• 22 Posts
  • 85 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 10th, 2023

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  • The first two reasons, to me, feel like excuses to hide the true reason(s) they cheat. I’d wager it varies per person but that many just want to be seen as cool or skilled by having everything or beating everyone. It seems equivalent to people who modify cars to be extremely loud; despite many saying the contrary, they’ve convinced themselves that people love to hear their loud cars go by.

    It could also be the anonymous effect of online games. They don’t quite perceive themselves as cheating, really, because they don’t know the players and will never know them. It likely feels like NPCs in a video game, for the most part. If there were actually social pressure, like would be in a schoolyard game of football, then far fewer would be willing to risk the social ostracization. But because they are anonymous online, they feel safe and empowered to cheat.







  • I just wish people were less aggressive when arguing on the internet. It just gets so vitriolic and about winning rather than finding the truth

    I also hate when people think “downvote = disagree” when that’s really not what we should be using it for. I never down vote in a debate (unless they get rude or offensive) and I always feel bad when someone comes along and down votes the person I’m arguing with! Now they’re going to think it’s me doing it and get angry!







  • The answer is still to adopt. The dogs are coming either from a shelter or a mill and both are good sources for adoption.

    The former means it’s still giving a dog a home. It is still a dog that needs a home regardless of which country it originated from.

    The latter seems completely nonsense if the German shelters are paying full price and still giving the dogs up for adoption at reasonable rates. They’d be losing a ton of money. And if they’re taking the leftovers from the puppy mills for cheap or free, then those are still losses to the mills and are discouraging more breeding. Also, those are still dogs that need homes regardless of source. Just because a dog was born in a mill doesn’t mean it deserves not to be adopted.

    In either case the answer is still to get a dog from a shelter.



  • While data privacy is a concern, in my opinion the real fear motivating the government is the massive control China has, indirectly, through TikTok, over citizens’ beliefs and culture.

    As another comment pointed out, Facebook (and Cambridge Analytica) had an enormous role in Donald Trump getting elected. That is the kind of influence and power that shouldn’t be in the hands of a foreign power (ironically, it’s the kind of power the US has wielded for generations over many countries). And the US especially doesn’t want China or Russia to have that power.

    If China felt inclined, they very likely could push to have the algorithm modified to fit a particular agenda - say perhaps promoting a pro-China candidate - and most users would barely notice and slowly be drip fed posts that nudge them in a particular direction. People in power could start to lose that power at the behest of TikTok.

    As many will likely point out, there’s a good arm’s distance between China and TikTok right now, as far as we know, but it’s possible they are more involved than they let on (much like the NSA and Facebook) and could become more involved over time. It’s a risk the government is unwilling to take.

    A good example of what kinds of things can happen is when TikTok published a post to every US user with their congressperson’s number, urging them to call them to protest the ban. I’m certain that scared the shit out of the US government and probably did more to force the ban down mid than anything else.