I think I figured out why Bodhisattvas went extinct.

That is from Thomas Jefferson:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." https://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2074

Republicans do seem to be all about the founding fathers, so I guess they're just trying to make it possible to follow his guidance by proactively providing some tyrants.

Detachment is a privilege that presumes other people won't harm you.

This was me during the APIcalypse. Since joining Lemmy, I have:

• Realized I'm trans
• Procured a Steam Deck
• Started pirating again
• Been on HRT for over a year and counting
• Developed a chronic dependency on Yuri manga
• Lost 50-60 lbs

I hope you have a good time here as well!

Weird dichotomy, when there's more than enough wealth to take care of both, if it were managed sensibly.

Those things are not mutually exclusive. When you lie to yourself, or just avoid looking too closely at something, you can effectively mislead yourself without actually knowing it. Then you do become that oblivious. This is called repression, and it's how I ended up not recognizing my own gender identity for over thirty years.

Evolution doesn't make deliberate, strategic choices. Random mutations result in new behaviors/properties that may or may not be beneficial, and selection removes those mutations that prevent reproduction from the gene pool. Not every mutation will be beneficial, but as long as it's not harmful enough to stop reproduction, it can persist.

If there were two groups of octopuses, one with the self-destructive behavior and one without, then there would be pressure from competition. In that situation, your point would have more of an impact. But without that pressure, there's nothing to drive the selection. And the mutation won't occur just because it would be helpful for it to do so - it's random.

At least, that's how I understand it. I'm not a biologist or anything.

The problem is that what you describe is not conservatism, it's just basic competence in governance. It's an impressive achievement of the radical right that they have managed to get people to conflate the two.

I still recall how, as a fresh-faced, young gamer just getting into the newfangled realm of online multiplayer, I got absolutely got in Everquest when somebody told me you could get a numeric representation of your current experience points by typing "/ex".

It was actually short for "/exit". And in those days, it took a loooooooooooooooooong time to relaunch the game and get logged back in. Learned a valuable lesson about human nature that day. It has served me well.

I'm just gonna leave this here in case it changes somebody's life: https://medium.com/the-identity-current/plight-of-the-transbian-4ab1a048b09b

lol, blähaj - blåhaj's foul bachelor cousin.

(if you don't get it:

Not sure either. Best guesses are a combination of elitism, ignorance, preconceptions, groupthink, and insincere memeing.