Well said. Agree wholeheartedly.

I am reading Man’s Search for Meaning, and the author speaks about how even in the concentration camps, where death and suffering is shoved in your face, the prisoners still joke and try to make the best of a truly horrific situation. I guess humor has evolved as a sort of coping mechanism, and as a method of keeping sane.

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. It’s very powerful and raw.

I know this is memes sub, but does anyone else find it harder and harder to joke about this shit? Like we’re full steam ahead for fascism. A lot of people are (and are already) going to suffer and die. And like I’m just sitting here looking at memes on my phone about it.

Maybe someone got it as a custom build mug

Do you also think the Jews did something to upset Hitler?

Agreed. I couldn’t imagine life without the unconditional love and support my friends give me.

Some folks feel that they need to go through life alone. It doesn’t have to be that way! Open up your heart and meaningful relationships will start filling your life before you know it. I promise!

Yeah same here. Turning 30 soon.

I have my group of friends from literally middle school. My circle from college. Small group of friends from my internships, some coworkers I’ve kept in contact with who visit every so often. We all keep in contact. Some more often than others. Sometimes life gets in the way for months/years, sometimes we don’t get along and fight, but we always, ALWAYS make it up in the end, learn from what got us butting heads in the first place, and pick right back up where we left off like it never happened in he first place.

This isn’t meant as a brag or anything; I feel incredibly lucky, fortunate and grateful to be surrounded by so much unconditional love. And I always feel so sad when I see comments from people who are going through life solo. Life is a harsh mistress, and I couldn’t imagine going through it by myself. The relationships I have with others make it much easier.

I know it sounds cliche, but keeping your heart open, understanding that others will be different from you (which means you can always learn something from them), and being forgiving even under the toughest of situations is what powers me each and every day.

If you’re reading this and looking for a sign to change, well this is your sign. Go join the yoga class, keep an open heart with your coworkers, maybe text that friend you haven’t spoken to in years. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. Life is so much better this way, I promise.

Art of the deal

Ethical options?

Problems can be ongoing or increase in severity. Just because it’s been an issue for a while doesn’t mean it’s too late for change.

Also, some people don’t have the luxury to choose an ethical employer (if they even exist).

Ah ok, so you seem to have misconstrued what I’ve said here and have added in your own assumptions and straw men. That’s ok, it happens to the best of us (myself included).

I’m definitely not trying to equate science with religion in every way. I just think it’s fair to acknowledge that science, being a human endeavor, isn’t immune to things like gatekeeping, resistance to new ideas, or institutional biases. That doesn’t mean science as a whole is bad or anti-progress. We’ve achieved incredible feats with science; we certainly didn’t “pray” our way to the modern automobile, or to the smartphone. All I’m saying is that, like any field, it has its challenges. And those challenges and weaknesses can be more than people or scientists like to imagine. I’m simply pointing out that dogmatism can exist anywhere, even in spaces that pride themselves on being open to new information.

The fact that you’re immediately jumping to extremes of either systemic biases in funding or absurd pseudoscience, kind of proves my point ironically. I’m a researcher at a nationally recognized university, and trust me when I say that there are many like you who seem to get their jimmies all riled up the second that someone so much as mentions that “scientific research may fall victim to dogmatism and other forms of human egoistic thought - just like religion”. It’s a strange phenomenon I’ve observed when people associate their entire identity with their specific scientific endeavors. And I get it too (and to say I don’t fall victim occasionally would be a lie). It is difficult for your ego to let go of 30 years of hard work and research, even when new data / evidence comes out to prove you wrong. It’s not easy to say “yup the research I associated my identity with the last 30 years? That’s actually all wrong”, but a good scientist is one who doesn’t attach ego to their work and remains perfectly objective. Much harder said than done- trust me.

Yeah I’m not so sure about this haha. I work in academia, and there is quite the abundance of closed mindedness and dogmatism.

Who also have absolutely ZERO moral compass. Like literally don’t give two shits if they’re coding a piece of software going into a baby killing machines.

Seriously. As an American, it’s infuriating hearing about the constant complaining about our state (completely justified worry and complaint, mind you), with absolutely ZERO action being taken. Even the most minor inconveniences people won’t bother putting up with.

“Well I’ve got a family to take care of and my mortgage is too high and rent is too much and I don’t have enough time off and “ well yeah so do I- and everyone fucking else. People have thrown fists in MUCH more difficult circumstances. I understand it’s hard. I really fucking do. But if no one’s willing to even get off of Facebook or boycott Amazon, OR FUCKING VOTE, then nothing will happen. And it will get even worse. And more people will suffer and die.

We need mutual solidarity pacts to help support each other. No one wants to do the “helping” though and only wants the support. Its just so god damn infuriating.

I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you here, but thought I’d provide a counter argument.

A group of children are dying of a horrible, deadly disease that can only be cured with the bark from a specific tree. So we go into the forest and chop this tree down to save the children from an excruciating disease.

A squirrel had built its entire home in that tree. That tree was everything to the squirrel. Now the squirrel has nothing and will suffer because we chopped down its home.

How do we explain this to the squirrel? Well, we can’t. No matter how hard we try, we can’t explain why we needed to destroy its home. The squirrel is physically incapable of understanding.

Playing devils advocate here, perhaps the reason for the need for human suffering is so beyond our understanding and comprehension that we are just physically incapable of understanding. Maybe we’re just squirrels, and human suffering needs to happen for some greater purpose unbeknownst to us.

Yup. I’d feel bad for him if he wasn’t also ruining the lives of others as well. For that, I have zero empathy towards.

It’s not a conspiracy if it’s true haha

This would be funnier without the literal text explanation and giant red circle

Ah gotcha. You’re just arguing in bad faith. I won’t be engaging with this then.

So why did you make your comment when you didn’t do even 30 seconds of research on NPR?

I’m sure if you polled the average American they would not agree that “America is better than the rest of the world “. Maybe 20-30 years ago that might have been true.