this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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If it were real facts we'd just call them facts.

If it were real medicine we'd just call it medicine.

If it were real news we'd just call it news.

I'm not saying this rule always works, just sometimes.

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[–] QubaXR@lemmy.world 64 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I think Tim Minchin, in his prime coined the saying: Alternative medicine is either:

  1. Medicine that has not been proven to work Or
  2. Medicine that has been proven not to work You know what they call alternative medicine that's proven to work? "Medicine"
[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Came here to make the Minchin comparison.

[–] dalekcaan@lemm.ee 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Tbf the wording in OP's post suggests it might be intentional.

Side note, anyone who doesn't get the reference, here's an animated version of Tim Minchin's beat poem Storm. It's only about 11 minutes long and very entertaining, especially for anyone who appreciates a scientific approach to the unknown. It's been around for a while but seems more poignant today than ever.

[–] DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 2 points 4 days ago

Always worth watching again.

[–] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 55 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Bullshit für Deutschland

yup it works

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Is that the name of a political party?

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah the German far right one

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah a German far right one.

FTFY. Cause you know there was that other far right German party.

[–] morgunkorn@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It is, it's the far right party in Germany, with many of its members carrying sentences for incitement for racial hatred and public use of nazi quotes/symbols/gestures.

They currently have ~20% of the electorate on their side, and there's an ongoing procedure to declare them illegal (as measures against the emergence of nationalistic movements were enshrined in the constitution post WW2)

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

We need to find an bullshit to fossil fuels and plastic bags. You can’t just ignore these problems, and listen to bullshit rock all day long.

Yep, that works perfectly.

[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 days ago

Sometimes the word alternate should be replaced with the word bullshit

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 15 points 4 days ago

"Let me switch to my bullshit account for that"

Yup, I'm sold

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 16 points 5 days ago

Control bullshit delete

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 14 points 5 days ago

me and my doppelganger

"Shoot him! I'm the real Kolanaki!"

Gets shot

"How did you know?"

"If they were the real Kolanaki, they would have just said Kolanaki."

[–] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Has anybody ever actually unironically said "alternative facts"?

[–] f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Kellyanne Conway, U.S. Counselor to the President, in 2017.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Seems like a decade ago and a month ago at the same time.

[–] tatann@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Are you calling Faith No More "bullshit metal" ? 😮

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Maybe not Faith No More, but I think that's an accurate genre tag for Mr. Bungle. In the most loving and respectful way, of course.

[–] tatann@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I'd say avantgarde metal for Mr. Bungle, they went through (and back to) so many genres, and they paved the way for so many bands

But obviously "avantgarde" can often be called bullshit (half kidding)

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Alternative rock is fine.

In my language, 'alternative' is somewhat synonymous with 'progressive' (though we still have the bullshit meaning of 'alternative facts', 'alternative medicine'). Is that not a thing in English, too? We rarely have an original thought when it comes to words like this.

[–] BoycottPro@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's a good point about alternative rock. I changed the title from usually to sometimes, maybe usually was too much.

I've never thought about the word alternative being synonymous with progressive, I tend of think of as meaning against the grain or against the mainstream but in practice sometimes it just means bullshit like in the title. For example RT calls themselves "alternative media" but they're really just propaganda slop.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I think there has been a certain amount of cultural change in the rightwing - used to be they just considered themselves the status quo upholders, the ones who were subversive were hippies, educated-but-not-rich city-dwellers, artists etc.. Now that more progressive forces became somewhat mainstream and the rightwing radicalized, major parts of the rightwing have adopted a more subversive identity and messaging.

[–] Michal@programming.dev 6 points 4 days ago

Well, to me it means "alternative to", so you can either have medicine or the alternative (to medicine). Alternative to facts is bullshit, so that checks out.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

You're right.

Also, add the word 'faith' to that list.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Similar things could be said about things like "real" and "official."

[–] Zier@fedia.io 6 points 4 days ago

Also the one I hate the most, Genuine®. That literally means it's fake.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 days ago

"OK LOOK for the last time I am not Alternativating you!!!"

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Alternative Right. Yup. That works.

Alternative energy sources. Hmm. Maybe not everything.

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Linux the alternative os to Windows?

[–] puppycat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 5 days ago

windows the bullshit os to linux

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago

you had to take a shower to come up with this?

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)
[–] 20cello@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Totally agree