Final Duck

I’m working on getting my @finalduck back.

[pyrebomb]

The thing that continues to fuck me up about the pandemic is that ableds had one month at most of living like us — having their comings and goings limited by outside factors beyond their control — and rather than emerging from that experience with any newfound perspective or empathy, it pushed them into full-blown eugenics. The immunocompromised should just stay home forever because somehow that thing our disabled asses have managed to do consistently for the past 7 years is just too difficult for the ableds. They have *compassion fatigue* from having to consider their own mortality for two years at most, but we're supposed to have endless patience for them as even our medical facilities continue to put our lives and health at risk. If anybody should have compassion fatigue, it's the disabled. I'm sick of your fucking bullshit!

[unclerester]

Same.

[prokopetz]

Level 1: Asylums are scary because there's crazy people there.

Level 2: We shouldn't treat mental health facilities as objects of horror because it stigmatises mental illness.

Level 3: Asylums are scary because there's psychiatrists there.

[395nm]

Level 4: You're not allowed to leave. The stuff you need in order to function is available or not depending on the whims of the orderlies, who at best don't care and at worst are violent bigots

[swiftrunnerfelidae]

every so often I remember when they crashed a train into a nuclear waste storage container, on purpose, to demonstrate how durable they were, and the storage container didn't lose any measurable containment whatsoever.

meanwhile, coal power plants can spray radioactive coal ash willy-nilly into the atmosphere all day and all night, but noooo, it's nuclear power that's the scary bad polluter.

[environmentalagony]

But the triple baka of wind, solar and hydro are right there... complete renuable sources of energy that are even cheaper alternatives... please

[swiftrunnerfelidae]

We should eventually transition purely to renewables, yes. But wind can't be placed everywhere, solar doesn't work at night and also can't be placed everywhere, and hydro is even more restrictive in its placement. Until we crack those problems, we will need to place power plants in places where hydro, solar, and wind are bad options, and when we do, I'm looking at nuclear far more easily than I'm looking at coal and oil.

[finalducc]

Plus the fact that Fossil Fuel Power Plants can be converted into Nuclear ones.

That's probably better for the environment than demolishing them.

[system32sys-hub]

get more anti school now btw. the school system does inhumane shit to countless youth and it's only getting worse.

you work 5 days a week for 8 hours at a very intense job with multiple skills required. you have 5 minutes to grab all of your very heavy tools and navigate to the opposite end of the building when you change shifts. you get a single 30 minute lunch. you have to exercise, regardless of illness, neurodivergence or disability for an hour and you don't get to choose what you do. you have hours of the same work to do at home. also if you fuck any of this up, or do it the wrong way, or stop showing up, you will be punished and your caretakers could go to jail.

maybe you have the choice to do this all at home. the only difference is that you don't have to transport as much. so you're stuck in one spot, alone, head down, working like you usually would otherwise.

completely inhumane, right? but sure, "kids these days are..." alive people who think and feel. you should not torture children.

kids are natural learners. putting them in what is effectively a prison for the first 18 years of their life does not do anything but make capitalists happy.

[drifter-of-jet]

It sucks because it makes you hate learning, and being forced to do shit by teachers who legitimately don’t give a fuck about you and only want a paycheck is basically mental torture especially for neurodivergent people.

Kids are told to retain their childlike wonder and have fun while your a young dumb teen yet they don’t allow you to do that, so it’s literally a paradox.

If you don’t completely memorize information like what adaptations an urban hawksbeard flower has over a nonurbanized hawksbeard and get it wrong on a test then your grade goes down. the grade that represents your worth and work in your future.

Memorization of useless information is prioritized more than actual fucking learning and it’s so fucking annoying.

Just let me live my life before I try to kill myself again because of all of this shit.

[anistarrose]

if you are a parent, or may become one, or you are otherwise likely to arrive in the situation of caring for a child while they eat, promise me this: if a child doesn't like a certain food or food group, you will ask them WHY. and specifically, you will pay attention to either confirming or ruling out "it makes my mouth itch" or "it makes my stomach hurt," both of which are medically important info that children may not provide unprompted. which i know because this PSA has been brought to you by "i spent my entire childhood and much of my early teens eating peas and lentils while wondering why everyone else liked the Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation so much, like were they a bunch of legume masochists or something, before i finally realized that Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation was in fact a sinister demon appearing only to me, and her true demonic name was: Legume Allergy"

[brainrockets]

Do not let your child suffer from spicy bananas!

[professor-indigo-bastard]

this and please dont forcefeed children anything really. you never know if your kid has allergies, ARFID, autism or so many other reasons to "validly" dislike a food. on top of that: what if they "*just*" dont like it?

kids are humans, respecting their boundaries should be normal. this shit gets traumatising really fast.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

I am learning some fascinating things today about what people think is a normal amount of storage space for a computer.

I realise I'm an outlier (custom 20TB network storage server cobbled together with used parts) but I am getting second-hand claustrophobia trying to imagine only having 256GB for my entire digital life

a refurbished 1TB hard drive costs £20 at your local electronics recycling charity. please treat yourself

[ihavenocluewhatiwanttobecalled]

I have a local electronics recycling charity??

[depsidase]

[janedoodlee]

being anti ai is like. everywhere there's ads for NEW! ARSENIC SMOOTHIE! THE SMOOTHIE OF THE FUTURE! And you are like "hey, uh, maybe arsenic smoothie isn't such a good idea?" but everyone around you is saying "no, it's so convenient, it saves so much time, everyone drinks it already."

Your friends drink it (but only for fun, never for important stuff). Your classmates are obsessed with it. Your teachers say students aren't allowed to have arsenic smoothies in school, then immediately take a sip of their arsenic smoothie. There's ads recommending it for pregnant women and birthday parties and pet owners and grandparents and every possible thing you can think of. You try to buy a smoothie, it's got arsenic in it. You go to a different shop, also arsenic. You go to a smoothie shop with your family and they call you dramatic when you ask if the smoothies have arsenic in them. There's children's toys that make arsenic smoothies from voice command. Why would you have a heartfelt moment with your loved ones preparing a smoothie with the fruits you grew together when you can order a box of arsenic smoothies by arsenic smoothie drone, same-hour delivery? It's so much easier, it's so much more convenient, everyone already does it, everyone in the future will drink it anyway, we have to adapt.

All the big arsenic smoothie companies are squashing the regular smoothie businesses under their boots made of cash and bones. You point out that that's kinda bad, but everyone just says the smoothie businesses have to adapt, this is the age of arsenic smoothies after all.

There's overwhelming evidence that arsenic smoothies are bad in every possible aspect, but everyone around you chooses to ignore it, because it's so much easier, it's so much more convenient, everyone already does it, everyone in the future will drink it anyway, we have to adapt.

No one will shut up about adapting.

[draconym]

i would rather see the information for an event handwritten in sharpie on a paper towel than see another AI generated flyer

[aj-living-life]

Saving this post to show my boss who I told the AI flier makes us look lazy and ignorant, and offered to hand draw one. She still printed tons of ai fliers and I'm tempted to make a better one just because it annoys me so much.

[aj-living-life]

Fun update: event was canceled because literally nobody rsvp'd to the AI flier.

[catdile]

Hi Apple users, Apple released a fun thing where they take your photos and Siri transcripts and use them to train AI! And they may be automatically turned on without your knowledge, because oh boy they sure were for me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Open the “apps” section in your settings (it’s usually at the very bottom), go to photos and scroll until you see “Enhanced Visual Search” and then turn that shit off. Then go to “Privacy and Security”, scroll until you see “Analytics & Improvements”, and turn off “Improve Siri & Dictation” as well.

​I am an artist with hundreds upon hundreds of my artworks in my photo album. I also have plenty of photos with not only my own face, but the faces of my friends and my family. I do not appreciate that being used to train AI without my consent, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same for others too.

I’m so tired of big companies.

EDIT: I made a mistake this feature isn’t used to train AI, but it does still take your photos to be analyzed by AI. This is a feature that was automatically turned on without notice, giving nobody the option to turn it off or on until they find it themselves.

[mycotoxin]

I think people disregard children/family media way too quickly, because some of y’all can’t even understand the basic concept of SHREK? I do not think you are as above kids media as you think

[mycotoxin]

Way too many people misunderstand the moral message of Shrek - that you shouldn’t make judgments of someone based on their appearance.

I’ve seen too many people say that the message of shrek is “don’t marry an ugly man, because he’ll make you ugly too!!!” The fuck? And I just saw someone criticize Shrek for giving him a round nose, because they perceive it as anti-black since he’s supposed to be “ugly”. The point is that there is nothing wrong with Shrek OR Fiona.

[the-bar-sinister]

I'm sorry you've seen people who think the message is "an ugly man will make you ugly"??????

I literally cannot conceptualize a more extreme misreading of Shrek's message than that, I'm truly flabbergasted.

[chelonianmobile]

Also, Shrek's nose shape doesn't even change between his ogre and human forms?

[sodomit]

Regardless of how wronged and hurt you are, regardless how much of a horrible piece of shit the other person is being, you still should not say bigoted things about them.

Bigotry is not a more advanced degree of insults that stings more, it's a reinforcement of the framework where certain marginalized traits are inferior. This is not about you and that person. This is about the society you live in.

[sodomit]

The concept of "screen time" for youth is bonkers.

How about "friends you don't have to pretend around" time.

"Uncensored access to information" time.

"Equal opportunity for respect" time.

"Being able to walk away from people who are trying to harass you" time.

Is that why adults are so insistent on limiting it? Because they don't want youth to have these things?

[sodomit]

I mean, I had no access to anything internet related up to age 16-17, and only had a couple of hours a week of directly monitored desktop use up to 18. I regularly went out, because I lived in a house with a big garden.

I still ended up with progressively worsening vision, which is genetic and inherited from my dad (who didn't have any devices in his youth at all). I still ended up with severe derealization, that I struggle with to this day, because I was still alienated from "adult" life and had my sense of self devalued.

I don't think any of that can realistically be fixed by family members enforcing rules and regulations onto kids and teens. Especially when it comes to trauma.

[moran-with-a-g]

Yeah I left this in the tags because I wasn't sure of my addition.

The worsening vision part is like. I'm not saying anyone who goes outside will have perfect vision. I'm saying "bad vision from screens" is technically a thing that can be avoided.

I don't think any extreme is good. Controlling everything your child does is bad. But letting them do anything they want without guidance and support is bad either.

Like I think extremely limiting a kid's diet and not allowing them any sweets ever is bad, but letting them eat ice cream for every meal is bad either. There's a balance.

It also depends how you do it. There's a difference between guiding and enforcing, and between rewarding good behaviour and punishing bad behaviour.

[prof-grace-aspen]

I actually really liked how you phrased it, because the way you did it, you gave the alternative activity to "play on phone".

A lot of people say "kids shouldn't be on their phone all the time!" without like. Suggesting something for the kid to do without the phone.

And some of ya'll are gonna say "well, they go play, DUH". But...

Kids don't know how to play anymore. Because their parents aren't modeling how to play. And a lot of kids aren't getting semi-unsupervised playtime with other kids. Parents won't even let their kids go outside to the nearby park by themselves!!

I was running around the neighborhood as early as 8 years old. Often with my younger brother in tow. But we were taught how to be responsible. When we were younger we had plenty of semi-unsupervised time with our mom bringing us to a park and then letting us run wild. We had semi-unsupervised backyard time. Then the radius of where we could go expanded. Further and further the older we got. We were taught stranger-danger, how to call 911, and we memorized our home address and phone number. We had the skills to help ourselves if trouble happened.

What did we play outside? Well, sometimes we brought a toy but usually it was just all imagination. We're orphans who have to survive in the woods! We're lions in a pride! We're dinosaurs! There's a pretend tornado coming! Quick, we're an ambulance crew now! Watch out, the cloud shadows are dangerous, get into the shade of the tree before it gets here! Oh no, the toy we brought with us is still out in the Sun! Run, get it!!!!

But kids have to learn how to play. How to be confident. How to be creative and curious.

[1800ratfuck]

i already had many qualms with the psych industry - as someone who's been consistently interacting with mental healthcare professionals since i was 11, and has been involuntarily committed several times - but taking college psych classes has only made me more anti-psych, because now i can see in real time how psych students are being trained to repeat the harms both myself and countless others have suffered at the hands of the industry.

i am constantly being reminded of the dichotomy that exists in psychology between the "mentally well" healthcare provider and the "mentally ill" patient, who are seen as diametrically opposite to one another. you see it when textbook authors (who are themselves clinicians) speak to who they assume the reader is:

trying to appeal to the aspiring psych professional (who they presume to be neurotypical) by othering autistic people and sensationalizing autism, saying it "undermines the traits that make us human"... several textbooks i've read have made it very obvious that, despite being a psych student, i am not the reader they are speaking to.

i see the dichotomy in the number of psych students who still use autistic as an insult, or make jokes about something being "so OCD" or "so bipolar". i see it in how, as soon as i try to explain something "as a person with OCD", the professor is taken-aback, and students get uncomfortable. even if i am surely not the only psych student in any given class with a mental health condition, it is taboo for me to be open about it, as it violates what a psych provider is supposed to be.

i also see how psych as a discipline fails to be critical of itself and its practices. in my abnormal psych class, we are made to unquestioningly memorize and regurgitate the dsm-5, without even engaging with criticisms of it. and in several of my classes we are made to memorize and reproduce classical freudian theory (e.g. "write about this case using freud's concepts") without ever touching the ongoing harm that classical psychoanalysts partake in (against incest victims), simply because he is a "foundational theorist". would an anthropology professor ask you to analyze something like race scientist johann blumenbach would, without speaking to the harms of race science? no, because anthropology (from what i've observed) actively denounces these theorists, something that psych fails to do. they even fail to denounce evolutionary psych despite it being largely pseudoscientific.

students are taught to take the psych discipline as holy gospel, to see themselves as the arbiters of mental health, and to never engage with the "mentally ill" as equals, lest they be made aware of attitudes and practices that they need to change.

[depsidase]

[chaotic-error]

INTERnationalize it. It shouldn't belong to any one country either.

[beemovieerotica]

thing i did not know: these big datacenters that are being built rely on fucking diesel generators as a backup power source when the grid inevitably can't meet their demands. which in turn also means that hospitals and universities and other big institutions will also have to turn on their diesel generators when power gets sapped up by these centers.

like we're looking at insane quantities of ground-level ozone & nox pollution which will be happening primarily near low income communities / communities of color...and we know that poor air quality quite literally kills and results in more infants ending up in NICU. i think people have very rightly already hit upon the costs to water availability and electrical grid stability itself, but few people online are talking about the air quality component of rapidly building these centers with no clean fallback electrical generation.

[gooenthusiast]

Is there anything left that hasn‘t been either gobbled up or polluted by data centers?

Air? Polluted. Killing babies. Possibly full of low-frequency soundwaves giving kids heart murmurs

Water? Not enough pressure on the pipes, clean drinkable water gobbled up by data centers

Earth? People priced out of buying land. Perfectly fine homes destroyed for gargantuan data center. Perfectly fine agricultural land destroyed for gargantuan data center. Earth poisoned with heavy metals and shit.

Job market? Even more utterly fucked than previously thought possible

PC prices? Impossible to pay. Companies actively stop selling pc parts to people, because data centers pay more imaginary future money for imaginary future pc parts.

[depsidase]

[actuallyapathy]

owning and driving a car is somewhat optional. i don't pay car insurance because i don't have a car. also if you hit someone with your car the government shouldn't have to pay for that? (except for medical bills, everyone's healthcare should be free forever.)

a better point is that the government should make it 100% optional by providing more and better infrastructure for public transport and walkable cities.

[finalducc]

But to not let perfect be the enemy of good, insurance should still be a public utility in areas that aren't walkable yet.

Like how Food Stamps shouldn't be opposed just because Universal Basic Income would be better.