existennialmemes

[existennialmemes]

They'll never catch me alive. They'll never catch me dead either. My body will never be found, and my mysterious disappearance will inspire terrifying legends for centuries to come.

[existennialmemes]

That is exactly what it's about and I was sure it was real, but I was also tricked by the Amtrak girl so I'm observably not qualified to judge 😂

I must not give into the Corporate Gimmick Blogs. Corporate Gimmick Blogs are the mind killer. I will scroll past the Corporate Gimmick Blogs. I will permit them to pass over me and through me. And when they have gone past I will turn the inner eye to see their path. Where the Corporate Gimmick Blogs have gone there will be nothing. Only real shitposters will remain.

[existennialmemes]

[existennialmemes]

Thank you, yes and I can't leave this one in the tags: Zionism is Antisemitism

Two seemingly contradictory beliefs that we actually must strive to hold simultaneously:

You don't owe anyone anything

Meaning: you do not have to make yourself suffer for the convenience of others

We owe each other everything

Meaning: we could not survive without each other and everything we do to help another is crucial to ensuring our own continued survival

You don't need to be a doormat, but also don't get comfortable slamming the door when you have the resources to extend a hand instead.

[existennialmemes]

Dark Pattern mechanics are not like going to a casino to do regular gambling. A lot of folks seem to think that the issue here is just "gambling" in and of itself but it's not.

Like ok, so imagine a casino is a big pit in the forest filled with bear traps, with a little plank running across the top.

Some people find it thrilling to walk across this plank. That in and of itself is not unethical.

Casinos do add some unethical elements, like creating an atmosphere that encourages overconsumption of alcohol to make you more likely to fall into the pit. And if you demonstrate too much talent for not falling in the pit, they just kick you out. If they find out you're a gymnast and you have special training to walk across planks they just ban you for life.

They also know that some people will definitely fall into the pit and they're ok facilitating that, in fact their business model depends on some people falling into the pit sometimes.

So I'm not saying they're totally upstanding establishments, but for the most part, building a bear trap pit, clearly telling people where it is, and letting (adults only) walk across the plank is not really a pearl clutching situation. The risks are clearly identified and anyone who wants to take them has to physically go there to do it.

Dark Pattern mechanics for games or collectibles or literally anything (including online gambling sites sometimes) are very different.

They've built a pit, filled it with bear traps, covered it in moss, and are doing their best to convince you that it's a solid surface you can safely walk across. They knock on your door and offer to build a "moss patch" in your backyard without telling you that there is a pit filled with bear traps underneath.

Then they prod you with various compulsory, time sensitive "incentives" to walk across it over and over again trying to goad you into walking across it enough that you eventually fall in.

Their business model depends on getting as many people as possible to fall into the pit, and they are specifically targeting folks who would not have chosen to go into the woods to visit the pit on their own. And they're arranging the pit so that it's right next to you, every single day, to increase the chance that you'll fall in one day.

Yes, it's worse than regular gambling. Yes, you should be very alarmed to see these practices becoming more and more normalized.

And no, the people who fall into the pit aren't stupid. They are being intentionally manipulated based on decades of psychological research.

If you've walked across the moss pit and never fallen in, it's not because you're smarter. It's because your neurology is differently wired.

The same way lots of folks drink alcohol but only some get addicted, not everyone's brain is susceptible to these techniques. The people designing them know that, which is why they cast such a wide net, hoping to catch as many of their vulnerable targets as they possibly can.

[existennialmemes]

I take it back. There's at least a 50% that I've been tricked by a satire blog. Again.

I must not give into the Corporate Gimmick Blogs. Corporate Gimmick Blogs are the mind killer. I will scroll past the Corporate Gimmick Blogs. I will permit them to pass over me and through me. And when they have gone past I will turn the inner eye to see their path. Where the Corporate Gimmick Blogs have gone there will be nothing. Only real shitposters will remain.

[existennialmemes]

I must not give into the Corporate Gimmick Blogs. Corporate Gimmick Blogs are the mind killer. I will scroll past the Corporate Gimmick Blogs. I will permit them to pass over me and through me. And when they have gone past I will turn the inner eye to see their path. Where the Corporate Gimmick Blogs have gone there will be nothing. Only real shitposters will remain.

[existennialmemes]

"I don't want to read any facts about this issue but my opinion is—" Stop. Your opinion is uniformed and is worth less than nothing.

I really mean it. Saying nothing would be a much more valuable contribution to the discussion than you interjecting with an opinion formed from stuff you just believe based on Vibes™

All of us need to get a lot more comfortable with saying nothing sometimes. This is not a call out. This is a reminder that opinions formed in the absence of facts should always be questioned.

[existennialmemes]

Addendum: their blind box and dark pattern mechanics are not just bad because they encourage consumerism

They're also bad because they're designed specifically to exploit weaknesses in your psychology and get you unwittingly addicted to gambling to the point of your own peril.

criticism of Labubu I will accept: the blind box format encourages rampant consumerism; some people only buy them because of the trend and they will be landfill fodder in six months when that trend dies

criticism of Labubu I will not accept: hnnnnn adults playing with toys WEIRD and BAD!!!!!

[existennialmemes]

Name: Differrem Nochturnus

Demonic Class: Psyche Parasite

Description: Commonly known as the "Bedtime Procrastination Demon" this imp lives in the brains of most homosapiens and is relatively dormant until the hours of 10pm - 4am during which it skuttles about inside the skull, releasing cortisol and transmuting pure spite into the desire to learn complex skills instead of sleeping.

[existennialmemes]

If you feel compelled to hold every Jewish person personally responsible for israel's atrocities, just because they're Jewish, regardless to their actual beliefs about israel.

But you do not feel this compulsion when you encounter US Americans, Britts, French, or German people (you know, citizens of the countries actively funding the genocide) then you are just an antisemite.

And using an ongoing genocide as a tool to silence random Jewish people for speaking about our own religion utterly unrelated to the fascist state of israel is not helping a single soul.

You are just trying to feel superior without doing a goddamn thing about the actual horrors you're wielding like a baseball bat to attack a religion you're clearly giddy for the excuse to attack.

[existennialmemes]

Those are zionist ideals. I am anti zionist Jew, in many ways because of the vile way the israeli government defies my Jewish values every fucking day.

And your desperate desire to paint my entire religion as an extension of israeli zionist violence is actually a perpetuation of zionist ideals.

They want you to attack random Jews around the world. They want you to perpetuate antisemitism because it muddies the water around their settler colonist violence.

So good job. You attacked a random Jewish person for no other reason than for being Jewish. Did that make anyone safer?

Two seemingly contradictory beliefs that we actually must strive to hold simultaneously:

You don't owe anyone anything

Meaning: you do not have to make yourself suffer for the convenience of others

We owe each other everything

Meaning: we could not survive without each other and everything we do to help another is crucial to ensuring our own continued survival

You don't need to be a doormat, but also don't get comfortable slamming the door when you have the resources to extend a hand instead.

[existennialmemes]

it shouldnt be illegal to kidnap a guy if he looks really sad and you know he would have a better life in captivity

[existennialmemes]

Not to sound like a terrifying communist or anything, but I think it's bad when we let people die from preventable causes.

[existennialmemes]

Knowingly hijacking someone's reward pathways to weaponize them for profit is unambiguously bad. They are manipulating people on purpose with the sole intent of triggering maladaptive & addictive behaviors. They want you to financially harm yourself to enrich them instead. Being a Hater™ is the obvious moral position here.

People act like I'm just being an asshole but man the whole reason I'm so anal about hating gambling mechanics is because I've been down that road and lost a ton of money on games I just stopped playing eventually anyway and it SUCKS and the more you learn about dark pattern design the more you realize that this entire corner of the game industry is just fully focused on screwing vulnerable people out of their money and it's just evil, plain and simple. What do you want from me?? To promote this shit like every other streamer after knowing all that??? I will NOT be complicit in this shit. I'm gonna talk about how bad it is!!! You think that makes me an asshole?????

[existennialmemes]

[existennialmemes]

When you look at an artist's wares, I am literally begging you not to just see the item itself, but the many, many hours of human labor that created it. Handmade art isn't just pretty, it's the exquisite product of priceless human labor.

Capitalists desperately want to devalue that labor. They wants us to see the often invisible physical costs of human labor as irrelevant. So that they can keep deflating everyone's wages.

When you look at the cost of a beautiful piece of art and balk because it is more expensive than soulless, exploitatively mass produced junk, please remember that you are also helping to perpetuate the culture that devalues your labor.