I have a dream that one day my writing will not be judged by the frequency of my em dashes, but by the quality of my ideas.

For me, it would take some of the sting out of the break-up.

I would think to myself, “damn, how did I not realize that I was dating a lazy moron?”

“Dear God, thank you for Trump, ICE, and Alligator Auschwitz. Please let our reich last a thousand years.”

I think it’s a bit fatuous to argue that altruism is just self-interest. Sure, people who volunteer or help others in distress usually get some kind of benefit. They feel good about themselves, or they get to live in world that is one trillionth of a percent kinder/happier because of their good deed, etc. But the self-interest argument falls apart when you look at it from a cost/benefit standpoint. Suppose a person spends 2h raising money for the food bank. The hungry people who gets to eat and feed their children benefit the most. The local community benefits a tiny bit, and maybe the volunteer gets a small self-esteem (and other-esteem) boost. On the other hand, if that person were to spend the time earning money for a nice sweater, say, they might get a bigger self esteem boost, a few compliments, and a warm fuzzy garment that lasts for years. The hungry person is still hungry, but remains an abstraction. I would argue that the sweater earner benefitted more than the volunteer. Yet, people still volunteer.

Some people make anonymous donations. Do you really think the self-esteem boost is more valuable than the literal money that person donates?

The argument that the world would be better off if everyone acted in their self interest is ridiculous. That inevitably leads to a might-makes-right system of oppression. The only reason this argument is still being circulated is because shitheads like elon musk, who already has a huge amount of wealth and influence, spam this shit everywhere (on Twitter, Fox News, etc.) to legitimize their undeserved status and evil power.

When trump finally caves and has to kiss Xi’s ass, every newspaper headline better fucking be “the art of the deal”

OP found it tough to thoroughly think this one through.

Insanely rich, Intellect, Invulnerable. You could totally change the world - you would be like Elon Musk with a brain. When the shitty oligarchs throw you out a window, you just bounce.

You may be faster at the till than I am. I admit I lack practice. You make a good point about waiting in line behind slow customers, though. One of the biggest advantages of the self checkout is the single queue. Having six lineups for six checkouts never made sense.

Self checkout is not automated, you fool. you are doing the work for the company. It is not a new technological solution. A human is still working the till.

I have never saved time at a self checkout unless I had 1 item. I am absolutely not interested in looking up the code for a poblano fucking pepper using their shitty menu.

Haha like the ONLY good thing about self checkout is the potential for stealing. As for the small talk thing: the most I’ve ever had to say to a cashier was “hello” and “thank you”. I can handle that.

I can’t even begin to understand the “you are being an asshole” argument. Am I an asshole because I protect jobs? Am I an asshole because I don’t want to pad the earnings of a multi-billion dollar corporation at the expense of workers? No, dude, I am 100% with you. I have abandoned my purchases as well, and I actively avoid stores that push self checkout.

Are people losing their minds, though? I thought the reaction was pretty muted. There was some celebration, to be sure, but I think that is a pretty rational response.

Yes. I would go even further, and say that pollution is the necessary result of capitalism. Capitalism is the mistaken belief that exponential growth can continue forever in a finite ecosystem. My country targets 2-3% growth annually - this implies a doubling of the economy every 30 years or so. It has already been almost 2 doubling periods since human consumption began to exceed the Earth’s sustainable capacity. Even the fucking shithead most responsible, Jeff Bezos, acknowledges the problem. Does anyone really think going to space is just a ‘hobby’ for that sick fuck?

This may sound naive, but I think that most people are good and would favour sound environmental policy if they could count on getting food, shelter, and healthcare without destroying the planet. It is no coincidence that republicans are pro-business and anti-healthcare. Oligarchs want people to remain so desperate that they can never act on their conscience.

Yep. Especially when you’ve been using computers for 40 years, as I have. Do you know how many times MS (or any tech company) has moved each and every button? Do you have any idea how many times something as simple as saving a document has changed since I started my career? Over the years, I have saved documents to at least six different types of physical media including the local hard drive. Then I had to start saving to a network drive, then a different network drive, then a cloud drive, then a different cloud drive. I have worked with Linux, Windows, Mac. Techniques and keyboard shortcuts I learned in the 80s and used for decades get changed/dropped/redesigned. I have had to go back and alter little programs I wrote years ago because the corporate file system was redesigned for the 25th time and now all my file paths have to have forward slashes instead of backslashes for the code to run… When I ask a less experienced colleague where to find the screen share button, it is because I know they have only had to relearn its location 1-3 times, so their memories won’t be all jumbled yet.