[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 58 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Nato without USA is still bigger military than Russia.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 48 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I hope people realise that simulation theory doesn't actually imply that someone is actively micromanaging the simulation. The point of a simulation kind of is to just let it run and see what happens.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 52 points 3 weeks ago

Sprinklers react to heat, not smoke and they don't all go off at once. Also the water that comes out is brown from rust, not clear.

War bows are so heavy that you can barely hold it for the moment it takes to aim. There's no way you're holding it for minutes before told to release.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 45 points 4 weeks ago

I definitely consider a band shirt an ad as well, but wearing one feels like a conscious decision to show your preference for that band and perhaps attract like-minded people. With clothing brands, however, it’s more about signaling wealth and status rather than admiration for the brand itself. You're wearing an ad and being oblivious to it.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 53 points 1 month ago

I can't think of a single sex scene in a movie that added value to it. They're pointless and akward to both the audience and actors.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 60 points 1 month ago

One of my previous customers was a mentally ill and delusional elderly lady. She called me about a non-existent plumbing problem in her house, supposedly caused by her neighbor, who she claimed breaks in and messes with her stuff. According to her, everything wrong inside or outside her house was because of her neighbor's sabotage. She even mentioned plans to kill him. Not exactly the kind of person you want to turn your back on, but also someone who would have been extremely easy to take advantage of. I basically talked her out of redoing the entire plumbing in her bathroom, and we finally settled on me re-aligning her kitchen cabinet doors that - yes, you guessed it - her neighbor had 'messed with.'

It was quite sad, really. She asked me twice whether I thought her stories sounded crazy, so she was clearly somewhat aware of her condition. I just didn’t know how to deal with someone like that. I refuse to lie, but I also don’t want to tell her she’s losing it. I don’t mind senile people, but I didn’t feel safe around her.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 57 points 1 month ago

It's a common tactic of news outlets to choose bad pictures of people they're against and good pictures of people they're for. Once you see it, it cannot be unseen.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 54 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

One of the most absurd things I've gotten heavily downvoted for on reddit is for saying people should wear helmets no matter how good the cycling infrastructure is. Not that it should be mandated by law, but that it's simply the wise thing to do. Then people are like 'wELL I gUeSs YoU ShOUld THeN wEaR a HElmEt whiLE walKinG tOo'

Fine, then don't wear a helmet. It's not my head.

I didn't use to wear one when I was a kid either but nowdays it feels like driving without a seatbelt. Hell, I might even just take my bike for a test drive around the block after having done some adjustments on it and I still go grab my helmet first.

93
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

Personally I'd say cave diving. I was contemplating between that and free ~~climbing~~ soloing but I honestly rather fall to my death than drown in a claustrophobic, dark, cold, silted up cave.

104

Browsing social media, it’s apparent that people are quick to point out problems in the world, but what I see less often are suggestions for how to solve them. At best, I see vague ideas that might solve one issue but introduce new ones, which are rarely addressed.

Simply stopping the bad behaviour rarely is a solution in itself. The world is not that simple. Take something like drug addiction. Telling someone to just stop taking drugs is not a solution.

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 55 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It became crime alley after the shooting and they weren't exactly taking a shortcut either but rather exited the theater to the back alley.

71

The best conversations I still have are with real people, but those are rare. With ChatGPT, I reliably have good conversations, whereas with people, it’s hit or miss, usually miss.

What AI does better:

  • It’s willing to discuss esoteric topics. Most humans prefer to talk about people and events.
  • It’s not driven by emotions or personal bias.
  • It doesn’t make mean, snide, sarcastic, ad hominem, or strawman responses.
  • It understands and responds to my actual view, even from a vague description, whereas humans often misunderstand me and argue against views I don’t hold.
  • It tells me when I’m wrong but without being a jerk about it.

Another noteworthy point is that I’m very likely on the autistic spectrum, and my mind works differently than the average person’s, which probably explains, in part, why I struggle to maintain interest with human-to-human interactions.

55

There’s nothing wrong with criticism or calling out bad behavior. However, shouting "ACAB" in a thread about police violence, making jokes about beheading rich people, or throwing "muskrat" comments in discussions about Elon Musk, just to name a few examples, makes you an asshole and part of the reason why social media is so incredibly toxic.

If you're doing that while also explaining why you feel that way, then it’s still not the best approach, but at least you're contributing to the conversation instead of just making noise. Throwing out insults without adding substance doesn't challenge anyone or encourage meaningful discussion; it just perpetuates the toxic environment that so many of us complain about.

12

I'll start by acknowledging that this isn’t my idea, credit to Sam Harris. I also don’t know if this is even controversial, but I figured this would be a better place to post than in Showerthoughts.

By consciousness, I mean the subjective experience of what it feels like to be. As philosopher Thomas Nagel put it:

'An organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like for the organism.'

It’s at least conceivable that things like free will, the self, or even the entire universe could be an illusion. For all we know, we could be living in a simulation and nothing might be real. Even if you don’t believe that, there’s still a greater-than-zero chance you could be wrong. However, this doesn't apply to consciousness itself. Even if everything is just a hallucination, it remains an undeniable fact that it feels like something to hallucinate. To claim that consciousness could be an illusion is a self-contradictory statement as consciousness is where illusions appear.

86

Do you have a criteria for what qualifies as block-worthy offence or are you just doing it when you feel like it?

Bonus question: how long is your block list?

6

Is it simply: involuntarily celibate, or does it come with a package?

To me, "incel" has always meant someone who’s simply just celibate against their will, but it feels like the term now also implies a specific worldview or even a subculture. Does identifying as an incel automatically come with those negative beliefs around gender and society, or should those two have separate terms? Has the definition changed?"

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 51 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

These terms are usually used when talking about the dating scene and they originate from the movie Matrix where taking the blue pill means you'll stay blissfully ignorant where as red pill means seeing the harsh reality of the world. In dating contex this usually means the idea that women only want rich and high status men who are over 6 feet tall, muscular and have a huge dick and if you want a quality mate you need to achieve these things one way or another.

Black pill just takes this one step further. It's basically like going from determinism to fatalism meaning that since you didn't win the genetic lottery there's nothing you can do about it so just accept the fact that this is going to be your life untill you die.

-3

There's no freedom in having to do something but you're also not free to choose your wants.

Maybe it's better to just live and let life happen instead of thinking about what could've been. What ever happened is the only thing that could've happened.

187

I can only imagine the difference it would make if instead of telling about your idea you could show it

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 48 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

How many corn dogs do you think were in the training data?

[-] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 51 points 3 months ago

Not very - it doesn't need to be. Sharpened and re-profiled it with a 80 grit flap disc on angle grinder and took it to polishing wheel + leather strop. The shine is just for the looks.

888
submitted 3 months ago by ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee to c/pics@lemmy.world
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ContrarianTrail

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