Were talking about people who made a political decision based on The Joe Rogan Effluence

“Maybe people think that when you walk down the street breathing the air; you drink your water, you eat your food; you use your personal care products, your shampoo, cleaning products for your house, the furniture in your house; a lot of people assume that there’s really great knowledge and huge due diligence on the chemical safety of these things. But it really isn’t the case.”

No no, it must be the vaccines that are the problem

As someone with their six pack stored in the cooler, even I have protruding collar bones

33% of people really will back just about anything

Its not any weirder than pretty much any other language. In many Latin languages the default is feminine rather than masculine. Referring to a group of mixed gendered people in Spanish would be default feminine. Theres literally nothing inherently incorrect about either one having a default. I would imagine most native Spanish speakers would view someone as stupid for intentionally making something masculine over feminine just to prove a point of any kind.

Seeing English having a masculine default is patriarchal in some way is just nonsense. Latin countries are no less patriarchal despite having a completely different kinds of genderization in language. I studied a great deal of feminism and gender theory in college but this is one place where I dont see the logic at all. Overall tho I could care less if people want to write whatever pronoun they want there. To me, having it be gendered is a very outdated method of writing and they sounds far more modern. Saying he or her where you could say they just sounds like old timey Atlantic accent speech

Who is this frog, and why is his name Torment?

I got 99 problems, but bein rich aint one

In what universe is an interim director allowed to actually steer the agency to this extent? Isnt his job supposed to largely be a procedural formality?

I literally read just about every single thing posted to Lemmy, at least anything Midwest.Social is federated with, and I havent seen a single link posted about foreign tourists being detained since those two German girls got detained in Hawai’i for no reason several months ago

You thought the people who make bombs and fighter jets suddenly had ethical issues with it?

Back when the federal minimum was raised to $7.25 you could still feed 3 people well at a cheaper restaurant for $15. Now I dont think you could feed one person well for $15 at any of the same kind of restaurant

A few days ago I saw a story of a woman making $3 an hour plus tips at waffle house, where the average tip is probably like $2 a person. In 2025. How the fuck is that woman surviving whatsoever? The amount of normal everyday hardworking people who will be impacted by the SNAP cuts is going to be enormous. Especially with everything quickly becoming 2x what it cost 6 months ago

The opposite of the anti-christ? So Jesus then? Theres this guy in New York…

Tbf this is a pretty goofy take. Sure, the American History museum is compromised by this whitewashing admin. But I doubt they have changed anything at Air and Space, the Holocaust museum, at the art museums, or any of the many other museums that have nothing to do with this impeachment exhibit. The Smithsonian is like over 20 completely different museums

Neoliberalism is a cancer on society

Literally the worst state

Nickelback and a cry for help are very different of course. One of them is series of horrendous guttural noises that are deeply upsetting to the human psyche…

And the other one is a cry for help

Highlighting a key problem in discourse where people try to defend against one type of ignorance by saying something pretty much equally as ignorant about a different group of people as an argument

I like the perspective of reincarnation and humanity that Andy Weir posits in The Egg, which is not in line with the perspective of Buddhism but offers an easy way of thinking about reincarnation as less self-centered.

The Egg by Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me. And that’s when you met me.

”What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said. “What about them?Will they be all right?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty. “Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You said.

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted. I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.” You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.” You thought for a long time.

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

And I sent you on your way.

He hasnt even gotten to the truly moronic part of instituting actual tariffs yet. All the tanking that occurred previously was due to the threat of tariffs. Imagine how fucked the market and economy would be if every tariff he threatened actually came to fruition