I believe that something resembling religion will reappear in society (American society, I mean) in the future, maybe even the near future. Political substitutes for religion have given meaning to people’s lives, i.e made them feel apart of something greater, but they have not provided them with physical community, a path toward self-improvement, a guide for how to manage interpersonal relations (Apart from “don’t offend people”, in the case of progressivism, I guess?), or any compelling reason not to be afraid of death.

Traditional religion’s staying power came not from oppressive power structures or whatever people think these days, but because of all of that. Just having an oppressive power structure and none of the other stuff has generally led to religions/philosophies dying out within a few generations, like Nazism or communism. Both of those had their time to shine, completely ruined the societies they took over, and are now viewed as jokes by most people today. Meanwhile Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc, which offer way more than ideology ever has, have been around for millennia and are on track to stay around for millennia more.

Homo Evolutis

I think using a political philosophy or a common enemy to unite a society is more harmful than it is good, since those things will inevitably be held sacred, and it becomes impossible to think rationally about them. Religious people are able to disagree on things like economics because the things that they hold sacred are supernatural sky gods, instead of things which are of this world (Americans are an exception due to the polarization of the two-party system and the compelling force of American Civil Religion, which makes freedom, democracy, and the Constitution into sacred things), but people who hold a political ideology like Marxism or Liberalism to be sacred (Tons of people, many of them on this very website) cannot tolerate disagreement and will ignore facts that might disprove their ideology. This is manageable when it involves nothing more than a sky god, but when it involves the very basics of how society should operate, it gets bad, quickly, which is how you get thousands of dead dissenters and a permanently stagnant society. Using a common enemy is even worse since it leads to an irrational hatred of said enemy that drives people to do horrible things to eachother, with the most infamous example being the Holocaust. The Nazis also held their political ideals to be more sacred than their religious beliefs, coincidentally.

Some dude thinking his pet snail is dead, only to throw it in the trash and forget about it, and then wake up to a snailpocalypse a week later is pretty funny to think about

I’m in and out and I always say thank you when I’m done, since I personally like it when customers get out of my store as soon as possible.

If I’m being real, my only knowledge of trans fats comes from that one American Dad episode where Stan tries to smuggle them across state lines to make his food taste good again after they’re banned. Would you mind educating me on what the commotion was about them?

I’m not at the point in life where I can really avoid plastic, but I aspire to get there eventually.

I like excessive sweetness in all of my beverages since I’ve been drinking excessively sweet beverages all my life. I got the taste buds of a toddler. Still, give me aspartame over sugar, even on the off chance that the meager amount I consume gives me cancer some day that’s probably better than what too much sugar would do to me.

Microplastics are the new lead, and screens are the new tobacco, in my opinion. Overuse of sugar in processed foods is the new version of how they’d cut food with inedible stuff like sawdust back in the day.

The only time when willful ignorance is bad, in my book, is

A: They’re being willfully ignorant about an essential skill that they need in order to make everyone’s day go smoother

B: They’re willfully ignorant about something but somehow still give as much of a shit about it as experts on the topic. These people are the worst.

While this dude didn’t earn his money I am jealous that I didn’t think of this first.

Abusing service / customer-facing staff fits in to this as well and is at once particularly revealing and particularly damning.

Whenever a customer is rude to me I just remember that they’re probably compensating for how terrible their own lives are. If it was actually an issue on my part then one of my coworkers would’ve told me by now. Makes it way easier to move on with my day.

It depends on what the subject is. Learning things requires energy, which we don’t have an unlimited supply of. If you ask me a question about, say, Hotwheels toys, I’m gonna tell you I don’t know the answer, and I do not care nearly enough about Hotwheels to put time and effort into researching anything other than surface-level facts about them. This type of ignorance is fine by me, I’d rather deal with a person who knows they don’t know anything about a subject and doesn’t care about it than someone who knows little yet cares deeply about it.

One can’t let themselves be defined by what’s done to them, only what they’ve done in response. Those who act like toddlers in response to life’s obstacles should be treated as such, while those who react calmly and constructively are exhibiting virtue, and will probably get further as well.

listen to electric callboy

But also no because I find weight training to be exceptionally boring.

Same, that’s why I prefer cardio. I can do something with my brain and hands while burning calories at the same time. However, when I push myself to lift more, it’s very rewarding, especially when you get to the point where you feel like you could lift the entire fucking rack with how much you’re lifting.

When you pump large amounts of iron in rapid succession at the gym, it makes you feel unstoppable, like you could take on the world. It’s an absolutely wonderful feeling to have, and I think it can be chalked up to the testosterone boost. The way to cultivate this mindset is

1. Simply work out. The body releases the “unstoppable” chemical when you do Chad shit.
2. Have more faith in your own capabilities. This will naturally happen if you surround yourself with positive reinforcement and if you do step 1.

Idk I just heard that apparently knowing how to use file explorer is considered impressive in modern CS classes

I’m Gen Z, don’t use Linux, don’t know the first thing about programming (I know how to use file explorer though), and never intend to learn, and I’m here because I don’t wanna use the official Reddit app and because I’m convinced that the Fediverse is likely to become big in the future and I wanna be able to say I was here when it all began.

On my phone, yes. I intend to still use old.reddit on my PC in order to keep up with my favorite communities.