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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 8th, 2023

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  • I’ll respond to this because I’m a father and have observed a lot of things about other parents that I never noticed or paid attention to before becoming one. There are some seriously selfish-ass people who treat their kids like accessories or tea-cup dogs. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people who treat their kids as franchises or property and view the kid in terms of ROI.

    Some people only find value in themselves as mothers or fathers (“I’m the goddamn pater familias!”) where the role is often more important than the kids. While the act of parenting can be selfless, there is a performative element to it that takes over some people’s identities and personalities (clothing that advertises your “parent-ness,” name-brand clothing, chic and fashionable accessories, strollers that cost as much as a used car, humongous houses and baby suites, paying for full- or part-time help, excessively documenting “baby’s” life and sharing it widely beyond friends and family, et cetera and ad nauseam).

    Now, there’s another take on selfishness I’ve picked up on from anti-natalist threads which is specifically tied to the concept of agency: a child has no agency regarding the circumstances of its birth. The fact that two people can intentionally (or even worse, unintentionally) choose to procreate is viewed as immensely selfish since it denies the created being of all choice. Parents often “want” to have a kid; but there is often no “need” (biological imperative notwithstanding). Hence, a selfish act.

    Another expression of selfishness is that some parents cannot help themselves from creating clones. From birth, the kid is a reflection of the parents’ identity, interests, politics, hobbies, and media fandoms. The political or religious parts are especially disturbing—no kid has a valid opinion of the election and has no solid foundation for belief in a deity. Raising kids with values is one thing, but creating little mouthpieces that just repeat parents’ opinions is another. There is also the chance that a parent will try to live vicariously through their child and push them into sports or academics so that they can fix their mistakes or relive the past.

    All said, some people make really shitty parents. And I don’t mean shitty people—there are lots of pleasant and thoughtful people who are fucking terrible caregivers. I think that some people felt too much social, cultural, or religious pressure to be honest with themselves and stay away from parenting. I think that nothing says selfish like knowing that you shouldn’t do something but do it anyway because you know that you will benefit from it in some way (financially, socially, etc.).


  • I put my groceries on the belt in the order they’re supposed to be bagged. Heavy stuff first (cans, milk, juice, frozen stuff), followed by meat, dry goods, then heavy produce, soft produce, eggs, then bread.

    Most of the time it only benefits me since everywhere I shop just got rid of cashier bagging or baggers entirely after the pandemic. But the rare time a cashier bags I watch as they go out of their way to put cans on top of avocados.


  • Another more practical reason (besides free bags for use around the house) is that produce is often wet from the misters and refrigerated items condensate once you go outside (especially in the south). Double bagging helps prevent the bags from tearing if/when they get wet. Also, for people buying lots of canned goods, single bags can rip if they’re overloaded. Cashiers and baggers will still double bag plastic bags when they are filling it with a lot of heavy items.

    Another reuse for brown paper grocery bags was DIY textbook covers.


  • I have to use Windows and Teams for work and I’m starting to feel like a computer historian or an operating system archeologist every time I use my work PC.

    Someone called me directly on Teams the other day and the old Skype ringtone played; now I already knew that MS absorbed Skype but it was weird because the actual ringtone is sort of low-fi, like it’s probably the same 20 year old .wav file.

    I’m pretty sure the new W11 file explorer is just Edge which is just Chrome.

    I feel like I’m looking at geological layers whenever I dive into OS settings.

    Some window skins are clearly from Vista.

    Aesthetically it is a nightmare, but it also clearly demonstrates that W11 is six operating systems in a trenchcoat.


  • It’s because trans technology is so advanced that they all pass undetected. /s

    In all seriousness, I think it reflects just how distorted the anti-trans bigot’s perception of reality is and how enabled they feel to act on those perceptions. These people believe that trans people are more common than they actually are and they are hyper-fixated on proving it.

    I think your critique of the “not a problem until it affects me” nature of this is valid; however, this also signifies that transphobia is becoming less rhetorical and more actionable. That is terrifying for anyone who doesn’t meet the arbitrary socially acceptable expressions of gender.

    My hope here is that more people will come to realize how stupid transphobia and gender/bathroom policing is when they start to realize that it affects them, too.





  • derfunkatron@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldOops! All woke!
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    2 months ago

    Moore told NPR in an interview released Tuesday that multiple pastors had told him they would quote the Sermon on the Mount, specifically the part that says to “turn the other cheek,” when preaching. Someone would come up after the service and ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”

    “What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak,’” Moore said. “When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.”

    If they think Christ is too weak and his words outdated, then maybe they should stop calling themselves Christians?




  • derfunkatron@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldPerfect date
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    3 months ago

    DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD are formatting conventions for expressing dates. The date itself is probably converted from some date object anyway, like the Unix Epoch, and can be expressed in any variety of formats.

    Wednesday, June 11, 2025 is a date. dddd, mmm dd, yyyy or %A, %B %d, %Y is a format.

    Edit: I’m pretty sure I misread the comment above.


  • Why wasn’t he arrested and charged for this before being sent to El Salvador? If he is this heinous of a criminal, why was he the alternate for the seat on the flight down to El Salvador?

    Let’s argue for argument’s sake that he is the kind of person the DOJ claims he is. Does this mean he is guilty before being given a chance to defend himself? Shouldn’t he be afforded an opportunity to hear the charges and offer a defense? Granted, immigrants without citizenship can be deported for any criminal activity, but this guy had a court order preventing that. So why couldn’t the DOJ arrest and charge him before sending him to a death prison? Wouldn’t it be in the interest of the nation to maybe find out more about his network before disappearing him, especially since they claim he smuggled thousands of people?

    This is some kafkaesque, fascist, dumbass bullshit.


  • Serial killers need patterns, process, and specific situations tailored to their individual neuroses. They are driven or compelled to kill to create or recreate certain events. That’s one thing that separates them from mass murderers or spree killers.

    This guy was just in it for money. Mass murderer, yes, but there have been mafia hitmen with more morals than this fuck.

    The scale of this, and the callousness of it, are far closer to Hitler and other genocidal maniacs because none of them wanted to get their hands dirty; they’d never kill anyone, personally. At least serial killers are into DIY and often are quite proud of their fucked up accomplishments.

    It really says something about this guy’s absolute depravity when a comparison to a serial killer makes someone say “you know, that’s offensive to serial killers.”

    I’m not disagreeing with what you said, I’m just frustrated because this guy was worse than serial killers and that is really something else.





  • If Canada entered collectively as a single state (pure nonsense, but hear me out), they’d get two senators and 1 representative to the house. The apportionments for US representatives would need to be raised to account for 40 million new people, which my guess wouldn’t happen, so instead California and Canada (who have almost equal populations) would just trade off allocations of representatives alternating with New York and Texas. Canada would end up with a lot of representatives in the House this way but wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as adding 20 senators if the provinces entered as individual states.

    All said, not all of these seats would go democrat, but the GOP definitely wouldn’t be able to guarantee majorities or stalemates in both houses like they have been for the past 20-30 years. Even if the Trump admin pulled this con off and annexed Canada as a US territory, the GOP would just block entry as a state since I can’t imagine this Congress passing a joint resolution to allow it. Furthermore, Congress doesn’t even have to consider adding a new state even if the population of that territory keep petitioning for it (see ongoing D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood petitions).

    Shit would get really complicated when the US has to handle the dissolution of parliament, withdrawal from the Commonwealth, and Quebec.


  • DOGE was never officially created but the Trump administration instead repurposed the US Digital Service (partially renamed the US DOGE Service). USDS was in charge of digital infrastructure modernization and was originally supposed to be a neutral technology consulting agency across the government. That was their “in” to many other agencies.

    Musk was never appointed because he was “hired” as an executive consultant with a time-limited position instead (see how he is leaving/withdrawing right as that limit is reached).

    Since the USDS is an executive agency, it can be instructed to directly take orders from the president through its agency head and the chain of command. USDS has also primarily infected other executive agencies with executive authorization and the heads of those agencies allowing it to happen (or resigning).

    The majority of Federal agencies fall within control of the Executive Branch.

    Appropriate Constitutional power is moot when the other branches won’t check the Executive. Right now, DOGE is testing the boundaries of executive power at every corner of the government.