138
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2026
138 points (84.2% liked)
Showerthoughts
44224 readers
694 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Lmao, what?? WWII ended 81 years ago. The only Germans who have living memory of it would be like 90. That's nowhere remotely close to "half of Germans."
"Irrationality?" So you think these ideas just magically sprung out of nothing? How on earth is this a "materialist" explanation?
No. Based on what you've said, there's exactly one explanation you can use here, which is that there's some property of some particular object that turns people fascist or communist. Some kind of orb, perhaps, that all the Germans touched and it suddenly turned them into fascists.
In reality, their ideas changed because of actual materialism, which accounts for material relations rather than the inherent properties of an object. Specifically, the fact that both populations had poor material conditions made both prone to radicalization.
Incorrect. My objections to your so-called "materialism" is that it's only looking at the properties of an object rather than the material conditions, which is what actual materialism looks at.
No, I equate mysticism with being wrong. Because I'm a materialist.
Lmao, I'm allowed to have an opinion on which accomplishment is the greatest and calling me a "fool" for doing so is just silly. Honestly, I think you're just going to attack me over anything and everything I say at this point, for no real reason. You wouldn't say this to someone if you weren't already in "attack mode."
Is that so? Do you have any actual evidence that removing misinformation doesn't work, or that engagement with it does? On the internet, engagement (even negative engagement) generally causes ideas to reach a wider audience, and also legitimizes the conspiracy theory as worth discussing.
When I talk about the first responsibity of the state, I am talking about what it ought to do, not how it acts in practice. So all of this is irrelevant.
Ok, so do it then. What's stopping you? Seems like under the current conditions, we still have antivaxxers and they're growing instead of shrinking.
So living memory is now a property of people who have direct experience of something? Living with the aftershocks of WWII doesn't count? What in the direct realism is this?
No I am saying irrationality is a type of noise, noise can about from material processes. For you everything has to have an explanation that makes sense. You work from phenomena to the relevant objects instead of considering the concrete objects for themselves and then see how the concrete interactions turn into something bigger.
Yes, the particular material objects here are brains, the tools humans use, the environment, etc. You don't understand my argument on a fundamental level and you think of objects as being cars or spoons, which is ridiculous. Idealism, and much of language, ideas, are downstream phenomena that don't mean that much outside of being shorthands for organisation and strategy. For example: try becoming a structured writer without the tools of notetaking, paper, pens, etc., it"s close to impossible. Or a good orator without ever facing a crowd.
You don't comprehend anything I'm saying, nor do you make an effort to.
I don't care + same is true for me then, I can have an opinion about your opinion. I can say it's shit. What are you going to do? I give feedback and you can't even be assed to consider what I'm saying. I attack you because you wrong and annoying.
Foolish and eliminativist, and not what Marx or any relevant thinker meant with mysticism.
Moralist. So what have states done in history? Has there ever been a state which wasn't atop major antagonisms? Your oughts don't mean anything, when historically no state ever did jack squat in regards to fulfilling needs of commoners. None. And most would send their citizens into !!!death!!!, i.e. going against the interest of the worker/commoner/what have you, if it meant securing the continued existence of the state apparatus. Let me guess, you are also part of the "real democracy has never been tried"-crowd.
I don't need to do much except for keep doing what I've always did. What a disingenuous way to appeal to constructive criticism.
Yes!! That's literally what "living memory" literally means! Wtf are you talking about "direct realism" it's literally just the definition!
You can argue that the aftermath of WWII is in living memory for some people (still nowhere close to half), and you can argue that WWII is still in the cultural memory of Germans (although the word "cultural" may trigger your unhinged brainworms about social sciences), but claiming that it's in the "living memory" for half of Germans is just factually wrong and shows that you have no idea what you're talking about.
What does "concrete interactions" mean, and how is it different from "material relations?"
Nothing. You are allowed to consider something else to be the greatest accomplishment or to say that there's no greatest accomplishment or whatever, and I'm allowed to think otherwise. It's a subjective question, one of values, and unless you can argue based on reason on evidence (which you haven't) why I'm wrong, then calling me a "fool" for valuing vaccines so highly is stupid and meaningless.
"Materialism is when you believe in mysticism" lmao where do you even get this shit? Like, I am genuinely fascinated by all these utterly bizarre ideas you have, that have nothing whatsoever to do with the labels you use to describe them. I really wonder where they come from at all.
Is it wrong for me to be?
Well, for one thing relevant to this discussion, they coordinated a global vaccination campaign that eradicated smallpox.
Complete and utter nonsense. The PRC literally doubled life expectancy within a generation.
What on earth are you talking about? Please stop "guessing" about my views, you've been doing an atrociously bad job of it so far. Maybe listen to the words I actually say instead.
You have no clue about Germany and you underestimate holocaust education.
It's not any different and I did not debate the thought of material relations.
I called you a fool because you said they are mankind's greatest achievement. That is objectively foolish
I did not say that, nor do I believe in mysticism. I believe in investigating that which appears mystical, that was my point. You idiot. Quit putting words in my mouth, you are proving more and more with every message how disingenuous your approach is.
Yes, science does not operate on morals. You claim to be interested in a social science of sorts.
So did other countries in (a similar way at least) that developed extremely quickly, like Japan and so on. China is not special and it was in the interest of China to maximise their population potential to get ahead in state-state competition.
I don't have to guess your views, they're atrocious enough.
I guess I do! They must be actually gassing Jews and invading Poland during that education! Because that is literally the only possible way for it to be in "living memory" by definition!
That's literally what the whole argument is about! Ok then, if you're doing a complete 180, then, let's return to the original point. The material relations determined that certain countries did not get vaccines until later than other countries. Those material relations have shaped the thoughts and cultures of those countries, to make them less prone to conspiracy theories.
That's what you had a problem with! That's what caused you to say, "You might as well go back to church and PRAY!" All I've been saying this whole time is that it was the material relations that shaped people's thoughts and ideas!
Let's add "objectively" to the long list of words you don't know the meaning of, along side "living memory" "materialism" and "sociology."
Are you claiming that Japan was a stateless society? Or did you just provide me with more evidence that states can improve people's quality of life?
What have I said that's "atrocious?" Wanting to remove misinformation? Acknowledging that material relations are a thing that exist?
You idiot really believe that the people who voted the nazis in, and celebrated them were like "Oh nooo we did a big bad~~" after they lost? People wanted hitler back after the war. Antifascist consciousness arose only in the late 70's. The whole living memory thesis remains to be horseshit.
This is not what I am saying and I do not agree with that. This is complete horseshit still as it hinges on the idea of living memory o algo.
You did not.
this doesn't follow and is bullshit. I said the state apparati did not lengthen life expectancy out of the goodness of their hearts. I said they did it so they have a workforce with which they can "win" in state-state competition. Your thought about the benevolent state is a fiction.
Your pro-state top down approach and speech policing is quite horrible, yes. A genuinely unsympathetic and cynical approach to politics that can aptly be described as nannying. Cynical because of the distrust of the organic action of the subjects – workers. You are a real counterpoint to staffordshire beer, in the worst way. I will quit talking to you. No surprise that your moderation history is full of bans.
You mean that the people who were shaped by the conditions that caused people to become Nazis, remained being Nazis, even after conditions changed? And you think this proves that events being in living memory don't influence people's views?
So then you don't agree that material relations shape people's thoughts and ideas, and you are not a materialist.
When the fuck did I ever claim they did it "out of the goodness of their hearts?" There you go, assuming my views and getting it wrong again, instead of listening to my actual words.
Moralist.