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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: January 11th, 2024

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  • I recently saw a photo on some website. It was from a Trump rally, and people had these freaky, ecstatic looks on their faces. Somebody commented that it looked like AI. Other people soon agreed; one of them remarked on the bizarre, “alien” hand on one of the babies in the crowd. That hand did look weird. There were too few fingers. It looked like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hand.

    The problem was that this image was originally from a news story that was years prior to ChatGPT and the current AI boom. For this to be AI, the photographer would’ve had to have access to experimental software that was years away from being released to the public.

    Sometimes people just look weird and, sometimes, they have weird hands, too.



  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksOPtoMemesIt's important
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    3 days ago

    Abuse doesn’t have to be physical, though. It can also be emotional.

    I’m not saying to drop your friends and family at the first signs of negativity. There are people, though, who are not good for you, and nothing you can do can change that. The sooner you figure out who those people are and get them out of your life, the better.

    My friends are not MEANT to make me happy. They are meant to be there when I’m unhappy.

    What if they make you feel worse when you’re unhappy?

    I mean, it looks like we agree that friends should, if not make you happy, at least make your life better in some way. I’m talking about the people who are making your life worse.

    Sometimes they’ll have to “make me unhappy” to make me realize my mistakes. That’s what friendship is all about.

    What if you don’t agree that they’re mistakes?



  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksOPtoMemesIt's important
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    3 days ago

    Would you really maintain a relationship with somebody who made you unhappy? Somebody who abused you? Somebody who didn’t respect you? And if so, why?

    People can help people, yet lately they only think of themselves.

    Why “lately”?

    It’s not only thinking of yourself. It’s thinking about yourself and the people who aren’t fucking you up. If somebody has a history of toxic behavior, then you have to take that into account. If you let that affect you, you’re A) harming yourself and B) are less able to help the people who actually do love you and respect you.



  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksOPtoMemesIt's important
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    3 days ago

    “Going through a mental crisis” doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re treating your friends like shit. If you treat your friends like shit, and that drives them away, whose fault is that?

    There are, of course, exceptions, but those have to be people whom I care for and love very, very much. And even then, if the toxicity is too damaging to my own mental health, I have to cut them off for my own good. At the end of the day, all human relations rely on a cost/benefit analysis. If I’m losing more than I’m gaining from this relationship, why should I continue it?

    I also don’t think you’re doing that person any favors by ignoring their bad behavior.








  • further, any attempt to create a viable Third Party is not only doomed to failure

    The Republicans were originally a “third party”. It used to be Democrats vs. Whigs.

    Duverger’s Law isn’t like a law against jaywalking. It just says that first-past-the-post systems create two-party systems, which is true. It doesn’t tell you who you should vote for.

    In other words, the Spoiler Effect, Like what happened with Ralph Nader in 2000. He’s the reason why Bush won.

    Al Gore actually won, depending upon how you count the votes. Additionally, you’re operating on the assumption that Nader voters would’ve voted for Gore, instead of just staying home.

    In fact, there were a lot of Democrats who voted for Bush, and their numbers dwarf Nader voters by several orders of magnitude. If you want to play that game, then it’s Democrats who are responsible for Bush winning, not the Green Party.