For the curious ones, from Psychology Today:

“A larger amygdala is primarily associated with increased anxiety, heightened emotional reactivity, and stress-related disorders, often acting as a hyper-active “threat detector” Symptoms frequently include persistent fearfulness, depression, irritability, and hypervigilance, as the brain over-processes neutral stimuli as threats.”

Whoever made the original meme is an absolute moron.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201311/the-size-and-connectivity-the-amygdala-predicts-anxiety

These days he’s worried about Christo-fascists more than anyone else.

Important to note that Sam Harris argued against Islam as the worst of all evils in the West. He’s no fan of Christians but, at the time, believed he’d rather have Christians running the West than Muslims. At the time, American Christianity was still GWB and Obama’s Christianity, in which case I agreed with Sam. But today? Fuck all of them. Christians, Muslims, Jews. Take your religion and shove it up your asses.

There was a burger place in my town that was owned and operated by a bunch of women who called themselves a lesbian collective. It was a great hang and the burgers were very, very good.

They basically operated on this sentiment. If you were a dick, you were out. If you thought they were being dicks, you either adjusted your attitude or went hungry. Dead simple, and it worked. They were thriving.

And I don’t mean to make it sound like Patrick Swayze was working the door. It was the exact opposite. Good people running a good establishment serving good food who didn’t take shit off assholes. It’s surprising how much better a place feels for the customers when the employees get to have their dignity.

Unfortunately, they closed during COVID like most of the mom & pops around here. I miss it so much.

Maybe. LLMs are free(ish), meanwhile a single trip to the ER can leave a person destitute. Maybe that’s not so bad (it is) if the ER visit is for something actually urgent, but somewhere between 27% and 40% of ER visits are non-urgent and most are treatable by a PCP. But… ERs have to treat you while, in the US, a primary care physician can look you right in the eyes and turn you away because you have no money.

People don’t want to admit that AI does some good because the companies that own these LLMs are as corrupt as any other and the implications of the corruption of this tech are horrifying. But for health care, including mental health, LLMs are an unexpected godsend.

Uscher-Pines, L., Pines, J., Kellermann, A., Gillen, E., & Mehrotra, A. (2013). Emergency Department Visits for Nonurgent Conditions: Systematic Literature Review. American Journal of Managed Care. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4156292/

Raven, M. C., et al. (2024). Emergency Department Visits That Could Be Managed at Other Care Sites. JAMA Network Open. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2813806

Note to self: convince cute guy friend to try Mint.

Thanks for the tip.

This is a hindsight thing. He was just elected. Unlike Trump, we didn’t learn until 2 or 3 years into the war that GWB was an absolute moron. In 2001, everyone got behind him and the military. And that includes just about anyone in this thread who was alive at the time, and likely their entire nation, and that’s a demonstrable fact.

Edit:

Gallup – Retaliation (Sept 2001) https://news.gallup.com/poll/4891/retaliation.aspx

Gallup – No Wavering in Public Support for War Effort (Dec 2001) https://news.gallup.com/poll/5047/wavering-public-support-war-effort.aspx

Gallup – Americans Say U.S. and Allies Winning War on Terrorism (Nov 2001) https://news.gallup.com/poll/5056/americans-say-us-allies-winning-war-terrorism.aspx

Gallup – Views Mixed on War in Afghanistan (historical polling summary) https://news.gallup.com/poll/266546/views-mixed-war-afghanistan.aspx

CNN / USA Today / Gallup Poll (Oct 2001 support for Afghanistan intervention summary) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_public_opinion_on_the_war_in_Afghanistan

Thanks for the explanation.

I guess my only question is: what keeps someone from creating databases of who responds this way or that to this or that category or topic?

Reddit and some others were just accused of handing over to DHS the information of users who had been critical of ICE. Whether that’s true or not, I can’t say (but I wouldn’t be surprised). Can I gather from what you’ve said that the DHS, or anyone really, has direct access to that information on the Fediverse and could create that database after an afternoon with ChatGPT?

If she’s nominated, it’s a fix. Classic authoritarian playbook: maintain the illusion of democracy by propping up an opponent that you aren’t likely to lose to. Then, stuff the ballot boxes anyway.

Yes! (I’m a little biased since it’s my favorite color.)

2010s, OMG they were everywhere. It was just a thing. Veganism became super trendy and people hopped on the bandwagon. Now that it’s not cool anymore, most of them have hopped onto another bandwagon or have aged out of chasing trends altogether. But they’re always out there. Right now, I hear a lot about K-Pop, Formula 1, and… third places. That last one catches me off guard because I have a related degree and when I was in school the concept was relatively obscure, so it catches me off guard, but in a good way (I work in a museum which charges for entry).

Anyway, eventually enough pretentious attention-seekers hop on the bandwagon and annoy enough people that they become the subject of ridicule. They move to the next thing, and the OGs get to be the butt of the joke for a generation. It blows.

Can “Linux” be another color? Red pillers are incel neo-Nazi douchebags.

Excuse me but wtf?

Hey man, if you haven’t figured out yet that these super popular military games are being directed by the government somehow, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Tarnhelm for Android. 👍🏻

This isn’t much of an own. They vibe coded an OS. The fact that it works at all is enough. Days are numbered.

You actually blew my mind here. It never occurred to me that they might actually use ChatGPT to run the country. I was thinking unmanned drones, data combing/surveillance.

🤯🤯

Elaborate, plz.

I’ve never read the Parenti book. Thanks for the recommendation.

Pretty heartbreaking about Chomsky and Epstein. But, you’re right about Manufacturing Consent. Actually, Chomsky wasn’t much more than an editor. All of the key concepts and the methodology were Herman’s. Sure, the book wouldn’t have been so popular without Chomsky’s participation, but Herman could have written the book on his own, no question.

That’s cool then. Terrible haircut though.

Who’s the goober in the circle?