621–630 of 1001 posts
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Bullshit. Most people can afford grabbing a beer in a supermarket and going to the park. They just choose not to. I think the real change is that nowadays it's just easier and more practical NOT to maintain friendships. Yes, it's lonely, but it's more efficient.
Drinking outdoors (let alone at a public park) is just not a thing outside Europe.
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Yeah totally. Eating less than you feel like is hard and GLP is great for that. I was fat as a kid and then lost it all in high school (and got too skinny). Maybe as a result of that it’s easy for me to not eat. I kinda don’t even realize I’m hungry. Had to start tracking calories to ensure I eat enough.
One thing I am wondering about is that if months on GLP drugs is going to help with self-regulation. Maybe if you force yourself to eat less for a prolonged time (2-3 years) with the help of drugs then the body internalizes eating less as the norm. We will see in a few years I guess. I am hoping for at least weak effect like that.
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Life is about gathering resources and using them to reproduce. Humans like being social because for thousands of years it was more efficient to do that socially. Nowadays it's not.
In what way is not being social a successful strategy for reproduction nowadays?
> Even in a world brimming with easy distractions—TikTok, Pornhub, Candy Crush, Sudoku—people still manage to meet for drinks, work out at the gym, go on dates, muddle through real life. They actually don't. Everything from dating and fitness to manufacturing and politics is in decline in activities, and more so in effect and understanding. You can't convince (enough) people anymore that it is even important as many…
"TikTok, Pornhub, Candy Crush, Sudoku" has never been a replacement for "meet for drinks, work out at the gym, go on dates"
To be fair, I have not used TikTok or Candy Crush, but let's say Youtube Shorts and a random video game instead. Still does not compute.
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This comment makes me so sad- I mean this genuinely, looking at your comment history its clear you've fallen into the far right rabbit hole, and this is what "catch you when you say something they don't like" means. No shade to you, there are hundred billion dollar campaigns waged to trap people in ideas like those that are designed to be isolating. But their goal is to push you away from friends and family and towar…
> you've fallen into the far right rabbit hole, and this is what "catch you when you say something they don't like" means It might be true for this particular person, but people being a live minefield waiting to blow up in your face is more general experience. Regardless of your views, no matter how benign and out of mainstream controversy you perceived them to be, they will be taken as a reason to view you negativel…
No, not regardless of the views. The views themselves matter.
> Even in a world brimming with easy distractions—TikTok, Pornhub, Candy Crush, Sudoku—people still manage to meet for drinks, work out at the gym, go on dates, muddle through real life. They actually don't. Everything from dating and fitness to manufacturing and politics is in decline in activities, and more so in effect and understanding. You can't convince (enough) people anymore that it is even important as many…
Though it's popularized to blame social media and phones, economics should not be overlooked. Pay for young generations is lagging and restaurants and bar prices are super high. Public spaces for informal gatherings has shrunk - eg fewer malls
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On your last point, I've noticed an uptick in folks treating their dogs in ways most people might treat their children. So while I think on paper what you say makes sense, at some point, I think people are in fact personifying their pets to a degree that they recognize them as adjacent to human beings.
But in the end, the chickens always come home to roost. Dogs cannot support you in your old age; they cannot give you the pride of seeing a child go off to college; they cannot captivate you with conversations as they grow into full adults; and of course, they die far, far earlier than you. Similarly, the AI companions we create will be simulacra of the real thing. It's hard to say what exactly the differences will b…
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> When an 8oz cocktail costs you an hour of your life I don't know about that, we meet with a group of friends at someone's house, we all pitch in for the ingredients and make the cocktails ourselves.
It feels weird to read all these responses from people who think the only way to socialize is to pay high prices at bars and coffee shops. It’s like how someone who avoids socialization imagines what socialization looks like. I hope some people are reading this thread and realizing it’s not as expensive as they assume to go out and do things. There are many people out there making a fraction of what most readers here…
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My nihilism is exacerbated by the people who are actively making the problem worse and viciously attacking anyone who criticizes the problem or proposes solutions. IMO some activists are exploiting homeless people and drug addicts for power and profit.
I think your last sentence is full of shit, and I'm not even saying it's wrong. What I am saying is that even if "activists" are doing... whatever, I kinda don't give a fuck? These are people. Human beings. The only shit people seem to give is to get them out of their sight and make them somebody else's problem.
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But in the end, the chickens always come home to roost. Dogs cannot support you in your old age; they cannot give you the pride of seeing a child go off to college; they cannot captivate you with conversations as they grow into full adults; and of course, they die far, far earlier than you. Similarly, the AI companions we create will be simulacra of the real thing. It's hard to say what exactly the differences will b…
And if your kid has downs or gets hit by a car or is an addict or a fuck up, they're not going to be able to support you into old age either. And then you're responsible for them as well, until you're too old and senile yourself, and then what? That's not to say don't have kids, but go into it with your eyes open, don't assume they're your lifeline to the future.
I encounter a lot of people my age and younger whose own retirement plant is basically:
Plan A: Miraculously get rich
Plan S: When severe disability or pain hits, find the exit.
Maby it’s the lifelong depression, the disappointment at what the future’s become, or the hopelessness that society can escape neo-feudalism to something better, but there’s a noticeable decrease in the desire to keep living at any cost. Who knows whether we’ll actually see this start to see this express in the next few decades.