WatDabney

@WatDabney@sopuli.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Suspension Of Disbelief should be studied more⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Well… yeah. I thonk it’s fairly self-evidentvthat ondividuals have different threaholds for suspension of disbelief, and that the thresholds even vary between subjects with a given individual (for example, it’s harder to maintain suspension of disbelief relative to an area in which one has expertise).

  But that’s not really relevant - I just included “acceptably” to be more precise and accurate.

  The relevant part is the core idea that the mechanism by which at least some seemingly rational people support blitheringly insane and factually unsupportable political views is not really some combination of prejudices and biases by which they convince themselves of the nominal truth and correspondence to reality of their beliefs, but by engaging in suspension of disbelief - by entirely switching off the parts of their brain that measure truth and correspondence with reality, just as I do when I read a novel or watch a movie.

  I certainly don’t know that to be the case, but it’s a fascinating possibility

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Suspension Of Disbelief should be studied more⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  …there might well be something to that.

  Yes - exactly as you say, research needs to be done on suspension of disbelief.

  And thanks for sharing that fascinating idea.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Suspension Of Disbelief should be studied more⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Not quite.

  Suspension of disbelief refers to the act of essentially switching off the parts of ones mind that check for truth and reality, and simply following a narrative on its own terms, whatever they might be.

  It’s not that truth is unnecessary under suspension of disbelief - it’s not even relevant.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Suspension Of Disbelief should be studied more⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think this is a fascinating idea.

  And I just tried to explain it to a friend and she didn’t get it, then I came back to the thread to find respondents who didn’t get it in the same way she didn’t.

  She kept trying to warp it into something like confirmation bias, even though I kept trying to get her to see that the significant thing about suspension of disbelief is that truth and reality don’t even enter into it - they aren’t even meaningful concepts.

  The only thing that’s necessary when disbelief is suspended is that the narrative remain acceptably internally consistent. Whether itt true or not or corresponds with reality or not is entirely irrelevant, since the entire process of expectng and testing for those qualities has been set aside.

  Again, that’s a fascinating idea. I’ve long suspected that Trump is unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood, but that that was a consequence of his narcissism and egotism - that effectively the only measure he has for truth or falsehood is whether he believes something to be true or not - that the concept of consensual reality isn’t even coherent in his entirely self-absorbed internal reality.

  But I’ve long wondered how the at least somewhat more sane people following him manage it. Something like confirmation bias would only work up to a point that Trump has long since gone beyond.

  And I think you might be on to something - just as I do when I sit down to read a novel or watch a movie or a series, when they start engaging in politics, they just switch off the part of their brain that tracks trith and reality and instead just follow along with the narrative, whatever it might be.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you think people from more "privilaged" backgrounds have a right to complain about the struggle and/or abuse that they went through? (eg: "Middle Class" or "Rich" family)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Let’s do a thought experiment here.

  Pretend that the answer is no - they do not have that right.

  Okay - now what? If they don’t have the right to do that, then that means… what exactly? Are they to be arrested if they try? Are you somehow granted the right to kill them if they try? Is there any reasonable method by which they can actually be denied that right?

  Yes - all people have a right to feel however they feel and to voice their feelings. Or more precisely, nobody can possibly have the right to stop them.

  The thing they don’t have a right to is your attention, concern, sympathy etc. You’re entirely free to grant or withhold those things as you prefer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The US lost $35B in clean energy projects last year⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  More to the point, and cynically hilariously, the US under Trump, in just one year, lost any opportunity to be anything other than a second-rate has-been in the future, while the world is being led, as it always is, by the strongest economy with the latest technology.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Believing you will retire before you die now requires the same faith as believing in heaven⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Even stronger faith I’d say, since billionaires aren’t actively conspiring with politicians to keep you out of heaven.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some car lovers oppose bike infrastructure, when more bikes would mean fewer cars on the road?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it’s mostly pavlovian.

  It’s not that they follow some chain of reasoning to arrive at opposition to bike infrastructure, but that the mere idea triggers anger, and the position follows the mindless emotional response

  See also: pretty much everything that they consider “woke.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨“Zombie Land Saga: Yumeginga Paradise” key visual for North American release⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The legendary Yamada Tae!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The most normal Silicon Valley techbro⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s the current version of a power fantasy he’s had ever since he was the nerdy kid getting picked on by the mean kids on the playground.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Are we really going to let this fucking lunatic lead the US into an insane war?

  Enough is enough. He’s an existential threat not just to the US but to the entire world. He needs to be removed from office, immediately.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where can I be explicit and dirty on Lemmy?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Where can I say F*ck, respectfully?

  Fucking anywhere. If you feel some fucking need to self-censor like a little bitch, that’s on you.

  Where can I call women sl*ts and wh#res when they disagree with me on opinion?

  Wherever the fuck you want. You’re just likely going to end up facing some sort of consequences for being a sexist piece of shit. If you’re too much of a little bitch to deal with that, then maybe you should rethink the idea.

  Where can I call men bitch*s, when they try to correct me?

  Anywhere you want bitch.

  Where do femcels, Andrew Tates and wizards talk here?

  They mostly don’t because they need an echo chamber so they can pretend they’re something other than weak, pathetic little cowards, and Lemmy won’t give them one.

  Where is the place where we say things we couldn’t say elsewhere?

  That’s Lemmy

  What you’re looking for is a place where you can say things that you could say elsewhere - where you can post the same sort of cowardly, bigoted, noxious crap you can spew on Reddit or 4chan or X or Facebook. You can do that too on Lemmy if you want - you’re just not going to get a safe space to do it in free from consequences. And again, if you’re too much of a little bitch to face the consequences you deserve for being a bigoted piece of shit, you should maybe rethink the idea.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows president says platform is "evolving into an agentic OS," gets cooked in the replies — "Straight up, nobody wants this"⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When has that ever stopped them before?

  The history of Windows is almost entirely a history of putting out crap that people don’t want, then relying on market share, coercion and manipulation to effectively force people to give in and use it anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Elon Musk won’t stop. It’s time the British government got off X’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course he won’t stop - he’s arrested at an emotional age of about 14.

  He’s effectively a permanent chuunibyou, and he long since failed to do that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump's cashed in $800m from crypto alone in 1st half of 2025 - Reuters report⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Far and away the most corrupt, and most brazen, president in American history. Quite possibly the most corrupt politician in American history.

  And the machine just keeps grinding on, because none of the people who would do something about him can and none of the people who could do something about him will.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Golden Rule is flawed⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Since knowledge is woefully inadequate this would necessarily boil down to “treat others as you assume they treat others,” which is exactly the moral standard already followed by trigger-happy cops, ICE agents, MAGAs and racists in general.

  Is that really the best you can do?

  As far as the Golden Rule goes, itt immensely improved by framing it negatively - do not do unto others as you would not have done unto you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And unfortunately, it doesn’t matter in the slightest.

  As long as he keeps feeding hate and providing cover for corruption and usurpation of authority, he’s serving his purpose, and he doesn’t have to be rational or even coherent to do that. In fact, it helps that he’s not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I love stardew valley. looking for an alternative that is made for controller experience.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The game that Stardew Valley blatantly copied - Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town.

  It was made for the GBA, so has straightforward and precise controls, with none of the irritating camera or targeting complications that come with making the game 3D.

  There are other later games in the Harvest Moon franchise with better graphics, but like Stardew Valley with a gamepad, they tend to have irritatingly imprecise controls. Friends of Mineral Town, with its isometric 2D, doesn’t have that problem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Clarence Thomas says precedent might not determine cases on upcoming supreme court docket⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes - we already know that you’re entirely corrupt and possess zero integrity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump says TikTok should be tweaked to become “100% MAGA”⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We actually live in a world now in which the President of the United States explicitly states his intent to overtly violate the first amendment and the media just repeats it as if nothing of any note is going on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump declines to call for unity after Charlie Kirk killing: "I couldn’t care less”⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course he couldn’t - he’s a deranged sociopath.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s how the right defines freedom of speech.

  Look at any conservative forum. They all do the same thing - they overtly promote any and all right-wing content, no matter how violent and hateful and entirely regardless of whether it’s even true or not, and they censor left-wing content and ban left-wing posters. Then they call it freedom of speech.

  They really don’t have any other choice (except of course for turning away from their overtly toxic and destructive ideology, and they’re too angry and deluded and compromised for that). Conservatism is nothing but lies from top to bottom, so the only way they can give it the appearance of legitimacy is to promote right-wing lies and censor left-wing truth.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If autism is a spectrum, does that mean everyone is on the spectrum?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  In the sense in which you’re framing it, it would likely be more accurate to think of it as spectrums and subspectrums, in the same sense as sets and subsets.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨don't trust cowboys or people doing cowboy voices⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been especially impressed by the prescience of Bo Burnham’s line in Welcome to the Internet - “Obama sent the immigrants to vaccinate your kids.”

  As far as I know, it hasn’t become a quote from an actual right-wing nonsense-driveler yet, but it might as well be.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump is tightening the screws on corporate America — and CEOs are staying mum⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m sure they’re looking at the long term.

  While Trump might prove a short term difficulty for them, they’re very much in favor of his project of concentrating power in the executive branch and are looking forward to getting someone more amenable (read “for sale”) in the office.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What happens when chatbots shape your reality? Concerns are growing online⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I just think it’s funny that “AI” (which is “artificial intelligence” not in the sense of “human-made” but in the sense of “fake”) is contemperaneous with Trump.

  This is going to go down in history (if humanity survives long enough) as the Idiot Age.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨China's green energy boom could spell the end of the fossil fuel age⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  From what I’ve gleaned of the ravings of the angry stupid right blogosphere, a lot of people actually do think that only tree huggers want green energy.

  And I have little doubt that that’s an opinion that Trump shares, but that’s not his main motivation in all of this. His main motivation is big fat bribes from the fossil fuel industry.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨China's green energy boom could spell the end of the fossil fuel age⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And thanks to Trump, the US is perfectly placed to be entirely left behind.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to write a description correctly.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Israeli Assassination of Journalist Anas al-Sharif and Five Colleagues in Gaza City⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  “Assassination” is the correct word, and should be used in all references not only to al-Sharif’s murder, but all of the hundreds of journalists Israeli forces have very deliberately and systematically murdered over the years.