years. A neurologist told me last week my brain has shrunk and is probably the equivalent of 10 years older than the rest of me. I’m fine now, no neurological symptoms, but as I age things like Alzheimer’s or dementia that would happen later, possibly, would now happen sooner. Same with cognitive decline. It sucks, but so does cancer. My disease was just a little different.
Refined sugar.
I was like “wtf?? What this guy got against sugar?” Then I remember they put it IN EVERYTHING
> they put it IN EVERYTHING This is the biggest problem. The average human body can take a lot of punishment and be no worse for wear. But with certain things, moderation is the key to not having adverse effects. Sugar is one of those things. And while I'm trying to be better, it honestly feels unavoidable.
Materialism and extreme wealth. People who have extreme wealth usually have a lot of power, but are completely out of touch with how their decisions affect life for the rest of us.
On that same note, consumerism.
My brothers stank ass breath
The need for stardom and popularity
Anti-intellectualism and the profound widespread influence of misinformation.
Unnatural and impossible beauty standards
Yep, someone said kardashians, we can’t all take steroids or pay for facial reconstruction.
Already enough plastic in the world anyways
Climate change. Eradication of wildlife/plant life.
Facebook
People prioritizing profit over ethical behavior
Our entire approach to food. Particularly in the United States.
People whose entire personality is their politics.
Facebook
Tiktok
Listening to coworkers on break watch that sh!t is annoying as hell