I used to watch Thought Slime a lot, even donated to them a few times… then started watching videos from the people they’ve “called out” on stream, followed a rabbit-hole of people who were hurt and never apologized to and realized they’re just another youtube dramafarmer clicks-at-all-costs, no discrimination, storyline-crafting liar. Like everyone.

Free yourselves humanity, stop watching streamers.

edit: I know the parasocialism online runs really deep and just saying this is going to get some people losing their shit to defend their fav streamer, I literally don’t care, you have to be aware that every streamer has an army of knights to defend them, and I don’t like engaging that way and am not going to spend my time arguing. I’m not out to change your mind, just explain why I changed mine.

I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying, but it kinda sounds like an engineer trying to make their career/passion into more than a clever trick which comes as a result of learning how to abstract information to better manipulate the world.

“Engineering” isn’t a fundamental quality of the universe, it’s a word we have made up to describe honestly a lot of different things. There’s nothing wrong with calling what humans learned to do “engineering” and it wouldn’t be inaccurate, but I’m saying you can simplify that more, to just the quality we learned, which is how to take information from the past and from right now to synthesize pictures of tomorrow, and then abstract that conclusion to share with others. Being able to share abstract conclusions about future events is a far, far more profound skill, there’s no parallel in nature, not even “kinda” like beaver engineering. Engineering comes from this ability, so I’m just trying to describe the order of carts and horses.

Shame we won’t make it.

I think the invention of engineering is what finally broke evolution

While true, we can be more specific here what quality or trait allowed us to become engineers. Being able to engineer is by itself something that can even exist in genetic memory, instinctual. There are a lot of animals that do engineering, but have never come anywhere close to what humans do. Beavers, birds, ants and termites arguably are better engineers than most humans on an innate level. (I’ve also known some engineers who are incapable of some very basic life skills.)

What separated us from evolutionary processes and also allowed us to become engineers is the capability to abstract information and use those abstractions to predict the future, extending our “reach” of influence into the further future than most animals can calculate. This required us to develop strong continuity of thought and experiences and with this also came the ability to analyze and compare complicated events to find patterns. This gave us a huge edge when we were surviving around predators that were able to easily dominate us. Nowadays these abilities mostly cause of mental health conditions as we try to use tools designed for navigating glaciers to navigate a world of social media, zoom meetings, Tinder profiles, electric car recalls and democratic electoral politics.

Do you think people become more conservative with age or is it society becoming more progressive and leaving them behind?

I am getting up there in years and seeing this play out over and over.

I think every generation wants to be more progressive than the last, but we tend to carry baggage of fear and insecurity through the generations. Or more specifically, older people tend to gain the political and monetary capital needed to affect policy and shape our societal outlook and attitude. They will always be more conservative than the younger generation who will want more freedoms and personal rights, inherently, and as the ruling class will clash with newer sensibilities, over and over.

What we’re asking here, is the conservatism reflected in our elders and leadership now broadly more harmful or helpful? Are we out of the touch or is it the kids who are wrong?

I think it’s a mix but mostly it’s not our real problem. Our real problem is that no matter what our age, we have greatly misunderstood how our own existence works. Most people have been taught that they have brains designed to exercise logic and reason and that brains are the best thing ever if you use them and make them smart.

No, our brains are not logical tools. We are not a rational species. There was no “age of enlightenment.” It’s all a hoax. Our brains are tools designed to write a story to explain how you feel. And that’s it. It doesn’t even have to make sense. When we all learn how our brains actually work we will collectively make better decisions, have more compassion for each other, and likely sink into even deeper despair as we all start to realize we have no free will.

The impact of human fertility cycles ("concealed ovulation’) and human evolution is a vast, deep field of study and speculation in itself, but I am making some very sweeping generalizations here, referencing people’s capability to choose when to reproduce on the broadest levels, not that there was a period or specific instance of this having an impact… more like, it made a difference over very large scales of time, as evident by the fact that our breeding cycles are nothing like most other mammals.

We should all be learning that we’re all children. Some of us, over time, gain a lot more baggage and issues, but that shit just layers right on top of the “child” parts so we’re all just basically children with complex problems.

The brain doesn’t “prune” itself. The brain you had when you were 12, you have that same damn brain. It doesn’t change. Stuff just gets added to it.

Almost anyone with an irrational political stance betrays their youth.

Political ideology has always captivated the passions of youth, but isn’t successfully implemented or even internalized except by people with age and experience and emotional regulation.

Bears can be trained to drive cars and communicate through various means, it’s thought they may be as smart as great apes like gorillas. This is why they were a choice circus animal for a long time.

Yes, this should be terrifying information.

We had the tall stride thing going, we had the super-endurance thing going already, we had gotten good at tool-use like many other primates, in that we could use sticks and rocks to beat things and poke things, just like modern chimps and apes. (Modern primates also throw stones, it’s not the evolution-killer on its own that the meme is making it out to be.)

No, the REAL thing that soared us beyond all members of the animal kingdom is how we started abstracting information and sharing it. IE: language, writing, and the cognitive processes behind those skills that allow us to plan ahead. Not just planning ahead, but being able to set up actions far in advance, like planting seeds because we know a plant will come out of it. Moving our camps to where animal herds migrate to so we can stay close to the food, and just the day-to-day actions like preparing a fire in advance so you can see when it gets dark, bringing things with you to use later, having an idea how to ration food, being able to share your plans with others, communicating your movements to other hunters, and yes, all this made us exceptional hunters. When other primates were still mostly foraging for plants and bugs, our ancestors used this “thinking” thing to start getting massive doses of meat. Amino acids, proteins, high-density fuel, food for growing brains.

Not to mention, we’re the only creature that chooses when to reproduce. We used this foresight to plan our futures and our families. This is a massive changeup from how nature has handled reproduction. For the vast majority of life on Earth, breeding is just this thing that “happens” at certain points and everything leads to that event, and nothing really has control over how that event plays out.

Breeding is still a big deal for us, just look how horny we all are, but we decide when we’re going to have babies, and while it doesn’t seem a big deal here and now, it was a game changer when we were migrating packs of hunter-gatherers, following the seasons and the herds of animals.

Our story of how we got here is without question the most fantastic story ever. You are the product of over four and a half billion years of uninterrupted successes. A family tree going back a thousands of millions of years without break, surviving apocalypses that have turned our entire globe to ice, to fire, to water and other unimaginable catastrophes that sometimes lasted for millions of years.

So now you made it, your billions of generations of ancestors secured your survival against all odds, whatcha gonna do with it?

You mean you don’t have to like Kamala? I’m voting Kamala.

Not fond of her, but she’ll do better than Trump by leagues and miles and make history while not rocking the boat or affecting any meaningful change. Libs will love her, she’ll be a democrat party darling. I bet she gets a second term.

I will cast my vote between tears but nobody ever promised preserving democracy will always make you feel good.

In fact, I am close to launching into a really hard condemnation of every last one of you lazy-ass motherfuckers who expect everything to always play out like a 2-dimensional anime plot where you’re the good guy so you’re supposed to always feel good, and any struggles are easily overcome, and if it doesn’t play out like that, then you go full doomer-mode and grab your soapbox to preach how pointless life is just because you’re lonely but too scared to talk to a girl. Go back to your discord safe-spaces and let adults out here make the hard choices.

Should have took a lot more.

I mean it’s a niche thing, people who are really into piercings really like them, and those who aren’t into them tend to really really not like them, whereas some other fashion accessories are generally more universally acceptable even if not necessarily loved.

This isn’t an argument about abortion or gender affirming care you nut, this is about fashion. It’s not about “women’s bodies.”

Plenty of women express “disappointment” with the fashion choices men make and it’s fine. What’s the difference?

edit: my biggest disappointment here is people who can’t separate themselves from a stranger’s opinion and have to fight about someone’s preference whom they will never see, meet or talk to. Like, it just sparks this massive insecurity in people because it reminds people that someone might reject them for their choices so the response tends to be lashing out and being unhinged. And you see this on every end of every ideological spectrum, it’s a very human thing that we need to get better about. You all need to learn to SIT with the fact that not everyone will like you, your fashion, your taste, etc. Social media and discord has made you all get way too adapted to a world where you can choose to surround yourselves with only people who accept you blindly, so that you’re losing touch with how to feel about and cope with those who don’t immediately validate everything about you.

I quizzed you why you thought a normal, common expression of aesthetic taste became a sexual entitlement issue to you immediately, it was weird, it remains weird, you are weird, every comment makes you seem weirder about it, and I don’t think this is a healthy place for you to be engaging and tripling down on. I’m blocking you for your good as much as mine.

I’ve re-read your comment dozens of times trying to understand why this concept is lost on you, that it’s FINE to be disappointed with someone’s fashion choices, be it someone you know personally, or a generalized view of trends. It’s OKAY. It doesn’t MEAN anything other than, some people like things and other people do not. I too feel a sense of disappointment when people with otherwise pretty features accessorize it in ways that distract or detract from my preference. AND THAT’S ALSO OKAY.

You know what else? You’re ALSO allowed to be disappointed with how some people dress, talk, act or just about ANYTHING else that you like or don’t like. This is called being an adult human with values, taste and self-esteem.

Whatever cartoonish picture jumped into your head of some “alpha male” casting judgement on women he wants to sleep with, which I think you’re picturing here, that shit is coming from a place of insecurity or pain inside YOU, this is not an objectifying or entitled attitude to express or hold. Disappointment with someone’s choices is a normal and healthy thing that men and women feel and express all the time and sure it can become toxic in extreme circumstances, it’s nowhere NEAR that to just express not liking a thing.

What is your point? Did a billboard with the word “disappointment” fall on your great uncle and kill him?

Okay setting aside your clearly toxic and unkind attitude that is betraying what this is really about, some personal issue that is making you seeth, why is the word “disappointment” triggering YOU so hard?

I would be disappointed if my date comes home with me and takes off their shirt and they have a tattoo of Sonic the Hedgehog on their chest. Because I don’t want to look at Sonic when we’re together, does that make a lick of fucking sense? Do you understand that people have consensual relationships and preferences for their partners?

What does random women he has nothing to do with having piercings have to do with him?

Are you not a native English speaker? Do you understand that people can give opinions and critique of things they don’t like without it meaning an expectation that someone is going to DO something for them? You immediately made some random, innocuous comment about someone’s aesthetic tastes into an issue about entitlement and I assume implications about sex? Don’t you get how fucking weird that is? It betrays something on YOUR mind specifically that nobody here is talking about.

Do you think people shouldn’t have fashion preferences? Do you think humans can’t or should not have feelings about things? Every comment you make here just makes it weirder.