“Chemicals” in food. Literally every substance, every food and people are composed of them. The common usage has bastardized the meaning and latched on to the naturalistic fallacy. Snake venom is natural. Cyanide is natural. Arsenic and Uranium are natural. Botulinum toxin is natural. Something being naturally occurring does not automatically make it good for you just as something being made in a lab does not equate to being bad for you.
I feel like that’s one of those things where the conversational use of chemicals and scientific use has drifted apart
There’s plenty of examples but the only one I can think of is evolution, like In every terrible sci-fi movie ever using evolution to describe the individual evil monster gaining some change
Anyways 100% agree with you tho
AI. In the real world, AI is any computer process that can make decisions as if it were smart. Expert systems, genetic algorithms, hell even fuzzy logic. A smart lightbulb is artificially smart. Artificially intelligent.
In movies and bad tech blogs, AI means a sapient machine and that’s why LLMs aren’t actually AI.
I really liked this post by Hank Green regarding “natural remedies”.
tl;dw The chemicals used in chemotherapy are naturally occurring, and science uses what we know works. So when people say “you should use natural remedies”, what they really mean is, you should use something:
- we don’t know whether it works
- we know doesn’t work
- we know is actively harmful
And the first two categories aren’t necessarily bad, an Epsom salt bath can feel really nice, but don’t think it’s a replacement for proper medical science.
My least favorite is “it’s processed”
I can count the ingredients on my hands, and the “processing” is like 4 steps max.
“Unga bunga me invent new process for food. It called cooking. Make less parasites in meat. Very good.”
“Cooking bad, garg. We no want processed food.”
Cooking is processing food.
A guy at a deli counter slicing cold cuts and assembling them into a sandwich is “processed food”. Using the term as a health concern marker is meaningless.
Even Kraft Singles, the posterchild of “processed food”, famously disallowed to legally call itself “cheese” on its packaging, what is it made of? What hellish process hath humanity wrought? Cheddar cheese, sodium citrate (a mundane variety of salt), and water. That’s it.
It’s not forbidden from being called “cheese” because it’s a bastard concoction of mad scientist chemicals that approximate cheese to ruse consumers. It’s simply cheese, literally watered down to the point that you can’t call it cheese anymore.
All that the sodium citrate is doing in this situation is acting as a binder that helps the cheese solids hold on to the water. This action is what gives many dishes, sauces, and the like their smooth, creamy texture. But use the word for that – “emulsifier” – and suddenly people think you’re trying to poison them, because that’s a scary chemical word.
Why does this product exist? Because it offers a unique melty texture that people appreciate in certain contexts. It’s a niche product with a niche function. Treat it like one.
I haven’t run into anyone who considers emulsifier a scary chemical word. Most people I know with any baking skill know what the word means and use egg yolks for that purpose all the time.
Have you heard about the chemical dihydrogen monoxide?! It’s 100% fatal! Too much causes death, too little, death! Massively addictive.
On one hand I agree with you, the way “chemicals” are used in everyday speech differs from the text book definition.
On the other hand, if we take our heads out of our asses and stop the "well actually"s I kinda have to agree with being against “chemicals” in food. Arsenic is naturally occurring, sure, but at what concentration? Radioactive uranium is a naturally occurring element, but I would hardly call nuclear fallout something natural.
Uranium doesnt need to undergo fission to be toxic. Fission also occurred naturally in the oklo nuclear reactor long ago. Uranium mined from that area is depleted in U235 and there are higher concentrations of stable isotopes derived from fission products in that area. Arsenic is found in higher concentrations in rice crops. Its found in certain soils and lakes. In certain areas in India, Fluoride can be high enough in concentration to cause bone growth abnormalities. Selenium is found in higher concentrations in the western US to the point that certain plants take it up and concentrate it further up to 2% dry weight. The plants use it as a defense against herbivory. Some trees concentrate nickel to the point that it turns their sap blue and may be a viable source of the element. i.e biomining. The plants that take up selenium also make an alkaloid called swainsonine that if ingested in high enough quantities, can cause cattle and other animals to shake themselves to death. Hence they are colloquially named locoweed i.e crazy weed. Certain plants were historically used as a form of crude birth control due to some of the compounds found in them being abortificants. Echinacea was pulled from the market as it was found to significantly increase the risk of heart attack and stroke due to its stimulant properties. Foxglove was used to develop digitalis which is a valuable heart medication but the plant itself is fairly dangerous. Metformin was derived from naturally occurring compounds that are poisonous in the concentrations they are naturally found in due to their tendency to cause severe hypoglycemia. There are TONS of plants that contain hepatotoxic compounds (cause liver damage). Green potatoes, rhubarb, raw red kidney beans, those all have substances in parts of them that can cause illness.
The point is that nature has plenty of ways to kill. Something being “natural” is no guarantee of safety.
If you are not worried about the chemicals in your food, your long term health would like to have a word with you.
Being overweight or obese, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, prolonged sitting, loneliness will all kill you way faster than all those “chemicals” in your food that you are so terrified of but no one really cares about any of that because its much harder to lose that extra 30 pounds and break up sitting every once in a while with light exercise than it is to act like a picky 5 year old and eat nothing but organic food satisfied by the false notion that you did something of consequence for your health.
I fully agree on those other factors you mentioned some of even higher importance.
Water is a chemical. Salt is a chemical. Everything is a chemical.
Absolutely, but not at all chemicals are the same as you know. Some are harmless and some are not.
Cyclists, some people just see red when they came across cyclist at the road.
There’s really no winning as a cyclist when most people are in cars. If you stop at all stop signs, and obey they right-of-way, people will yell at you and/or try to wave you through ahead of your turn dangerously. If you do an Idaho stop (which is the safest way to approach a stop, whether it’s legal or not), people will honk and yell at you and possibly try to run you off the road.
I used to commute by bike a lot during rush hour. If there was a lineup of cars waiting at a red-light, and I just waited in line, people in cars behind me would honk at me as if me preventing them from being one cars-length further ahead in line would somehow affect them. If I filtered forward, like I should, people would actually edge their cars over to try and block me.
I think for the most part, it’s misplaced anger from drivers who don’t want to face the fact that they are the source of danger on roads. The worst bicycle collision is way less severe than a car crash. They also really hate when bicyclists can get anywhere faster than them, which is often the case because it shows them just how much time they waste being traffic.
what’s an Idaho stop?
If you are on a bike, you treat stop signs as yields, and red lights as stop signs. Iit has been shown to be safer.
If it were codified like this as law everywhere, people would accept it better. The rule breaking is what pisses a lot of people off. It would be much more predictable and safer too.
Yeah, the government needs to get behind it (and tell people about it). I’ve come up to stop signs before, and been nearly run over from behind by cars that didn’t expect me to stop.
But not the cyclist as the cycle right through it.
Classic, I’m guilty of this. The best part about cycling in my small city is squeezing into the gaps and not waiting around in the wind for the lights to cycle.
I see it as my reward for biking instead of driving to be both a pedestrian when I want (go through red lights when traffic is clear on safe streets) and a car when I want (take a lane to get around a delivery truck)
That and getting places faster!
Except Berliner cyclists. They scare me.
That’s not “for absolutely no reason”. Some cyclists make a bad name for the rest.
Edit: Oh my goodness, you guys. I’m not saying hate for cyclists is justified, that I hate all cyclists, or that “all cyclists do x”. Some cyclists ride like they have a death wish. So do some drivers. Anyone, regardless of their vehicle, who is willing to put their life in my hands is someone I want to stay far the fuck away from.
Yeah I know an A-hole driver so all drivers must be A**holes.
No some people just don’t have good reason.
You can say ass on the internet bud, it’s ok.
Downvoted for saying the truth. Most cyclist I met here are absolutely jerks, they drive not even on the sidelines - no, they fucking drive in the mid of the road and if you try to surpass they move to the left.
For some it’s not their fault they are a bit of a nuisance obviously (those who cycle near the sidewalks, who signal were they are going etc), the cyclist infastructure is non existent here
Women.
Misogyny is extremely widespread and socially acceptable.
Add men to the list.
Misandry is also extremely widespread and socially acceptable.
IMHO both groups have bad apples. In conservative societies, women are often mistreated. In modern/contemporary societies men are often misstreated.
adult men are treated fine in modern societies, it’s boys/teenagers who are feeling increasingly out of place and are turning to misogyny as an outlet
IMHO both groups have bad apples
Oh bad people can come from anywhere, what a salient observation.
By every important measurable standard, women are still treated worse in contemporary society. The fact you would respond with this nothing take when someone brings up misogyny is incredibly telling. Wishing well to any women unlucky enough to be in your life.
I’d say modern being wealthy modern people.
- The homeless
- Children
- Chronically ill
- Disabled
- Sex workers
Reading this not as a list but as a sentence makes it crazy specific.
Wow. That is dark as hell.
But I laughed at your comment.
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Oh… Oh nooooo.
Nuke the unborn disabled child sex workers for world peace!
Yeah but children are fucking insane
People need to stop being children
Lol. Fair enough.
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Furries. They’re some of the nicest people ever. I’m a cosplayer and our worlds intersect a lot. They raise more money for charity than any group as small as they are, they’re kind and accepting, and they’re wicked talented. I trust Furries before muggles anyday
they’re wicked talented
Sincere question: what specifically are their talents?
Setting up/maintaining network infrastructure, coding, providing orgasms, UX design.
One of those is not like the others…
Damn design work.
Diverting attention from other nerdy/niche groups who don’t seem weird at all in comparison?
generally furries are really good creatives in a wide variety of differnent areas
Art, animation, etc. See furry art to know more.
No, thank you.
Nickelback. I mean they’re not good but they’re not really bad either, just a complete nonevent. They don’t deserve the hate they get, they don’t really deserve anything
Yeah, most of the hate is because they were super overplayed for a solid decade. For years the popular radio stations in my area didn’t seem to play anything but Nickelback, green day, Lady Gaga, and pink. In a vacuum, they’re fine. “How you remind me” is pretty good imo. I don’t care for anything else from them. I’ve heard that their guitar player is actually really talented, but I haven’t listened to them enough to know myself
I second this. I love Nickelback. They are unique in their own way .
No, they’re not. That was kind of my point
I think they’re a relic from a time when it was ok/cool to hate on a band or artist for no reason, publicly, without everyone judging you for being a prick.
My theory is that they’re one of, if not the, last bands to fall into the above category, so everyone just uses them as their go-to.
Younger people (in this case meaning people under 35 lol) are just so much more accepting and less judgemental than previous generations. And you love to see it.
The thing is, Nickelback didn’t invent post-grunge or radio grunge, but they were definitely face of it. That era saw a nearly endless stream of cookie cutter Pearl Jam wannabes pop up, and at the same time the entire independent radio industry, which had played a big role in birthing so many counterculture movements, was under threat of corporate consolidation when they were getting popular in the late 90s.
To many millennials, nothing else embodied this dark era for rock music like Nickelback. It was “we have Eddie Vedder at home” meme - shoved down our throats, carbon copied every few months, constantly reminding us that the alternative rock station we grew up with was purchased by Clearchannel and would be transitioned to Latin Beats by the end of the year.
So in that sense, Nickelback may not have killed grunge, but it happily set up shop on its grave, to forever pantomime and disrespect the alternative rock giants laying below. And for a lot of people, that was just too painful.
Oh, boy, they most certainly deserve the hate. This article sums it up pretty well: https://www.grunge.com/51980/nickelback-became-hated-band-music-industry/
haven’t seen it in the thread yet, but (most) GMOs. The foods and technology aren’t the problem, it’s a solution to ending hunger. It’s the corporate interests that squash competition that’s the problem.
It’s also the shitton of nasty pesticides GMOs enable.
Yes the monopolies it creates for seed and the pesticides are the reason I’m against GMOs. It’s sad such promising technology is misused like this.
What? GMO’s use less pesticides. https://allianceforscience.org/blog/2020/07/new-study-gmo-crops-reduce-pesticide-use-greenhouse-gas-emissions/
That is a GMO-funded thinktank.
Conservatives seem to really hate electric cars for some reason. You’d think that for all the bitching they do regarding how Dark Brandon is personally hiking gas prices as part of his pinko commie agenda they’d like to stick it to him and stop paying for gas, but no, they take personal offense as if an electric car is somehow emasculating.
on the flip side, the further left you go the more you get people who hate cars in general
They are paid to “take personal offense” by lobbyists. They actually don’t give two shits one way or the other about electric cars.
Idk I see a lot of stupid memes on conservative mocking groups on Facebook that they post. Perhaps they don’t care.
The people in charge don’t give a shit, but again, they’re paid to care so they spew the hate to their followers who eat that shit up like a fat guy at an all you can eat buffet. They’re really good at doing what they’re told
Socialism/Communism/Anarchism. Barely anyone who actually understands them and the theory supporting them hates them, but tons of people have been fed Red Scare propaganda on the matter.
Well, those who most benefit from the status quo also understand those concepts quite well, but oppose them.
If only there wasn’t a wealthy, parasitic, world-dominating country which would violently overthrow (or at least try) any country which didn’t kowtow to capitalism, and the Parasite Class.
Maybe because most real life examples of those systems haven’t worked out great.
I think most real-life examples have been plagued by corruption to the point that they fall into a different category altogether.
Historical examples, like Revolutionary Catalonia for Anarchism, and the USSR, Cuba, Maoist China, Vietnam, etc. for Marxism-Leninism, absolutely count as Socialist and should be learned from, both the good and bad.
If you dismiss them as “not real Socialism,” you fail to learn from what did work in those instances, like literacy rates and life expectancy skyrocketing. If you dismiss the bad, you make the equal mistake of not accounting for the flaws in systems like Soviet Democracy, which resulted in a corrupt Politburo with outsized power.
Study them in detail and find what to take and what to leave behind.
Why?
yes, they have
Cuba, a poor blockaded small island nation, has a higher life expectancy than the global hegemon and richest nation ever
The USSR went from a monarchist backwater to a industrial society, defeating the nazis and sending the first satellite into space, in the span of 40 years.
China, under socialism, is now on track to shatter US hegemony through the power of socialist economic management and mutually beneficial cooperation.
MSG
Oh lots of things
Women
Ethnicities
LGTBQ+
Drag Queens ( they are so entertaining)
Inconvenient truths
People who hang toilet paper the wong way
The French (cowards? They won more battles than anyone and have mastered the art of standing up for themselves)
Furries
Pineapple on pizza ( its good, Ill die on this hill)
Bronies
Caillou - not, that whiney snot deserves it
Marijuana
Ned Flanders
Bell bottoms
Satan ( the word in acient hebrew that we translated to Satan first appears in the book of Job, and would more accuratly be rendered as accuser of prosecutor. In the whole bible satan only goes after 10 people, and only when god tells satan to do it. Half way through satan is like ‘um god? This guys like, broken now. Call it good?’ But that rapscallion god was like ‘no, he could still recover keep hitting him’ and all that because god ‘knew’ Job was the most loyal and devout of his followers and his narcisism just couldnt help but make a grand display of proving it)The pinapple on pizza one is weird to me, do these people not enjoy the idea of contrasting and complimentary flavours?
Savoury + sweet is a good combo and they dont seem to have a problem with tomato on pizza if they are getting technical over ‘fruit’ being an ingredient.For me pineapple on pizza is just mid. There are better ways to do the salty and sweet thing (eg. local pizza place does oscypek + cranberry jam).
I had pizza once with almonds and honey and chicken. It was suprisingly good.
That sounds absolutely terrible. But calling it almond & honey cake instead of pizza (and omitting the chicken) might solve the problem.
It sounds awefull but tastes amazing. This was years ago when I was still moving furnature across the nation and drinking more booze than water. I wonder if I would like it sober tbh
pineapple needs to go under the cheese, then its sublime.
Well, I hate pineapple and putting it into things just kind of ruins the thing you’re adding it to anyway, so there’s that.
I think it’s more that pineapple flavor is really overpowering on a pizza. And on drinks. I think people dislike ginger (to a lesser extent) for the same reason.
People who hang toilet paper the wong wayWait, there’s a wrong way?
You are one of Them, aren’t you?
There are two right ways, and 1 wrong way.
The right way,
“I have a cat/dog/toddler”
The wrong way.
T R I G G E R E D ! ! !
Yup, if you hang it so the “waterfall” is on the right hand side it’s wrong
Drag queens are wonderful. I finally got into Drag Race (just not a reality show viewer generally), and those queens will totally tug your heart strings if you just watch, and they’re real artists too. RIP Chi Chi DeVayne.
Bronies deserve it because they still haven’t denazified. Furries are a mixed bag with half being outright pedophiles and the rest being insanely cool people, with bronies it’s a guarantee they have at least one filly in their spank bank. But in either case if a nazi comes along trying to start shit with either i’m shutting that shit down right away because they don’t have the right to get on a high horse when they’re 20x worse.
None of the furries I am friends with tolerate Nazis
…anymore
MOST of the furries I am friends with did not ever tolerate Nazis
TBH I do know someone who has a “not checking if the character they’re posting porn of is underage” problem, and I’ve actually only seen them do it with human characters, though they have no special preference between humans and anthros.
I’m really hoping it’s something that they figure out over time, but it’s going to be a lot of work so probably nothing that will happen overnight.
I don’t really think the sexual violence rates in the furry community are higher than in the general community. There’s just more awareness of what consent is. I mean I could say “look at r/jailbait, straight people have a pedophile problem”, and I’d be right, but only because society has a pedophile problem.
That would be true if every single porn site was at or worse than r/jailbait, which to be honest does feel like the case at times.
Socialism
Our road system, retirement benefits, health system (except USA), public school system, national parks are all socialist.
True, but they also mixed into comunism
Fucking commie! /s
You know socialists want to take away everything you own and install a dictatorship right? /s
The ironic part is that actual socialism is actually pretty popular. It’s the violent revolution and ensuing dictatorship which turns most people off to the Marxist Leninist ideals, which takes up most of the oxygen in that room these days.
The ensuring dictatorship isn’t socialism nor communism. You can dream of something and ending with something else.
Fat people. There, I said it.
I think the issue is with normalizing unhealthy bodies. idc how you look as long as you’re healthy, but society is becoming increasingly accepting of obviously unhealthy lifestyles and bodies. It’s no better than anorexia.
Unhealthy bodies like how? What dobyou mean by that? How can you know someone’s health status and or lifestyle by the way they look? If that were true, blood Labs and other tests would be useless.
ask any doctor, being overweight is unhealthy.
I’m not saying we should be assholes to fat people but we should still teach kids that being overweight is unhealthy
You can get the rough strokes from looks. Blood tests give you more specific information on what is wrong, if anything.
Meh, that is lazy medicine IMHO and at the same time, it says a lot about the health system and its practitioners. We need better educated more empathetic doctors who go beyond looking at someone to make assumptions about someone’s health.
I would say that this is a problem of lacking resources, not laziness. I’ve never met a doctor that didn’t have a constant stream of patients and non-stop work to do.
Ime fat people are pleasant to hang out with.
Yeah, being fat shouldn’t be a qualifier for anything IMHO. Like, let people live their lives in peace! There are pleasant and unpleasant fat people, as there are thin, so why does weight have to do with anything?! It is baffling to me we have to work so hard to humanize fat persons. Fat bias is so ingrained in our culture people think is ok.
Some of the fat people I’ve worked with were so much more hard working than others. But on other hand some customers I’ve dealt with were the worst customers. There was a notorious mother daughter duo that my co workers labeled the “Thunder Cunts”. The sad part is they had kids that probably.lived a life of hell.
Yeah, child abuse is no joke. I bet you also had non fat customers who were a pain in the ass too, so it is not about weight, but about being an insufferable tw4twaffle.
Yeah I worked in a really shitty area. It was heartbreaking seeing how shitty people were.
Oh I feel for you. It is never easy to witness some stuff.
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And very cuddly and squeezable. I like touching fat folks as much as I like touching for folks. All bodies are nice.
Possums. They are immune to rabies and eat disease-spreading ticks. Salute your local possum
Opossum
Both are correct.
But one is ambiguous.
U mean o-mbiguous hehe
Australian possums in NZ destroy the ecosystem. North American possums in North America are cool though
VEGANISM!
It’s great for your health, we’d solve like 25% of the climate catastrophe overnight and it redeems billions of our fellow earthlings from the unimaginable suffering we inflict on them 24/7.
It’s a ridiculously obvious and easy step we should take as a species, yet even hardcore leftists turn into irrational idiots and go full Bullshit Bingo when you bring it up. Because they have become accustomed to a taste.Best thing I ever did for myself.
I think it’s less veganism and more how noisy and evangelical the loudest vegans are.
If you’d just said veganism, I’d agree, but you went on to emphatically tell us all the reasons why veganism is better. All legit, sure, but all the underlining gives it a particularly condescending tone. It’s not veganism that irritates me, it’s how condescending so many vegans become. Same camp as CrossFit for me. They’re both cultures I don’t really care to be a part of.
Eating animals is doing so much harm on a personal and global scale, yet people mostly choose to ignore it. So we get louder to confront your cognitive dissonance. I know it is annoying to you, I was annoyed too. But it’s necessary and it’s working. We’re not a cult, quite the opposite: Vegans act according to scientific facts. Do you want to have a heart attack? No. Do you like torturing animals? No! Do want to wreck our planet to the point our children won’t be able to live on it anymore? If course not. Veganism is not the only answer to all this, but no solution will suffice without us stopping to abuse animals. Think about that when you’re out in the supermarket next time. It feels good to actually live up to you ethical values.
Also, #7 and #30, bingo!Excellent example. Thanks.
For the record, there’s no dissonance. I know well what I’m doing and recognize that I am choosing the easier option. Call me a villain, I don’t care. I live my life as best I can and to the best of my ability which you’ve made it clear is immoral and lesser than you.
So 10 years ago it was “STFU, you’re wrong”, now it’s “STFU, you’re right”? Changing diet is a journey, I didn’t go full vegan from one day to the other. I’m sure you’re not a villain and hope you change your mind sometime. There are many great plant-based foods waiting for you on the shelves.
I try to tell people to ditch beef as a compromise. I’m flexetarian myself and try to avoid meat, but beef is by far the worst offender when it comes to climate.
I think the average person doesn’t want to give up all meat dairy and eggs all in one go. Removing beef is highly effective and a first step into a more conscious diet.
Eggs are a super food, too. They’re cheap, delicious, and have dense nutrition. And, if you live anywhere close to rural, you can get farm-fresh eggs from ethically treated, well fed chickens for cheap.
We minimize our meat consumption, but we eat lots of eggs, and I don’t see any ethical concerns with people’s backyard chicken coops.
Pretty much what I did. Meat once a week and almost always birds. Maybe a hamburger or pho twice a year, and always with my family.
Because they have become accustomed to a taste
I have been toying with baking the last two months and vegan bread is a challenge. It isn’t just taste. Take my basic bread and cut out milk+butter and all I have left is oil. The bread rises funny and the crust is totally different. Yes I have tried a good friend of mine has a dairy allergy.
Just saying it isn’t like there is a ready solution I can grab.
I agree, changing your diet is something you need to be willing to do, because it takes time to learn new things. Some take babysteps, some go all in. It is possible to cook and bake delicious food without animal products. So have fun learning!
Vegan.bingo that’s amazing I’m gonna just refer to that for every one of those conversations from now on
The dead animal flesh is already there and I honor its sacrifice by eating it. That is my position and my purpose.
