I WISH reddit would end. I used to love it for the batshit insane personal stuff people wouldn’t share anywhere else. “I haven’t pooped in a month, AMA”, that kind of dumb voyeuristic crap.

It turns out that’s what everyone else loved too, and it’s profitable to have AIs write it so you can read it on YouTube for ad revenue. And y’all, it’s so stupid.

The most bizarrely specific scenarios pop up again and again, and people eat it up every time. “AITA for not giving my evil infertile sister my baby?” “My parents promised my brother and evil SIL my house without consulting me, AITA?” “My evil MIL was female aka evil, AITA?”

And then you have subreddits like BestOfRedditor updates, which you’d expect to curate these posts so the slop doesn’t come through, but in reality it’s a handful of power users obsessively following and reposting any post with “update” in the title or even just edits with the barest amount of self reflection. Posts have wild plotholes, like a 30yo being divorced for 15 years, and it’s considered “best of” as long as there’s an evil woman/autistic person/trans person, I guess.

But no, this AI shit means it will never end, because it gets numbers, and numbers matter more than anything else.

Every time I get to know my neighbors, things are going well and then they suddenly drop something wildly transphobic, homophobic, or ableist. The last one was especially horrifying back when people were still talking about COVID— “but it only affects old/disabled people!”— pretty much saying to your face that they’re cool if you die.

Relying on other people in a survival scenario seems incredibly irresponsible. It’s America. Your neighbors want you dead.

True, I just assumed that reflection was required in order to give the AI the prompt, and the AI was mainly used to format it correctly. I might be talking out of my ass here since I haven’t used it extensively.

I mean good moments are just things like “romantic moment with someone who ghosted me a year later”, or “meeting a baby relative who I see three times a year”. Don’t get me wrong, they’re lovely and important moments, but there aren’t moments so good they change a person’s day-to-day life.

But bad moments obviously impact your life every day. You can’t walk correctly anymore. Someone you love is dead. You botched an opportunity so you’ll never escape poverty. Et cetera. Those moments obviously have a bigger impact because every single moment afterwards is determined by them.

I’d travel more. I could never afford to leave the country of course but I’d like to see neighboring states or even just see more places in my own state. I want to know what it’s like to exist in the world before it’s gone.

I wish I knew. People keep telling me to “organize” and “strike”. Like yeah a Walmart full of 60yo conservative white people is going to strike over this, fucking idiot.

Wayyyyy too many variables. Are we talking weed or meth? Sexual assault by an adult, or by an abused child repeating behaviors? Is the DUI just barely over the legal limit or is it egregious? Is the theft a colonizer stealing land or a beggar stealing bread?

I can’t with moral absolutism.

Mixed feelings. I decided not to study graphic design because I saw the writing on the wall, so I’m a little salty. I think they can be really useful for cutting back on menial tasks though. For example, I don’t see why people bitch about someone using AI for their cover letter as long as they proofread it afterwards. That seems like the kind of thing you’d want to automate, unlike art and human interaction.

I think right now I just kind of hate AI because of capitalism. Tech companies are trying to make it sound like they can do so many things they really can’t, and people are falling for it.

My beloved teaspoon… When I’m too lazy to fish the tablespoon out of my coffee tin and clean it… three teaspoons

I would truly starve to death if I didn’t have a teaspoon

My pre-workout is equivalent to two cups, and I usually drink it around 5-5:30am. However I have no perception of time on my days off so for two days a week I drink random amounts of coffee all day forever. Sometimes I remember to get decaf.

It was OK I guess. Did some petsitting, made a little money, bought a new desk. Thought a less claustrophobic setup might help me get back into art. Then I read the news and I was like, literally who fucking cares? The chips in my drawing tablet are made by slaves and my PC is a tool for multiple spy companies. Countries I’ll never visit are being decimated by capitalism to provide the fruits and veggies for my healthy diet that I’m supposed to eat to be less depressed.

The internet mocks me for calling my reps instead of overthrowing the government but none of them are overthrowing the government either.

This is selfish but I wish I’d die in a horrible accident so I at least don’t continue being a cog in this machine.

Jesus, I’m sorry. I hope you’re able to find treatment.

I have less money and customers are meaner, I guess? That’s how literally every new development affects every working class person

People who seem too desperate for approval too soon after meeting, ie the person who asked if I thought they were “problematic” and “a bad person” for their taste in media after our first date.

Maybe it’s because of my own mental health history, I have OCD and I’ve engaged in that behavior before too. If I’m with someone else who does it I’m liable to relapse and it turns into a two-person misery spiral. Maybe someone a little healthier could just reassure them and move on, but I’m not there yet.

Also, I don’t date anyone who just got out of a relationship. Their ex will change their mind and take her back and I’ll look stupid 😭

Personally I think that we need to make life happen locally regardless of what they do, but I understand if someone else thinks otherwise.

That’s something we definitely agree on. I think our differences are basically semantic; I can’t detangle the name and symbology of America from a structure I don’t believe in, but I know that’s not universal. At the end of the day we both care about our home and the people living here.

I’d want to pirate every drawing program I never got a chance to try, plus the fancier writing software. Gonna have a lot of time to learn both.

I’ve seen shockingly few movies and TV shows so maybe all the media I can get my hands on, too.

If you can, try to get to bed an hour earlier tonight. I do that when I lose track of my sleep schedule.

Good idea, thanks! Especially about the collar, I bought hers back before I even considered leash training, so it’s not the most visible. It’d be helpful to have something reflective if she ever got away from me

Wasn’t it Terry Pr⍺tchett who specifically put in his will that all of his unfinished works (on hard drives) were to be crushed with a steamroller?

People were so upset about that and I understand why, but creators are so dehumanized and treated as entertainment machines, I think being able to release or withhold your work on your own terms is so important.

I still feel really weird knowing that Kafka’s writings were released against his wishes after he died. I can’t even say it wasn’t a net positive, and I know he’s long dead so it doesn’t really affect him, but it feels like people don’t want artists or writers to be able to keep anything to themselves. We’re not only entitled to everything they’ve already made, but everything they could potentially make. How many times have you heard people say “we were robbed” because a standalone work didn’t get a sequel, or a TV show didn’t get a dozen redundant seasons? Like if we like someone’s work, we’re owed more of it.

Yeah same, I live in a small town and in addition to marketplace, I need to check it every couple months to keep up with local events. My town has a website with a calendar but they never add anything besides “weight training at the senior center”, no matter what else is going on