people that have more money than they could ever spend trying to accumulate more money
When I go to poor countries I tip/donate well beyond what I’m told is normal, because $10 or $20 is nothing to me, but potentially more money than they’ll earn in days/weeks. It always makes them so happy.
What happiness I would make with a billion…
And that’s why you’ll never be a billionaire. See how that works out?
Edit: they don’t get there by caring about people.
I don’t think that’s the reason. It is part of it, but the main reason you’ll never be a billionaire is that you would need to take from people.
Nah, that’s not why. A billionaire can give millions away without any impact on their life.
There are two paths to becoming a billionaire. The first is to hit the Goldilocks zone of a good product with mass appeal, good distribution and to have significant ownership of it. The second is to already BE rich. Most billionaires are the second one.
It’s an addiction for some. For others, it’s like a security blanket. For others, it’s a source of power.
It’s not about the money; it’s about the power.
Some species of chimps beat other chimps that horde to the detriment of the group to death
Mr Crabs: I like money 💰
Celebrity gossip. I’m just not interested in who married who, who’s wearing what, who’s doing who.
And reality TV, but if ratings are any indication, I’m the weird one on that.
There’s a lot of human behavior I don’t understand. Used to make me feel like an alien as a kid.
Like the super unhealthy parasocial relationships people think they have with famous people, and more appalling is the way the media feeds right into it. People acting like it’s normal to obsess over details about celebrities personal lives is very weird to me.
I don’t understand cheating… just break up and then you can fuck who you want. Why does deceiving someone and breaking their trust have to be a part of it? Why is that necessary?
I don’t understand how you can be the richest elongated muskrat in the world, so rich you just doubled your wealth, and not do anything to help people who need it. I don’t know how he can live with himself. And what I really don’t get is that he clearly wants the world to see him as some sort of important amazing brilliant person. So why not do the thing. DO THE THING AND HELP YOU SELFISH FUCK
Don’t even get me started with bigotry. It just does not make sense. Why does someone’s skin pigment effect people so drastically? Why does the gender or sexual orientation of strangers matter? People need to focus on themselves and mind their business. If someone would like to make minding your business the new fad of 2025 I’m here for it.
I don’t know how he can live with himself.
There’s a thing our brains do when we have power like wealth, status, fame, etc. - the parts responsible for empathy are suppressed. The rich and powerful are neurologically less capable of considering the suffering of others.
Oh I’m aware, I meant the ‘I don’t know how’ more like the very idea of being ok with that is incomprehensible to me
Top shelf response. I’d happily have a drink at a bar or Cafe with you, and chew the fat.
Wow thanks friend, that’s really nice to hear. I’d be up for it
Going to church by choice. That shit is boring.
Though I don’t go now non-Protestant or high church is significantly more personally and religiously entertaining. Garage band Protestantism is the bane of my existence
I’ve never understood why everyone has their phone out recording at large public events. Surely someone is going to post a video of the event and you don’t need to be recording it
The worst is when it’s a highly televised event (e.g. fireworks), so it’s already being recorded in 4k by pros, drones, etc.
Nobody will ever watch your crappy phone recording, including you.
Because I’m not paying $15 for access to the “professional cinematic experience” (aka access to their DRM-infested meh edited cut), or recording it on TV laced with ads and annoying people who love to hear their own opinions every 60 seconds. It’s the same reason people sneak food into movie theaters or steal music. Fucking the man.
People want to share their own perspective. And everyone thinks that maybe their video will end up being the one everyone else watches.
I prefer to live special moments with my own eyes instead of staring at a phone screen the entire time.
I realized this a while ago. I was always watching the event through a camera lens, and like you said, it was rarely worth the effort.
Now I’m more likely to forget to take any photos.
I recently went to a live event at night and I noticed how many people didn’t take the time to wipe their lens to avoid giant streaks in the image.
I have a theory that social media makes it hard to put time into just about anything that you might consider art. You get a constant feed of the best quality art that the internet has to offer, so when you do take the extra minute or two to figure out your settings, wipe their lens, and actually try and take a good picture, the chance of taking a good picture is still pretty low because phones still just aren’t that good at taking pictures.
I brought my DSLR to the event and even with the much larger lens, getting enough light was pretty tough. The few pictures I did take on my phone just didn’t really have a good sense of scale due to the lens’s fixed focal length. Don’t even get me started on aspect ratio.
If you spend those few extra minutes and it still doesn’t look like what your friends are posting to their social media because they’re loading it with filters, why not join the crowd and do exactly that. Put in zero effort and let the filter fill in the gap of making it look interesting, even if it doesn’t look good.
What you did do is show all your friends that you did something interesting, which a few hundred to ten thousand or so people might see that for a couple of second before scrolling into the next 400 things they’ll see that day in their feed.
The refusal to try something just because it’s popular.
Fuck pickleball.
I played pickleball in secondary school for gym. I’ve had enough of it for you.
So it wasn’t just me?
The gym teacher was an Olympic badminton athlete. Anyone who could beat him in any sport automatically got to marks and never had to show up again. It never happened.
I do this sometimes but typically more because I want to see if people still think it’s good post-hype.
For me, it’s kinda the other way around. I’m often the sort of person that does exactly that, refuse to try something exactly because it’s popular.
Why? Well, when everyone around you is doing a certain popular thing (let’s think like video games or sports, but could be anything really), I sit on the sidelines and realize it’s becoming an addiction for them, and I’ll literally count the years my friends and others waste away partaking in that addiction.
Don’t ask me how many years I watched friends waste playing Call Of Duty. For me, I like to mix it up, a different hobby or project or whatever almost every day.
If you’re enjoying your time, it’s not a waste.
You do have a point there, I’ll give you that 👍
My skills, projects and hobbies just tend to be a bit more diverse than people that seem to get stuck in ruts.
Sure, sometimes I like playing games. Sometimes I like fixing stuff. Sometimes I like modding and inventing stuff. Sometimes I like programming. Sometimes I study mathematical theories. Sometimes I like riding BMX flatland.
…
It’s social signalling, and it’s supposed make the curmudgeon seems better than the common rabble and therefore high-status.
That is a reasonable explanation of people who announce their refusal to participate in a fad.
What of the people who just ignore the fad, without publicly declaring their refusal?
The need some people have to be part of a group.
I’ve been “alone” for such a long time that it probably affects how I see things like this, but I just don’t get the need some people have. I’m thinking from things like worshipping a politician just to be part of a group to more simple things like needing to insert yourself into a group at work just to be “one of the guys.” I’ve always just done my own thing and never considered myself part of anything, whether friend groups, work “cliques,” or whatever. If it was “Tim, Tom, and Tina” I could be friends with all of them, but I never felt like I needed to be, or even ever was part of “their” group. I just come and go as the situation arises.
Some things like politics I obviously fall into one category or another based on my beliefs, but I don’t conform or alter my beliefs just to maintain a position within that group.
Littering is one of those things I struggle the most to understand.
I can somewhat grasp it in extreme cases, like when you’re dealing with something really dirty and there’s nowhere to put it. But I’m talking about casual littering - things like throwing candy wrappers on the ground when you could just as easily put them in your pocket.
I don’t think anyone sees themselves as a bad person. Even when we engage in bad behavior, we usually have some story we tell ourselves to justify it. But I can’t put myself in the mindset of someone who casually throws trash on the ground for someone else to clean up. It’s kind of like walking around and cussing at random people - it just doesn’t make any sense. You have to know that you’re the problem.
I don’t think that dropping rubbish is necessarily that bad. The problem comes when it persists in the environment for hundreds of years because it’s not biodegradable.
How do you separate the two? The fact that it persist in nature for hundreds of years is what makes it bad. I don’t mind someone throwing banana peels into a forest.
I still refuse to understand why littering is so common in my country. It seriously makes the cities look horrible.
Going to concerts. It’s too loud and it’s crowded, I just don’t see the appeal.
And while we’re at it, dancing. It’s unnatural, I tell you!
You must be fun at parties.
Sport hooligans
This one hits a little too close to home. I always feel unsafe when going outside during a football match, especially if it’s between Raja and Wydad (two Moroccan football teams based in Casablanca with the most hostile fanbases I’ve ever seen). They’ve definitely killed the appeal of football for me.
Watch Green Street. It’s a fun and entertaining hobby.
Breeding
Just today I was thinking about how we’ve folded basic animal instincts (breeding) into elaborate social constructs. Humans are so weird…
Shitting on weaker people. I mean I kinda do get it, because I had the instinct when I was little. But I very quickly got taught respect by people who refused to be bullied by me.
I guess what I don’t get is … how can people still be doing that as an adult? Have they literally never had someone stand up to them before? Or are they addicted to it, unable to control themselves?
I had the impulse toward evil, but it got beaten out of me really young. It really didn’t take much — just one kid being like “no I’m not doing that”.
I can’t understand how getting in an argument with a family member cannot be solved by explaining my side then listening to their side so everyone’s on the same page. I think this is why it’s sometimes said women want someone to listen whereas men want to solve the issue. I cannot understand not trying to solve the issue. If I think I was right or logical then I want to explain it but I also want to hear the other party and arrive at a middle ground then hug. That never works and I cannot get it.
It seems to me that you’re very focused on the end result of ‘issue is solved’ potentially without understanding and/or acknowledgement of the other person’s efforts to solve the issue on their own.
Of course they should take the time to reciprocate when you’re the one seeking resolution.
Listening to someone and allowing them time to vent to their own conclusion is to take part of their emotional journey. They may want your solutions eventually, but they want to have the human connection of going through that journey together so that way you have all the context for their feelings/stress.
People don’t come to others for help and want to defend their previous actions. They just want to say that they’re frustrated, this is what they did, this is what happened, and maybe that’s all they want. Listening = validation of the human experience. Maybe after venting, they’ll want some solutions.
Personally I have a hard time telling if someone wants a venting session or a solutions session. So I just straight up ask what they need and if they’ll want to check in on the solutions after venting. This saves you the emotional labor required to try to help someone that doesn’t want it and keeps the chance of frustration/unfulfillment low for both parties
Family though is a mixed bag. Unless both parties are operating under the same expectations, it’ll lead to what you described. Understandable that you just don’t get it since the fault is not on you
In some of those situations, you can “solve” what you think is the problem, but it’s impossible for her to explain the aspects that make your “solution” inadequate. Your life experience is just so different, you think you understand but you don’t. And that just upsets her more. Women aren’t against solutions, they’re just done with men not actually understanding, even when they think they’re listening.
Feeling some kind of national pride. You didn’t choose to be born where you were born. Borders change and move, etc. The place my grandparents were born in has changed countries at least 3 times since then.
Tribalism in general
Handshaking. We’ve both touched our crotch recently, let’s not
I support this. Let’s just fuck instead.
I was hoping that would go away when covid stuck around. People still want to shake hands!
shakes head
I put out my fist when someone tries to shake my hand.
But what if I want to touch your crotch?
I hope you’ve washed your hand since the last time you’ve touched down there.
