psivchaz

I really wanted to like that laptop but the screen is so incredibly glossy that unless you're in a totally dark room it becomes a mirror.

I know it's not what you're saying, probably, but just to be clear: It wasn't a good thing going just fine until the Germans took it too far. It sucked in Italy, too, and is always bad.

It's the state of advertising tbh. If ads were still of the "Look, here's a cool product" variety, or even the "Look, here's people happily using a cool product" kind then the world would probably be a better place. Even targeting isn't so bad, when it's broad like "We want businesses to know about our B2B product."

The evil in modern advertising is the overly specific targeting, the lying, the psychological tricks, and the way they seem to invade every possible space.

Have we considered calling it a tariff instead of a tax? Tariffs on all new plastic. It might work.

My favorite "we had to regulate this" is coal mining. You see, the larger a coal mine tunnel, the more work and time it takes. So smaller tunnels will be more profitable. So in some places they preferred smaller women and children, so they could make make smaller, easier tunnels. This one I only ever found one source on, but supposedly one mine owner noticed that snags on clothing were slowing things down in the narrow tunnels so he insisted on sending them in nude. Nothing more capitalist than naked coal mining children.

This is the only area I DO get. I don't agree with it, but I can understand where they're coming from. If you believe a fetus is a person, it makes total sense to vote against murder. And we aren't going to win anyone over by framing it as just an issue for women. If it's even possible to change someone's mind on the topic it would be through education, not telling them that their opinion on murder doesn't matter.

Okay but even if we forgive that, it looks like they're taking a picture of the ticket while driving.

Putting it this way kind of makes it sound like modern therapy has reinvented Buddhism.

It's not exactly the sentiment I have a problem with. There are definitely people who aren't worth engaging with and there's a time to walk away, as someone else in this thread pointed out they do. Responding in a kind of snarky, condescending tone rather than just walking away does not help you.

Think about an online thread where this happens: Someone is making an argument, and a troll appears. They engage for a bit, but realize they aren't going to make any progress. Walking away let's the thread die, and people who stumble upon it in the future will likely recognize the troll for what they are and consider the argument. Responding with condescension instead makes the person appear to only be arguing for self-aggrandizement rather than to actually help or improve anything, and it can poison the argument they made before. It plays right into the troll's hands.

I used to like trailers. But just as I was starting to feel like the trailers were getting too long, the new thing became to splice the trailers with ads. So you think you're watching trailers and then suddenly there's a Ford commercial. So now they're too long AND they're less entertaining and relevant.

Whoever coined the phrase "it's not my job to educate you" is top of my rogues gallery. If you want democracy to succeed, it is literally your job to educate everyone you can about the things you are passionate about and the changes you wish to see. I get where it came from, I understand the feeling, but it's the worst possible phrase in the context of trying to make a political change.

Okay but you're missing the point: I want to believe that this is all a highly planned and funded Russian op because the alternative is that half the country elected someone so incredibly dumb WITHOUT a conspiracy.