“Who would pay” can be simplified to “who benefits”.

Who benefits from saying that the war in Ukraine is a one-sided invasion? Who benefits from saying that it’s just a small scale military operation?

Sometimes, details get more confusing because there are way more actors in play. Who benefits from saying that obesity is a personal failure to maintain good habits? Who benefits from pointing out the relationship between obesity and low-quality food/poor access to fresh produce?

Remember that the bigger an issue is, the more investment there is in the propaganda machine. Therefore, the harder it is to really build a good understanding.

2002… uff, that would be hard. As a ten year old there is so little you can do!

I guess I would steal an identity and get some ground breaking research out on a quicker time scale. In particular trying to get ahead of the climate deniers. I would invest in some whatevers that made it big as soon as possible, then during the 2008 crisis, then Bitcoins.

I would find it impossible to not look for my friends and family, even just stalking them from afar. That would probably drive me insane.

I’d use my wealth to lobby hard for climate justice and climate research. Probably still hide my true identity. I’m not American, so I would need to think really hard if preventing Trump is worth it, but I would lobby for a quicker energy transition and for a better social net. I’d assume with the knowledge I have at hand, I could even tweak the end result of the 2008 crisis… but that would be a massive butterfly to introduce.

On a global scale, I would think that some properly timed interventions in Africa could have dramatic impacts both socially and ecologically, but I’d have to study more to figure that out.

I think it really depends on how narrowly you define normal and if you expect anyone to be 100% normal.

I have some very normal sides of me: I love going out for a beer with my colleagues after a day of work, I have a stable partner and the 2.5 kids you were talking about (actually 1.4, right now), a stable job, bought a house…

I also have some odd sides of me: we meet on Lemmy because fuck Reddit (and I try converting people to Lemmy every second day), I have a bunch of unusual hobbies, I love painting my hair weird colors, I pursue my own happiness caring little about what others say (comments I heard: I should drop my career now that I am married/have a kid, I should present seriously now that I have a serious job… honestly I forgot most of them because I just don’t care), I married my partner “way too quickly”, I moved internationally way too many times - including with my partner and recently with our kid.

I expect most people to be similar: a mic of normal and not so normal, with normal defined most by your immediate surroundings.

Totally support Dan Da Dan S1. I honestly was quite disappointed that S2 did not keep up.

I would add Attack on Titan S3 (I think? The one with the war themed opening) that send chills down my spine.

I am grateful and envious: I would love to have the same ability. Stuff is crystal clear in my mind, and I still hardly can transform it into something someone else can parse… analogies are great, but finding the correct one is often beyond me

Abstract math.

The formulas lock together, setting themselves easily in complex patterns that represent something. I have preferred formalism because they have different flavors, even while having the same meaning.

Do you really want to be that person? I rather enjoy being with similarly funny and smart people

Because the system wants it that way.

There are two of us??

I’m an avid reader, and I like reading in original language. That has brought me in a variety of rabbit holes, including trying to learn Russian, then Japanese. Unfortunately, I forgot most of it. I also forgot most of my ancient Greek, but my Latin is still vaguely useful. My German and Spanish never reached the “I can read anything” level, that is a shame because I really want to read the Don Quixote and Goethe… But I’m proud to easily read in 3 languages, struggling in 2-3 others (depending how much dictionary use is allowed).

I haven’t been able to find a community of people that like this. Most like a specific culture and go deep into a single language.

I have smaller white whales, every year or so I remember something cool from some 4-5 years ago, usually quite niche, and I am rarely able to find it.

Yesterday, I remembered a music video from the lockdowns. Poppy music with a catchy refrain, the two artists on screen, singer and electric piano player, jungle inspired decorations. A pineapple on the keyboard. I’m sure if I could remember even a couple of words of the refrain I would be set… but somehow i remember that the artists were set in NY.

Consider that the full number is world wide. How many of them are US based or US involved?

Would I? Depends on the day, the weather, the mood.

Would I regularly? No, I would either take public transport or the bike.

Would I need to? Also no, I live in a mid-sized city with many libraries and the closest one is 20 minutes walk away, the main one is some half an hour walk away in another direction. Access to municipal facilities was a key element in my decision of where to live.

I think that, because cars didn’t dictate the layout, things ended up being naturally closer by, such that long walks would be fairly unusual within the city.

Blaine!

In the Dark Tower series, there is indeed a horror train. Great section

Just to mess with you, I’m tempted to write a dozen comments with no real content… but other than that: i think it’s quite normal. Floods of negative reactions are more likely than positive ones, and more feared. In the other hand, Lemmy is a pretty chill place and, even when I got negative reactions, they were still cordial.

All in all, we are social monkey, and we care a lot about our social capital. That used to be the difference between survival by and death in nature, and we are still rooted that way. Even if we are accruing social capital with anonymous internet users we will likely never meet in person

I always love small misconceptions about technology that didn’t exist yet. In this case: no chance of silencing or turning off the device. Cracks me up!

I’ll apologize first: Sorry, kind internet stranger, you walked right in one of my pet peeves. (Now I feel morally justified in starting my rant with a level of emotional involvement that is totally and admittedly unjustified)

WOMEN’S POCKETS ARE A F****ING JOKE! Have you ever tried putting anything more that the glimmering sparkle of a summer night in a woman pants pocket? It either falls right off or tries to stab the kidney once the poor girl sits down. Usually both.

Because pants need to be stupidly skinny and form fitting, not made for comfort or for carrying anything!

My toddler’s pockets (2 years old) are bigger than mine!

/end rant, feel free to ring me up for extra rants on the subject

Took me way too long to notice this is a shitpost 🤦‍♀️

I looked into it, and the law is fuzzy, because it states that you are allowed to have “small animals” but it never defines what a small animal is

I found a plastic handle for the mandoline. If you mess up, the handle gets cut but your fingers survive unscathed.