Unpopular Opinion

Hear me out: if someone believes in horoscopes, they know what each sign mean. Which means they recognise themselves into a sign. Which means they will mostly act in ways to conform to that sign, giving you a way to figure that person out. The sign tells it all, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The games they release are complete in them selves, and with 15-20€ dlces every ~6 months they keep the games fresh with new content.

People rarely complain that features are missing from their games until it gets added in a DLC. Then suddenly it's a mandatory feature.

They risk our infrastructure and they steal or extort billions. I wouldnt feel bad if I read "Scam phone center destroyed in mystery explosion"

Quality journalism costs money. Period.

Sometimes it's ads, sometimes it's asking for an email address, sometimes it requires a subscription. The bottom line is good reporting is not free.

There's also a million and one ways to bypass most paywalls that require very little effort (assuming you bother to put forth that minimum effort rather than whining "PaYWaLLEd!" in the comments). Sometimes it's just a soft paywall (daily article limits, regional locking, etc), but some people still can't help but whine about it and demand you accommodate them (while refusing to put forth any effort to obtain the information themselves).

"Just post an archive link instead" I often hear.

That's a terrible solution (and Lemmy UI's worst feature), and here's why:

Astronauts Land on Moon: Discover It Really IS made of cheese

Source: archive.ph/abcdefg

Just scrolling through your feed: Is that headline from a reputable source or some trash tabloid, troll farm, or crazy person's blog?

Should it be believed, taken seriously, or given more than 1/2 second thought? Is it even worth clicking into the article at all?

It's absolutely impossible to tell because its source is obfuscated with an archive.ph link which tells you nothing about where the headline comes from.

People scroll and just absorb headlines as fact, adding that little tidbit of information to their collective knowledge. I do it, you do it, we all do it. I get it: we're busy with lives and can't read every article that gets posted. I'm not shaming the practice.

Having the canonical source of news headlines apparent goes a long way to combating misinformation by giving context to the headline's credibility, letting you know where the information is coming from, and what, if any, agenda it may be pushing. Obfuscating the sources removes all of those protections in a "trust me, bro, this is legit" kind of way.

It should not be on the poster to accommodate everyone's tinfoil-hat reasons. If they prefer an alternate source, that is 100% on them to deal with.

PS: For those of you posting quality news with the official links and not kowtowing to the "pAyWAllEd!" crowd, I thank and salute you.

Would I hurt other people in some strange hypothetical to literally save my family's life from certain death? Maybe, and I'd be guilt ridden about it for the rest of my life.

Would I hurt people to make more money? Of course not, and that's not a defensible reason to hurt others... at all, and it makes you deeply broken at your core, especially as habit.

Really the only thing I can think of as a more horrifying reason to be cruel to others than "for money herp derp" would be "because its fun!"

Hurting others for profit in the name of business shouldn't be a defense, it should be considered an admission of guilt and come with consequences.

I don't like subscribing to nonphysical things. I can read a physical paper a month after it arrived. Digital is faster, but I tend to lose it before I have read it.

I need a recipient in my pocket. Too often my virtual thing is lost, my device fails, or things reboot and I don't have my secure 24 digit password with me.

I won't subscribe to a digital only anything. Physical and digital is nice.

Edit: They don't even have to be identical. A digital daily with a monthly print would be nice.

The only time I make my bed is when I change the sheets. That's once a week, and I only make it then because my mother instilled it in me.

Not making it everyday saves time but more importantly airs everything out and deprives bacteria of moisture. That, makes it less stinky and lets my bedding last longer.

I sleep hot, it doesn't matter what the ambient temperature is. Vermont in winter? Heating is off in my bedroom, and I have a leg out.

Edit: seems like this isn't unpopular. It was a random thought that popped in my head. Everyone I have explained this to thinks it's weird.

I understand the tidy thing, everything else in my bedroom is quite tidy, my life really, with the notable exception of my thought processes.

Parasocial relationships refer to one-sided relationships in which a person develops a strong sense of connection, intimacy, or familiarity with someone they don’t know, most often celebrities or media personalities. These relationships exist only in the mind of the individual, who experiences a bond despite the lack of reciprocity.

Forming parasocial relationships is fine.

Fapping (masturbating) to nsfw content is fine (unless it is illegal or unethical).

But forming a parasocial relationship with someone you fap to feels like cheating if you are in a relationship and a poor substitute for a relationship if you are single.

I get that until recently it was considered normal and relatively cheap, but you are literally paying someone else to make food for you.

It can't be sustainable without exploitation of workers and/or animal welfare to have that available to the majority of people on a regular basis.

If you can only afford fast food as a luxury, to me that seems like a good thing.

Rational beliefs should be able to withstand scrutiny and opposing arguments. The inability to do so indicates that the belief is more about personal bias and emotional investment rather than objective analysis.

Alright, just started watching Steven Universe. I'm 4 episodes in. That poor boy. All he wants is to be part of a family, and all three of the crystal gems are horrible mentors. Pearl likes to think of herself as responsible, but she cannot relate to Steven and is utterly failing to provide a system of structure that he can understand. Amethyst gets along with him, but she acts like she's the same age as him and can't provide him any of the guidance a kid needs. And Garnet is barely even trying. Greg is the best mentor figure Steven has in his life, and he's homeless with no future. At least he's actually taught Steven to have a positive outlook, but he's still not parent material.

That poor boy is getting wrapped up in big ideas of how he's going to save the day and have the perfect family, because the reality of his life is unbearable. I saw this show on the TV a few times when I was a kid and it bummed me out, but now that I'm a grownup I can see how traumatised that boy is and how badly he needs a responsible parental figure who can relate to him. All of the adults in his life suck! Watching this show is miserable, because I'm watching a kid who desperately needs a family be failed by the family he has.

I like traditionally grimdark settings like Warhammer 40k, but watching Steven Universe gives me the same feeling I imagine non-grimdark-fans must feel seeing a setting like 40k. Overbearing, unrelenting misery. It all sucks and it isn't getting better. On occasion 40k describes the life of civilians in that setting, how oppressed and abused they are by the fascist governments they live under. The fun of seeing evil soldiers who chose a life of violence killing each other fades away. Suddenly, we're seeing the perspective of the innocent. Their suffering. It's depressing and heartbreaking in the same way SU is.

Most free web sites pay for their upkeep with ads. It has been an unwritten agreement since forever (or at least as long as there have been ads on the web) that if you consume the content, you pay the creator by looking at the ads on their site.

Consuming the content without looking at the ads is like shoplifting because you don't like the way a store's checkout counter works and/or the fact that they want money from you at all.

You identify a problem, you then call the attention of your family, friends and peers and really anyone who will listen to your rantings and ravings. After which if enough people support your claim to give confidence of legitimacy, you voice your concerns to authority. Or governing body or anyone that has been designated for the responsibility of resolving issues that arise within the realm of the aforementioned wrinkle in the rug. Only in the direst of need would would you and your conglomeration of dissatisfied citizenry shout, picket or otherwise raise a ruckus to your needs but life is such that needs be great at times. Go figure.

No, typically your movement starts with a letter campaign, phone calls and emails. If you're real lucky you might get a tête-à-tête with someone and if you're doubly lucky, on your way to resolution. It doesn't go down like that for most causes, most of the time it's all but ignored. Fear not seekers of change there is a way to avoid a fizzle out, get more people to join. Of course you could jump straight to hard disruption of daily life but letter writing, emails and phone calls are considered good places to start. Needs be great though and ignorance is willful and bliss. About now is a good time for ye ol' controlled rabble rousing... (it's a joke) but good intentions don't account for the actions of others though property damage doesn't trump a just cause. The bill on justification will come due and I expect to be satisfied. Feelings on rainbows don't meet my admittedly meager standards on letting your opinion be known, not that anyone asked.

There's not much recourse for your average person if the effects of your stance did not sway affections, unless that person is a multi-billion dollar corporation (cuz come on guys, corpos are people too) then you just drown the problem in money until it's buried or washed away to become someone else's problem. Most people are left with a problem unresolved and a pain in their chest that's not from the cuts, bruises or contusions that can accompany making your displeasure publicly known.

I would like to take this moment to tell you how stupid anyone is that intends to create change with the destruction of life that is not their own. I make an exception for self-immolation. If you believe in your cause so strongly that your only option is to extinguish your own flame in a dazzling display of sheer will. You get my respect for your force of determination if not your cause. The only 72 things anyone else gets though is in being blasted to 72 different dimensions of pain and shrapnel and good riddance too.

That is all to say that if you can't pay and you won't choose violence what other avenue is left to pursue?

Stop the machinations that allow people to remain willfully ignorant of the problem. I am sorry that you might be late to work, I'm sorry that couldn't get your triple pump whateverthefuck you're getting in a cup that makes you feel like the emptiness inside isn't so vast, I'm sorry you were delayed running those errands. I'm sorry for your death during a cardiac episode stuck in traffic. I am sorry. But to the point where your life has to stop in its tracks so you will listen, it's important. Some person decided to put their own life in danger to warn you that your own and those around you are also in danger. I'm not saying it is not a bitter pill.

Let us not forget that all of this is predicated on the assumption that when the piper cometh those ends were indeed justified by the means. What constitutes a worthy reason is beyond the purview of the arguments I'm laying forth. As for the eggs that are gonna get cracked, I don't mourn the loss of property only loss of life. In the many words I have used, I am saying that there is a reason the right to free speech and assembly are enshrined in places around the world and I believe in that reason. Whether or not those rights are protected in an equal and fair manner is a whole different can of worms.

tldr; I wrote this for amusement and for the play on words, doesn't mean I don't believe it. By default I care more about my own bodily waste than I'm going to care about your reactionary opinion. Exceptions will be made for adding to the conversation, upgrade to better-than-what-I'm-scooping-out-of-the-litter-boxes-at-home levels of interest.

I thank you for joining me in this ramble. Have a wonderful day.

edit: just want to give a couple special shoutouts, I won’t name names but you’ll know if I’m talking about you. First, to my peeps that are taking this personally, offensively or otherwise as an insult; fucking good, you need to face uncomfortable topics more often and I’m glad I could be there for you and share in this together. Second, to my peeps who found themselves vindicated in their original positions; the same to you as the first group. This has absolutely been my pleasure so thank you if you voted or voiced an opinion. Going to sleep for now but if you call me back to this topic with something good I’ll try to catch you in the morning.

Blunt tools shouldn't be used for complex real-world things. Other examples would be mandatory sentencing in courts (you should let the judge assess the particular situation), or things like "I don't go out with guys under 160cm" (you should get to know him).

Just because someone is in their 70s, doesn't mean they can't lead. Not with any certainty. In some cases it does, but the political process should have the flexibility to deal with each case.

Look at Deng: he was mid-70s to mid-80s when he was in power and he improved the lives of 10⁸ or 10⁹ people.

Also, they've sucked ever since they stopped having just basic smiley faces.

Come at me!

My whole life I've always hated burgers that you get from fast food/restaurants. It's just a bland beef patty with a bunch of toppings that make it a pain to eat. These places advertise their burgers as being "100% Angus Beef!" or whatever, like that makes it appetizing... Why is this the norm? Do people just not know any better?

I learned how to make burgers from my dad and our approach is completely different. It's all about the patty, not about the mountain of toppings. We throw onions, garlic, bell peppers, egg, worcestershire, salt and pepper (anything you want really) into a blender. Blend it all up and incorporate it directly into the beef. Then you shape your patties. This method makes the actual burger patty delicious, you could eat it as is if you wanted (which we sometimes do).

I've yet to meet anyone who didn't prefer our burgers. Try it and you'll never go back to those bland meat disks.

Windows 10 EoL is fast approaching, so I thought I’d give Linux a try on some equipment that won’t be able to upgrade to Windows 11. I wanted to see if I will be able to recommend an option to anyone that asks me what they should do with their old PC.

Many years ago I switched to Gentoo Linux to get through collage. I was very anti-MS at the time. I also currently interact with Linux systems regularly although they don’t have a DE and aren’t for general workstation use.

Ubuntu: easy install. Working desktop. Had issues with getting GPU drivers. App Store had apps that would install but not work. The App Store itself kept failing to update itself with an error that it was still running. It couldn’t clear this hurdle after a reboot so I finally killed the process and manually updated from terminal. Overall, can’t recommend this to a normal user.

Mint: easy install. Switching to nvidia drivers worked without issue. App Store had issues with installing some apps due to missing dependencies that it couldn’t install. Some popular apps would install but wouldn’t run. Shutting the laptop closed results in a prompt to shutdown, but never really shuts off. Update process asks me to pick a fast source (why can’t it do this itself?)

Both: installing apps outside of their respective stores is an adventure in terminal instead of a GUI double-click. Secure boot issues. Constant prompt for password instead of a simple PIN or other form of identity verification.

Search results for basic operations require understanding that what works for Ubuntu might not work for Mint.

While I personally could work with either, I don’t see Linux taking any market share from MS or Apple when windows 10 is retired.

In the mid 90’s tattoos became super trendy and now have gained acceptance as something people do. My opinion is, especially when the tats are crawling up peoples’ necks and onto their faces that they truly look awful, like some sort of disease.

I remember seeing this in theatres and gettings scared of all the human characters in the film.

I thought the writing was confusing and offensive and took shots at superheroes in general (Edna).

The scenes often flip-flop between scenes and actions in two extremes that suggest bipolarism.

The characters are abrasive and ugly, and I remember being traumatized by Syndrome, Gilbert, the teacher, Edna, and Jack Jack all who I despise with a burning passion because I was overstimulated by the over-the-top acting.

I would prefer to read actual superhero comics because they had better writing and art even though this blockbuster was intended as a homage to the medium but I found it offensive.

The workplace scene was just…horrible.

Makes me grateful not to work in an office.

Honest Trailers did an episode praising the film but I disagreed because I didn’t like the film at all.

No other film has come close to traumatizing me since I watched the film when I was younger.

I think Microsoft's planned recall feature where they screenshot everything you do so that it can be analysed by AI isn't as bad as everyone makes it sound. It's only bad because Windows is closed source and nobody can verify if what they say is true.

But if Microsoft aren't lying and none of the data ever leaves your PC (which is supported by the fact that you need a pretty beefy machine to use it) then it is one of the more privacy friendly shit they've done recently. And I think they were fully aware that they could only sell "thing that records everything you do" if they could convince people that it doesn't share that data. Guess they failed.

If it were open source I might even think about using it myself. If the hardware and subsequently power requirements weren't so absurdly high.

Just sayin'

Lemmy.world is very popular, and one of the largest instances. They do a great job with moderation. There's a lot of positives with lemmy.world

Recently, over the last month, federation issues have become more and more drastic. Some comments from lemmy.world take days, or never, synchronize with other instances.

The current incarnation of activity pub as implemented in Lemmy has rate issues with a very popular instance. So now lemmy.world is becoming a island. This is bad because it fractures the discussion, and encourages more centralization on Lemmy.world which actually weakens the ability of the federated universe to survive a single instance failing or just turning off.

For the time being, I encourage everyone to post to communities hosted on other instances so that the conversation can be consistently access by people across the entire Fediverse. I don't think it's necessary to move your user account, because your client will post to the host instance of a community when you make a comment in that community I believe.

Update: other threads about the delays Great writeup https://lemmy.world/post/13967373

Other people having the same issue: https://lemmy.world/post/15668306 https://aussie.zone/comment/9155614 https://lemmy.world/post/15654553 https://lemmy.world/post/15634599 https://aussie.zone/comment/9103641

It's kind of disappointing how people tend to use the upvote/downvote buttons. Sure, if it's an opinion you don't like, then downvote it to hell.

But if OP is posting a link to a legit article. That's not an opinion, that's facts. Downvoting facts makes them less likely to be seen by others.

Use those buttons wisely. I don't like it any more than many others, but I'm gonna tap that upvote in hopes it might help more people see the news!

Downvote me if you want, IDGAF.

I think I'll just call it decrimination, because it can happen to anyone regardless of who they are.. these extra words just makes matters unnecessarily confusing