“I don’t use social media and never have.”

So what are they going to do if someone fires back with this? Deny their visa because they didn’t agree to be spied on by a few of the worst companies on planet fucking earth? Is the government going to be able to somehow make me prove that I don’t have social media?

We have the stupidest people in charge right now.

No no no, you see the the issue they have is that a woman is holding the whip. We only want to be oppressed in patriarchal chattel slavery societies, the way the God of Abraham intended!

I also remember it having it when I was a kid. Before Costco had it’s Kirkland brand, they sold Fruit of the Loom underwear with the cornucopia logo, I’m sure of it. I think there was probably a knock-off/counterfeit brand that somehow wormed it’s way into department store/warehouse club supply chains, which is why so many people remember it that way, and also why FotL just denies it because they never discovered the replacement of product. I’d be willing to bet there are some corporate folk out there who could say for certain.

Everyone likes to blame the universe splinter on the Harambe Event, but I like to think we were once living in the Berenstein Bears timeline and something went terribly wrong.

I use only Lemmy. It was easy for me since I pretty much only used Reddit until the mass exodus happened about a year ago and then shortly after they killed the RiF app for Android and I lost the way that I consumed Reddit 95% of the time so I transitioned to using Lemmy full time. I didn’t have much of a choice unless I used PC to access Reddit, which I will still do from time to time for niche subjects, but I avoid posting.

I’ve never had any other “traditional” social media accounts. Call me a hipster, but I thought that shit was lame when people were constantly asking about adding me on MySpace or Facebook and just never bothered to jump on the bandwagon. Eventually, when it came out that those places were cesspools run by unethical hacks I avoided ever signing up intentionally and thanked my lucky stars that I was a grumpy and rebellious contrarian in my youth. I think I was forced to make a Facebook account to use my Oculus VR headset, but I put in as little factual information as I could get away with and never interacted with their terrible algorithm.

Why does the version with the Cornucopia look so much better? If it isn’t their logo, it fuckin’ should be.

I still can’t get over that the dude’s name is actually Burger, and Burger isn’t being used as a mild slur to mean “American” like I’m typically used to seeing in these sort of greentext posts.

Real life is too wacky.

We could go back to the old internet any time we wanted, but people have been supping on the convenience aspect of having everything bundled into easy-to-digest “apps” that they would have to deprogram themselves first and come to understand that finding shit on the old internet used to take work. Small wonder that people hear that X (formerly Twitter) is going to be the “everything app” and like the idea of that. I personally find it horrifying how many people are glued to social media, and meanwhile I’ve never had a Facebook account, never had Twitter, never had TikTok, and I’m still doing just fine.

We let corporations get their sticky fingers on everything, so now everything has to be profitable or it isn’t worth anybody’s time. Even YouTube videos are now all about maximizing engagement, interaction, and viewer retention so that the uploader can collect a paycheck from Google. I don’t give a fuck about whatever excuses they use to justify it, people still made great quality content before YouTube partnered with people for revenue sharing.

If TOR wasn’t so godawfully slow, I’d be using TOR and visiting .onion sites for everything. It perfectly recreates that “old internet” feeling of web design that has function over form and small communities built around niche topics.

Pedophiles and hebephiles are probably having a field day with this new immigration policy. Apparently you can just snatch people off the street while saying the magic words “I’m with law enforcement” and no consequences will come of it.

Would not be surprised to learn down the road that dozens of people have been kidnapped and are being held somewhere other than an El Salvadorian gulag having who knows what done to them.

That’s still the purpose of the second amendment, for people to own guns to defend themselves and others against tyranny

It isn’t, and has never been. The language of the constitution is plain as day:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”

The mythos of the 2nd amendment being this poison pill for a tyrannical state government is only so pervasive because institutions like the NRA perpetuated it for decades in service of arms manufacturers and their bottom line. No sane government anywhere in the world would bake such a clause into their constitution, it’s antithetical to government itself.

The 2nd amendment is absolutely an artifact of a bygone era of American history where, as a fledgling nation, we did not have a powerful standing army to rely on for defense against foreign adversaries. A people’s militia was the final defense against such a threat.

However, all that being said, I agree with your sentiment that leftists should be arming themselves. Just because the 2nd amendment has almost completely lost it’s original intent or meaning, doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of the fact that it exists with tons of legal precedent to strap up in preparation for what might come next. Things are unlikely to get better from here, and if things get worse you will be glad you have a firearm for protection.

Former non-water drinker here.

I was addicted to caffeinated/carbonated sodas. I never had any problems drinking almost exclusively diet coke for a long time. My caffeine consumption was well over the FDA recommendation for maximum daily intake.

I would still drink water, especially when doing sports or exercise, but it wasn’t my go-to for hydrating myself throughout the day.

Several times in my life, I quit drinking them, but I would always circle back around to it because I missed the taste more than anything, and I had never noticed any kind of significant health benefit to stopping.

Recently some months ago, I was having some pretty severe bladder issues. Sudden onset urge to urinate. Like going from 0-100 in a racecar, the rapid urgency was the main issue. One minute I was fine and if you asked if I needed to use the bathroom I’d say “Nah”, and then 5 minutes later I’m literally dancing my way to the nearest toilet to just barely make it in time, like literally almost peeing my pants it was that bad.

Went to the doctor about this, obviously, and that was when he told me that the extreme caffeine intake is causing irritation in my bladder and diagnosed me with Overactive Bladder Syndrome. I was instructed to completely cut out caffeine from my regular drinking habits, no tea or sodas, but I could have a cup of coffee in the morning to get me going, although initially I would want to quit cold turkey to purge my system of caffeine and let my bladder settle down. So water it was. Within about a month, I started to feel more regular again and I didn’t need to rush to pee as often and when I did I could hold it for longer periods of time.

Now I pretty much drink only water all the time. I take a big 54oz jug with me to work and refill it towards the end of the work day. I’ll have a cup of coffee now and then in the mornings on weekdays, but I try not to make a habit of it, and I’ll have a sip of a soda at the movies or something, but I don’t even miss the taste of cola anymore. Occasionally I will buy the flavored waters at the grocery store just to get the carbonated experience, but I can’t drink those all the time. Water is great, it just takes forever to get your brain used to the idea that not everything you put in your body needs to have flavor. It’s super refreshing to get the filtered water pitcher right from the fridge, maybe pour it over a glass of ice, and drink it straight that way.

In short, chugging sodas never used to bother me at all, but I guess as I’m getting older my body is just not having that shit anymore. Just like how I can’t eat straight junk food and not gain any weight like when I was a teenager, my metabolism has finally caught up with me on my soda/caffeine addiction and I had to cut that out too. I realize that I am better off now for it and I’m going to try and keep up the good habit I’ve started to form and keep drinking water.

Thx brah

Thank fucking christ. Now hopefully the AI bubble will burst along with it and I don’t have to listen to techbros drone on about how it’s going to replace everything which is definitely something you do not want to happen in a world where we sell our ability to work in exchange for money, goods and services.

The NRA never actually gave a shit about any of that. It was always a front for gun lobbyists to stoke fear so people would stockpile more weaponry that they definitely didn’t need while also promoting the American political faction that would be less likely to pass gun control legislation that would harm their bottom line.

Republicans were just useful idiots. They do not care if Trump is an oppressive tyrant as long as he doesn’t even think about the word gun control. If tomorrow the positions on gun control reversed, you’d see a flip-flop so Orwellian it would make you question your concept of objective reality.

Can ChatGPT actually play chess now? Last I checked, it couldn’t remember more than 5 moves of history so it wouldn’t be able to see the true board state and would make illegal moves, take it’s own pieces, materialize pieces out of thin air, etc.

I see you’ve never met a narcissist before. They are bad enough when you have to interact with them in your daily life, and I feel sorry for people who had to grow up with one as a parent. Letting multiple narcissists be in charge of the government has proven to be one of the worst decisions Americans have ever collectively made.

Fresh wounds always hurt the worst. This sounds like it just happened. You are obviously going to need time to emotionally move on from a failed relationship.

My advice is to distract your brain from the event in the short term. Play with your pets, go see a movie, hang out with your friends, eat some ice cream, focus on your creative hobbies. When this sort of thing happened to me when I was younger, I would flip it around and use my newfound single status as a positive - I can enjoy the foods and activities that I knew my ex-partner didn’t like, I didn’t have to plan my schedule around making time to see them and include them in stuff, and I just generally enjoyed the liberating feeling of being single, even though it still hurt to lose someone so close that I had been so attached to. By the time I started to feel like the feeling of being single was losing it’s appeal, I was emotionally ready to move on and meet new people.

In short, just give it more time. Distract your brain. In time, this too will pass.

It’s 2025. Pawn equality NOW!

Be aware of your surroundings. This is not just a safety thing for yourself, but a courtesy thing for other people.