this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] the_trash_man@lemmy.world 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Every generation alive has microplastics in them

[–] SidewaysHighways@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

and probably will for at least a few generations unless we can do some major filtering of all mediums

[–] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

And literally nothing came of it, this whole thing is fear mongering and political theater.

[–] MrFinnbean@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Bah. I dont care about lead, microplastics or even covid.

Chernobyl and mad cow-disease are my jam.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 0 points 6 days ago

I still licked lead pain in the craddle, ate too many food preservatives and artificial colorants, ate too much red meat, too much fat, got micro plastics poisoning...

And all I have to tell is bad breath, flatulence that could strip paint off the walls and a stupid sense of humour.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 120 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Millennials? More like GenX. We’ve been eating out of microwaved tupperware since the sixties.

[–] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago (9 children)

So have the millennials who were breast fed.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

Mmmm, tasty math.

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[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It looks like the cumulative total of plastics produced by the 80's was around 2-3 ~~trillion~~ billion tons, whereas now it's probably more like 20-30B.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/exports/global-plastics-production.png

[–] bathing_in_bismuth@sh.itjust.works 84 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Yeah and also for Gen X, Gen Z, Gen Alpha. We all still alive and everybody gets microplastic in their balls and brains. Its for all ages

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[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 75 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Honestly I don't think we're socially responsible enough to end something like lead poisoning these days.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 6 days ago

You'd have people saying they like the lead and deliberately putting more of it in. Pussy-ass liberals trying to take their god given lead away...

[–] etherphon@midwest.social 56 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Imagine trying to stop the hole in the ozone today. We'd have people spraying CFCs in the air just to spite the effort.

[–] MrMcGasion@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

As someone just old enough to remember, we did have that with CFCs. Might not have been super mainstream, and nobody who would have done it out of spite really had the disposable income to actually do it.

I grew up in a Fundamentalist Christian "cult" and I remember the adults around me "joking" about it all the time. I remember a Missionary to northern Canada visiting our church (in rural America) to try to raise support talking about the temperatures and joking that it's so cold that he wanted to stand outside with an aerosol can in each hand to try to bring on some global warming, and that getting a laugh from the congregation. You might think that maybe it was a "harmless" joke that maybe as a child I didn't pick up on the sarcasm, but there were absolutely adults there who fully believed that there was nothing humans could do to damage the earth, because God takes care of it. "And how dare the government and these evolutionists try to tell us how to live."

[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 42 points 1 week ago (3 children)

for the past few months ive started to think we're like a couple years away from putting lead back in the gasoline

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 22 points 1 week ago

Trump deregulating gas and paint to put lead back in both would be so unsurprising it won't even garner a reaction from me.

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[–] Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 week ago

Someone will call not wanting lead poisoning woke and that will be that.

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[–] RonnieB@lemmy.world 67 points 1 week ago

Nah, because every future generation will have it too.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 43 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Bold of you to think that the microplastic is going to go away after one generation...

[–] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Who said that? Lead poisoning is still rampant in some communities.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I think the question is, why are you bringing up millennials when the issue of microplastics did not start with them, nor will it end with them.

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[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The pipes in the US still contain plenty of lead. Also, Covid brain damage. Tons of it.

[–] blujan@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 week ago

Most lead intoxication in boomers comes from leaded gasoline, lead in other presentations is less bio-available

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Except that microplastics have been a major problematic thing since basically plastic become a popular thing, we just didn't know it yet back then. It's not like millenials invented plastic or popularized its use.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Microplastics cause neurological damage and anti social violent behavior?

[–] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 30 points 1 week ago (5 children)

We don't know about the longer term consequences yet, just like we didn't about lead.

Not saying it's a definite but I wouldn't be surprised.

[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago (5 children)

No, people knew lead was poisonous even back near Roman days. Though just like how humans constantly do stupid things for some benefit, they kept using it as a sweetener for ages.

Also mercury in relation to, "as mad as a hatter". It's just mercury was very good for the job.

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[–] Iceman@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I wonder what our neurosises will be.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Depression, I would say. Same as how boomers are labeled as uncaring and sociopathic because of lead.

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[–] morto@piefed.social 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Everyone has microplastics, even newborn babies, and we have no sign of decrease in its use.

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[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Don't forget about PFAS!

[–] thegr8goldfish@startrek.website 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm crazy. Mark My Words. In 20 years, we'll have so many microbes capable of consuming plastic people will be bitching about their packages not being able to effectively protect their goods from spoiling. The goldfish has spoken.

[–] count_dongulus@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've run across at least three separate articles now of researchers from across the world discovering plastic eating bacteria in the wild. Short plastic. Its days are numbered.

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[–] KarlHungus42@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Luckily, for the younger generations, we'll probably just get cancer instead of becoming massive malleable assholes

[–] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

OP, you are in for a seriously rough time if you think containing micro plastics is as simple as removing lead from gasoline and paint.

[–] ech@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 week ago

Nobody said it would be.

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

And the person responsible for both issues is the same dude Roy J. Plunkett

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[–] 6stringringer@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Once at a Phish show, I consumed a rather copious amount of 🍄’s while hanging w/ mah friends beforehand. For some reason I couldn’t get the image of Plastic Man (Comic cartoon on Saturday mornings in the early 80’s) Out of my head. Every fucking song from that show I processed through the Plastic Man perspective. I was done with that memory before my brain would allow me to forget it. It was a loooonnnggg show b/c 🍄’s.

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[–] ruuster13@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago

This one's gonna last a few (the final few?) generations.

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