pachrist

@pachrist@lemmy.world

Why are you reading this? Go do something worthwhile.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

pachrist ,

I've had some luck explaining it by asking folks why multiple gas stations are at the same intersection, or asking why Lowes and Home Depot are always right next to each other.

pachrist ,

It's traditionally explained with two lemonade stands on a long beach. If their product is generally indistinguishable and both want to maximize their number of customers, they will eventually settle on halfway mark of the beach. One gets all the foot traffic from the left, the other from the right, splitting it 50/50.

The same applies to businesses on a map, not just a one dimensional beach. Most consumers don't really care if it's a Home Depot or Lowes, or a BP or Exxon. If one of them discovers a gap in the market and places something there, someone else can come along and grab half the market. It's something Walmart has done in a lot of small towns. They'll come in and split market 50/50 with a small, local shop knowing that there's not enough money to turn a profit with splitting the market in half. But they know they the can run a loss for a year or two, the competition will close, and then they'll have 100% of the market.

It's a really topical thing in politics. There are more centrist voters than at either extreme end, so politicians tend to fall more in the middle. Politicians like Trump change the landscape though. While an extreme candidate, the Republican party had already been shifting more right for a while, so he only marginally pulled the voter base right, but pulled most Republican politicians right, or pushed them out. Democrats moved to match. It essentially means that far right Republicans have a short stroll to the nearest lemonade stand, but far left Democrats have to trudge a couple miles in the hot summer sun, and they're deciding it's not worth it.

pachrist ,

It's almost like two organizations have totally monopolized US politics. It's a billion dollar industry, and they'd both rather alternate losing to each other and keep their seat at the table than let anyone else play the game.

pachrist ,

It's really hard to see. Hearing that it doesn't matter that Biden supports Israel's genocide in Palestine because Trump would too is a bad take. It mattered to the thousands of people that have died. It matters to their families. It matters to their friends. So many of Biden's bad policies are just unforced errors. He doesn't have to be an unappealing candidate. He chooses to be an unappealing candidate. If he loses to Trump, that will be why. It'll be 2016 all over again. The genocide in Palestine is Biden's equivalent of just not setting foot in Michigan. And they'll blame voters, primarily independents and leftists (they already are), just like Hillary did, but ever think about what they could have done differently or better.

pachrist ,

Yes, they would.

pachrist ,

Yeah, about a year ago when all the "wow, lemmy really feels like an edgy early internet discussion forum" threads were popping up, I think people forgot that those early forums were just eternal flame wars between communists and anarchists.

pachrist ,

Conservatism has been those things many times and in many places. It's traditionally moderate liberalism. Conservatism in the US today is regressivism wearing a conservative hat for branding. Were the Nazis socialists? No, but it was in their name. Are conservatives conservative? No, they're authoritarian regressivists, because the goal isn't to be conservative. It's to be anti-progressive. But the conservative hat gives it recognizability and credibility.

pachrist ,

Yeah, when he entered the race, it was hilarious. You were able to distance yourself from the hilarious things and the horrible things he'd say about Marco Rubio, or Ted Cruz, or JEB! (please clap) Bush, because he'd never win. But as he crept closer to the nomination, it got less funny and more horrifying every day.

pachrist ,

Recently, I noticed that a lot of the YouTube recommendations I was seeing were folks based out of Utah. My wife calls it Mormon YouTube. Outdoors Boys, Matt's Offroad Recovery, Brandon Sanderson, and a few more Mormon adjacent channels started popping up everywhere. I started wondering what I had watched that started brining all these other things up.

It's Mark Rober.

pachrist ,

You're getting downvoted, but this is true. 13 colonies were able to fight the British better than each one doing their own things. Reich means realm, or more specifically empire. Germany unified as a single country in the mid-late 1800s. Hitler then came along and decided Germany needed more space, lebensraum, and prestige to do all the things they wanted to do. They killed millions for it. Manifest Destiny, from sea to shining sea, all that is what this is. The US has done it too. We murdered and moved native Americans for decades for white immigrants to have "living space".

However, I don't think any of the dumbasses who made this stupid video know any of that. It was a joke to them. Right now, I'm not scared of Nazis in the White House. I am scared of people who think Nazis are a funny joke being in the White House, because that leads to Nazis in the White House.

pachrist ,

Nah, scratchy dick has everything to do with the sand and bits of shell in your shorts. The burn comes from the salt and the crabs.

pachrist ,

"I'm not gay for sucking dick; this dick is gay for getting sucked."

This is logic.

pachrist ,

Fielding bad candidates because you can't be bothered to do the bare minimum has been a thing forever. As a friendly reminder, the thing that scared the DNC and RNC the most in my lifetime wasn't Trump, 9/11, or anything like that. It was Ross Perot.

They'd both burn everything rather than let anyone else play the game.

pachrist ,

The issue with Palestine can be solved by Biden today if he wanted to. Call that UN ambassador with some different instructions. Throw out some sanctions conditional on getting aid through and a ceasefire done. The other issues in this comic require courts or congress, generally. Is genocide bad? Yeah. Should we stop it? Nah, not today. Voting for a guy who won't stop what's going on because he doesn't have a problem with it feels bad, no way around that.

Devout Christian Mike Johnson shows up to hush money trial to defend a guy accused of cheating on his wife with a porn star ( www.vanityfair.com )

House Speaker Mike Johnson describes himself as a Christian before anything else. He has said his “faith informs everything I do.” He has told people curious about his views to “pick up a Bible.” His wife reportedly runs a counseling service whose operating agreement, which he himself notarized, states, “We...

pachrist ,

Imagine the year is 2012. Many Christians are taking their views door to door, urging you to vote for the Christian candidate, Mr. Mormon Mitt Romney, and not the Muslim, professing Christian Barack Obama. One of them goes to church. The other got married in ceremonial underwear. But one is black and the other is white.

pachrist ,

If you won the lottery, what's the first irresponsible thing you'd do with the money?

No paying off student loans, no buying your parents a house. It has to be irresponsible but not necessarily indefensible. Great icebreaker question.

pachrist ,

I mean, Hillary absolutely rigged the 2016 Democratic primaries. She just didn't feel the need to put out the effort to rig the general election. She learned the Watergate lesson. Why rig an election you're absolutely going to win? You run the risk of getting caught. It's only worth rigging an election if you think you might lose.

pachrist ,

Nah, the choice is between a being that will likely leave you alone and one that likely won't. Most people who aren't seeking contact want to be left alone. Interestingly enough, most bears want to be left alone too. As people, we need to allow others the distance and boundaries they want. The best way to befriend someone is to make them feel comfortable around you. Space and respect are important.

If a woman prefers the bear, maybe consider treating her like one. Treat her with respect, don't make sudden movements, give her space, don't mess with her cubs, and don't pressure her into going to a local bar with a really neat vibe.

pachrist ,

Men are logical. Women are emotional.

Such an enormous generalization and oversimplification. Very false.

Canadian photographer Francois Brunell searches and photographs similar people, but who are not related to each other. He has currently done about 200 couple portraits.

Canadian photographer Francois Brunelle spent 12 years tracking down real life Doppelgängers — two individuals who are not related but could pass for identical twins — and photographing them. He calls his project “I’m Not a Look-Alike,” and it’s starting to get some well-deserved attention....

pachrist ,

I feel like that's because we actually get to see them side by side. But if you were friends with one and saw the other as a stranger out in public, say the grocery store, it might warrant a "holy shit, I just saw someone who looks exactly like you," text accompanied by an awkwardly zoomed in picture of them in the frozen foods aisle.

pachrist ,

Yeah, but Jimmy Carr's greatest achievement is beating Father Time by transforming himself into a plastic vampire. Jerry Seinfeld's greatest achievement is making a movie where a bumblebee cucks Kronk.

I love Kronk, but immortality > bee sex.

pachrist ,

Nah, that came from the TV show Seinfeld, which is arguably Larry David's greatest achievement.

pachrist ,

Ooh, be careful with those views. Someone who doesn't understand what antisemitism is might call you an antisemite.

pachrist ,

I get that ads pay for a free internet. But that doesn't mean that 60% of my screen needs to be malware to read a local news article.

Until advertisers act in good faith, I block as much as possible.

pachrist ,

Not with the Camaro on a payment plan.

pachrist ,

Yeah, I really don't get this attitude on Lemmy. I get not wanting to crash the bus. But voting for the guy who at best will let the other guy crash the bus in the future or at worst crash the bus tomorrow isn't the answer.

I first thought that Lemmy was a little more of the early internet forums I remember, more anti-establishment, anarchist, left wing, but there's way too much "vote blue no matter who" which is the exact same mentality that has killed the Republican party. Is Candidate A an immoral shit bag? Doesn't matter; there's a D next to their name. Probably better than the guy with the R. Better not see if anyone else is on the list.

I can afford to vote my conscience. I live in a deeply red state, so my vote doesn't matter, something Democrats could try to fix, but they won't. Voting 3rd party does matter though, and it's the only way to truly affect real change and make a difference. It's the DNC and RNC's job to field a candidate who's worth your vote. If they don't do that, find someone who's worth it.

pachrist ,

I think what Jobs really understood was that in a world of Ford, people crave a Ferrari.

Making the best be beautiful and accessible is hard, but you do it through focus and intentionality. Jobs, despite his many, many faults did that well.

pachrist ,

No, no... slavery, like knitting or moderating a small forum space, is obviously just a hobby, or at worst, a side hustle. It's just a way to grow your personal brand, not the single worst atrocity across all of human history.

It's Not Safe to Click Links on X ( lifehacker.com )

As noted by security researcher Will Dormann, some posts on X purport to lead to a legitimate website, but actually redirect somewhere else. In Dormann's example, an advertisement posted by a verified X user claims to lead to forbes.com. When Dormann clicks the link, however, it takes him to a different link to open a Telegram...

pachrist ,

I mean, clicking links in any kind of comment/forum type place on the internet can be dicey, even if it is exactly what it says it is.

If you disagree, and the political standstill created by career politicians puts a sour taste in your mouth, visit www.lemonparty.org to find out more about how you can make a difference.

pachrist , (edited )

Seems like there's a lack of understanding in this thread.

Someone who owns a duplex and rents half is not a problem. My barber, who moved to be closer to sick, aging parents, but did not sell their house in Asheville, because they want to retire there and won't be able to afford that if they sell now, is not a problem.

Corporations are the problem. They're buying up hundreds of thousands of properties, and why not? To a greedy corporation that only cares about money, it makes sense. If you sell a house, you make money once. If you rent a house, you have a subscription model and a revenue stream. Adobe did it with Photoshop. HP wants to do it with printers. Greedy Bastard Inc. wants to do it with housing.

Legislate big business out of housing. It's the only way to fix it.

pachrist ,

Nah, it's definitely easier during a tornado to go outside, jack up my car, remove the wheel, remove the wheel liner, and then pull the battery from inside the bumper because that's a really convenient place to keep a car battery. Then I just have to lug the battery inside, hook it up, and keep 2 small children and 3 dogs away from it. Much easier than a generator.

pachrist ,

There are so many people on Lemmy who don't get this. I don't know why.

It feels like they think the only choice is Fascism or Fascism-Lite. The other option is to put your foot down and let the world know you want better, not slightly less bad.

If all these people who'll be brigading these comments with "Not voting Biden is a vote for Trump" would email their representatives instead to say no to all this bullshit, we'd be fine.

But no, it's me that's wrong. I have to vote for the octagenarian war criminal to avoid WW3. It can't be the DNC that fucked up by not fielding a better candidate. I already did this in 2016. I'm not keen to do this again.

pachrist ,

We absolutely won the war on terror in Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden tried to show that he was the scariest terrorist, and the US military took that personally and wasn't willing to give up the crown. So, for a decade before his death, and a decade after, we spent trillions of dollars to make sure that a bunch of nice, lovely shepherds would shit themselves with fear if they're at a wedding or funeral and hear the sound of an airplane in the distance.

The goal was to make the most terror right? Did I move the goalposts enough that the US still wins?

pachrist ,

Seems like kind of a groupie. I bet she's fucking Matt Damon.

pachrist ,

I don't even go to the comments. I just form an opinion based on my 3 favorite words in the post title.

pachrist ,

Yeah, but to 70 million people watching Fox News tonight, Luke Skywalker, who worked for the woke, child-grooming, deepstate, communist Disney coporation, is a socialist libtard. It's going to be a global headline and breaking news.

pachrist ,

It does make a waffle sandwich. They aren't bad.

But, it takes about 10 minutes to cook, then 5 minutes to get hot enough to make another. So if you're just making it for yourself, it's fine. But if you're wanting to make them for like more than 2 people, it's a problem.

pachrist ,

One of Trump's defense arguments for presidential immunity for any action was that if presidents didn't have it, Bush could be prosecuted for misleading Congress about WMDs, and Obama could be prosecuted for drone strikes against civilians.

Yes please.

pachrist ,

Suicide in some places makes you a criminal. There's a tasteless joke here somewhere, but I'm too tired to find it.

pachrist ,

Blame the DNC. They're the one cramming shitty candidates down our throats. If OP is right, and voting for president is just changing the oil, it's like getting charged $2000 for Dollar General oil.

Stop blaming voters. Field actual, progressive, leftist candidates. I am fucking sick of voting for right wing, war hawk Democrats to "save democracy." We aren't saving anything, just watching stock market addicted octagenarians kill the country slower than the other team.

pachrist ,

No, but it's easier for Republicans to test their racist, bigoted talking points with a brown person instead of a white person. I am convinced that's all he was there for.

pachrist ,

If you don't tell me everything there is to know about these first graders' pronouns and genitalia, the United States of America I know and love is dead and gone, dammit. Do you want the terrorists to win, or have you always been a gender-queer, socialist groomer?

Rated PG for some fart jokes, probably.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •