Maybe there's Heaven and Hell, though. Hopefully, right?
Maybe there's Heaven and Hell, though. Hopefully, right?
the very idea of some post-life reckoning is just a tool of social control meant to keep the workers from turning on their betters, because "it'll all be made right in the end".
what did the king say to the pope?
you keep em dumb, i'll keep em poor
I don't think that's the origin, just the way belief/religion has been used by some immoral leaders. ๐คท
Grief is the price of love. ๐ฅฒ
that assumes they haven't been a burden.
the best thing that ever happened to me was my dad dying. a huge cloud of anger, hate, and bitterness lifting out of my life.
same with the loss of some ex girlfriends, or an ailing parent who has been slowly decaying and sucking out your time, money, and emotions with nothing coming back to you. my mother has dementia it has no redeeming quality and has been nothing but a black hole on my life for years now. the sooner she dies the better. when she passes there won't be a void, the void is her being alive.
A tad fucked that you only think of the current and not the length of their impact on your life. Yes, the current can be bad, but you have think about the impact they have - especially if someone has dementia.
you assume the impact on my life was positive instead of negative.
Not all people are loving and kind. Some people have very limited redeeming qualities. Like, wow my mom bought me some nice presents for Xmas... doesn't really make up for the 20+ years of verbal abuse and resentment and her taking out of her lack of happiness in life on her child. The only redeeming qualities my parents had were examples of who not to be.
The first time I ever felt safe and happy in my life was college. The first time I came back from my first break I bawled my eyes out because I'd never ever before in my life felt safe and encouraged and positive before. It was mind-blowing that adults who were open minded and kind existed, because I grew up in a shithole rural town where such adults simple didn't exist and most adults were miserable people who were full of hate and rage towards anything that wasn't sitting on your ass and watching TV and complaining about life.
And yet despite all the horror they forced upon me, I was a decent enough person to care for them as they die. Not because I love them, because I refuse to be as shitty, selfish, and awful to them as they were to me.
In 1994, I didn't own a computer yet, smartphones weren't a thing yet, I was 12 years old and learning to fix and rebuild lawnmowers and go-karts.
Age 13, I got my first computer, and promptly learned how to crash it that evening. Turned out it had a DriveSpace compressed hard drive, 125 whopping megabytes, and I didn't understand any of that yet on that very evening. But I had the manuals and the disks, and gradually learned the basics over the next 2 weeks to reformat and reinstall everything my uncle gave me.
By age 15 they were starting to shut down the local parts shops for small engine parts. Now mind you, that was way before online ordering was the big thing, and I was still running Windows 3.11, which I later upgraded to Windows 95, via floppy disk of course, because who in 1995 got a donor hand-me-down computer with a CD-ROM drive?
So, I started learning more about computers, and gradually learning automotive repair, the whole time building custom bicycles, because I had way too many spare junkyard bicycle parts.
But today, I dunno what the fuck to do. People don't really want things fixed like they used to, and even when they do, affordable parts are getting almost impossible to find for modern vehicles and devices.
I get by fixing older vehicles like from 2005 and before, wondering what the fuck done happened to society over all these years?
I'm sorry, I could go on and on, there's soo many things I can maintain and rebuild even, if only you could get parts and tools for modern stuff.
Right To Repair!
People don't really want things fixed like they used to, and even when they do, affordable parts are getting almost impossible to find for modern vehicles and devices.
God damn do I feel that.
I recently replaced my dryer. It suddenly started making a really alarming banging noise.
I'm a DIY-minded guy, spent maybe an hour taking the damn thing apart.
And I found the issue- a bad drum roller. Theoretically an easy enough fix once you have the whole dryer apart like I did (which wasn't really hard, just time-consuming)
I went online and searched out the part, and it was going to cost me almost $200 (granted I was going to replace all 4 rollers, if one went there's a good chance the others weren't far behind)
For a bit of plastic and rubber that looks a hell of a lot like a scooter wheel.
And while I was in there, there were a couple belts and pulleys and such that I also wanted to replace. Stuff that was bound to wear out eventually, and the dryer was about 15 years old.
So all in I was looking at probably close to $4-500 in parts. Couple hundred more and I could just get a whole new dryer, which seemed like the smart choice because who knows what else might have been about to go- the motor, the heating element, any of the electronics
So that's what I did. And I hated it. There was something I could have fixed, I wanted to fix it, but it just didn't make financial sense to fix it.
This wasn't a dryer from some oddball fly-by-night unheard of AliExpress brand, it's an overall respectable company that makes a pretty reliable product. And this wasn't a particularly specialized part, it was basically just a wheel. It should be the kind of thing that's pretty much standardized, used by every company in countless models of different appliances, and available for cheap off the shelf at any hardware store. I should have been able to walk into Ace hardware and go buy something like a generic "3 inch roller wheel" for like $5, took it home, and slapped it onto my machine.
But instead it was some proprietary bullshit and I couldn't find any readily available off-the-shelf part for a reasonable price that would have fit quite right.
They literally reinvented the wheel so that some years down the line I'd have to shell out money for a new dryer instead of fixing the one I had.
If they use standardized/universal parts and let you buy replacement parts for cheap, then how are they supposed to get you to buy a new dryer every ten years?
Think of the shareholders!
because repair doesn't make economical sense when it is cheaper to replace.
for most people, repair is expensive, time consuming, and difficult. It is not enjoyable or rewarding in any way. Replacement is far more immediate outside of very expensive long lasting items, like cars, homes, etc.
I do a lot of DIY, but the vast majority of people do not have the skills, patience, or time to spend hours figuring things out and then sourcing replacement parts to save a few bucks. They just want something that works asap, and replacement is almost always the faster option.
And that's half of how we ended up in the era of enshittification.
Let's say one of the control knobs on your 15 year old dumb stove fails, shorted out, where as soon as you turn it to low heat the eye is blazing hot at full heat. Do you?...
We went with option B, way cheaper than a new stove, plus none of the headaches of modern digital technology. Like, why do appliances need modern digital technology? A stove heats food, plain and simple, and that's all it needs to do.
And look at these new refrigerators coming out, that fail within weeks to months, maybe at best a couple or few years. When your grandma's old fridge was passed down from her mom and has been kicking strong for 50 years, save for that new door seal installed like 15 years ago..
Sigh, we live in a disposable dystopia anymore โน๏ธ
You aren't painting the full picture. The new stove is probably more efficient, cleaner, etc. Modern digital tech makes them better at these things. I have a 20 year old purely analog stove. It sucks balls. But I'm too cheap to justify buying an new one until it breaks. That's entirely on me though.
You are also grossly exaggerating things. I have a 4 year old washer, it came with a 10 year warranty. it broke twice already but both times it was covered under warranty at no cost to me. It was electronic failures. It's super efficient and I love it. Granted if I bought a cheapo one that was $300, it probably wouldn't have such a good warranty.
There are lots of choices. Nobody is forcing you to buy fridges that break. And plenty of companies do consumer testing for you such that you can buy a reliable model.
What you have is nostalgia. I had computers in the 90s too... they broke all the fucking time. I barely got 1 year old of a HDD back then. So yeah you had to repair them. Modern SSDs last much longer because they have no moving mechanical parts, on time of being blazingly faster.
Shitty stuff was always shitty. Good stuff is will always be good. There were shitty computer brands and appliance brands 20 years ago, maybe you were lucky enough to never encounter them, but the notion that 'things are bad because modern' is complete boomer nonsense. Modern appliances are way more reliable, efficient and superior to decades old appliances. It's just that have different points of failure that your 20 old appliance didn't.
Same with cars. Old luxury cars had electronic gizmos that broke. Modern cheap cars are better than old luxury cars, so now they have the same extra points of failure. Like... if you want a car 80s/90s car that's purely mechanical... cool, go buy a used one. There are plenty of them out there, but they tend to be collectors items at this point because people only really want them for the nostalgia factor. For everyday use a modern car is far superior in reliability and comfort to those cars, esp apple to apple comparison. a 2026 mid range Camry has more luxury than a 2000s Lexus.
Yeah, you're right about shitty computer brands ~20 years ago. Turned out they were all shitty in the long run, as that was back during the Taiwanese counterfeit capacitor plague.. โน๏ธ
As far as vehicles go, I don't much care for luxury features, that's just more points of failure. And now they got all the sensors, modules, cameras and stuff on the CAN bus, which is good for the manufacturer because it reduces the copper wiring, but bad for the consumer, as one faulty shorted sensor can take down the entire data bus and basically brick your car.
Just give me a vehicle that cranks, runs, drives, and stops when I got places to go, and is easy to troubleshoot and repair as necessary. The most luxury I care for is heater and air conditioning. I'll trade in the push button windows for hand crank rollup windows as long as the vehicle comes with a spare tire. I don't want any vehicle that tracks everywhere you go, records everything you do, and can be bricked remotely by the police.
Our current vehicle is a 2005 Hyundai Tucson, roommate's had it going on 4 years now I think, for $3000. At first it had some running issues, but after a new coil pack, crankshaft position sensor, and mass airflow sensor, it purrs like a kitten ever since. And those sensors are cross compatible between Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage from 1999 to 2010, meaning both used and new parts aren't too difficult to find.
And it's not on a payment plan, he outright owns it ๐
It's so long. Like holy shit, I get the picture already. This is egregious.
Yes and no, depending on the definition.
It's so unenjoyable for you you'd rather just die now?
Yeah, pretty much. I'm ready to be done any time now.
But what about pancakes? ๐
It's the fact that the easier options are bad choices.
It's easier to sit around the house than it is to exercise. It's easier to order pizza than it is to cook something. It's easier to be ignorant than actually learn and change.
The easy choice should be the good one. Making a bad choice should take effort.
Maybe there's a lesson/path of action therein.
Maybe itโs how you look at it. In the moment itโs an easier choice. But in the long run one leads to health complications and harder to come back from.
I call it Immediate gratification. Doesnt mean the choice is easier: just less with thought, self love or intention.
i think stress is a bigger problem. That needs to be addressed more seriously especially in a capitalist hell scape. Eating/drinking to find comfort/self medicate is but a symptom of a bigger problem.
The monotony. Life has wonderful moments, and there is joy and love. There is also the constant grind. Buying groceries, cooking meals, doing laundry, cleaning. Things that we never thought of as children, but it takes so much time just to continue living and filling basic needs. That's when you start to really appreciate the replicators in Star Trek. Sure at first it's like "I could have takeout anytime", but then you realize oh my god if I didn't have to shop, get groceries, cook, put them away, move them home, the whole thing, we'd have so much more time.
I can't say I enjoy those things, but you're right, it's far from a grind. Those tasks are a part of daily life, they need to be done so best crack on and get them done. Anyone who sees those things as an inconvenience or a hindrance to the extent it makes them hate life are not mature enough for the gift of life.
Childhood that's gone in what feels like an instant before you had the chance to appreciate it, and by the time you do enjoy it after the fact, from memory, the moment is already long gone, no matter how hard you cling onto the memory, its already in the past, you have no time machine to go back and re-do that again.
Nothing truly sucks about life. We could literally not exist, but instead we do. Existing is the coolest fucking thing ever. I'm glad I exist. Nothing truly sucks about existing compared to what not existing would be like.
๐
Egoistic people. Too many just see their own needs, and I'm not talking about basic needs. They are stressed and drive recklessly, don't think about others when making decisions and so on. And in the end, we all pay a higher price for insignificant or no benefit of individuals. Life would be way easier if we could just slow down and stop having all those unrealistic expectations about what should be and started appreciate what is.
And yes I know that the world is a shitshow right now. I'm not saying you should ignore that.
agree with you. egotism is run rampant. especially in regard to politics, lifestyle etc. everyone seems to think anyone who doesn't reflect their immediate needs or views is evil and awful.
people simple can't tolerate anyone being different than them, because it's a challenge to their ego because it might mean they are wrong.
i remember when social media was fun and people celebrated differences, now they just tear each other apart over ever minor difference. i used to me allowed to do stuff and enjoy my life... now everything I do or don't do is 'problematic' or 'oppressive'. 10 years ago nobody cared what car I drove, now I get lectures/speeches about how 'evil' i am for not buying an EV and keeping my 10 year old ICE.
Seemin unability to truly live in the current moment. Always have to be thinking about the past or worrying about the future. With a decade of experience in meditation I've seen glimpses of what it could be like when you just are and everything is okay. It's all just so fleeting.
Maybe life seems fleeting because you are trying to perpetuate capture the present as if you can control it?
I don't try to control my life. I don't really worry about the past, or the future. Life doesn't seem fleeting at all to me, just very chill.
Lord of the flies was a thinly-veiled allegory for how the world actually works. There's no growup keeping it in check, we're on our own, and we're not great at it.
The many ways people try to make it not that. Like just lying to themselves. Or scapegoating some subset of humanity they're not in for it (which happens equally across the political spectrum).
When you hit a certain age, you'll wake up with a new pain and that will be your new normal. Then, your life will be nothing but physical and emotional pain. You'll just have more of a threshold.
Sounds like you had a nice childhood and don't like getting older?
For those of us who had bad childhoods, getting older is liberating and joyful. My life gets better and better every year and the worst years of my life were my youth.
"Nothing but emotional pain"... It seems to me like you're generalising a personal experience.
Yup. Restarted a sport way later in life when I barely gave it a chance in my youth and wishing I did. When I get invited it takes 12x as long to heal too.
The worst part is isolation. I think most of us are suffering from lack of community
Community comes with costs, and I don't think many people are willing to pay the costs of community.
I for one, would rather be alone and happy, than part of a community and miserable. Like I was in the past. Belonging comes at a cost. The issue with modern life for many people is they want the benefits without the costs and that's not how anything really works.
You have to give up your individualistic freedom to truly belong to something.
3 years I had a normal blood pressure.
5 years and 2 months ago I had a back.
10 years ago I had knees.
Oh, and I haven't slept more than 5 or 6 hours a night in several years and most of the time I'm lucky to get 4.
I truly do not mind getting older. It has a lot of benefits, but damn... I'd like there be enough of my body left to enjoy it.
We die too quickly and not all of us experience all facets of life due to increasing inequality and decreasing social mobility.
I strongly believe life would be better for everyone due to these two factors alone
Gestures broadly at everything
Becoming old
Life is inherently just suffering. Everything you do to prevent suffering simply prolongs it. Coupled with the fact that most forms of life need to consume other forms of life just to survive.
Even in the most beautiful ecosystem you could find it's a constant war between species just for basic survival with no real meaning behind it
I've been grappling this for a while now, and how to think about it. It's so sad that just about every being has to constantly work and suffer to prolong their existence (which only consists of work and suffering).
To what extent should we avoid the suffering? To what extent should we embrace it? Prolong it? Are there different types of suffering? Are some more preferable to others? Is suffering to produce art, or other creative work, better than the suffering of menial labour or going hungry?
How much should your children suffer? Should they suffer rigorous education and studying, or should you only occupy yourself with providing for them? Should you provide them a wealth of knowledge of life lessons and wisdom, or try to build up the largest pile of inheritance you can?
living in an open-air prison where escape feels almost impossible.
People are very selective about who to empathize with. Not everyone, but enough people. I feel like almost all of my problems stem from that, somewhere down the line.
I'm struggling to think of an answer, but I guess the injustice of life in many forms. Some bad people have more success and luck than some good people. Alzheimers can make us forget the love of our lives after a long, happy life.
Your most comfortable underwear wears out fastest. >:(
I know why it happens. I just think it sucks that it does.
you can do everything "right" in life and still lose.
Israel dictates american international policy and America seems to in turn dictate european international policy. Even when the opportunity arises to deviate from this, most politicians/entire governments decide they prefer to have someone else do their deciaion making for them.
Probably humans. I said it.
Mostly I love being physically embodied, I love seeing and feeling, eating, sex, lived being pregnant, I love having a physical body and consciousness.
What sucks to me is not necessarily physical decline - in general I've been able to handle what is thrown at me. I do hate time though. Hate the way we experience it in one direction. Hate the irreversible past that leads to the unavoidable future, it seems to just all be rolling out with no way to change it, every action came from some past action. Not just a big ship to turn, more like it will turn or it won't but we can't make anything happen that wasn't already going to happen. Our present the irreversible past of tomorrow's unavoidable future.
The fact that I'm stuck in a human body. I'm a wolf, dammit.
-- Frost
Thats why I enjoy the shit out of hot water and living in a climate controlled environement and sleep on a mattress.
All of it. What doesn't?
I'll take mango #5 for two hours in a row (actually happened at a local radio station) before I actively seek out AI music.
Life is fleeting, it's short, and some people seem to only exist to make it as horrible for others as possible.
thanks for using Leebra!
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There is no karma, evil assholes get away with it and live to ripe old ages far more often than they should
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