@jon-nyc said in Roe & Casey overturned.:

@Aqua-Letifer

Not obviously true.

Bro what the hell are you doing even entertaining this. This is like 5 Duning-Kruger incompetency curves, all in constructive interference with one another, creating the mythical idiocy superwave. Rare, fleeting, almost too powerful to believe.

Perhaps the only reason you’re here is because your mom did decide to abort your older sibling.

Nah, very unlikely. Not likely due to age, and anyway, by accounts, it didn't happen.

Lots of people abort a pregnancy when young and go on to have kids when they’re older. In many cases they wouldn’t have the later kid(s) if they had had the earlier one(s).

True.

Also common for adoptees to have younger half-siblings they never learn about.

My guitar setup guy is a believer in the Electric Universe. I keep going back, a little more frequently than needed, just to hear the stories.

@brenda said in Tonight's Dinner - Chicken:

@Mik said in Tonight's Dinner - Chicken:

@Horace said in Tonight's Dinner - Chicken:

@Mik said in Tonight's Dinner - Chicken:

By the way, that dinner was the night I decided I was gonna run that mama's boy off.

I'm curious, how did you go about that?

Overt hostility and intimidation.

I think I've explained my attitude toward young male suitors before.

It's starts from here - we hate you. Now, you might think you are in the clear because it couldn't get any worse, but you'd be wrong. It can get a whole lot worse. Do not try me.

I would love to be the fly on the wall listening to this process.

Eff that, I'd put that shit on YouTube and split the royalties with Mik. It would easily pay for Mik's defense attorney for whatever came next.

Intermission:

This was posted on LinkedIn. Incredible.

The comments section actually exceeds what you expect.

@Axtremus said in TikTok:

@Aqua-Letifer said in TikTok:

It's far worse than this, folks.

What other “far worse” things about TikTok do you have in mind?

TikTok isn't like Facebook or Instagram. When you download TikTok, you don't need to follow anyone to start being fed content—it requires no personal connection at all, ever. Its algorithm starts with feeding you a kind of video best-of in the For You feed, and starts learning real damn fast what you respond to.

This is very problematic for three reasons.

First, there's no incentive to build any kind of follower base. It's not needed—you can get fed content that'll keep you hooked on the platform, which is how most users interact with the app—without making any personal connections with anyone. It's antisocial media. (Yes, there's a new Friends tab. No, they're not interested in getting more users to check it. It's all about eyeballs on the screen, not cultivating relationships.)

Second, these platforms are designed to make you addicted to the dopamine hit from likes and shares. At least with the older platforms, a viral post often leads to more followers, more conversations, etc., which is sort of social. With TikTok, the follower count isn't the goal, it's the likes and shares from friends, randos, who knows, who cares. All of the social media engagement addiction, none of the social.

Third, there's a massive disparity between what we respond to, and what's good for us. Building relationships, discussing and sharing things in a considered way, and learning new things are all good for us. Content that invokes immediate reactions also makes us feel depressed, angry, envious, or just empty. But the TikTok algorithm isn't coded to discern between these things. All it cares about is establishing a content hierarchy, tailored to you, to keep your eyeballs on the screen for as long as possible. And what keeps you on the platform—invoking an immediate reaction—is generally quite bad for you.

Nevermind the tracking issues, it's highly addictive and generally does a great deal more harm than provide anything worthwhile—especially for kids. It's visual stimulation fentanyl and it's driving people crazy. All social media can lead to this but TikTok is in an entirely different class.

@Axtremus said in To Spam, Or Not To Spam:

Kudos to Google/Gmail. Political solicitation emails are, indeed, spam. It’s good that Google/Gmail send the lot of them to the spam folder.

I love how this is what we complain about when we complain about TikTok. It's like raging about the fact that O.J. didn't get any traffic tickets in the white Bronco. It's far worse than this, folks.

So much seething hate here.

A friend of mine and his wife keep owning them; no problems and they love them. I don't know what type they have, but I fit comfortably in them and I'm pretty tall. My sister-in-law has one, too; also no problems.

I guess either they got lucky (it does happen) or they aren't as crap as they used to be.

Shit, you don't need a YouTube video to hear this. Any monster truck rally or damp enough place for goin' muddin' on a Friday night and you can hear it in person.

I suppose I'm both joking and entirely serious.