I’ll go first: r/kitty. One of the hundred grillion cat subs back on Reddit, the culture in this one was you posted a cat picture, and the only word allowed in the title or in any comments or replies was “Kitty.”

Someone is using that subreddit for covert communications, I just know it. Either on the level of “if u/PM_me_your_nostrils posts an orange cat, we attack at dawn!” or there’s some steganography going on with the pictures, but that subreddit was too stupid to be as active as it was.

  • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Also related to reddit, since that’s where I was always inundated with this shit, before moving here: the constant stream of Genshin Impact leaks that come out, that the whole obnoxious subculture is built around, are just released by Mihoyo, intentionally, under the guise of all the anonymous leakers that constantly come and go. Seems to me like the only explanation for how CONSTANTLY leaks come out, and how they’re basically never actually damaging to the game or the company, while being REALLY effective at stirring up obsession in the fanbase, and driving people to invest more time and money into the game to be prepped to get the next new character immediately on release.

    Also how so many of the leakers would release extremely accurate stats and numbers, but then drop statements like “if I release any more than this, I’d be risking my safety” or “since everyone’s been asking about it, I’ll go ahead and confirm X, but after this I’m gonna have to go on hiatus for a while, until things cool down”. Seems like nonsense meant to either inflate the leaker’s ego, or rile up the fanbase.

  • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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    3 months ago

    Paper straws were pushed by big corporate polluters to build a negative association with environmentalism.

    Plastic straws are single-use plastics, but seem unexceptional by those standards. It’s almost a meme that they’re being singled out like they’re the single greatest source of plastic waste, or uniquely damaging to ocean life.

    On top of that, there are way better ways of reducing straw usage. I’ve used bioplastics that seemed way better. You could redesign the lids. You can do the plastic bag thing and charge people a nickel for a straw or whatever. Hell, you could just not give straws with every drink, and plenty of people will just drink from their cups and glasses. Instead, we get paper straws, something that is so obviously a bad idea it sounds like a joke, or a metaphor for a useless invention. Often served with cups and lids made entirely out of plastic.

    So you get a bunch of people who have their drinks kind of ruined by a frustrating straw. It’s a small thing, but it’s just a little nudge away from environmentalism. You build an association with disappointment and inconvenience. Maybe it doesn’t cause a big sway, but it makes people maybe a little more anti-environmentalist than they already were, or just less passionate about environmentalism.

    • Zanz@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The people who are responsible for the turtle with the straw in the nose video where from the paper straw company. That happened right before the corn plastic straws at the market and after the video all plastic straws were banned in most metropolitan areas, that banned the corn plastic “environmentally friendly” straws before they even hit the market. The paper straws have forever chemicals in them and are essentially Teflon coated so they’re not environmentally friendly at all.

    • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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      3 months ago

      When most ocean plastic comes from nets, it’s hard to disagree.

      Honestly the obsession with single use plastic seems like a distraction. Every piece of plastic in landfill is oil that isn’t burnt.

      • Javi_in_4k@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Every price of plastic in the landfill is oil that was extracted, processed, and required oil burning to get processed. And we do that for something that will be used once. Plastic in the landfill is not a net positive.

  • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The removal of The Fairness Doctrine was a deliberate psyop of The Monied Elite to dumb down the general populace of the US to accept Capitalist propaganda and rule. Well, it’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s fact. Then we were bombarded by blatant capitalist propaganda for 50 years. But, but, the worst aim was to condition the general populace to casual cruelty as entertainment.

    Witness how Congress has degenerated into The Jerry Springer Show and Judge Judy. And half of the populace think it’s funny, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Republican politicians daily lie their asses off, and there are no consequences. An entitled, malignant narcissistic psychopath is worshipped as a demigod. Congregations who watch Fox every night are literally telling their preachers/priests/pastors that Jesus is a woke pussy. That’s not opinion, it’s a fact.

    I recall reading that Goering and Goebbels both stated that a lie that is repeated enough times becomes truth in the zeitgeist. This country is in big trouble, and I think the Heritage and Federalist stacked SCOTUS is going to appoint Trump King due to an avalanche of upcoming election lawsuits.

    This country was established by rich men who didn’t want to pay taxes. But, some good things came from it. That you could speak to power without the fear of retribution. That a religious entity could not punish you arbitrarily on a whim. That the rich could not pass on their wealth and power to scions without penalty. That this country would not be ruled by a blatant aristocracy and monarchy.

    I will not live in a Trump Theocratic Oligarchy. I’m an old man, with no wife and no kids. Do what you have to do, and leave if you can. The writing is on the wall. I don’t know how much more you need to see and know to wise up, but it’s here, right in your face.

  • Andrew@piefed.social
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    3 months ago

    There’s a user here, who was ‘101’ at reddthat, then piefed, then feddit.org, and was 911 at lemmynsfw, and is currently 911 at programming.dev, who posts a bunch of articles over a week or so, then deletes their account and moves on to another instance. They’re up to something, surely. (the only real downside to this behaviour - that I can think of - is that new instances won’t be able to get their posts, because Lemmy doesn’t return posts for deleted users)

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I can see instance shopping to find the perfect one, a week is about how long it takes to get a good sense of the local community. Too bad about the lost content though.

    • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      What does this mean? What is 101 and 911? I understand 101 to be the basic information of a course and 911 to be the number for emergencies. I’m trying to understand what you wrote here.

      • Andrew@piefed.social
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        3 months ago

        Sorry - I meant that it’s literally the username they’ve used. They’ve used the word ‘911’, like you’ve used the word ‘windyrebel’.

  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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    3 months ago

    Elon Musk is not an idiot. He was hired by other rich people like the Saudis to destroy Twitter, to prevent further incidents of public protest organization like what happened in Egypt and the Occupy movement. The degradation of the platform is intentional, and the amplification of right-wing voices helps to chase left-leaning social activists off of the platform. There is no equivalent platform for in-the-moment organization of protests.

      • Artyom@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        This conspiracy can still be true, even if you assume Elon is an idiot.

    • Drunemeton@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Or he was backed by some real dirt bags to keep Twitter afloat so the misinformation can continue unabated. Protesters can be easily found out. Humans trafficked. Etc.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      People who thinks musk, trump, putin etc are stupid are … stupid I guess.

      They usually have mental problems like narcissism or psycopathy and lack all kind of feelings but stupid? No.

      • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        No, they can be all those things at the same time. Heck, it helps to be all three.

        It was narcissism that made Musk want to buy twitter, but stupidity that made him think it would stop people from mocking him. And he came up with naming it X, so that’s more evidence.

        The only reason the world didn’t realise he was an idiot sooner was because he had enough money to buy the ideas of smarter people.

          • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            I don’t think money has any effect on it. Some billionaires are willing to keep to themselves and roll in their money pit. Some billionaires try to buy the white house and publish a book with their face on it. If they don’t care what people think, they’re wasting a lot of money on something they don’t care about.

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Hubris is stupidity, and billionaires have a ton of hubris. Titanic sub, remember? Bet their lives on their hubris

    • ___qwertz___@feddit.org
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      3 months ago

      If something looks, walks, barks and smells like a dog, chances are, it’s a dog.

      The world is complicated enough as is, no need to make it more complicated.

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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        3 months ago

        The world is complicated enough as is, no need to make it more complicated.

        But my dude, that is what conspiracy theories are for.

    • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Okay, my conspiracy is that this is a conspiracy by Elon so people think he’s an evil genius instead of the bumbling, idea-stealing moron with an inflated budget that he really is.

      The only reason Bluesky isn’t more active is because it isn’t as active, which is becoming less of an issue by the day. And I STILL see activists gathering on twitter.

  • kamenLady.@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    What about r/catstandingup? Videos or Pics of cats standing.

    The comments and replies to comments are always: Cat.

  • eldoom@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    I think that people being in overly light polluted areas for their entire lives is or at least is a major part of what’s wrong with society these days.

    When you go out at night and look at a sky completely filled with stars it makes you feel a certain way. Full of wonder, small, curious. Conversations always go in the “what if” or “what do you think about” sort of direction. It really puts you in your place in a strangely calm, thoughtful , and healthy way. And the more you can see, the better. If the Milky Way is visible it just puts you in awe.

    People don’t get to experience that very often, if at all, when they live in a populated area.

    I think that is by design.

    If you cannot just go outside and get that huge feeling of idk existential wonder, you’re going to get hard coded into your personal fears and beliefs and all that whatnot. This drives the population apart. Meanwhile, all forms of light pollution measures are either deemed too expensive or just not enforced. At least in my area. And large amounts of the population live somewhat close to an airport. Never really gets dark at night near an airport…

    Anyways that’s my ted talk about how light bulbs are ripping society apart by its very fibers. Next up is how ceilings are a conspiracy to keep the poors underfoot if anyone wants to hear it.

    • Thrillhouse@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Take it one step further and that sense of wonder is why I feel the powers that be reacted swiftly to squash psychedelics and shut down all research into them, unless the research benefitted the national security cartel, of course.

      It’s difficult for rulers to maintain capitalist control when you can eat a piece of paper and have the wonders of the universe revealed to you and realize that it’s supposed to be about loving other humans. Makes neverending consumption and 9-5 work seem really lame in comparison.

      • eldoom@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        The ceilings one is way simpler.

        When you spend a lot of time in a place with low ceilings it makes you subconsciously feel trapped. After a while of it your actions and behavior will likely start to reflect that and you will probably be less likely to do anything that you can for your future.

        You don’t get that in a place with higher ceilings.

    • hperrin@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Cities tend to be more light polluted, but less racially divided than rural areas, though.

      I think it’s more about exposure. If you’re never exposed to a certain kind of people, some people just won’t trust them.

      • edric@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Yeah, people in cities tend to be less conservative and more open minded. The more rural, which means less light pollution, are the opposite. So I don’t think that conspiracy really holds.

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    They build our houses specifically to be inefficient at staying cool, then they sell us AC units and power to cool down our inefficient houses. They must be stopped.

    • edric@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      I dunno man. My new build house (nothing fancy, just a basic starter SFH) is pretty great at staying cool. We can keep the thermostat at 78 all day and we’re comfy.

    • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      so your “They” are an organized cabal of architects, construction workers, manufacturers of air conditioners and power plant operators all working in tandem?

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        No, more like developers who don’t really care about efficiency, and manufacturers just doing their thing. It’s less of a “conspiracy” and more of a “we build our houses wrong”.

    • tired_n_bored@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’m sure my grandpa who built my house didn’t have a clue on climate efficiency lol. Nowadays in the country I live in, it’s mandatory to build efficient buildings

  • kubica@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    My conspiracy theory consists of being very suspicious of the people talking about the conspiracies, more than the content of the theory itself.

  • Stern@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Personal reddit conspiracy theory as to why image hosting is on site:

    1. r/fatpeoplehate exists, does its thing (hating fat people)
    2. They get some images removed from imgur, the image host du juor of reddit at the time.
    3. They go on the offensive and start harassing fat imgur workers.
    4. The subreddit gets banned.
    5. Under a year later, reddit puts in image uploading.

    My theory is that 3 resulted in imgur hitting up reddit and threatening to block the site if they didn’t reign in fatpeoplehate. Reddit did, by 4, because the alternative was no images and that would absolutely fuck reddit up. This in turn leads to 5 to prevent that powerplay again.

    • 🐋 Color 🍁 ♀@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Wow, that was an actual subreddit? This is new information to me. My goodness… I don’t get why some people hate people because they’re overweight. It literally does not affect them in the slightest what someone looks like, and people can be overweight for a variety of reasons. We should love eachother, not hate for the pettiest of reasons.

      • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I don’t condone their actions or views but I remember when that sub existed and I can shed some light on the fat hate redpill train of thought.

        They tried to justify it saying that fat people were a drain on society because of health issues. They took up space in hospital rooms that could otherwise be used for “healthy people with real problems”. Like they saw being fat as an issue that the person could fix by themselves, and they shouldn’t take up medical resources. And they drive up insurance costs for companies because being fat is like a pre existing condition etc.

        But what was it at the end of the day? A hate group. I get that America and other places have issues with weight, but the solution is not hate.

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Probable. And Reddit didn’t want to do so initially because, of many reasons, this way they also offload the liability on Imgur.

  • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
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    3 months ago

    The Jan 6th temper tantrum was instigated as a response to the BLM and other Covid-era protests. The owner class was getting nervous about the working class protesting about things that matter, so they riled up some of their disposable morons to storm the Capital as a way to discredit direct action. And we’re already seeing the effects; whether it’s a labor strike or a student sit-in, we’re told by centrists to “protest peacefully” and not inconvenience anyone, aka don’t protest.

    • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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      3 months ago

      BLM was taken by state actors if not outright organized by them just like jan6 idiots.

      BLM era protests got too hot for the government tho, so deff got spooked

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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          3 months ago

          It took them forever to derail that one and they learned a lot from it. We have been in outright class war ever since and most people don’t even know since they are busy fighting culture war

  • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Not mine, but there is a certain compelling logic to this: https://bruces.medium.com/the-mysterious-visit-of-mr-babbage-by-bruce-sterling-2017-7c941028c4d8

    tl;dr - accepted history is that Charles Babbage designed a series of mechanical computers in the mid 1800s, and the underlying theory behind them would go on to influence work a century later when the technology had caught up to the idea, but they were never built. There are a bunch of coincidences and unexplained meetings that suggest that maybe he sold his plans to Italy who then built one of his designs in secret. This is also supported by modern attempts to build a computer from his plans - there was 1 measurement wrong across tens of thousands of parts, and it worked perfectly. Babbage was a skilled engineer but to get all that correct, on the first go, entirely from theory is maybe a bit much

  • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Just posted about this in a different thread:

    The US senators: mitch mcconnell, ted cruz, and lindsey graham used fraud to win their respective seats in 2020. All three were in tight races according to the polls but all three won with bigger margins than was to be expected.

    This idea came from a few articles that were discussing this issue a few days after the election, then those articles all just disappeared.

    Maybe the articles disappeared because there was no fraud

    Maybe the articles disappeared because there was?