The reason the police do this is that wage slaves won’t be forced back into the worst, most poorly paid jobs we can find if they’re not facing death by starvation.

Systemically, yes this is why the police are allowed broadly by society to discourage helping those in need.

On a more personal, fundamental and visceral level, it's because the police are a product of people who have held power for a long, long time. And you know what poor and homeless people are to the systems that maintain the status quo? They're an inconvenient reminder that our system is designed to benefit a few, and that there are people hoarding gold and diamond backscratchers for every day of the week while children starve on the street.

That's a pretty downer reminder, isn't it? Throw in some of our human vices that we all share from top to bottom like substance abuse and you have a complete picture of what any of us could become if we're not careful.

See, for the vast majority of comfortable Americans, the homeless they pass every day are not reminders that humans need help, they are a reminder of failure. In a world where success is measured in dollar signs and possessions, someone without either is a scary, harsh reminder that we're all on a tightrope.

Brush them aside. Put them somewhere. Get them into some kind of "camp" and shuffle them out of view, lest they spoil this perfect image we have created of the modern world.

if you have to wipe with toilet paper anyway, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having a bidet?

The purpose of a bidet isn't necessarily to make toilet paper unnecessary, it's to clean properly. Before getting a bidet I would just step into the shower and use the removable shower head to wash my ass with a little soap and warm water, towel off after, bam super clean. I still do that, but now the bidet can save a step if I'm in a hurry.

Basically, try this experiment. (Quoted from some comedian) Smear some poop on the back of your hand. Then wipe it with dry paper and nothing else. Do you feel clean? Ready to go through the day? Of course not! You want to actually wash that off, and that's the pleasant feeling from using a stream of water to feel thoroughly clean, not just removing residue but getting up in there into the outer wrinkles of the butthole, reduces the chance of getting the itchies later.

(This is particularly of consequence if there is ANY chance whatsoever of ending up naked with another person. You might not notice it, but other people would get hit with a musk the moment your underwear drops, and not the nice kind.)

Why are people so confounded by these things? Have y’all never used water to bathe before?

I feel like some people were never given actual hygiene instructions from their parents growing up. I can only imagine the way some people are so hung up on genitals and waste products that they can't even think about it, those kinds of people going on to have kids... do we really think they're going to pass on useful information on self-care?

And it's not like there's tons of social messaging and helpful guides all over the place on proper bathroom habits, it's purely a passed-down skillset.

Every time this comes up on reddit, there are a lot of people sharing stories about knowing men who literally don't wipe their own ass or touch it while showering and just constantly walk around with shit all over their ass. I used to think it was a meme, but then met people in real life who also had encounters with men who thought touching their own ass would "make them gay."

So yah, people getting anxious about using a bidet? That tracks. I think a lot of people are at very least, just anxious because they've never really been shown anything and might be doubting their own habits. Basically the bathroom and poop and related topics are just this mysterious realm that nobody talks about. Insecurity over our most intimate and private acts is a tradition as old as time itself.

Our obsession with owning land and borders will be the death of us all.

Like, without hyperbole, if we all die, it will be because of our attachment to the concept of "owning land" and having to draw imaginary lines across ground and rock and water to signify who owns what.

But when you step back and really think about it, it makes zero sense if you actually care about an equitable world where people aren't hurting each other. It makes zero sense from a cosmic perspective, as this is a rock flying around a star, it has been here longer than us and will outlast us to a degree that our presence here, no matter what we do, will be a brief blip in cosmic time. We have no legacy, no real connection to the dirt below us other than how it gave us life. And yet claim ownership over it?

It makes no sense from a material perspective either, all borders do is reduce the flow of goods and services, creates artificial limits on who can go where creating "pressure zones" that eventually explode over and become migration disasters, and of course the people who pretend to rule these patches of dirt and rock and water and will send millions of people to death to preserve this roleplay. And we all cheer and defend this concept with all our heart.

Make it make sense.

I used to watch Thought Slime a lot, even donated to them a few times... then started watching videos from the people they've "called out" on stream, followed a rabbit-hole of people who were hurt and never apologized to and realized they're just another youtube dramafarmer clicks-at-all-costs, no discrimination, storyline-crafting liar. Like everyone.

Free yourselves humanity, stop watching streamers.

edit: I know the parasocialism online runs really deep and just saying this is going to get some people losing their shit to defend their fav streamer, I literally don't care, you have to be aware that every streamer has an army of knights to defend them, and I don't like engaging that way and am not going to spend my time arguing. I'm not out to change your mind, just explain why I changed mine.

No i get that, it's just that I can't imagine how goddamn cold that ketchup must be or how much you're using if it actually gets cold enough to be noticable and chill your fries. I've been on Earth eating fries for a long time, at home, at restaurants, at other people's houses, etc... I just don't think I've heard the complaint that the ketchup is too cold XD

It's fine, just like I said, different and kind of quirky.

I mean, totally reasonable... just, unusual? I've never had issues with "cold ketchup" since it's kind of unusual to use more than a teaspoon on anything unless you REALLY love ketchup. Do you by chance have sensory issues? Like sensitivity to textures and temperatures?

Depending on the PH levels they may never "go bad" as in, suffer bacterial or fungal growth. (Anything lower than about 4.6ph will have much lower chances of spoiling but this risk is not eliminated completely and there are plenty of people who get botulism poisoning from high acidity foods improperly stored, this is because while the bacteria may not thrive there, their highly toxic bi-products may persist even through cooking.)

But that's not the only reason we refrigerate stuff. Food, including condiments that are salty or pickled, are made of organic molecules, oftentimes many different kinds of complex molecules. These delicate structures begin breaking down the moment they're created the same way a jiggling lego tower will eventually become unrecognizable.

Refrigeration slows this jiggling and preserves the structure of these molecules, preserving the flavor and nutrition much longer than if you leave it out. If you go through those condiments fast, in less than a couple months, it should be fine, but everything eventually reaches a point where it doesn't have the same flavor or texture anymore and it won't be as nice as fresh ingredients.

If you keep those items in the frig, they will last for years. If not, you will have to replace them faster because they DO go bad eventually, even if it's just the taste degrading. Organic molecules are complicated and start breaking down the moment they are created, so everything food-related changes over time to "not food" or at least becomes flavorless and devoid of nutrition. Refrigeration slows the molecules from jiggling so much and preserves these fine structures.

It's just a choice. I don't really see the point of buying your own bottles of that shit unless it's just a matter of convenience. So come on, let's be honest, unless your roommate chain the ketchup the refrigerator, ya'll are just buying your own condiments anyway.

I cannot fucking stand the fact that we live in the year 2024 and we're having raging debates about if science has value.... ON THE FUCKING GODDAMN INTERNET.

This population deserves the hardships coming, and that's a really, really terrible thing to say, because the coming hardships are going to be bad.

Imagine a world where corporations that aren't even involved in your life can decide where you can and can't go, where you can and can't live, if you can receive medical care or not, what you can and can't eat, and so on. If we can break every aspect of society down to a system of "fees" to have basic services, we will rapidly have an entire nation of shanty towns, with about 0.1% of the population living in fucking castles on the mountains.

And this is what they want. Because the people pushing this tripe always think they're the ones who will live in the castles.

Not saying the current system is good, but replacing it with a "libertarian utopia" will be even worse. At least the system does the bare minimum work, we do have roads, we do have medical care, we do have trash pickup. It's not much but it's enough for most people so you would have to do a lot better to convince people why they should topple their comfort and pleasures.

It all sounds like it makes sense but it's not realistic. Rapidly we will end up in a situation where you have pass through 200 different forms of toll/fee collection to get to work, because without strict regulation of all companies, both public and private, they are going to exploit your lack of options. I haven't had anyone explain to me why we should expect a society of hundreds of millions of people to all suddenly be able to say "That's enough, line doesn't need to go up anymore." It's not how humans function.

You would need a central authority that would audit and review all these "fees" that pay for our roads and medical care and fire departments, and make sure they are allocated where they're supposed to go. And if we're doing that, why not just send the money to this central authority to begin with so there's no hiding shit? And now guess what we have. We have the system we have because it's how things evolve.

Our argument isn't that we should do away with a central authority that distributes our work, it should be that we want that work to pay for things we actually want, not the things that a few defense contractors and banks want. I don't want to do away with government, I want one that makes less self-interested decisions with the money we lend them. And so far all the alternatives save one or two, they just make it easier for these people to make self-interested decisions.