My pet theory about '50s recipes is that they were thought up by subjugated housewives who had few outlets for expressing their bitter feelings toward their situations. Think about it -

Women in the United States in 1950s couldn’t have their own bank accounts, beating your wife was considered normal, and no-fault divorce didn’t exist in the country yet. Women were cloistered at home, made in charge of domestic work and child-rearing, which heavily limited their freedom.

So imagine it: you’re made to spend almost all of your time inside your house, taking care of several kids (because baby boom), and you’re solely in charge of ALL the cleaning and cooking. Your social interaction is largely limited to tupperware parties and events that involve your kids. You have zero time for hobbies. Even if you did, your ability to pursue one would be entirely contingent on whether or not your husband approves - because most hobbies cost money, and your husband has control over that.

Now you’re spending yet another afternoon scrubbing the pitstains out of your husband’s laundry, which smelled oddly like perfume. Moments ago, he phoned you to say that he’s “staying late” again today. Two of your kids decide to start a screeching contest, which scares the baby and now she’s crying. At least your twins are playing outside, not that you have any clue where they are exactly, but you are almost certain that they’ll be home by supper. You’re also almost certain that they’ll come home with salmonella.

“Knock it off!” you yell to the kids, as you pick up the crying baby and pat her on the back. The house returns to peace as her cries become soft mews. You attempt to regain your previous train of thought.

Supper, you think, I’ve still got to plan supper.

You swaddle the baby up in your arms as you walk to the pantry. After having to ration food just a few years ago, the sight of your kitchen’s diversity brings you a bit of pride. You grew up having to make do with what you had, but modern supermarkets give you an opportunity to explore whole new ingredients. Some people go for recipe books, but you? You find you’re always personalizing recipes anyway. And just like that, without even trying, cooking the family meals has become the sole outlet for your creativity.

As you go through the shelf trying to think of what can go with what else, a sudden crash! erupts from the living room. The kids broke a lamp. The baby begins to cry again.

The older kids are sent to their room and the baby is rocked to sleep, before being placed into her bassinet with the tender, gentle care one would have when setting down a glass of nitroglycerin. You return to the kitchen, your blood pressure higher, unable to recall what ideas you had thought just moments before. Wait you think, as you notice how much mayonnaise you have. Waaaaait… You glance at the boxes of gelatin. What if… Nah, that’d probably be awful.

The door slams. The baby starts up. The twins run into the kitchen, covered in mud. One opens his hands while the other proudly announces, “Mommy, look! We found a frog!”

Seconds later, a terrified amphibian leaps behind the fridge.

You close your eyes, rub your temples, take a deep breath, then look back at the shelves.

You know what? Screw it. I’m gonna cook whatever I want. If they want something else, they can pick up an apron and cook it themselves.

And that, my friends, is how I imagine horrible 1950s recipes began.

Is there a link describing “the three basic courtesy rules” that doesn’t go to Xitter? I can’t access that site (and wouldn’t want to even if I could, tbh.)

I tried searching for that phrase online and found generic “etiquette” lists, but without further context I can’t tell if I’m finding the same thing you’re referring to.

I really hope the rest of the world leaders keep this at the forefront of their mind: Trump doesn’t keep his word. Also, Trump doesn’t pay his debts.

Attempting to make ANY deal with him is foolish. The wisest move is to expect him to screw over anyone who attempts to “work with” him, because unless you’re holding his purse strings, he’ll use you and lose you at his soonest opportunity. He is a cancer cell stealing resources from all the healthy cells around him - expect him to give nothing and take everything for his own gain.

I know to some that is “preaching to the choir,” but living in the U.S. at a time like this, I really don’t know who’s been charmed by his BS vs who can see what’s really going on. I imagine those outside the U.S. have better perspective, but I can’t just expect people to be rational anymore.

Most children have no idea how sexuality or genders work anyway

So all the kids who make fun of the “fairy boy” or “butch girl” don’t have pre-existing knowledge of gender and sexuality expectations?

Then why aren’t bullies targeting girls for dressing up in boas and singing pop? Why aren’t boys made fun of for cutting their hair short and liking sports? Put a boy in the first scenario and a girl in the second, and other kids will point them out as being “different.”

If kids have “no idea how sexuality or genders work” then what, exactly, makes this type of discrimination possible?

On an unrelated note, your understanding of children in general is absolutely baffling. It’s clear you aren’t around kids much, don’t remember your own childhood, and know diddly squat about child development. Kids are much smarter than you think.

Thankfully, there are some designs that improve on this! Here’s what’s in my kitchen:

The brand is OXO, for anyone curious.

The keyboard I’m currently using has a key in the F-row that’s tied to a lock screen. I accidentally hit it several times a day, and end up having to put in the passcode to unlock the computer every time.

I wish I could disable that stupid key. I’m tempted to pop it right out. But I use a shared computer, so I’m limited in options here.

Ugh, I just had a flashback to middle school, when my very attractive friend (who was already a model) complained that she was ugly because of an itty, bitty little zit she got one day.

Meanwhile I sat there, a relative pizza-face, thinking: Seriously? If you are ugly, what does that make the rest of us?

I’m glad to be of service.

I always figured mermaids would be more like cetaceans than fish. Having scales on their tails would be inaccurate, but breathing air, growing hair, and having a horizontal tail fluke are all in-line with mammals/cetaceans.

Not to mention, it would mean mermaids would have regular genitals (albeit hidden inside a genital fold, to increase hydrodynamics.) It would also mean they’d have normal placental pregnancies.

So that’s, uhh… a thing to consider.

I work with preschoolers. Mainly autistic preschoolers.

It would be a huge help if the makers of slime would go back to making unscented versions. Whenever I look in stores for these things, it’s like companies straight up stopped manufacturing anything without a scent.

I’m trying to discourage kids from putting toys in their mouths, especially sticky toys that tend to gather all sorts of oils and gunk through regular play. It would be so much easier if everything out there didn’t smell like candy.

Please forgive them, such a concept is unheard of back where we come from.

This, but at legal dispensaries.

Not even joking. I don’t know if it’s my state’s specific laws or what, but the dispensary cashier can either process your card like an ATM (they round up to the nearest $10, then give you the change) or they can process cash.

There is a third option, but it involves downloading an app specifically to pay for cannabis. And… yeah, I’m not doing that.

I think OP mentioned “a generation of Americans” because that’s the example they thought of, not because they think being American made the people exceptional.

You’re not wrong though - a lot of Americans definitely seem to think that just “being American” is some kind of accomplishment in and of itself. Meritless jingoism is intense here.

But I don’t see it being related to the previous comment.

I can only ever somewhat begin to understand the amount of stress that my “not normal” existence has caused my normie mom.

Yet it must be a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of stress I experienced being raised by someone who cares more about what others think when they look at her kid, than by anything her kid is actually experiencing.

It sounds like this dad is at least trying. If my mom showed even this much ability to listen to my concerns, I’d consider it a win. Instead I just get shut down at Christmas when I respond to, “How are you?” with, “Not sleeping well, not eating well,” and when asked why, respond honestly with, “Concerned about my and my loved ones’ safety under the upcoming authoritarian regime.”

Everyone else at the table: Knows exactly what I’m talking about. Offers understanding and support

Mom, and only Mom: “Hey we shouldn’t talk about politics at a party, it makes people uncomfortable.”

Everyone else at the table: Acquiesces

I mean, we picked the discussion back up as soon as she left to go home, but it’s still disheartening to know that my mom would rather appeal to “not offending” imaginary people who aren’t even at the table, than to listen to the valid concerns that threaten her own child. Even my dad came up to me after this and offered tangible support. It’s just my mom, my “apolitical” mom who truly believes “bOtH siDeS sAmE” and refuses to entertain the slightest political thought - no matter how close to home it hits.

It doesn’t surprise me that fascism is winning, when I consider that there are millions of people across the U.S. who view “politics” through the same lens she does: Can’t rock boat. Must blend in. Silence those that don’t comply, before they can threaten our own safety.

Women outnumber men

Wait, did the topic of the conversation change? Because China absolutely does not have more women than men.

critical thinking is tough

To preface, I don’t know a whole lot about AI bots. But we already see posts of the limitations of what AI can do/will allow, like bots refusing to repeat a given phrase. But what about actual critical thinking? If most bots are trained off human behavior, and most people don’t run on logical arguments, doesn’t that create a gap?

Not that it’s impossible to program such a bot, and again, my knowledge on this is limited, but it doesn’t seem like the aim of current LLMs is to apply critical thought to arguments. They can repeat what others have said, or mix words around to recreate something similar to what others have said, but are there any bots actively questioning anything?

If there are bots that question societal narratives, they risk being unpopular amongst both the ruling class and the masses that interact with them. As long as those that design and push for AI do so with an aim of gaining popular traction, they will probably act like most humans do and “not rock the boat.”

If the AI we interact with were instead to push critical thinking, without applying the biases that constrain people from applying it perfectly, that’d be awesome. I’d love to see logic bots that take part in arguments on the side of reason - it’s something a bot could do all day, but a human can only do for so long.

Which is why when I see a comment that argues a cogent point against a popular narrative, I am more likely to believe they are human. For now.

My pervert brain first saw it as a metaphor for shaving everything.

But for most people that would count as “tedious work” too, so the underlying message would be the same either way.

My first love fell down that hole. Toward the end of our relationship (he was about 18 years old) he’d started crushing on another girl. When we broke up, they got together. Each of them was a black hole of negativity. I saw what was happening, but with my status as “ex” I knew there wasn’t anything I could say or do about it.

She was even more of a downer than he was, which was shocking (his constant negativity was part of what led to our break up in the first place.) They spent five years together, ranting and raving about how horrible everything is, all while living with their respective parents and avoiding getting jobs. He stuck with her, even after they realized they had absolutely incompatible sex drives (she was ace, he was very much not. To clarify - being ace isn’t a bad thing. But for him, a complete lack of sex added to his feelings of isolation and distress.)

They eventually broke up, and we started chatting again (she didn’t let him talk to me during their relationship.) He eventually went on adventures across the country, learned his love of kink play from a fling with an experienced domme, went to school and gained skills in a field he loves. He’s in his 30s now, still upset about the state of the world (obviously), but he’s learned to accept what he can’t control.

In the end, he’s expressed a lot of regret over that relationship. He realized in retrospect how toxic it was and how much it was holding him back. I have no idea how that ex-girlfriend is doing these days, but I’m glad that at least he was able to break himself out of that spiral.

Is that instance defederated from .world ? The link gives me the “couldn’t_find_community” error. I searched for the community via Duckduckgo and was able to see it, but was logged out. When I logged in, all the posts disappeared.

The combination of the headline and the thumbnail suggested something far more hardcore was about to happen.