It’s not as simple as “they’re stupid” (which they are.) It’s a symptom of their in-group vs out-group thinking pattern. They don’t think the differences between other countries matter, because they’re all “others” as far as they’re concerned. So they paint foreigners with the same brush and leave it at that.

As to why “Mexican” in used in particular, I think other commenters make a good point about Mexico being the most prominent Spanish-speaking country to people in the US. They don’t see as many people from Spain, so that’s off their radar. If my upbringing in a racist area is anything to go by, “Mexican” became the default long ago.

True, but they can tell when their card is put back in the wrong pocket, or upside down, or other tiny clues that hint of someone messing with their stuff. Kids sometimes think parents know more than they do, or “have eyes in the back of their head,” simply because kids don’t pay attention to the same details their parents might. Their parents can deduce what happened from clues, clues that the kids don’t realize they left.

A very careful child might get away with it, but if their parents are equally careful they’ll probably notice something is amiss. I guess it all comes down to “your mileage may vary.”

At my first real job, I used to hang my coat on one particular coat hanger because it was the only one of its color. I chose it because it was easy for me to spot my coat when the hangers were crowded.

Now, I had a coworker who… I’m not quite sure what was going on with his brain. He jumped to weird conclusions all the time and flat-out made up things that he seemed to truly believe were real.

One day he randomly started arguing with me that the coat hanger I used was green. Uh, okay? Then he claimed that I had claimed it was yellow, and that I was wrong. I never made any such claim (and if I were pressed to it, I would’ve called it chartreuse.) Yet he was insistent that we had fought about it before, for some strange reason, and went on gloating about being right. It was utterly bizarre.

I let it go. He’s the same person who decided that “magic erasers” (for cleaning surfaces) must work by having paint in them. No amount of logic about that budged his opinion, and I knew no amount of reality would budge him on the coat hanger color.

So, sure dude, you win the imaginary argument. Congrats. Would you like an imaginary cookie?

Another reason not to use TikTok. I don’t use it, but I’ve seen clips from it. I’m not sure what the point is of the subtitles when they zip by, a few words at a time, before you can read them (and I’m a pretty fast reader, so that’s saying something.)

Didn’t King of the Hill do an episode about the change in cheerleading?

some people don’t get high their first times.

Thank you for mentioning this. I didn’t try weed until my mid-20s and it took years of intermittent trying before I actually felt high. I’d never heard that this could happen, so I just got upset thinking I’d never be able to understand what the big appeal of weed was. Only in my late 20s, at a friend’s party where I’d already gotten pretty buzzed on alcohol, did a hit of a pipe make me finally feel something.

I don’t know if it finally clicked because of lowered inhibitions due to the alcohol, or if my brain had to build up to feeling an effect, or what, but weed’s worked as intended ever since. I will add that I’m the type of person that has been asked throughout my teenage years, “What are you smoking? And can I have a hit?” despite being 100% sober until my 20s. Maybe having an already-weird brain had something to do with it?

So yeah, OP, be prepared to discover that you might not feel anything from weed at all. It doesn’t seem to be terribly common, but it is definitely possible that nothing happens the first few tries. That doesn’t mean it will never happen, though.

I remember asking to borrow my parents’ newspaper so I could use my silly putty to make copies of pictures.

Also reading comics, and reusing the newspaper so I could make papier mâche (or other crafts) out of it. I learned to weave by using strips of newspaper to make a mat.

I know compliments we’ve received aren’t necessarily the answer, but it’s hard to think of anything that could top when a former coworker had a baby and told me, "I hope she grows up to be just like you."

Ah yes, high-heeled shoes on a wet deck while leaning on the railing of a giant, moving ship. What could go wrong?

I’m curious what you interpreted the meme to be about. From your comments here I can’t tell if you think it’s meaningless or if you think it’s some excuse made to justify … something?

It’s just an expression of how listless one feels when their last hyperfixation lost its sparkles and a new one hasn’t cropped up yet. It’s not that challenging to grasp, for those who’ve experienced it. It’s not a choice, either. One day you feel intensely driven to read/watch/create/engage with everything about one particular topic or through one particular hobby, but then the next day -poof- the feeling is gone. And in that moment you feel empty, unsure what to do next.

It’s not boredom. It’s not laziness. It’s a temporary sense of directionlessness that you have no control over.

Almost half of all Americans fear a total economic collapse. The other half are looking forward to it.

You wouldn’t take it on a highway

Heh, it’s not a bad idea, but sadly it wouldn’t be practical for most in the US. Living here, you’d be hard-pressed to find many people who don’t need to use a highway to get to work. Maybe in small towns and big cities? At my own job, I can’t think of a single coworker that lives in the same town as we work, and almost every person needs to take a major highway to get there. Theoretically we could take back roads, but it would take so much more time vs the highway that leads right into town. Commutes of a half hour or more are common.

Damn, you’re both lucky things didn’t go worse. “I told them it was too dangerous, then I left them alone anyway, and they died from their injuries” would be a hell of a thing to have on one’s conscience, let alone one thing to admit on the defendant’s stand.

I mean, you’re (presumably) an adult who can take responsibility for your own actions, but if she was truly concerned for your safety, abandoning you makes no sense. No matter how skilled my partner might be, I’d be waiting at the edge watching like a hawk, not saying anything, just making sure their stunt didn’t end the way I feared it would. There’s plenty of time for arguments about it when we’re both back on solid ground. Literally turning away and walking off at the height of a dangerous act while alone in nature doesn’t say “I’m concerned about your safety” as much as it says “I’m emotionally-immature and can’t prioritize your actual well-being above my personal feelings.”

Glad to hear she’s an ex.

Other commenters have made really good points (like the one about us self-selecting to be here after leaving more toxic social media, or the one about engagement algorithms on Reddit encouraging hostility.)

As a smaller site, each of us holds more sway in building what this community is. There are definitely people here that see that and want to continue fostering a more positive experience. A lot of users here have interests in science, especially computer science, and a lot of users come from around the world. Both of these create a space that encourages rationality more than US-based popular social media (like Reddit.) Logical fallacies are called out for what they are, and plenty of people here are of the mindset that pointless drama isn’t worth engaging with. It’s not absolute, no, but compared to Reddit? It’s like another planet.

I definitely feel the vibe of old school computer forums. Small communities where people remember each other’s usernames and backstories encourage us to find common ground. Reddit’s near-anonymity has the downsides of any large-scale online anonymity - people can get mean because they don’t recognize the humanity of whoever’s on the other end of the argument. Here, we are still somewhat anonymous, but you run across some of the same names over and again. Like a small town where people all know each other, you end up more accountable for your shit-stirring because you’ll encounter the same people more frequently.

Oh, and one last point, the average age here is higher than Reddit. IIRC we’re mostly in our 30s. Age and maturity may hold sway in our behavior here as well.

That’s so bad for a child’s development. A computer can’t guide a kid’s hand to practice fine motor skills. It can’t impart social skills to help kids interact with each other. It can’t help kids revolve conflicts with each other, or handle behaviors that require a human touch. Imagine a couple kids fighting because they can’t share - what’s a computer gonna do? A kid can just ignore its instructions. What’s to stop a kid from physically attacking a robo-nanny or whatever fresh hell gets developed in this field?

I work with kids with difficult behaviors. There are ethical boundaries we need to be aware of. Will a robo-nanny be imparted with those rules? How accountable would it be if it did something ethically questionable? What will it be trained on - actual knowledge of children’s psychology (in which case, using a robot at all should be discounted right off, as children thrive on human interaction)? Or will it be trained on what parents/teachers have already been doing, which would inevitably result in being trained on outdated techniques that don’t follow updates in science? If a robot thinks spanking, isolation, or withholding food is okay, that’d be extremely troubling. There’s so much that could go wrong, and knowing this tech isn’t being designed with ethics in mind makes this whole endeavor terrifying.

Are parents going to be comfortable with their kids being alone in a room without an adult? A group of kids could simply band together to lock the robot in a closet or something and let chaos reign. They could figure out how to power it down, or throw things at it until it stops functioning. A kid having a tantrum can be a powerful force, potentially injuring other children in the act, and I highly doubt a robot alone could handle that situation effectively. Where I work it can take a team of adults with blocking pads, and coordination with even more adults to clear other students from the area. Sometimes those other kids are playing games and don’t want to leave, and it takes a trusted adult to convince them that yeah, no, we need to move now. Which brings us to the relationship the teachers have with the students, and how it is crucial to gaining what’s called “instructional control,” which basically means, “this kid will listen to your instructions.” Can a robot foster that? Do we want a robot to be able to foster that? I don’t like the idea of kids personifying machines to that extent, and we’re quickly learning how damaging (literally, it can cause brain damage) that can be for young minds.

I could go on and on, but suffice to say this whole topic is an ethical clusterfuck.

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.”