It’s the computer equivalent of, “That’s it, I’m calling your parents” and picking up a phone.

No person can think so much about all their decisions to spend money.

Aw, I wish I didn’t need to budget every cent, but with the small amount of pocket change I’ve got to buy things, being careful with it becomes normal. Most of the food I buy is straight up raw vegetables, or store brand frozen/canned items (which are bought because they’re cheapest. Or is “advertisement” so broad of a term that it applies to ordinary price tags?) Clothing is whatever’s affordable, fits, and looks and feels good enough. When you’re teetering on the edge of homelessness (and have experienced it three times), survival becomes your main priority. Penny pinching is unavoidable. Frivolous spending becomes a pipe dream.

Even if ads are still sneaking info into my brain, I’m hard-pressed to think of any purchases I’ve made where brand names factor in. I’m really trying to think of something here, but even the less common things I’ve spent money on were chosen through experience (like a game I played with a friend, then decided I wanted a copy of) or research (like when I bought a solar generator last year. I’d never even heard of the company before I sought it out for myself.)

I guess a local Chinese food flyer put on a doorknob counts as advertising that works, though even then if they don’t have decent veg options and prices, it’s going to be a no-go. So sure, that’s your “gotcha.” Chinese food flyers. All the money spent on ads around the world, and the only thing I can recall purchasing based on it took some person taking a walk and hanging menus on doors.

I get it, ads are designed to manipulate, to put ideas into people’s heads as a latent reminder, like a virus waiting for the right moment to strike. Maybe some day if I actually make enough money to not have to be extraordinarily careful with it, more of them might get a chance to work. Who knows. Right now, price is the biggest pain point, overriding brand recognition. With the way things are going, I don’t expect that to change any time soon.

Perhaps the best advertisement would be if a company decided to lobby for higher wages - that’d definitely make a company name stick in my head in a positive way, and would provide me the opportunity to spend money on them, to boot!

Oh, how about the ads for that insurance company that’s just for military families? Way to bark up the wrong tree. Even if the point is to subtly convince me to join the United States military, that’s still hilariously off-target. Never. gonna. happen.

And nowdays you just know their $300 “service” is going to be “run it through an LLM.”

You might think you cannot afford to buy most things advertised, but the numbers don’t lie. They’ll get you eventually. Even if it’s just $3.

Do you really believe that? $3 isn’t going to get me the things I see ads for that I’d actually be tempted by. As to things $3 or below, I’m never shopping at the craft store that hates gay people. I’m never buying from the top fast food places either. These are things I already made decisions on for moral reasons and I’ve never swayed on in all my years, so why on Earth would an ad make a difference?

I don’t think advertisers (or those that think any old ad is bound to be effective) consider that there are some of us who make decisions based on our own criteria. I recognize that I’m not like most people, but to say that such ads are still going to “get [me] eventually” is nonsense.

Not having money never really stopped people from spending it anyhow.

Maybe for some, but that’s again not something that applies to everyone. I don’t even have a credit card. I’ve had nearly 20 years of adulthood in which to get one, have bought/leased cars and rented apartments without a problem (despite no card, paying off student loans means my credit score is pretty good), and I prefer the security of only spending money I’ve already got. Advertisers can have fun trying to squeeze blood money from a stone.

Especially when it’s for vacation spots, booking sites, or luxury cars. Keep spending that money for no return, guys, because absolutely none of that is happening. (I want to say “not happening anytime soon,” but who am I kidding? I’m already in my upper 30s and I can’t fathom making that kind of money.)

Same boat. I work with small kids, oblivious to politics, full of hope for the future because that’s how they should feel. I clock in and lose myself in their version of the world for 8 hours a day. It’s no wonder why I’m actually happier at work than at home these days.

Me: texts every so often, putting thought into each message.

Friend: responds with “thumbs up” or reactions, but no words.

Me, after the 15th time this happens: ”Well I guess we’re done talking to each other.”

My favorite part is the bird sitting right underneath it.

I’m convinced anyone who says that either has a dulled sense of taste, or is confusing the texture for flavor. I could see arguing that they feel similar, since they definitely both have a soft texture. But in my experience, they absolutely do not taste the same. Avocado has a flavor, it’s delicate but it’s there. Clean penis just tastes like any other clean skin.

But not all clean skin is as smooth as a penis head. Matching texture for texture makes more sense.

… I’m gonna regret having this in my comment history, aren’t I?

I did the same with a mango. In public.

This is why I’m practically addicted to avocado sushi rolls.

I’ve come to enjoy it and use it regularly, but that’s because I’ve been working on increasing my spice tolerance through the past few years. Once upon a time, it definitely hit me too hard.

For me it’s: sensory differences + a European family background (I wasn’t exposed to much spice growing up) = incredibly low spice tolerance.

A note on the sensory differences, I ironically have a high pain tolerance (despite spice being processed as pain), extremely low tolerance for being tickled, and I find scratching to be a pleasant sensation. Sensory processing differences are fascinating. Brains are so weird.

My girlfriend’s dog managed to break into a cooler bag I had. What was he after? The plant-based butter I had in there. Bro destroyed the bag so bad we had to toss it out, and all because he wanted butter.

Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be enjoyed on its own.

It’s true and I hate it

… is that the POTUS, for literally the first time in history …

To be fair, there are a lot of things Trump has done that were firsts for the office. I initially misread the headline too, simply because I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump did something absurd like replacing Noem with himself. Because he does a lot of absurd things that have never been done by a US president before. I understood it correctly after reading more, but if someone’s misreading the headline as something bizarre, it’s probably because every headline is bizarre nowadays.

Saying confidently wrong things based on feelings. Yep, that’s Trump all right.

I’m not surprised that feelings elicited a memory for him, but he lost track of the exact details. It’s absolutely in line with dementia. When I worked with dementia patients, a lot of them liked me, and when they saw me they felt better. But they didn’t remember who I was exactly, or what my relation to them was. I was often mistaken for a granddaughter, not because I resembled their grandkids, but because they felt warmly toward me.

The only thing is, Trump has always acted based on feelings. As a spoiled nepo baby, things have always worked out for him, so I doubt he ever developed a strong mind in the first place. The patients I worked with used to be sharp, and dementia made a marked difference in their decision-making. Trump’s still Trump, just more unhinged (somehow.)

Tbf there’s not much practical difference between the two.

I think about that one-off joke a lot these days. I was already an adult, but stating that Israel was a threat was still verboten. The tides on zionism have turned a lot in the past few years. Rick’s metaphorical dance around the topic, attempting to clarify that his position had nothing to do with Judaism but rather with the state itself, is a hallmark of the era in which it was made. I can’t help but wonder how that joke will be viewed as time goes on. Not that Rick would be proven wrong (Israel’s doing a bang-up job of showing he was right), but the “dance” around the topic will change as more and more people grow up with Israel’s threat being blatantly obvious.

Man, the downvote ratio really goes to show how many people vote without reading a post. I imagine a lot of them would agree with you, but they just saw the meme and thought, “That’s stupid.” Which is ironically a vote in your favor.