Somewhat related, but if you haven’t seen Contrapoints’ incredible video essay “Envy”… Set aside a few hours and watch it.

They do not respond to this logic. The hypocrisy is the point and they consider this hypocrisy good. If you kill, you’re a murderer, have rejected the Lord, and deserve death. Do not waste your breath trying to explain the ethics of the death penalty to someone who supports it because of sheer bloodlust.

If you ask, “What if an innocent person is inadvertently found guilty, executed, and then later exonerated?”, that will not register to them as a valid concern. They think it’s worth it and you are wasting your breath by asking. They believe in a God who ordained a commandment against killing, while also commanding genocide. They think the Creator of the Universe and therefore reality is just like that. It can’t be wrong. By definition.

You’re describing the exact machines I work with.

And no, people still manage to scan the wrong direction. Kind of a lot. You would think the bag racks would be a dead giveaway. They are not.

Management in charge of these decisions wildly underestimated how mindless customers are almost all the time.

I work retail and can feel my IQ drop when I am shopping vs working.

I work retail and I’ve just come to the conclusion that… the system is just never gonna work for how people do.

They’re about as simple as you can make it; scan from one side to the other, scanning one item at a time, into your bag; when bag is full remove it and begin a new bag; continue until all your items are scanned and press “Pay” and follow the prompts.

About 1 in 3 people struggle with this. They scanned from right to left instead of left to right, they pressed “pay” too early and can’t figure out how to go back, they picked up a bag and waved something in front of the scanner so it scanned twice accidentally, there is an “ERROR: Unknown Barcode” popup but they were re-arranging their bag and can’t remember the last item put through, their kid or spouse decided to “help” and now the machine’s confused…

We’ve had them for years and it’s not getting any better. There’s no fixing it. Sometimes customers are dumb, sure (a few I question whether they can even read), but also you can’t blame people for just acting like humans.

I think it was Gina Yashere (British comedian) who did the math and worked out while she was touring the US, if her leg was cut off, it would be cheaper to take a taxi to the airport, book two last minute first-class seats on British Airways (one seat for her, and one for the leg) and fly home to be treated in the UK than it would be to just go to a US hospital.

Absolutely. In an emergency you would not do this.

You would simply ring multiple ambulances, ask for a quote from each, and compare prices and services offered like a reasonable consumer in a free market should.

Not if you’re selling whole burgers, but the “set dressings” are allowed to be fake.

You can use fake pancakes to advertise a syrup, and fake syrup to advertise pancakes. McD’s can’t use fake mayo on pictures of burgers, but you can use it in the “serving suggestion” picture if you’re selling frozen burger patties.

I adore a 2-and-half star experience.

I think that’s the fuckin’ point of the whole “gun regulation” debate, hence the meme… He lived by the sword and died by the sword.

Why on Earth would we want to build anything even close to Data from Star Trek under these conditions?!

No matter how you slice it, we’d be trapping them in a living hell!

There was this old book in my school classroom I remember that was speculating about the future; it had illustrations of robot butlers and maids helping people about the house in that 1960s-painting style. Think the future as seen in “The Jetsons”, or Andrew from “Bicentennial Man”.

That’s the “robot assistance” I was promised. So I’d say to my robot “Hey, can you turn the lights down?” And a humanoid robot would walk over to the light switch and turn the lights down.

Of course, it turns out building robots like that is hugely expensive so it’s easier to just sell smart lights that connect to a voice-activated app on your phone. That’s just not the same as a true general purpose robot, dammit! There’s no whimsy. Generative AI is ruining the Internet and for what? I’m no closer to my true robot butler and flying car than I was 20 years ago.

Shame they never declared War on Disease.

Smartphones are the most useful thing ever day-to-day… So I want to keep those, like keep all the text and call and email stuff, keep the games I guess, but somehow also go back to the days when the Internet was something to peruse for an hour or so a day on the computer.

There’s a lot of “Heal the political divide” being said to mean “meet them halfway” when what it should mean is the ignorant and prejudiced learn and the media machine dismantled, like how “Heal the healthcare class divide” means “Help poor people see doctors affordably”.

I found it to be a struggle to find a non-smart TV that was decent…

… Good.

call them occasionally.

I’ll text. Take it or leave it.

… Well great, now I have to check whether my television has a goddamn microphone for some reason. I didn’t think to check because it’s a television.

Never connected it to the Wifi though.

I got rid of my home deep fryer for health reasons. It is dangerously easy, cheap, and quick to make quality fries…