Unpopular Opinion

TL;DR: There are two levels of annoyance here. One is the person having to use wanky language to get around censorship. The other is the person who can't help but take to the comments and complain about it, boringly, and without any attempt to offer solutions. I put it to you, good sir, that person #2 is the one who ought to give his larynx a rest.

Yeah, it's annoying to see and hear the words "unalived" and "ess ehhed" in place of "murdered" and "sexually assaulted", but they are not words people use in speech in the real world or even when talking to each other directly online. They are like "LOL"; only demented cunts (or people being ironic) walk around the real world saying "ell oh ell". No one is running down the street screaming "he's trying to unalive me, someone help!" Language is doing just fine.

People in the comments under videos which use these terms are incessantly complaining about "brainrot" being the death-knell of language. These people are tedious wankers who need to chill the fuck out and find something else to fret over, like microplastics or fascism. We all understand why these annoying terms are used, and it's not because the people using them enjoy using them. If they want their content to make it through a blunt and braindead censorship algorithm, they have no choice. We all know this. So maybe shut the fuck up about it? "Unalived" is not a hot new word being used by kids; these words are not changes to the language, they're linguistic backdoors that allow people to say what they need to say while simultaneously not triggering a censorship bot, and that's all they are.

And not for nothing, and somewhat off-topic, but literally every generation that has ever existed frets over the youth's behaviour and the way they use language. Even Plato was whining about it in exactly the same way people do today. This doesn't need to be a tradition you blindly adhere to. You can choose to not be that old reactionary fuck talking apocalyptically about the next generation and just accept that language is and always will be an organic and ever-shifting entity, and that the only people who attempt to crowbar it into a rigid relational database are grating bores and grammar nazis, or, god forbid, the French.

"Do you think my tattoo is cool?" No, I don't. There are no cool tattoos. "Check out my sleeve!" Oh god ew.

Tattoos themselves are stupid. Doubly so if it's some media IP. "I put Batman on my body!" "Look at this image of Goku on my calf!" I can't think of many things I'd want to do less than that.

There are a few narrow exceptions. Chances are yours isn't one of them.

If you personally like tattoos, fine. I'm not saying nobody should get tattoos because I don't like them. I'm stating my opinion that tattoos are stupid, and I am stating it here because it is probably not a popular opinion.

I can't stand this bloody series. 'It's art for the sake of art'. 'This is really Lynch's gift to all subsequent media'. 'There is so much we owe to this series.'

What the hell. It's just random pieces of script written by monkeys on a typewriter, slapped together. No part of the story is ever finished. 'Ah but that's where the depth resides!'. Rubbish. Anybody can write a story that doesn't properly finish.

Oh I know I will introduce 20 new characters, this will add so much depth. Yeah, they have no motives, no character development BUT I will add this random surreal thing that happens to them, for additional depth. But what happens to X? Who knows! And to Y? You have to guess! And to Z? No one can tell!

Maybe using steel-faced actors will improve the plot? I know I will cast myself in one role with quirky details because it's so fun. Yeah I don't know how to act, why? Is it necessary?

And the goddamn music is unsufferable. 'You can't separate Lynch's work from Badalamenti's music'. Yeah I know they're both shit. Oh and the effing gigs in the sequel of the series. Aaaaaah!

But at least there is some symbolism! Yes, what is it? Who fucking knows!

I am all for supporting local artists and I feel that "handcrafted in XXX" products make great souvenirs when you're connected to those places. Still, if some AI hallucinated me a perfect novel for my interests, or generated something I couldnt tell was manufactured or created by a master, I would happily enjoy it.

"How can I tell if this is slop so I can know to hate it" sounds stupid to me: good is good. When it comes to art / food / products, I want the best experience for ME. If I want human connectedness, then I'll go interact with a human directly.

I can do without wasted water, power, and money, but in the abstract it seems to bother everyone on Lemmy to enjoy something a person didn't make. I don't have that hang-up.

Again, I don't mean studying religions from a religious standpoint. But just studying different philosophies of these religions, different stories, their gods, their prophets if any...

I recently read about how the God of the Abrahamic religions developed. Apparently he started off as "Yahweh", who was some D list god of storms in some Canaanite religion. The early Israelites adopted him as their God initially. He was angry, dangerous and not "loving". But then, over time, this character got combined with another god "El", who was the bearded, wise "god of gods" that capital G God is often depicted as. The history of this is so cool!

Apparently Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, which seemed to be a trend then? Apparently there were OTHER failed Jewish prophets who claimed to be messiahs who would rebuild the temple of God in Israel (which the Jewish folk wanted to do for a very long time?).

Then Muhammad comes in, claims that God's word was eventually corrupted throughout the centuries by humans, and that the Quaran is the uncorrupted word of God himself. Also, the "I am the last prophet, and that anyone who claims to be a prophet after me is a false prophet" clause was quite interesting to me!

Then you have the Hindus doing their own thing. Apparently there's more to Hinduism than just mythology and the Gods. Apparently certain schools of Hinduism are kinda atheistic too???? Quick clarification though. Atheistic does not necessitate scientific thought. Buddhism largely does not proclaim God too???

I used to view religions as unscientific explanations of the world and an attempt to assert objective morality. I mean this isn't wrong, but religions are so much more than that! They're thousands of years of human stories and mythologies, usually quite creative! You can see how cults form, how different cults are appropriated, how they are used by the ruling class to keep on ruling...

I dunno, it's just fun to read about and learn about!

okay hear me out. i know only two episodes have released. but it's already the best anime of all time. i literally could not stop laughing the entire time i was watching it. it is literally perfect. it doesn't glorify smoking like a lot of people assume it does, it's impossible to think that after you watch the first episode. like smoking is portrayed so negatively it's humorous. i love this anime. it's my new favorite. hell yeah

Let me preface that I hate AI on what it could do to arts, especially I hate its bland writing style. A third of the music on Spotify is AI and majority can't tell if it's AI. But LLM/AI or however one calls it, only in Lemmy do I see seething hate and refuse to acknowledge its potential. Most people I spoke to outside of the platform also dislike AI but see its potential and agree that the current models are overrated. Many agree it will probably take years or decades to see bigger improvement.

Lemmy, on the other hand, as much as I love the community, is an echo chamber of pure dismissal and rage on AI believing it will amount to nothing. It's only in Lemmy I see this behaviour. One person even said bacteria has more consciousness than AI, which is ridiculous because bacteria clearly don't have the same level of consciousness and context as AI, however the latter has little of. I see many dismissive scoff and straw man arguments that it will never improve; but the same was told of automobiles, planes and renewable energy. Their initial models were terribly bad because of the limitations of the time but now huge strides of improvements are made despite taking years. The AI also clearly has limits but don't see any reason why the same hurdles won't be surmounted in years to come.

Again, I hate AI on what negative impact it could do to human society, especially because many of the models are owned by select few. But it's burying in the head not to see its potential. Because if there isn't any, techbros or not, governments across the world would not be racing to adopt them. AI had been effectively used in the war in Ukraine. And governments would not want race to implement AI surveillance. So, if there is no potential, why are the big wigs wasting time and energy on AI at all?

I'm convinced that many Lemmy is experiencing the uncanny valley on AI and doesn't realise it. Plus, and I'm going to be blunt, a huge portion of Lemmy are of older demographics so there is probably a disdain on novelty that many Lemmy folks are not self-aware of.

This hypothetical "would you rather" question pops up on Reddit and Lemmy once in a while, and every time the popular answer is the latter, implying risk of sexual assault. As if in a world of women there won't be enough ready to do the same. Yes, women statistically, on average, less prone to desire to commit a sexual assault, but it doesn't matter if one in ten or one in a hundred is ready to do this if no one else wants to stop them.

Why would they? While sexual assault by men against women is one of the few unforgivable sins in our culture, with huge prison sentences and no life in prison from cellmates, with saving a woman from this being one of the most powerful trops in literature to show characters's nobility and a proper reason to award a civil medal, rape of men by women is treated as a joke or a comedy trope. It can't even be called "rape" according to many dictionaries and legal codes, e.g. the British one.

Would whatever left of police (and there are few women employed in police) actually protect you in this case? Or is it more likely to be yet another “Raped? Baby, men can't be raped” case?

Something something ding dong your opinion is wrong.

Stay with me.

I love RED DEAD REDEMPTION. I have beaten both 1 & 2.

I’m not some kind of pacifist. I just get tired of shooting at imaginary people.

So… I thought one day I would get some practice with the sniper rifle killing stray dogs.

Holy shit!

The game threw a fit!

Full on murderous possie immediately.

But here’s what’s worse: the game HID ALL THE DOGS.

So… it just made shooting the dogs more special. Btw— I did this more in 1 than 2.

And I can’t find dogs in GTAV.

Mostly I won’t shoot imaginary people anymore. Just dogs. It’s a thrill.

The pizza already has cheese. You don’t need any in the dang crust at all. I find it strange and confusing but I’m just a caveman. Your stuffed crust pizza world frightens me.

KEEP CRUST JUST CRUST

Fresh fruit is refreshing, isn't too sweet, and doesn't make your heart race after eating it.

Pick up some watermelon, cantaloupe, mango, or pineapple next time you're shopping groceries. This is the time of year they're all ripe.

Stop contributions to mass surveillance? Regain actual connections and news over slop? Being free to communicate without the watchful eye of the tech oligarchs?

Platforms such as Lemmy and Mastodon should be more popular than ever, and yet people only see the “crazy left” forming a critical mass of the user base to the point where unofficlal “rules of condct” become stricter than the oligarchs. We need people to stop purity testing and using algospeak to showcase why moving to Lemmy/Mastodon is a defensive move for free speech.

There are better ways to describe "non caustic sarcasm". Dry wit, tongue in cheek, banter, or just plain joking.

Passive aggression on the other hand is defined by sarcasm.

This isn't Reddit; there isn't a Karma system - so unpopular opinions here should be downvoted instead to show how unpopular they are. It's instinct to want to downvote something unpopular, and without the Karma system we finally don't have to go against instinct. Then we can see what's truly unpopular based on natural downvoted instead of some people remembering to upvote something unpopular.

Does it cost me $10 per run? Yes. Is it worth every penny? Absolutely.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/uncommon/p/1231413/fediverse-users-here-are-mostly-reposting-reddit-posts-which-turned-this-place-into-redd

It feels pretty weird that Lemmy/Piefed users here are simply planning to keep reposting content from Reddit, that I imagine that the actual death of Reddit(which is actually getting very close that it seems that within 90-120 days the whole website is going to turn to shit with zero power users who post original content as a lot of them will be banned) will lead to a content death here, meaning whole communities will get empty here with no new posts for days.

I personally had started noticing how the content on Reddit started dying down(a lot of communities got hit really hard and even Reddit app rank on Google Playstore top apps list got worse), that I began being dependent on websites other than Reddit automatically which lead me to a path where on some days I feel I am the only one posting on some communities here.

I feel like a big reason here is self censorship, which I can understand here(I literally got banned from multiple servers and communities for holding ideas that many people didn't like), but it has a negative effect overall.

I am personally trying to solve this issue on multiple communities, but I cannot recreate the whole place to be better(IMO).

In conclusion, I feel like the death of Reddit will lead to the death of the network here due to no new content and I don't know how the platform here will react to it when it actually happens soon in the next 90-120 days days.

Note: The only actual communities where I see some Original/new content from time to time here is the photos communities. The other communities here don't seem to have a constant unique feed as far as I can tell.

…Nor Piefed.

This particular post encapsulates it perfectly:

https://lemmy.world/post/48552575/24407224

It rose to #1 on the front page.

Yet check the source, and it’s a blue checkmark Tweeter. He pays for Twitter, he appears to be a stereotypical Silicon Valley vulture, all-in on OpenAI and Anthropic. And assuming they aren’t AI generated, he a posts a deluge engagement bait garbage all day:

He doesn’t care. People like him are the reason the internet is broken, yet the vast majority of Lemmy just nodded away.

But this is just one of a hundred examples. Every day I scroll here, I see a repost of some ragebait Tweet, and when I go check the source, it’s some bot or content farmer, completely disingenuous.

And they’re paying Elon Musk for extra attention.

And it’s all from a site that, to me, represents everything wrong with the internet. The purely algorithmic discovery, the engagement rat race, the echo chamber effects, the hot takes from pro influencers without even the pretense of selecting for credibility. Not to speak of the influence campaigns, all funding Elon Musk.

I downvote every blue checkmark post I see.

It makes me sad to see them on the front page.

With rare exceptions, it doesn’t belong on the Fediverse. It goes against its spirit. And it pollutes the site with X’s engagement bait.

Yes, the Steam Deck is great, and Steam is definitely one of the best games platforms there is. And Valve has done great work supporting Linux and open source development, and forcing more transparency for sellers on Steam.

But I feel like people sometimes just love valve for everything they do. GabeN is still a billionaire, buying super-yachts and stuff. Valve makes a ton of their money from gambling on loot crates in CS2 and TF2, and have not done enough (imo) to stop even more predatory third party item gambling sites. And whenever I bring stuff like that up people keep defending Valve.

We should be able to praise their great games and hardware, at the same time as criticising other parts of the company.

Don't get me wrong, if you have a good jam or preserves it's totally fine on a sandwich, and I wouldn't turn my nose up at it. However, peanut butter doesn't really need the help, and the extra sweetness from jelly is totally unnecessary. Toasted bread and peanut butter is all you need for a quality simple sandwich.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a longtime GTA fan, and so, to some extent, I don't blame people for being excited for the newest game in that franchise.

GTA 3 on the PS2 was a revolutionary game that changed the medium forever. Vice City and San Andreas built upon that same template and engine making games that were bigger in better in just about every way. I have mixed feelings about both GTA 4 and 5, both in terms of gameplay and story, but overall feel that they were good games with better shooting and driving than the PS2 era games. I never got into the online stuff outside of occasional racing, but I understand that it's hugely popular.

With that background, I don't doubt that GTA 6 will be a big seller, maybe even the biggest ever... But be that as it may, I think that it is riding on a big wave of unearned cultural hype:

• We have seen very little of what the game actually plays like, and almost nothing about what sets it apart from GTA 5 in terms of systems. The marketing leads me to believe this will be less sandbox and more story...
• All we have been told about the story of this game is that you play as Jason and Lucia, two lovers and ex-cons in Vice City. The trailers focus on their relationship, which is a unique angle for a GTA game, but we really don't get any insight into who these characters are as individuals or what makes them interesting.
• Despite the fact that GTA has always been something of a hit-or-miss parody of modern (usually American) life and culture, every piece of media I've seen surrounding this game has been totally devoid of any humor or commentary. There's a lot to make fun of in America (Florida especially) today, but based on the trailers, this is looking to be the least funny or satirical GTA game ever.
• This is the most expensive GTA game ever, and that's even without factoring in the paywalled features like premium car modding and character styling, but will it be the biggest? What does $80-100 get us?
• For better or worse, quite a few of the key people who made the GTA series what it was are now out of the picture, so the development team is going to be pretty different than past games. That could go either way, but I think it does invite a certain amount of skepticism.
• No initial PC release.
• No physical release for consoles.

So again, I really don't blame people for being hopeful or excited about a new GTA game coming out. If you're looking forward to this one then more power to you!

But I can't help feel that the levels of hype are way overblown for what we've seen of the gameplay, story and world building. If it wasn't part of the "GTA" franchise, I think this would be just another new release.

It was a hilarious quip, especially so and ballsy in the context of where 'twas introduced, and I agree that we're right, but it's been literally 20 years now and now you're just saying that you're right with a non-dog whistle. Whistles sound shrill.

and in fact I would counter that it has a far-left bias

This is really stupid, because I've never believed in anything supernatural or astrology-adjacent at all.

But I've been working on a satirical plugin for YouTrack (Jetbrain's alternative to Jira) called Scrum Tarot, the equally accurate alternative to Scrum Poker. So I had to kinda look into what sort of Tarot cards exist, and played around with online tarot drawing tools like dailytarotdraw.com. And while the project is now in a "I've lost interest so I'll never finish it" sort of state, I do keep coming back to that tarot website.

It's just ..fun? Like obviously I know this stuff only works because the description of the cards is purposely vague so that your brain fills in the gaps and makes them fit whatever situation you're in. But drawing three at the end of the day and seeing how I'll interpret them has been very meditative and actually kind of a good way to figure out the things that weigh on my mind without realizing.