derek

This is the Internet's common wisdom at the moment but it's a bit reductive. Here's a decent write up about it:

https://medium.com/@ovenplayer/does-proton-really-support-trump-a-deeper-analysis-and-surprising-findings-aed4fee4305e

Not sure how you've come to that conclusion. The snorkeler is clearly snorkeling. Seems pitch perfect to me.

Ublock origin is the only way to fly these days. I've walked a few family members through using the Element Zapper and explained how the plugin identifies which domain is loading the content and why websites do that now. They've all taken to it pretty well.

Having a default backup browser for sites that give too much grief when they can't get all of their spyware to work correctly definitely keeps me sane and made adoption less stressful for the uninitiated. I give myself three or four tries to make a shitty site work before either abandoning the site and trying an alternative or, if it's important and necessary, loading it raw in the backup browser.

+1 for LibreWolf too. Dope project.

Well, two, actually.

Based on... What? Biden has cancer. The convenient narrative that he was diagnosed after he left the White House holds about as much water as no one ever having died at a Disney theme park.

Cancer-fighting drugs do all sorts of whacky shit to bodies and minds. The conspiracy to keep the truth from the public was, I speculate, to avoid the inevitable pressure to have Biden step down and Harris assume the Presidency. Based on Biden's comments I have little doubt this was a selfish decision based on hubris that was championed and enabled by the establishment et al. Not that Harris would've been the People's President but at least she'd have been capable of actually leading.

I don't disagree with you. Neither Biden nor Trump were / are fit for the roles they assumed. The dementia angle was weak Republican propaganda though and repeating it just keeps us further from the truth the public deserves.

NUH UH.

Nuh uh. 😝

Both examples are similar to anapodotons. They include an implicit thesis. Don't shoot yourself in the foot because bullets do way more damage than movies let on, your foot will likely never work right again, and even if it does you'll have endured months of easily avoidable pain and suffering. Don't jump off a cliff because you'll likely die and, even if you survive, you'll have to endure a lifetime of debilitation, pain, and suffering, that could have been easily avoided.

These are also similar to thought-terminating cliches and tangentially related to mondegreens. Anapodotons can be insidious. Fluent speakers unfamiliar with the phrase can tell there's more to it and, since the general meaning can be implied through context, folks avoid the awkwardness of admitting their ignorance (something we should all be more comfortable with - but that's a separate discussion) and miss out on the nuance of some "common wisdom".

A bit of common wisdom is that "common sense isn't common". These cultural and psychological quirks manifest in our languages are part of the reason why. Not shooting yourself is a great example because for most people this is an obviously stupid thing to do and, yet, hundreds of people accidentally kill themselves via negligent discharge every year and thousands more are maimed. How often do we believe "don't shoot yourself" is sufficient advice when, in reality, proper safety training is required to keep that person alive? How often do those hearing the common wisdom believe they know all they need for that cliche to work its magic?

There's a lot of value in being aware of these linguistic traps and avoiding them when we think to do so. Like being the child that chooses to stop perpetuating generational trauma and abuse. We can choose better words, better phrases, and stop expecting that other people already know what we take for granted.

It isn't just one thing. The big money wants to present this unified front to the public like LLMs are a single commodity anyone can use. In reality they're a collection of complex tools that few can use " correctly" and whose utility is highly specialized for niches those few find valuable.

So you're correct in a way. I'm sure model decoherence isn't helping much either and isn't as visible in those niche applications as it is for the general public.

Your comment makes no sense and helps no one.

The Tea Party was an astroturf'd campaign cooked up by the Koch brothers to realign conservative ideology with oligarchy under the guise of "originalist" patriotism. A very successful farce.

Much like the "right to life", "Moral Majority" (which is a useful misnomer for Christian Conservative minority), and the rest of American Conservatism. Effective smoke and mirrors. All of it.

I keep seeing this sentiment and I don't understand it. Are you speaking purely out of anger and ignorance? The recent No Kings protest was either the third or first largest protest in the history of the U.S.A. and some communities have literally been running ICE gestapo out of their towns.

The Christian Conservative minority have gridlocked the American government, silently stacked the judicial system in their favor, and partnered with the American oligarchy to bankroll fascists and create the most pervasive, effective, and enduring propaganda machines ever seen (that's already worked its way into Australia and had been finding footholds in Europe).

The idea that Americans aren't doing anything about this or that there could ever possibly be a single unified movement that magically fixes "the issue" is incoherently reductive and impractical. If I see a comrade struggling for air I don't yell at them to just breathe. I help them remove the pig standing on their neck. What are YOU doing to lend a hand or show lost comrades that there's still hope?