Amother organism or person needs to be predictable to be trusted.someone or something acting in an unpredictable manner means it may suddenly decide you’re a threat. We evolved in a world before science and medicine, where any injury could mean death. Even the most unstoppable animals, bears, elephants, moose, will bluff charge a threat rather than immediately attack, because fighting risks injury, regardless of how unbalanced the fight is. I can’t win a fight against any of those animals, but I can bite it while it’s killing me. A full thickness bite wound is all but guaranteed to cause an infection, which may kill or disable.

Humans are also social creatures, and we run on cultural norms that make it easier to trust that the person next to you in a restaurant won’t suddenly stab you, even though he is holding a knife.

A major cultural difference can make others seem dangerous in a primal way. We know through interaction that other cultures are not more dangerous, but that primal unease of being surrounded by people from a different tribe is still in there somewhere.

In my opinion, this is why racism is so hard to root out. A lot of it is taught by others, but it’s not a negligible amount tied to fear of anything different.

The infantilization worked, and certainly not just on the people who grew up with it. My profession has me dealing with patients from all walks of life, and the majority of people I work with everyday are painfully dumb. Whether they’re 18 or 80, I’m impressed that half of the people I meet managed to make it so far in life without falling out of their car.

They fall for every ad, they believe clickbait articles on facebook, they can’t figure out how to check in on a tablet, with directions on the screen, that works identically to the phone they live through. They don’t know anything going on in the world, or even the town around them, but they certainly know that new Burger at McDonalds, and they’re the only ones that really KNOW what’s going on with the country’s politics. They know seven tiktok dances, but can’t name the continents. They take 15 medications, can’t name them, and don’t even know what they’re for, just that the doctor said they need them. They know the backstory of every minor character in every marvel movie, but couldn’t make it through a novel if their life depended on it.

I regularly see people with uncontrolled diabetes that can’t even tell me which type they have.

It worked. We’re all consumers too dumb to know what we’re consuming or why we wanted it in the first place .

It’s one of my favorites, it’s very unique. The main character contracted the illness that killed most people, and although he didn’t die, the fever fried his brain, so he narrates in a weird broken stream of conciousness.

Ochre

Get handy. Fix things before they go bad, and learn basic construction on the way. Second hand tools are cheap, and there’s a number of good youtubers to help in any situation. After you get your bearings, it turns into a fun way to make the place into what you want it to be. Nothing is terribly difficult, and materials can be had cheap if you’re not in an emergency. Facebook marketplace allowed me to build a house for 70k over two years, and it’s valued at 350k, and not finished yet. The experience gained led me to doing odd side jobs and reselling unused materials to keep paying for new additions. If you can replace your own water heater, you can replace someone elses for half the price of Lowes and still take home 700$ for three hours work. Pick up some resold tile and put in a bathroom wall. You’ll find out what you did wrong in your own bathroom and won’t mess up someone elses for some extra cash in a pinch.

Electrical work is my favorite. Know the code, and how to stay safe, and it’s a lot of fun that the average person is HORRIFIED of. Get a good electricians multitool, a current tester, a drill and some tape, and you can perform miracles.

Most people will never afford a house. You don’t have to fix it, you get to fix it, so take pride and make it somewhere you love to live.

Seems like a solid place for me to plug Deadbolt to anyone that hasn’t played it. It’s made by the risk of rain guys with Chris christodoulou making another iconic soundtrack.

It plays a bit like if hotline Miami was a stealth sidescroller, using fluid motion to get in, kill the enemies, and get out as quickly and smoothly ad possible.

Everyone should give it a try, it’s one I consistently ignore new games for.

One of the best games out there. RoR 2 and RoR Returns are both stellar as well.

The soundtrack is phenomenal.

The game seems way too hard at first, but once you get into the flow it’s incredibly satisfying.

Blasphemous was the first pixel game that jumped in my head for really outstanding art. Wild character design, and the kill animations are unique and brutal.

It’s like they saw what castlevania wanted to be and blew it out of the water.

Not the original commenter, but what theirs saying stands true. The issue of “sounds legit” is the main driving force in misinformation right now.

The only way to combat it is to truly gain the knowledge yourself. Accepting things at face value has lead to massive disagreements on objective information, and allowed anti science mindsets to flourish.

Podcasts are the medium that I give the most blame to. Just because someone has a camera and a microphone, viewers believe them to be an authority on a subject, and pairing this with the “sounds Legit” mindset has set back critical thinking skills for an entire population.

More people need to read Jurassic park.

Foss everything. I’ve spent years making sure I stay private and never see ads, and never pay for convenience. There is a free version of literally everything that people use, it just takes a little bit of effort.

Fediverse for social media, Foss alternatives for professional use, and I hack every device I own.

A USB cable?

A second hand drum kit will be more reliable than a second hand power washer, so you could get a washer with gift cards and then look for a good deal on a drum kit.

That being said, playing drums makes you more fun and interesting. Having a power washer makes you more likely to be asked to clean things.

Conversation, mostly. By the time I quit reddit around two years ago, every top comment was a repost of a previous joke, or some predictable mutation of one.

Anything that went against the common preconceptions was shutdown immediately. I’m an expert/professional in a few niche subjects, and the final nail in the coffin for me was any comment I made turning into a fruitless debate with armchair experts too dumb to even understand why they were wrong, while correct info was downvoted to invisibilty.

None of this helps you crosspost, I’m aware.