In case you can’t tell, I’m passionate about rationality and critical thinking.

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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: September 22nd, 2024

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  • “Please don’t call, send a text.” Making a phone call to tell me a thing means I’m more likely to forget it. Having a text say the same thing means having something to refer back to. Add on audio processing issues, where I may mishear what you say, and chances of me remembering drop even more.

    Don’t even get me started on people who call to say one thing, but then make a whole conversation. The important information is going to get washed over by waves of irrelevant chatter. It has a high chance of fading away, like a foot print on beach sand.


  • There’s absolutely a knee-jerk negativity to veganism here.

    The wildest thing is how I’ve come to expect it from people over the years, yet general society seems have been opening their minds more to the idea. I’ve been vegan for over 20 years, but I don’t usually tell people until they get to know me for a while, because I’d rather people get to know me than assume who I am based on stereotypes. I’m neither looking to create drama nor field an impromptu interview (people tend to ask the same questions whenever they learn someone’s vegan. Sometimes I don’t want to talk, I just want to eat my lunch in peace.)

    This past monday, my workplace ordered breakfast for everyone. They included options for a range of dietary restrictions, including vegan, gluten-free, and options free of tree nuts. It was the first time I opened up to these coworkers (I’ve been working with them for a few months), and surprisingly, most people were like, “Oh cool, that’s good to know.” A number of people mentioned being vegetarian or using more plant-based meals lately. One person described herself as an “omnivorous foodie” who is happy to eat anything good, and she even printed out a favorite recipe to give me.

    Maybe it’s just the crowd I work with, but the acceptance was very welcoming. I usually don’t enjoy “potlucks” because it’s a crappy deal for me to cook enough for everyone, but have nobody else cook something I could have. But I think I will cook for the next one, if for nothing else, then to support the people who support me back. (I’ll be sure to make it gluten-free and nut-free as well, because I imagine those with allergies feel left out of potlucks too.)





  • This reminds me of the 100th South Park episode, “I’m a Little Bit Country.” Although the original topic was about the Iraq War (and I’m not looking to unpack that right now), the same point of the episode can apply here - those who want to fight and those who don’t want to fight ultimately need each other. One side provides the action and muscle, while the other side provides the heart and compassion.

    If South Park can find a way to apply that lesson to the US as a whole, there’s no reason leftists can’t support each other the same way. As long as we have the same interests at heart, you can choose to fight or choose to protect your own - society needs people who do both. The only thing we don’t need is the in-fighting that artificially separates us.




  • Maybe get an engineer to make like a pee-troth for women to squat along for peeing en masse

    I think the word you’re looking for is “trough.” I can’t see that working out well for most women. We’d still have to take off our pants and underwear, and asking us to do that in a room full of people is more than many would be comfortable with.

    Besides, it seriously underestimates how many of us are on our periods at any given time. Consider that periods last about a week and occur every month. Not counting those with medications or health conditions that prevent periods, are currently pregnant, or are post-menopausal, that means about 1 in 4 women are actively menstrating at any given time. We’re going to prefer private stalls to take care of such needs. If somebody on their period chose to use such a trough, seeing blood splattered over it would probably discourage the rest of us from using it anyway.

    Yeah, stalls take longer. But they help keep private things, well, private.


  • That’s the way they divide it at the building I trained for my job in (which isn’t a unique facility, it’s just where the training room is located.) Adults there have two bathroom choices - stalls, or urinals and stalls. The stalls are real stalls that actually provide privacy. There’s no gender requirement for either and it works fine for the dozens of people who work and train there. The kids still have gendered rooms, since they are at an abundantly curious age (and some parents have gender requirements for who diapers/potty trains their kids, especially the little girls.) We can honor parents’ wishes for their kids, but as adults we can still choose which grown-up bathroom to use for ourselves.

    As a bonus - there are white noise machines in each bathroom, which helps decrease awkwardness across the board.


  • I can’t help but wonder how much the popularity of reality TV led us to where we are now. I don’t just mean how the US president used to have his own stupid show, but how many people grew up thinking that “watching people create drama” is peak entertainment.

    The same era saw the decline and demise of a number of educational channels and shows. Is it a coincidence? I don’t know. All I know is there are lots of adults who grew up watching “reality” shows who now think politics are just a game to “win” and that when their opponents are upset, it’s amusing. It’s like the concept of empathy or working together don’t even enter their minds. Everything is just for entertainment, no matter how serious it is or how many innocent people get screwed over by it.


  • When an artist is the first to inspire a movement, history tends to look back on them differently. There’s a related trope that covers this phenomenon - “Seinfeld is Unfunny.” From that page:

    There are certain works that you can safely assume most people have enjoyed. These shows were considered fantastic when they were released. Now, however, these have a Hype Backlash curse on them. Whenever we watch them, we’ll cry, “That is so old” or “That is so overdone”.

    The sad irony? It wasn’t old or overdone when they did it, because they were the first ones to do it. But the things it created were so brilliant and popular, they became woven into the fabric of that work’s niche. They ended up being taken for granted, copied, and endlessly repeated. Although they often began by saying something new, they in turn became the new status quo.

    Nirvana is one of the artists mentioned under the “Music” examples on that same page. The point is, they were groundbreaking when they came out, but they changed the music scene so much and have inspired so many similar artists that their original work has become overshadowed by the successors they helped create.

    Your experience is common and it’s okay not to enjoy their music, but the key to remember is that without Nirvana helping to pave the way, other grunge bands may not have risen to the popular level they reached.






  • Back when I vandwelled, I was able to set up a “declaration of domicile” so my legal address was at a mail forwarding center. You can have mail forwarded to a local post office box, or to a different address (if you’re crashing at a friend’s house or something.)

    It’s a useful option when you have to move around a lot, since if you move you don’t have to change your address - just change where your mail gets forwarded to.

    It does require paying for a PO Box, but IMO it’s worth it.

    Though I recommend actually knowing something about the town or city of the forwarding center you use. I once had a job interviewer be from the same town as the one on my license, and had to bullshit as if I actually knew the place (and didn’t merely drive through it on a freeway a couple times.)


  • Some of us heard our own parents use the phrase to dismiss innocent childhood shenanigans. If people have been using it to dismiss assault since the 80s (which is possible, I’m not doubting that), there were still plenty of people through the 90s and 00s that didn’t use it that way.

    What I don’t understand is, if OP wasn’t exposed to that use of the term and/or didn’t realize it at the time (perhaps due to being a child), how does that make them a “shit human being”? Is everyone who doesn’t know everything a “shit human being”? Because if so, I’ve got some bad news.