All but you?
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 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:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- 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
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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.
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No, all but me!
It sure fucking feels that way sometimes. I had an argument with one of my parents the other day over the fact that she was completely incapable of understanding any distinction between a war and a genocide. "It's war; they're the enemy. You kill the enemy in war" - in direct response to me asking if she was okay with elementary schools being bombed.
Bizarre, surreal, and severely dejecting.
Perhaps being sane in an insane world is a type of insanity all it's own.
I'm not saying I'm not utterly insane too. I am a people afterall. Considering that 99% of people are non-vegan, nearly everyone is like a flesh-craving vampire/zombie. That's just scratching the surface as being a decent and intelligent person has more filters obviously. There are asshole vegans, so "not being an asshole" is another filter that groups many people into as well. I'd say majority of reddit/lemmy people are assholes.
You are right, we are all mad here. I agree with you. Empathy and compassion is mocked and exploited, vegans are treated like a joke. Freedom fighters, activists for equality, climate and genocide protesters, etc, are treated like stupid and evil terrorists and enemies of the state.
Our species sucks and we fully deserve this climate apocalypse we've created.
We are predisposed to be cruel and greedy locusts, who build and support systems of inequality with undeservingly powerful leaders who only ever lust for war/more. This is the story of nearly every human civilisation we have history for. Those who strived for a better civilisation are destroyed by those who want conquest, money, power, a leg up with their gods, etc.
I hope beyond hope that we fully die out before any of us get off world in any meaningful way to propagate yet more obscenities. It's stupid to think that there aren't trillionaire funds currently working on this, I don't think it was just a punchline in Don't Look Up.
And I also hope that maybe one day, billions of years from now, when the earth has had time to heal from the damage we have caused, something better than us could evolve here.
You and I both resonate on the same fundamental truth, but I get the sense that you're more actively wishing death, "I hope beyond hope that we fully die out", where I am more so just paranoid and avoidant. I agree that that activists do thankless work. The phrase, "We are predisposed to be cruel," sounds Hobbesian in that it presupposes that man is naturally cruel, though I never read Hobbes so I don't know actually. I think people are naturally irrational, but not cruel per se. I think they are also great at adapting, which leads to a frog in boiling water situation; there's a sort of natural adaptation to toxic environments without knowing how or wanting to fix it. I think you're more so an intense "hate humanity" misanthrope while I'm more a "mistrust & fear humanity" misanthrope. Fight/flight, anger/fear, both are responding to the same perceived stress.
I'm just a very jaded freeze avoidant who's met enough people and read enough history to see the patterns.
I know what happens when people think they are better than others and what they do when have power over those they see as being beneath them. You know it too. Everybody does, it's the world around us and the world in our history books.
But yeah I am a misanthrope, you're right on that front. I'm too tired to do much but occasionally rant online about how much we suck and how fucked the future is though, so I'm not some millitant moron with a quest, lol. Chronic fatigue and a disability that fucks with my ability to talk/interact with folk irl have basically taken care of that ever happening, not that I believe it would do anything but make me look stupid if I tried tho. And that's not to mention all the trauma that's left me so freeze state avoidant.
I don't know how comforting you find learning about how fucked we are climate and resource wise, but if knowing this will all end soon is any sort of relief for you, read on because we're rapidly running out of fresh water and arable land and current predictions suggest that by 2032, we'll cross 450ppm or so of atmospheric c02.
Phytoplankton, particularly those with calcium carbonate shells like coccolithophores, are highly sensitive to ocean acidification caused by rising cO2 levels.
When atmospheric cO2 levels exceed 450-500 ppm, ocean pH decreases, making the water more acidic.
This process reduces the availability of carbonate ions, which are essential for these organisms to build and maintain their exoskeletons.
They produce 50 to 80% of the planets oxygen. And are a staple in the food system.
(Source for the last bit here)
why put reddit/lemmy qualifiers on it? You're right in the title. People, in general, are assholes. Insane, self-deluded, moronic assholes. It comes with the territory of having a single perspective to live and grow with.
That's fair when considering other massive online platforms. I guess subconsciously I assume people are somehow less insane in real life than online, but the book "just how dumb are we", facts in history, and other statistics show people are wackos universally
What do you call something that's like a showerthought but without the thought? Can't just call it a shower, name's taken.
I'm going to take a shower now, brb when I get inspired.
It's a complete thought. Subject + verb.
And a meal is food on a plate but if somebody hands you a garnish on a saucer, you're going to be disappointed even if that garnish is technically edible.
Maybe that would be a shower essay
Followup question.
"As opposed to what?"
If everyone is "insane", what would a "not insane" person look like if one hypothetically did exist?
Suicidal.
Every moment and daily action would be rational and empathetic. Here are some scenarios I witnessed today. I'll swap them to more ideal
~
Example 1
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Real scenario: A train operator stops the train and yells at a man for apparently smoking at the train stop prior to boarding. The operator demands the passenger leaves for breaking the "no smoking before pickup" rule. The man is flushed red and has tears in his eyes. The operator is so convicted in their anger that they have no empathy.
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Ideal scenario: The train operator does not take his anger out on others. He forgives the man for breaking the rule, as ultimately no one is harmed. The train operator uses his power and authority to ensure the man gets home safely. The train operator values the well-being of the man more than arbitrary rules because he is empathetic, forgiving, and kind.
Example 2
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Real scenario: A homeless man boards the bus. He has heavy bags he wrestles with. The bus driver demands the homeless man to hurry up to sit down as the bus operator "has to go." The homeless man obeys but is tangled in heavy bags and uncomfortable to cater to the demands of the bus driver
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Ideal scenario: The bus driver is patient and allows time for the homeless man to sit down. The bus driver may even help the man with his stuff. The driver prioritizes their passengers safety and well-being over arbitrary things like timeliness.
Example 3
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Real scenario: A boarding passenger of the train takes a big puff of their electronic cigarette and puffs it inside.
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Ideal scenario: The boarding passenger throws away their electronic cigarette as it harms their well-being. This has the added benefit of not polluting the common air with toxic & addictive chemicals. ... Meanwhile, all electronic cigarette companies had an epiphany and decides to not sell their products anymore as they realize it is killing humanity, and they do not want to profit off the sickening of their fellow humans.
~
In each scenario, the relevant actors try to be more compassionate to themselves and others. I could give more examples, but 3 is good enough.
In these examples, the ideal scenarios described aren't any more logical or empathetic than the real scenario. All you're saying is that particular people are more deserving of empathy than the people who are affected by their actions.
- Example 1: People smell awful after smoking. Everyone else in the train sitting in the vicinity will have to deal with the smell for the duration of their ride. The more often this happens, the less likely people will be willing to take mass transit, leading to lots of other negative downstream effects for everyone on the planet. Do all these other people not also deserve empathy?
- Example 2: Timeliness has real effects on people's lives. What if there's a disabled man waiting on this bus at a later stop? They planned their errand so that it's within their ability to handle given their disability, but a late bus means that the timing no longer aligns and it'll significantly extend the duration past what they can safely handle. Would this man not also deserve empathy? Poor timeliness for mass transit would also discourage people from using them.
- Example 3: If the man smoking in example 1 is deserving of empathy with regards to his addictions, why not this passenger?
All three of your examples include transit and none of them involve the elevator dilemma? It also applies to trains and buses. That is, that people want to get on before allowing others to exit. It is therefore illogical to force yourself from a larger space (outside) into a smaller space (inside) when those inside are trying to get out.
On a tangent, what is illogical about the elevator dilemma is, we don't apply it to parking lots and car parks. Think about it: we often feel entitled to get in, and physically block others from leaving in order to get in. Then we vie for a spot (especially around the holidays, it's madness) but we actively prevent others from leaving. If we looked at parking the same way we look at the elevator, we would welcome people leaving so we could take their places with greater ease. But too many people only think of themselves.
It reminds me of something I read about Japan. To be clear, I think this is absolute bullshit. But I read once that Japanese salarymen try to arrive to the office early, and will park in the back, so that those who were forced by circumstance to arrive closer to the time their job starts to park closer to the front. I think that's bullshit for two reasons. One, people are selfish, even in the land of the rising sun. Being Japanese does not make you kind, even if the language seems angled that way and even if people seem kind on the streets in anime. (Anime is not real life.) But two, parking up front doesn't get you in sooner. Leaving early does. At the speed I walk, parking at the outer edge of my job's parking lot might make me come in a full minute later than parking in the closest available spot. So it's not worth spending a minute or more looking for the ideal spot. Rather, I take the first spot I see and I save time. But not everyone is that logical. Now if you do the math, if you take the distance between your home and your job and you apply the legal speed, then you do the math and apply a higher speed, even going 10, 20 MPH over the speed limit, you're saving mere minutes over a short commute and risking stiff legal penalties and further delays in dealing with the police (it takes them at least 10-15 minutes to ticket you). So again, leaving early is the ultimate "hack." Seriously, leave five minutes early, take the first spot you see, you will make optimal time. That's based on my commute. For a longer commute, add more time for safety.
Transit problems are solved by time, not speed.
As far as the smoker, yeah, people should not smoke in confined spaces. Or "vape." It's the same thing.
P.S. I already know I'm utterly insane. I just try to get through each day.
Why did you think this was worth sharing?
Because I'm not insecure, nor do i feel unworthy. If people disagree in my worth, that's their issue, and again, it reconfirms the concept that they are insane
Real scenario: You made this post saying that if people disagree with you, they are insane.
Ideal scenario: You realise that everybody is unique, entitled to their views, and you try to empathise with their point of view while pursuing your own goals that are not mutually exclusive to theirs. You also realise that, to everyone you think is insane for disagreeing with you, if the disagreement is that great, you are also insane to them. You realise that, like in your examples above which I'm copying this reply's format from, this disagreement not only harms neither of you, but does not have to be a barrier which restricts you from helping one another to accomplish those same not mutually exclusive goals.
No no, I mean why did you think it was interesting?
Because it has massive implications. When I leave my house, I encounter people and i can't treat them equally. I have to be cogizent that they are batshit insane. I'm using colorful language for effect, and i recognize it's ableist. I mean more-so that they aren't' rational or intellectually honest. However, it's deeper than that because even when I'm home, i can't engage with people online either because they are the same people ahahaha. So I'm naming my cat "realty" so i can pay attention to reality or maybe "Clarity" because there is truth in love (such as petcare), and truth is clear.