I don’t believe in god. However, I can see this argument having some merit. Think of all the stuff we do to and for our pets that probably confuses the crap out of them, like putting them in a car and taking them to the vet.
In the age of social media, friendships seem diluted to me.
I agree. People have always been selfish and self-absorbed to varying degrees. But social media acts as an amplifier of that, from what I’ve seen.
It isn’t that they’re unempathetic, either.
Thanks for pointing this out (and your other good points). It’s not reasonable to expect just any random person you know to be a shoulder to cry on.
Unfortunately, I think our modern “pace of life” here in 2023 has diminished the number and quality of those deeper friendships. I think back to my parents in the 70s and 80s, and how they had close friends that they would spend a lot of time talking on the phone with, visiting with in person on a frequent basis, writing letters and postcards to, etc. Much of that would seem completely absurd to a young person today. People are terrified of talking on the phone, and have forgotten how to do anything but conduct robot-like business on the phone (and they resent doing even that).
I don’t think it’s a man/woman thing. I have been friends with men who were very supportive during such times, and women who saw it as weakness. I’ve also met a lot of women who are turned off by romantic gestures and sentimental feelings coming from men. And of course, I’ve encountered many that were the reverse of these.
So I honestly don’t think gender is a factor here. I think it varies a lot from person to person regardless of gender. It also highly depends on your relationship with that person. Don’t expect a lot of support or empathy from your most casual friends. Some friends will run away from you at the first sign of anything remotely ‘clingy’.
It varies. At one place I used to go to, you could mute them. But they disabled the mute button, so I stopped going there.
At a different place, I accidentally went into an admin menu (by pressing several buttons at once) and that made me nervous, so I stopped screwing with the buttons. While it’s very tempting to try and hack them, everything is on CCTV now. It’s probably a crime here in the United States of Corporatism.
Fortunately there are still gas stations close to my job where I can fuel the vehicle in relative peace. I’d rather give those places my business.
Preach. They are doing shit like pasting ads on top of the pitcher’s mound during baseball games and playing commercials on gasoline pump screens. It’s pathological.
Thank you for posting this. This tactic isn’t new. It’s been a common practice for decades. Bury the customer under paperwork and rejections hoping they give up.
I completely agree, and I try to frame my opinions like this, and be open to me being wrong and accepting better information. I don’t do it perfectly 100% of the time, but I do try, especially in a work setting.
One thing to be wary of: some people will call these humble qualifiers “weasel words” and accuse you of lacking conviction. Most likely to happen if you’re having a political discussion with a person who’s convinced themselves that they have it all figured out and/or they mistake bullying for a good argument. I try to disengage with that type of person, but they’re out there in the wild.
Replying to myself to add: if you use a VPN to hide your surfing habits from your boss, the security team can tell you are using a VPN. They may or may not care, it largely depends on where you work and if you’re using your device or a company device and the “corporate culture” of the place you work. Just have a cover story / explanation ready to go if you roll the dice on this one. If you work for a large corporate bank or something like that, I wouldn’t even try it.