Do church leaders know that?

To appeal to children, which is an important focus of religious propaganda.

but it could also

If the last 20 years has taught us anything, I think it should be to hold back on assuming that technology makes the world better without significant drawbacks.

Agreed, there is no sound, because this medium is purely text-based, so we have limited information. This is why saying things like “be a better person” can come off as silly.

They seem like they are attempting humor

Ha, yes, “bullshit alarmist prop” truly is a very funny phrase!

You sound very angry and defensive. And you will continue to do so after evidence shows that AI has had a negative impact on the environment. On the bright side, the end of humanity will mean that people being angry and defensive won’t exist either, which will be nice.

but, conversely, the cosmic timescale is so vast that it doesn’t matter to us…

I agree, stories only matter because we lack objectivity.

The point of a successful Disney media franchise is not to provide nuance and provoke thought, but instead to sell merch for profit.

This gets to the fact that all stories are lies. No one lives happily ever after, for we all die. No one is strong and wins, because strength, weakness, winning and losing are just perceptions that are eventually erased from time.

When you start to intuit that human psychology is heavily based on such soporific narrative, you start to understand how people can be so stupid, both individually and collectively.

The endless story of justification is powerless in the face of time, as time reduces all individuals, groups, bloodlines and ideologies to memory, and then to total obliteration.

Maybe we could spend less time justifying being shit to each other, as it is wholly without lasting merit, and - instead - create a world based on human decency. That won’t last, either, but at least it would be moral.

The issue with the Star Wars story is that it can’t end. This means Luke cannot have been very effective, because the same issues have to repeat historically to promote an endless cycle of protagonists and antagonists and battles that relate to the previous fan-favourites (because nostalgia sells).

Therefore Luke must simultaneously be an awesome hero, and also just some loser that didn’t really do anything that worked.

Or a nice violin.

You can explore stuff without leaving your room.

My toilet definitely has cause to remember my shits.

Humanity is transient. If we go out by being queer and not having kids, it’s better than many of the other ways.

As the showrunner grows his darkly comic satire into a franchise — and spoofs a certain trial and presidential election in the new season — he says he’s fine losing the viewers who just figured out his social agenda: “Go watch something else.”

Brilliant.

Life necessarily involves ageing, sickness, and death. Feel free to enjoy those over and over.

If your happiness comes first then it is because you are special. Which means that everybody is special.

Now at that time King Pasenadi of Kosala was upstairs in the royal longhouse together with Queen Mallikā.

Then the king said to the queen, “Mallikā, is there anyone more dear to you than yourself?”

“No, great king, there isn’t. But is there anyone more dear to you than yourself?”

“For me also, Mallikā, there’s no-one.”

Then King Pasenadi of Kosala came downstairs from the stilt longhouse, went to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what had happened.

Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha recited this verse:

“Having explored every quarter with the mind, one finds no-one dearer than oneself. Likewise for others, each holds themselves dear; so one who cares for their own welfare would harm no other.”

https://suttacentral.net/sn3.8/en/sujato?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none&notes=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

Is literally what put us in this fucking land.

I follow the teachings of Lord Buddha. Being born is not the point. The point is to not be born.

Hot take: sex isn’t that important.