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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • I agree with his premise that the knowledge and ability to manufacture stuff needs to be maintained. Not from a xenophobic/sinophobic position, but for practical reasons. If it’s forgotten then no one can compete to make a cheaper or improved/different product. There’s also an issue of if a war breaks out and supply lines are stopped (whether that’s war with China or someone else who can attack supply lines). It’s best if everyone in the world has access to manufacturing so people can have access to different jobs they may be better at or having the capability to create things that they couldn’t otherwise.

    Now, there is an argument that a reliance on international trade prevents war. That is something to consider. China and the US are reluctant to go to war because they’d both be crippled by it even without considering combat. I don’t think this is great justification though, but it is something to think about.


  • All animals want to keep living, that’s literally why animals evolved brains in the first place, to keep their bodies alive for as long as possible.

    Absolutely not. Brains evolved because it gave an evolutionary advantage. They developed from just sensing light, giving an adavtange to finding food, into more complex forms, but every stage is just because it allowed them to survive long enough to reproduce usually, and, for most animals, not much longer. Most animals don’t have an advantage to keeping elderly populations alive. At best, they’re a drain on resources and can’t contribute with fighting, hunting, foraging, or whatever else. Humans are special in that we can pass down information, and elderly people have amassed a lifetime of information. Animals in nature don’t really survive that long, so there is not an evolutionary pressure for what you’re claiming. Their bodies failing is literally evidence to the contrary.

    As far as I know, no animal (at least the animals we keep as pets) have an instinct to just give up and stop going through the motions of life past a certain age. Doesn’t that imply they always want to live?

    This isn’t totally true. Some things will cause them to stop going through the motions that keep them alive. Regardless, performing the actions that are baked into us evolutionarily does not equal a conscious choice. We (animals) will almost always eat, drink, sleep, etc. even if we want to die. If not, suicidal people would just decide to stop, instead of having to do more extreme things. Evolution has baked behaviors into us that are hard to overcome, even if we’re conscious of it.

    I consider the decision to no longer live past a certain age and certain number of health problems to be a uniquely human thing…

    I find this weird. It may be (unprovable either way), but you’re ascribing so many human traits to these animals, but then refusing to entertain the idea that they may want to die in order to stop being in pain. Why? I feel like you’re showing some biases here, and if you really want to understand your opinion you need to figure out what that is.

    But if they don’t die right after taking them off life support, you can’t just straight up kill them, they need to die by themselves. Why isn’t this philosophy applied to pets, who can never consent to euthanasia?

    The difference is the pet will never be able to consent. I assume the rule of taking them off life support exists to require it to take time. This way they have a small window where they could come to. I don’t know though. It could also be a morality thing of not wanting to actively take a person’s “life” (if you can call it that). I suspect this could change in the future, with increasing acceptance of assisted suicide, for example. Making them die from (presumably) dehydration seems much more cruel to me if they can feel anything.

    I don’t have a strong opinion either way. Do what you think is right for your pet. In my opinion though, suffering is something that should be minimized. That’s true for raising animals for food, for humans, for pets, etc. It depends on the pet, but if they are in constant pain and can’t really live life on their own (which would cause them to die in nature) then I’d consider euthanasia. I would at least not consider doing any expensive or invasive healthcare to keep them alive.



  • Yeah, I think it should still be legal. I don’t think the government should be given the responsibility (and authority) to be people’s doctors. We need laws that prevent you from doing harm to others, like DUI laws, but them determining if it’ll harm yourself? I don’t think that should be for them to decide. If we do that then you end up with Puritans saying something like “clouding your mind is causing harm to yourself” or something like that and it’s all illegal.

    Not everyone is going to do it. That’s a slippery slope fallacy. Regardless, it’s going to be done anyway. Making it illegal only pushes it underground and makes it more dangerous. I’d rather it be done openly where people can make informed decisions and not feel endangered by asking for help.


  • Honestly, in my opinion, even the “illegal” use should be legal. I’m not a drug addict (besides caffeine), but I have a very progressive opinion of drugs. People are going to use them whether it’s legal or not. All that making it illegal does is pushes it into the shadows. Instead we should be providing education and testing, and helping people who choose (or have gotten stuck) using the drug to use it safely.

    Fentanyl isn’t evil. It’s just a particularly strong opiate. It has the potential to at least be a cheaper option for people using opiates to self medicate, and, at least with testing kits, they could get whatever fix they want more safely. The biggest issue with fentanyl is that other drugs are laced with it, and you don’t know what, or how much, you’re getting.



  • Linus Tech Tips. It used to be good informative content. After they moved from the house in particular it started to really ramp up the clickbait. It just didn’t feel like it was still about technology. It felt like it was about whatever gags they could throw into technology related videos.

    The all the controversies happened after I had already unsubbed. Yeah, I don’t know how people still engage with that channel.





  • They aren’t as bad as .ml or Hexbear, but some of the communities are apparently not great. I haven’t been banned, but I’ve heard from other people who have for pretty minor things. They definitely aren’t the least aggressive. There’s a lot of instances out there.

    Regardless, it’s the largest instance. We should I courage people to spread out.


  • Cethin@lemmy.ziptoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldWhat brought you to Lemmy?
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    8 days ago

    Lol. Reddit hasn’t been leftist in a long time if it ever really was. There were some leftist spaces, and I guess a lot of users were left-of-center, but the platform certainly wasn’t.

    I came over here when they blocked third party apps. I didn’t join earlier because I thought it’d be similar to Voat, which was apparently horrible and an alt-right cesspool. I was pleasantly surprised. I like that people can have actual discussions here without things being flooded by thousands of comments.

    Also, since you’re new, I’d recommend against Lemmy.world. They’re a little aggressive with moderation. They’re the largest instance, which is another reason to go somewhere else. The fediverse works best when no one instance controls it.