Kinda, but there’s also an implicit assumption here that search engines are unbiased, which they’re not.

And maintains the monoplies of big pharma

The process of choosing government officials at random is called sortition. It's certainly not the worst method.

Its called Sortition and I agree

Oh hell no. You know how braindead most people are at something relatively simple like driving a car, managing finances, or logical decision making? And then you want to roll the dice and let potentially 'the average' citizen to partake in government? This also means you have to be fine with the dumbest motherfucker you have ever come across, making policy decisions.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell naw. Fuck, we have some dense pieces of shit in govt/politics here in the states, but I know that we can do way, way, way fucking worse. Hell. No.

Vulture Capitalists?

Not aware of Bill Hicks' take, but marketing effectively amounts to manipulating people into buying things that they otherwise would not.

You’re just going for that anti-marketing dollar

Marketing itself can be good, sadly the whole industry has gone off so far into the dark path that it's irredeemable at this point.

Going after that anger dollar, I see. Big market.

Bad marketing makes me want to ship my pants.

This is pretty much my list. Middlemen. I wouldn't say absolutely without value but it's gotten out of hand.

Debt collectors. The businesses took the risk when they loaned money or provided some kind of service on credit.

I don't use debt collectors any more, but I have a construction company and a few times a year people just decide not to pay for their work. If someone really truly refuses to pay I could take them to small claims court, and I have, but it's a ton of work and lawyers won't bother with anything under 10k. I've literally had a judge say "so petty" about me taking someone through small claims for a $1200 they'd been dodging for years So some jerk can stiff me for $1500 and I have basically no recourse. I'm not talking about some impoverished person who I took advantage of, these are people with nice homes who make a habit of not paying bills. I'll work with people who are short on cash and honest.

Even though debt collectors are 0/3 in the times I've used them, it's at least something to fire off a final 'fuck you and your credit'

That's what the Golgafrinchiam people thought and they are no more! Let their fate be a lesson to all who would overlook the importance of telephone hygiene!

Found the Golgafrincham.

my feeling is, is if you are going to be selling a product and you use certain words or phrases like "scientifically proven" or "research shows..." that you need to reference your claim.

Bathroom attendants are there to discourage drug use and bathroom sex. That’s literally their primary purpose. The fact that they have towels and mints is secondary to the fact that they’re just a walking overdose deterrent.

That’s why they’re commonly seen in clubs and bars where people would be inclined to do drugs or have bathroom sex.

It’s usually an old woman, and that keeps drunk bros from getting out of hand, assholes from littering paper towels, and you can just get your own damn towel.

I think it’s mainly higher end places thinking actual towels would be a nice touch but not willing to pay for them to be lost or stolen

Wait, what? What kind of crazy place do you live? I take it that everyone who applies to such a job is just a pervert who likes listening to everyone using the toilet. (or do you have separate toilet and sink rooms?)

No splash: no gash, no armani: no punani, no dolce and gabanna: no sucking your banana

Bathroom attendants play a key role in maintaining cleanliness and providing a touch of personalized service, especially in high-end establishments. Their primary responsibility is to ensure the restroom remains clean, sanitary, and fully stocked with supplies. However, their role goes beyond just cleaning. At upscale locations, bathroom attendants offer a variety of helpful services, such as providing guests with towels, cologne, gum, or mouthwash. They also discreetly help you leave the restroom looking your best—whether that means making sure your shirt is tucked in properly, your tie and gig-line is straight, or there’s no toilet paper stuck to your shoe.

Most of their cleaning duties are performed between guests. While you’re washing your hands, they might simply offer you a towel or a spritz of cologne. But when the restroom is empty, attendants are hard at work, wiping down surfaces, checking stalls, and restocking supplies to ensure everything remains in top shape. This constant attention prevents the need for the restroom to be closed for cleaning by some sweaty guy in filthy coveralls swearing and muttering randomly, instead keeping the space clean and functional seamlessly throughout the night.

Bathroom attendants also provide a subtle layer of security, monitoring restroom usage to prevent smoking, drug use, or other inappropriate activities. In some cases, particularly at nightclubs, this may even be their primary responsibility. While lower-end venues may employ bathroom attendants to create a more VIP atmosphere, the attendants in these settings are often more like an extension of front-door security and are there to keep things safe and orderly, rather than to provide the full range of services seen in higher-end locales.

Next time you encounter a bathroom attendant, ask them how you look before leaving the restroom. They’ll likely be happy to offer a quick adjustment or a friendly compliment, ensuring you leave looking sharp. In a way, they’re like an underappreciated wingman, helping you make the best impression possible. They're also usually wired into the rest of the house, so if you'd like the bartender to come by your table with something special or have some other special request, they can help take care of it.

Their sauce too, omfg I like chicken but it's like dipping the thing in liquid shit. How the fuck do they think this is the ideal sauce? Did they hire yes-men with no functional taste buds to decide on their sauce? When they were popping up around me a few years ago, family and friends tried them a couple times each. Everyone thought that, while the chicken is fine, the sauce kills it. Nobody I know has been back in... 7 years?

I'm okay with Chief executive officers. I'm not okay with publicly traded companies.

If I were to start a business I would like to be allowed to run that business. But I think any business that goes public and starts trading on the stock market has sold out completely and totally and no longer has any intrinsic value.

They always do it for a temporary injection of money and they always end up enshittifying as they inevitably have to satisfy the investors who gave them the money.

CEOs are fine, you need someone to steer the ship.

However don't pay them a bazzilion bucks while eveyone else gets pennies.

"And just like that, he left."
"He what?!... Did he say anything?"
"Nothing at all. He plopped the list on the ground and promptly walked out."
"What a bloke."

Why deodorant advertisers specifically?

People think this without a hint of irony, and yet have never worked in a place without management. Good management improves productivity and efficiency, while also shielding workers from executives. Bad/no management almost always leads to chaos.

It's like the whole idea of not having leaders; it's a great theory, but it assumes that everyone is capable of working together perfectly towards the same goal, when the reality is that not everyone has the same goal.

Middlemen, etc., are trading in knowledge. They know who can do what, and decrease duplication of effort.

Flippers. Any kind of flippers

Had to check myself cause my brain wanted to say "maybe some of them got in there for the right reasons", which, idk maybe but the incarceration system is garbage and ACAB in the end.

What about a lobbyist who works for say the Electronic Frontier Foundation? Or a nurses union. Or who works for the Sierra Club, or some organization trying to protect the environment?

"Lobbying" is just talking to a politician on behalf of a person or group. If the Hollywood studios all hire lobbyists to talk to representatives about why copyright terms should be longer and DRM should be mandatory, doesn't it make sense that there should be people telling the other side?

I get that too often lobbyists overstep ethical boundaries. Often, they either effectively bribe politicians, or they write up laws allowing the politician to just rubber-stamp them. But, you could shore up and/or enforce laws restricting that kind of thing, while still allowing a representative of a group to meet with a politician and explain their point of view.

Senior Bribery Logistic Engineers*

Yes. And it’s really dumb.

Not just in the states either. They do it in Mexico and some of the operators use their job to rip off tourists. You have to make sure they reset the meter before they start pumping your gas.

Mexico, Peru, and New Jersey, USA are 3 places I know still do this.

If you've never seen the disaster some morons have caused at pumps...

Looking at you NJ, you ridiculous grift if a state.

that seemed like a job that literally only existed to give some people a job

That is exactly what it's for, and it prevents a lot of worse problems just by existing. It significantly reduces crime rates by allowing people who otherwise couldn't earn income, and provides a way for ex-cons to successfully reintegrate into society and not relapse, as well as providing low/no skill labor. It gives some a sense of purpose - retirees who physically can't do any other work for example and need something to do.

It is literally there to give people jobs and its a good thing.

There are undoubtedly people beginning to say the same thing about supermarket checkout attendants now. That doesn't seem like a good thing to me.

They get paid for that?

Boy, you don't know what you're missin'!

Let's say you lose your job because a company lays you off without notice amid record profits. With your new found free time, you get so angry you go to your state senators and representatives and try to convince them to make a law limiting layoffs to a 6 month notice period for profitable companies. You are now a lobbyist. You are saying not to lobby the government full time. But for the sake of clarity let's say your coworkers also got laid off and pooled their money to send you to lobby on their behalf, you are now a paid lobbyist.

I feel like most people that complain about lobbyists are really just complaining about corporate lobbyists or lobbying groups paid by corporations. Lobbyists are a good and necessary part of any democracy.

That vaguely reminds of real estate business.

Steamers with like 10-30 people are fun to watch or hangout with, when it's 7,000 emojis and someone making $100k a month... Meh

How about the entertainment industry as a whole?

Some livestreamers (even big ones) are legitimately fun to watch, but I agree that there are a lot of livestreamers that just do "reaction content" which, while it can be fun (in the same way as Rifftrax/MST3K), isn't something most streamers put enough effort into to be considered good. Instead it ends up being a low-effort way of generating views.

If you want some good streamers, some of the big streamers I like are people like,

• Vinesauce Vinny: Unhinged but chill New York Italian streamer who likes corrupting games (fucking with the ROM/RAM while the game is running) and laughing at unhinged 80's and 90's video game commercials; in a band with Jabroni Mike and he's also known as "binyot".
• Jabroni Mike: Unhinged and not chill New York Italian streamer who loves dredging up YouTube content slop to laugh at; in a band with Vinny and he's also known as "Cumchugger".
• Vargskelethor: Absolutely unhinged swedish metalhead who lives in a public toilet where he points and laughs at people while they take a shit (very childish sense of humor, but a lot of fun to watch because you never know what to expect); in a metal band called Scythelord along with a self-titled solo project. Also known as Joel, Yo-ell, Jobel, fecalfunny.com, etc.
• Jerma985: a fucking psycho in semi-retirement; best known for his irl streams like the Dollhouse (IRL Sims with chat controlling Jerma), baseball stream (shoved an entire baseball up his ass, live on twitch put together two fictional baseball teams for a livestreamed baseball game), carnival stream (he had chat-controlled robots to let chat play the games), archeology geology stream, Who Will Replace Me?, and so on.
• Laimu/Limealicious: vtuber affiliated with Vinesauce, """wholesome""" streamer.
• Fredrik Knudsen: Yes, the "Down the Rabbit Hole guy" also has a twitch channel.
• WhiskeyDing0: another vtuber, this time furry as fuck, but he plays a lot of indie horror games and sometimes organizes VRChat game shows with other furry streamers; also probably the biggest furry streamer right now. Great way to find new indie horror games.
• Jall: furry "fleshtuber" with an absolutely insane setup designed to try and recreate the feeling of watching a YouTube poop, except it's live. Warning: consume in small doses; his streams are a sensory overload like nothing else.

Even if it's not your thing, I'd highly recommend looking up the stream vods for Jerma's IRL stuff, it's brilliant and extremely high-effort.

Edit: I was just trying to make some suggestions, jeez.

Hard agree on the data brokers, but what's bad about bug bounty programs? I'd say it's a good thing you get a reward if you help make a product more secure, and it helps discourage people from selling zero-days to black hats. Or do you mean black hat bug bounty systems? They are already super illegal

I don't think I understand what you mean. Do you agree with everything said here?

Elaborate please?

Yeah you're right, local neighborhood militia sounds much better /s

The police do a valuable job if you're living in a functional society.

Your answer is fucking stupid

Hi! I'm going to pick your brain because this is on my mind tonight.

My family happily eats meat. I've never hunted anything but a few fish, rarely and not for decades. So, there's the background.

Noticed there are LOADS of squirrels around. In my yard, at my camp, in the woods. Thought about harvesting a few. (Turns out I'm too soft, what if I shoot someone's wife?!, but I thought about it.) My kids were horrified at the notion. "But you're happy killing chickens and cows for your McDonalds?!"

Kayaking tonight, I ran into a monstrous rookery in the swamp. Egrets I think? Great Herons? Anyway, they seem always in the same place, by the hundreds and hundreds. Thought, "How about bringing a 20-gauge and shooting down dinner?" My wife was horrified. "Birds are not food!" So I brought out a pack of chicken, "Chickens aren't birds!" (She's Filipino, something may have got lost in the translation...)

What are your thoughts? I dated a vegan once who couldn't admit that hunting your own food was morally superior to farm tortured meat. Uh... I don't get it. If you're going to eat meat, isn't harvesting your own the moral choice?

Weight training can be super dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, you can easily do significant damage to your back or knees doing fairly basic exercises like a deadlift or squat incorrectly.

Especially as weight training is increasingly encouraged for the elderly, personal training seems a fairly reasonable job. Admittedly, like any other job, there are folks who provide little to no value (think of the teachers just waiting to collect their pensions) but that's not to say it can't be a super useful industry.

I would say many of them are there for a free paycheck yes, but personal trainers are also there to teach people who have never learned how to exercise how to exercise and to encourage them when their friends and family will not, and those are valuable if time limited resources.