• arthurpizza
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      3710 months ago

      I’d go a step further. Desktop computing as a whole is overkill for most users.

      • Adderbox76
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        2310 months ago

        As much as I’m loathe to admit it, my cheap Asus Chromebook is likely more than what 90 percent of humanity requires. And most of them could easily just get away with using a phone or tablet instead.

        I’m an old school guy. I love a good tower with a pair of monitors and stuff to do my editing and 3D design. But even those intensive tasks are getting better on smaller form factors.

        It’s just not my world anymore. I’ve aged out of it.

        • @shalafi@lemmy.world
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          410 months ago

          I feel all of that. Currently driving an Intel NUC i5, and that’s all I need. Hardly anyone on my block owns a PC, and if they do, it’s ancient and won’t be replaced.

        • @alice_mac@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          This. You only need more than a Chromebook if you’re doing programming, game dev, doing 3D modelling, professional photo or video editing, AI/ML work or music production.

      • @Wogi@lemmy.world
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        610 months ago

        I wanna disagree with this so bad but I’m willing to bet 90% of the business done on desktops could be done in a web browser without much problem. Though I imagine a lot of proprietary software that keeps businesses going benefits from having a desktop. Not that it couldn’t be retooled.

    • @helpmyusernamewontfi@lemmy.today
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      1710 months ago

      I could argue the same thing about Windows 11.

      Can you imagine an average person going into best buy and buying a laptop, maybe in S mode, forced to make a Microsoft account and wait 5-8 minutes updating their machine before they can use it, just for Microsoft edge to pop up asking them to change their accent color. Or downloading a program online and a big old popup comes up saying “Available in the Microsoft Store!”

      I personally argue Linux Mint is awesome and what’s best for most people. my grandma (81) didnt want to switch to 10 or 11 after Windows 7 was going to be EOL, she tried mint and she absolutely loved it.

      • @Secret300@sh.itjust.works
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        1210 months ago

        For me it’s com to a point that drivers are better on Linux. Linux is still missing drivers for a lot of devices but the ones we do have work seamlessly compared to windows

        • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          610 months ago

          I still have issues with fingerprint readers, but other than that, my experience with drivers is waaaaaaaay worse on Windows.

          • @Secret300@sh.itjust.works
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            210 months ago

            I don’t have too much experience with fingerprint readers but the one on my Thinkpad worked. The one on my cousins computer doesn’t because it doesn’t have any drivers

    • @Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world
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      1010 months ago

      I’m a fairly savvy computer user and its always looked like a hassle to me. Maybe I’m just lazy and dont want to put the effort into learning it, but MS practices with windows lately are really pushing me into finally doing it.

      • Adderbox76
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        10 months ago

        The hassle is the price of having more control over what’s happening inside your computer. Some people don’t want to care about that, and for those people, Absolutely it’s too much of a hassle.

        I think the controversial opinion isn’t whether or not Linux is more hassle than Windows or Mac (it is…of course it is), but whether or not that hassle is worth it. Does the extra control over your computer outweigh the few extra things you need to do to keep it running right.

        For me, the answer is yes. I don’t find having to be a little extra careful about some precautions before hitting the update button a huge inconvenience, or working through the occasional glitch when an AUR package upgrades past its dependencies.

        But would that be too much hassle for someone like my mother, for example, who literally just wants to play games on Facebook? Of course. And there’s nothing wrong with thinking that.

        • @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          410 months ago

          The “hassle” depends a lot on what kind of distro/de you’ve been given and how willing you’re to start hassling around.
          When I first decided to try Linux, I was hopping distros and going through every possible way to customize the UX and it was purely TO tinker.

          Now it’s just a fire and forget with Debian stable and GNOME. Just works and doesn’t have too many unnecessary bells and whistles

        • @Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world
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          310 months ago

          Makes sense. Thats about where I’m at. The hassle is worth not having AI sifting through all my personal files and logging every fucking thing I do

      • @HopFlop@discuss.tchncs.de
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        110 months ago

        Maybe one day you just buy another SSD and give it a try on there… Thats how I did it 2 years ago and I couldnt have guessed how much it would eventually, over time, become worth it to me.

        I initially installed PopOS but it worked so well that after 2 weeks I though to myself, “well this is boring, I installed it and now what?” and proceeded to try Arch (unsuccesfully at the time).

    • @Wodge@lemmy.world
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      1010 months ago

      To add to this. Most complaints about windows from linux users are just people who don’t know how to use windows, which is kinda embarrassing considering its the most used OS by a really big margin.

        • @TheBSGamer@lemmy.world
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          210 months ago

          I have another example from a few months ago where a guy was complaining that he couldn’t uninstall Edge without doing a bunch of registry tweaks and unofficial things to remove it, and that was why he switched to Linux. When the Chrome version of Edge came out though, there’s literally a setup.exe that you can run with an uninstall arg and it will uninstall it no questions asked.

          • Hello Hotel
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            110 months ago

            The uninstall button. The game is great and all that, but god it is hard to fully remove all the junk it leaves behind on your system. /s

      • @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        -310 months ago

        Linux based OSes are by far most popular globally. Windows is only super popular on desktops and laptops.

        • @Wogi@lemmy.world
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          1110 months ago

          I’m willing to bet that 95% of the users using a ‘Linux based OS’ would have absolutely no clue, and if you put them in front of a desktop with Linux on it they’d be as lost as anyone else.

          • @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            710 months ago

            I’m willing to bet 95% wouldn’t care, they have their web browser there and that’s all that’s needed.

            I’d even go so far as to say most people would find a stable Linux distro with GNOME easier than Windows. The user experience for most part is closer to that of your Android phone.

            • @Wogi@lemmy.world
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              410 months ago

              That’s kinda my point, Android is a Linux based OS. But go to any random guy with a Samsung and ask him to install Minecraft on a Linux desktop and he’ll have a panic attack.

              • @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                410 months ago

                I wish more distros had flatpak installed by default, so I could just say "same way as on your phone, from ‘app store’ "

                • @TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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                  010 months ago

                  I mean, even if the distro doesn’t have Flathub enabled by default, a program as popular as Minecraft will almost certainly be in the repos anyway.

              • @bbuez@lemmy.world
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                010 months ago

                I mean, you just download the jar installer from the website… I do get your point, but things have changed seemingly over the past few decades, as I’ve only been maining popOS for about 3 years. But I was honestly shocked I could still run so much with near negligible hassle: couple steam games liked an earlier version of proton more, web work I would argue has been easier for the most part

        • @max@feddit.nl
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          110 months ago

          Isn’t that mostly due to Linux being widespread on servers, and by extension Android? (And if we’re talking Unix, then MacOS, too)

      • @viking@infosec.pub
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        210 months ago

        I don’t understand iOS. It’s super unintuitive. Maybe it’s coming from the fact that I grew up in the DOS generation and had to fumble around with everything to get it done, that I am just fundamentally incompatible with a hardened and uncustomizable OS? I keep looking for “obvious” functions that simply don’t exist, and am continuously flabbergasted when someone hands me an iPhone to do something.

        Linux, Windows, Android? I’ll figure it out in seconds.

        • @Eyelessoozeguy@lemmy.world
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          110 months ago

          I also have this problem with apple products, but I hear people tell me it’s more intuitive. Maybe I just havent spend enough time in the whole ecosystem to learn the hieroglyphs.

    • @Xerxos@lemmy.ml
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      Ah, yes - the typical “I don’t like it/it’s too much of a hassle for me therefore it is useless for everybody.”

      Same thinking pattern that prevents the USA from adopting the metric system: I like the old system (because I grew up with it and don’t want to learn something new) therefore the new system is bad.

      These people should really try to be a bit less egocentric. Is it so hard to recognize that the world doesn’t revolve around you?

      • @TheBSGamer@lemmy.world
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        510 months ago

        Dude one of my guys got a ticket yesterday where someone couldn’t figure out how to turn on their monitor and they’re in their 30s.

  • @rowinxavier@lemmy.world
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    Actual direct conspiracy is usually not necessary to achieve the outcomes of most nefarious things people worry about. Two rich people which both want to protect their own wealth can look at each other and their respective actions and then take next steps working to protect their wealth without ever talking to each other and get basically the same outcomes as if they had coordinated. Shared interests and a reasonable understanding of the likely outcomes of choices can be almost as good as direct conspiracy.

    • @shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1210 months ago

      I get beat up every time I post something like this. Almost every nasty thing we see in the world is a simple case of an individual or group working towards their own best interests.

      But why then do people do shitty things that they have to know will hurt someone? It’s not that they’re evil, they just don’t care if you’re not in their Monkeysphere.

      Can’t think of anything I’ve read that puts this together so well. Yeah, I know, cracked.com. Give it a spin, it really changed my thinking about the world. (It’s old so the formatting in kinda hosed up.)

      https://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

      • I read the article. It was entertaining, and there’s definitely a lot of truth in what they write, but I found the whole thing to be, very ironically, over simplified. I think what bothers me the most is the author assumes/implies that human empathy does not extend beyond our line of sight. As if it’s impossible for me to be considerate towards people I don’t know. Which is complete bullshit. Their arguments seem to assume that a general sense of morality does not exist amongst people.

        I, personally, believe that most people are good and value being good. Certainly there are plenty that do not, but I believe they are the minorty. Fortunately my gripes with the article don’t really discount the main point being made, it just suggests that things aren’t as simple as the author tried to make it seem.

    • @TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world
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      910 months ago

      Very good point.

      Remind me of a bit about the oligarchy of various families in early Rome. Even when the families disagreed with each other they never let is spill out into the lower classes. Why ruin a perfect thing?.. then gracchis

  • Kushan
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    6510 months ago

    I’ll bite: most people don’t give a fuck about the fediverse and the hassle of having to understand it all in order to navigate it is only a barrier to entry that will slowly drive away people until the platforms die a slow, painful death.

    Everyone on here saying they like it this way and prefer it over the mess that is Reddit or X are completely missing the point that negative growth will only lead to a failed platform.

    • @EnderMB@lemmy.world
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      1110 months ago

      The fediverse tries to solve a problem that doesn’t exist for everyone, while promoting itself as the solution to everyone’s problem.

      You’re right, most people don’t give a fuck about it, and many of the attitudes on Lemmy aren’t shared by the vast majority of people. That’s not necessarily a problem, but it is if you think that Lemmy is going to suddenly overtake Reddit.

      • @AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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        210 months ago

        The Fediverse tries to solve a problem that doesn’t exist for everyone

        I beg to differ. Twitter and Reddit CEOs having meltdowns affect more or less everybody who uses those platforms, don’t they? Learning how the Fediverse works is a small price to pay for a guarantee that their platform will never disappear out from under them again.

        • @EnderMB@lemmy.world
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          110 months ago

          Twitter and Reddit CEOs having meltdowns affect more or less everybody who uses those platforms, don’t they?

          Not really. On many popular subs, most users seemed to be pissed off that mods were closing due to API calls blocking third-party apps. As for Twitter, those that just ignore Musk’s antics probably haven’t noticed a significant difference.

          Learning how the Fediverse works is a small price to pay for a guarantee that their platform will never disappear out from under them again.

          Many of these people have had accounts on these sites for over a decade, which is probably the longest account they’ve ever had outside of email. Nothing has changed for them.

          Even if it did, people want to go where others are. No fediverse product has anywhere near enough people to make the switch worth it for anything outside of niche topics. Hell, even Threads is a bit empty for the average person, and most see it as a billionaire retaliation to Musk.

          So yeah, a manufactured problem for the few.

    • @AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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      910 months ago

      Why will growth be negative? At worst it will be zero. Once people get over the initial hurdle of figuring out how federation works they don’t tend to leave. We’ll have slower growth than non federated platforms because of it, sure, but we aren’t going to lose users.

    • @Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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      510 months ago

      Where I have (mostly) found myself freed of political extremists and bots on lemme, they’ve been replaced by relentlessly hubristic tech pedants who can find fault with anything I can think of to say.

      So it’s gone from infuriating to endlessly aggravating. I guess that’s an improvement?

  • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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    5910 months ago

    Marketing should be banned.

    Its sole purpose is to get people to buy shit they do not need, in order to make someone more money than they deserve. All through manipulation of your brain.

    It’s the sole reason we are over consuming.

      • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        10 months ago

        Consumers would just search for those kinds of products themselves if they encounter a problem they feel the need to improve. They don’t need to be told those products exist.

        • @Moghul@lemmy.world
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          210 months ago

          This is objectively not true. Not everyone has every idea to solve every problem. Sometimes someone fixes a problem you didn’t know you had. Happens all the time in hobbying for example.

    • @niktemadur@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      In a platonic world, marketing is for getting word out to the community of a product or service. For example - “I suddenly need a back doctor and don’t know any”, or - “I wish there was some place in town that had organic shallots and asparagus and watercress, locally-sourced honey”.

      In the real world, the tool is used and abused beyond the breaking point; before we even realized how we got there, we were bombarded by insurance ads from all sides simultaneously. Political ads. Male enlargement pills. Online casinos. Pharmaceuticals, with the fast-talking asshole at the end warning about “suicidal thoughts” and “serious risk of stroke” that comes along with their shit product.

      The platonic ideal of marketing is always there. There is a flow of useful information. Unfortunately, it’s buried and intertwined with a flood of noise and excrement.

    • ComradeSharkfucker
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      Not as hot a take as you might think. It can’t happen of course, at least not under our current economic structure

  • DumbAceDragon
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    10 months ago

    Copyright and intellectual property as a whole is actually bad for artists and authors and only serves the interests of large corporations.

    • SuperDuper
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      2610 months ago

      You think that opinion is gonna cause you to be bombarded on Lemmy?

    • @PoolloverNathan@programming.dev
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      2010 months ago

      The idea of coffee copyright is good, but corporate lobbying and the current most-money-wins legal system makes our implementation of copyright harmful. TL;DR: Interface good, implementation bad.

      • DumbAceDragon
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        10 months ago

        I think even the interface is just intended as a band-aid fix for the current economic system (not gonna say the C word). In a better world art and media would be a public good.

        But I do get your point. Could absolutely be improved for the current system.

        • BlueKey
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          110 months ago

          No copyright need a nearly ideal system, where the people go to the original creator by themselves to get more content.

          But in the current reality, without copyright big coperations would just take the stuff of indi creators and get bigger because the masses know them and stay by them.

    • @AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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      910 months ago

      While I agree that this is true currently, I do not believe that it necessarily must be. Life plus 70 years is some top-tier bullshit, and no one who isn’t a corporate bigwig will fight you on that. But 20 years from release date is not, especially if enforced equally on all creative works instead of just the ones made by artists who can afford corporate lawyers. Imagine if we had some way to protect against art theft or freebooting besides the honor system. Imagine if OpenAI actually had to pay artists to use their works to train Midjourney instead of just saying “it would be impossible to do this without massive amounts of copyright infringement, therefore you should just let us.”

  • @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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    3810 months ago

    we’re gonna let religious idiots and selfish fuckwits destroy the entire ecosystem because they’re too fucking stupid to understand simple science and too immature to realize they’re the fucking problem.

    • ComradeSharkfucker
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      It’s not as simple as stupid group of people does bad things. There is a clear and powerful monetary motivation to harm the environment and the people responsible are well aware of what they are doing. They simply do not care.

      The climate deniers are not the problem and it isn’t every individuals responsibility to dramatically alter their lives and consumption for the smallest effect on our environment. Your average climate denier denier does not make this better obviously but they are a victim of an intentionally deceitful propaganda campaign

      • @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        510 months ago

        they disproportionately spew carbon into the atmosphere intentionally subverting their vehicle’s emission reduction technology purposely for the ability to offend the libs.

        I agree with your premise, but think it’s in addition to the principles I suggested, not instead.

    • GladiusB
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      910 months ago

      I wish I could tell every single one this. But they are too dumb to get it.

      • @mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        510 months ago

        yup. had someone in another thread, today, say that covid was the same thing as the flu and wearing ‘pantyliners’ on our faces was because we were scared.

        1.2 million dead americans, 1500+ dead every week for 3 years on average… the only thing I’m scared of is letting morons like that make decisions that impact the rest of society. If only they realized they don’t live in bubbles and cooperating is mutually beneficial, but that would take a modicum of grey matter that they apparently cannot muster.

    • @TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      A lotta internet atheists seem to care more about hating the specific flavor of Christianity they grew up under and didn’t like than the concept of religion in general, but they view those two things as one and the same.

      They cry foul at (admittedly, abhorrent) outlier behavior and use that as a generalization against a globe of different religious practices without knowing how they affect the day to day lives of various practitioners.

      It seems to me they have a larger problem with vulgar hypocrisy and abuse of institutional power than the concept of theism in general.

      Like the people hypothetically sentenced to work a restaurant service job so that they’re more empathetic to wait staff, I think many internet atheists would do well with a stint as a half-practicing Protestant who’s mostly in it for the potlucks or a Reform Jew who prefers to party most Fridays, but makes a point of showing up on High Holidays to catch up with acquaintances.

      • @A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world
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        710 months ago

        internet atheists

        I’m really into theological debate/discussion but I gotta admit, I cannot stand atheist communities online. I want to believe all the vitriol and seething is coming from kids who haven’t processed their religious trauma… But I get the feeling at least half of it is adults with nothing better to rail against

      • TheWoozy
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        710 months ago

        Militant Evangelical Atheists are the worst. Give me a good laid back agnostic any day.

        • @Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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          910 months ago

          The phrase “treat science like religion” may be applicable to a few atheists but it’s also often exaggerated to discredit science’s position of authority.

          • @wewbull@iusearchlinux.fyi
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            410 months ago

            There a lot of people who aren’t scientifically minded that treat scientific knowledge just like scripture. It comes from wize people and they just trust and accept it unquestioningly.

            Those who practise science know that all knowledge is to be questioned, and everything needs evidence. They also know that everything we “know” is most likely wrong. It’s just the best explanation we have so far and that’s a good thing.

        • @MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world
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          610 months ago

          Science is not something you can believe in, it’s reality with evidence. It’s a method of finding evidence to explain reality, and when new evidence is found, the explanation, or understanding, is changed, not the reality. The scientific method has been developed, and changed, to try really hard to remove inherent bias. For reference, pick ANY science that you feel attracted to and dive in. Start in at the beginning, or middle, or with the most recent developments. The more evidence you evaluate for bias and truth, the more connections you make trying to grok it all, the more you’ll appreciate our best attempts to eak out fundamental truths that exist with or without your beliefs. I love science not because I believe in it, I love it because it reveals truth despite me. My favorite part now is that we are discovering that there are truths we can never know because of the physical limitations of our meat brains, so we’re building machine brains to explain it to us. Evidence showed that the universe was probably 13.8 billion years old, now James Webb is showing evidence that contradicts that. Square roots of negative numbers, imaginary numbers, in the 1500’s were thought to be useless, now we understand them enough to make cell phones communicate. You can’t BELIEVE in science, you can only use that CURRENT method to try and understand and then harness reality. Who knows, maybe one day science will discover the gods or god, or help us create them.

        • VulKendov
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          610 months ago

          I don’t think it’s treating science as a religion, as it is treating their atheism as a religion.

    • @tubaruco@lemm.ee
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      1210 months ago

      this is just true. first time i saw the atheist memes community i thought “huh that seems interesting” then i looked at whats in there and “huh these people just hate cristianity and barely even give good reasons for it”

      • @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1610 months ago

        No one hates religion as much as those who got free of it. It’s quite valid reason.

        It’s of course always big news when another pastor was raping kids, but it’s only the iceberg of the violence kids experience in religious homes.

        • it hurts my soul hearing how parents treat their kids because of “the bible”

          if they actually read the bible they’d understand that no, you shouldn’t throw away your kid out on the street because they’re “sinful”.

          • @hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 months ago

            I feel like if most Christians would read and understand the bible, they wouldn’t be Christians anymore

            • juiceclaws
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              010 months ago

              It’s be interesting if churches started requiring Bible reading and comprehension exams before people were allowed to attend service and call themselves Christians (or whatever other denomination)

        • @tubaruco@lemm.ee
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          110 months ago

          yeah, i guess i just got very lucky with my parents so thats not how i feel, thanks for giving me a different way to think about it.

    • DumbAceDragon
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      610 months ago

      Internet atheism has just always been pretty bad. I enjoy a good joke about religion but some people take it to extremes.

    • @EnderMB@lemmy.world
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      610 months ago

      If you consider atheism to be a belief system in itself, online atheists are often a great way to dissuade people from lapsing away from organised religion.

    • Lemminary
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      I’m a very well domesticated atheist, tyvm!

      E: Jfc, it’s just a joke…

    • @anonymouse
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      -110 months ago

      They may not all be pedos, but a lot more are assholes who hate homosexuals and trans persons, or assholes who want to deny women their reproductive rights, or assholes who keep voting for far-right extremists. Just because a lot of Christians are “nice people” doesn’t mean that their ideology causes any less harm.

      • I must’ve grew up in a very different household then most American’s. Practicing religion with my family the Christian ideology shouldn’t be any of those things, it should be to spread peace and love, “love thy neighbor”.

        Anyone who’s a far right extremist especially in 2024 I completely agree are all assholes, but I hope I can reiterate that “Trumps Christians” is its own religion and ideology entirely, and a lot of other people, especially those practicing religion in other countries, are actually those peace wanting love spreading people that Jesus was actually trying to spread to his followers, we are commanded not to judge others for we do not have the right to judge, but also not to condemn others for the same reason. Instead, we’re commanded to spread peace and love to all of God’s children. That’s at least what I’ve been taught in my church, my family, and by reading the bible myself. We do not agree with those ideologies (being a general dick head, being judgmental, harassing people, restricting woman’s rights, etc etc) and anyone who does may believe in Jesus but are not followers of him if thats their purpose in life. And it sucks ever since Trump we’ve all been categorized into that group and painted as the same thing, which is what makes me despise him even more.

        It seriously hurts to see how many Church’s and Christians have become so unbelievably fucking evil in the states.

    • @shalafi@lemmy.world
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      810 months ago

      Love the movies, can’t get through 2 chapters of the books. I’ve easily read 1,000+ books, and I’m very forgiving, i.e., not picky. But I just can’t get into Tolkien.

      • TheWoozy
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        510 months ago

        Loved the books (read 'em mutiple times) but didn’t care for the movies. Not even the look of them (the film was over exposed with an ugly color palet).

      • ThePowerOfGeek
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        110 months ago

        I hear ya. I found the first half of Fellowship to be excruciating to read. Especially the Tom Bombadil stuff. I gritted my teeth and struggled through it. Then when they get to the barrow downs it really picks up, and I enjoyed the second half of the book.

        I found Two Towers a really fun read.

        I found Return of the King to be okay. Pace was decent but Tolkien’s over the top, grandious writing style in that book got kind of annoying.

        Not sure if this helps you, but I thought I’d share my thoughts just in case.

    • Adderbox76
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      710 months ago

      I absolutely hated them the first time I watched them in the theatre. Years and years later I watched them on my sofa, in my living rooms, and finally enjoyed them.

      They were too long and drawn out of a story to be engaged by surrounded by screaming children and teenagers yapping to each other.

      Watching it at home it went from something I hated to one of my favourites.

    • @Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      510 months ago

      The Two Towers remains to this day the only book that I was reading by my own choice that I skipped parts of. Maybe I’d read them if I was reading it today (it was the history lecture part, I wanted them to get on with the story but might appreciate the history more now), but I don’t really care to read Tolkien again. I’ll always appreciate what he did for the fantasy genre, but it has evolved beyond him now IMO.

  • verity_kindle
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    2910 months ago

    Black tea is superior to coffee, because the caffeine rush is much more pleasant and the crash is mild. It’s better at helping you focus and improving your mood. Tea doesn’t wreck your stomach lining and turn you into a raving looney when you can’t get it. It’s cheaper than coffee, pound for pound. The people who run the world are all tea drinkers.

    • @viking@infosec.pub
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      310 months ago

      The EU version differs from the US version, and even the EU recipe was tampered with and now contains way fewer hazelnuts. The pre-2000 generation was peak nutella. No idea what letter you associate with those folks, I’m way out of the loop.

      • @niktemadur@lemmy.world
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        610 months ago

        Let’s be honest: way more people than we would like to admit gravitate towards junk content on their own, most of the time.
        Celebrity gossip and conspiracies, reactionary politics and pseudo-science.

        There is a ton and a half of extraordinary educational content on places like YouTube. Say you start watching videos from the PBS Spacetime channel, then start watching what the algorithm throws at you. Pretty soon you’ll be getting things like Cambridge physics lectures on your feed. Then suddenly videos about mathematical equations start appearing, another rabbit hole opening up before your eyes.

        The algorithm is an incredibly powerful tool, and just like a knife or a blowtorch, it can be mishandled and/or abused.

        So you give people the tool, people start inputting shit into the tool, and when shit comes out the other end, it’s all about “oh look… it’s the fault of capitalism!”

        Maybe capitalism seems mediocre because people are mediocre.
        They rant about how there’s no good options, you give them a good option, they stare at it blankly for a second before turning their backs on it, to keep on ranting about how there are no good options, and how it’s exclusively the fault of some pig in a suit in New York City, or some librul mooslem-lovin’ gay commie bastard from Hollywood.

        • @AnAngryAlpaca@feddit.de
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          210 months ago

          The algorithm is an incredibly powerful tool, and just like a knife or a blowtorch, it can be mishandled and/or abused.

          Yes, but the people who decided how the algo should work on youtube decided it should increase watch time and ad revenue, not quality content. Same with facebook. I dont want to have to chooce between good and clickbait content, the same way i dont want to have to choose between unhealty or good food options in the supermarket.