Retailers are getting more bold about where they place ads! I was going to buy something online from Lands End and went to pay, selected my card ready to send them money and do you know what they did? They put up a pop up ad! You can’t complete the transaction until you hear a pitch from “hello fresh” and “do you want to apply for an apple card?” etc. (I have pretty robust adblockers at home, is this how people live now?) Of course, I canceled the purchase.
What made it worse? They had a little counter to show you how many “offers” you had to reject (3) before you could complete the purchase. So they knew it was an imposition on some level. No, I don’t want to save $10 and use some shady sounding shipping service. No I don’t want $40 “hello fresh” whatever— NO.
Hopefully, it’s pilot and when they see all the abandoned shopping carts they’ll quit. It’s always an arms race with companies to preserve an unharried digital environment
They are catching a few eyes as a tumblr replacement... mostly by replicating the tags system and signaling they won't ban porn.
But I want to know: will they be subscribe-able via the fedi?
I think it's worth noting that simply by saying they will replicate how a beloved feature works they have gotten a lot of traction. The Mastodon response would be "we have tags at home" (that aren't as good as the tublr system)
Given the way tumblr users generally use reblogs... they would fit in here extremely well. This is a group of users that understand that you need to reshare the timeline you want to see in the world. (something former twitter users struggle with)
But, the opaqueness of search and the janky-ness of subscribing to and using tags here would be a big hurdle. One that could be crossed, I think. But, not as things are now.
If someone would start selling those nifty suffragette pantaloons you can bicycle in I bet they could sell a bunch.
But every skirt in stores looks like a horrible tube that will rutch up on your tush as you walk like an handsy subway creeper; you try to walk in little tiny steps. Sitting without flashing? Some kind of mysterious party trick.
Then there's a whole article in the fashion section hand wringing if skirts that aren't tight are "too conservative"
This is the article. It's not that bad I guess. But, it really is bizarre to me that anyone would think flared skirts are old fashioned. Haven't they come back like 3 times since the 80s?
Also these fashion people seem unaware of the influence of cosplay and international fashion. The full skirt has been a big deal in Korea for several years. Why? It's warm, comfortable and easy to sit down.
One of the small delights of a big city is encountering people selling things who just have more customers than they can handle so they become progressively more rude and obscure about how they render the service.
Economists would say they ought to raise the price... but they don't. Raising prices changes expectations, brings different more annoying customers.
Instead you get the best chicken tenders on earth DO NOT ask if you can buy them without the fries. Fries are mandatory.
And I get it. It's more fun to sell a really great product at a great price and no one ever complains or tries to return it. And you get to do your thing all day and make money.
Charge more and the whiners show up. "can I have an extra pack of sauce?" "can you fry it fresh?" "can I have them in separate containers?" who needs that?
These places are often cash only. And when they close everyone mourns. Twas a gift.
Sometimes I encounter videos on tiktock/tumblr: "wealth attractors" -reblog it & get good luck with $. At first I'm disgusted. Crass displays of wealth are ugly-- then I'm struck by how modest these dreams of 'wealth' really are.
It's always like ... just a few thousand dollars ... never even close to the obscene sums that distort our world. "root canal money" not "buy a supreme court justice" money.
I'm doing OK for now. But, I remember when $500 could have changed everything.
The first thing I did when I got a better job and had, for the first time in my life, the "dilema" of what I should spend the money I wasn't planning on saving on...
I treated myself to four root canals. Best choice ever. I can get so much more done now that my teeth aren't slowly driving me insane. I still need to get one more. But the dentist said it could wait till my insurance resets again.
Another teacher asked me an interesting question today. "What do you think about this idea of replacing calculus with statistics. After all statistics is more useful."
That's probably true on the surface, but I can't say I'm a huge fan of the "replace calc with stats" craze... even as I lament the poor understanding many people have of stats. It's obvious we need more education on interpreting datasets and visualizations.
But, there is a subtext to this argument I dislike. 1/
The subtext is that statistics is somehow "easier" than calculus since it's more connected to the "real world" --
But, nothing about real world problems is easy. Real world problems are harder, require more experience, more analysis, are less susceptible to canned techniques and strategies.
And more importantly it's hard to really understand much about statistics without knowing some calculus. Not a popular opinion. I know. 2/
This. This is what I have to put up with before dinner. He is convinced I am performing experiments in feline starvation. Were he not about 50% overweight, some might even believe his tales of woe.
I'm starting to really like Jamelle Bouie's writing on politics. While He still essentially has a liberal perspective (as opposed to a radical or left perspective) he's really good at identifying and criticizing liberal process, technicality and hypocrisy-based criticisms of the right.
These are criticisms that don't address the gulf in values, morality, or outcomes, but focus instead on things like finding hypocrisies, or showing how the right is failing to live up to the constitution. 1/
The problem with simply showing that the right is hypocritical is that they know this and do not care. They don't want to treat people equally or apply rules fairly.
Take the whole supreme court mess. The hypocrisy is staggering! "You blocked Obama from appointing and yet did not apply the same standard for Trump, instead you enabled his appointments!"
To this the right says "Of course. We are trying to win. What on earth are you playing at?"
And for what it's worth I think we could use more thinking like this in liberal circles. The left isn't big enough or popular enough to lead the conversation, making our best hope at surviving and growing being that more moderate people wake up to the zero sum game the right is playing.
There will be no norms, no decorum, no respect for the integrity of institutions. They will stretch the letter of the law to meet their ends, and when that fails ignore the laws.
No one serious, or not taking astroturf money is really doing this.
The most significant player doing this is Dr. West, who announced a presidential run to a massive collective shrug from the left.
What is a non-starter at the moment is thinking that voting alone is a solution to any of the issues. It's more important to keep boosting the growing labor movement, organizing locally, and maybe electing some people you really like at that level.
3rd party voters are complex and hard to predict. I think many of them show up to vote if there is a 3rd party candidate they like but would not vote otherwise.
US elections have such low turn out it's much more about who shows up than it is about swaying voters from one candidate to another.
Trump managed to trick some people in 2016 by making vague anti-war noises and by pissing off establishment media which some people find delightful. He's lost a lot of those people forever.
In some cases it's that it is too hard to vote. The locations change, people are removed from rolls, after moving, you have to re-register etc.
In places like NYC where voting is frankly pretty easy, often there isn't much to vote about. Close elections are rare, so a lot of the low turn out is from very blue or red areas where showing up doesn't change much.
In case anyone thinks there are lines in the cities in TX because cities have more people, in NYC I have only ever waited in line once 20 years: 2016 for about 10min.
And that was more like a party than a line, everyone wanted to vote for the first black president (south bronx)
I do wonder why that 10min line isn't there every time. Further, I suspect if the line was there often they would increase the number of polls. I never wait. No one should.
Seeing their attempts at indoctrination fail to take hold the indoctrinated can only imagine they have been stymied by some equal and opposite form of indoctrination. That we might be sincere about creating the space for each young person to find their own way, to make up their own mind is impossible from their perspective.
That we wait on the outcomes of experiments and study to determine what is best? Just a lie.
@squig@TruthSandwich@darnell@bertwells But since my grandparents did not spare the rod I loathed admitting they had done anything less than what was optimal. They were formidable and intelligent people. They raised my parents and aunts and uncles who are basically perfect as far as I can tell. But then— I started reading research on children and punishments— my eyes were opened!
@squig@TruthSandwich@darnell@bertwells I still wouldn’t say they were “wrong” to spank me. It was what they knew and in their hands I was in little danger. (consistent, never in anger, etc.) They did nothing wrong.
But I will learn and do even better.
And many young people are not as lucky as you or I.