Imo definitely common sense, which might not be a formal category of intelligence, but it follows from empathy, risk assessment, and understanding of consequences. Sociologists could probably do research to nail down an exact definition through and psychologists could probably measure it, though I suspect it would only really work intrademographically. What’s common sense for a rich, well spoken, fourteen year old white girl is different from common sense for a poor, uneducated sounding, twenty five year old black man, because they unfortunately face very different potential consequences for the same actions.

Looks like seven of them grew up Catholic, and all of those but Neil Gorsuch still are. Absolutely nuts.

I didn’t downvote you, but I think it’s more that that’s true for everything. What if everyone in the world has conspired and I’m secretly the subject of the Truman show? It takes faith to believe that any of the news that I watch is real, and faith to believe that a car accident I pass on the highway wasn’t staged to get a reaction from me. Believing in that giant conspiracy would take orders of magnitude more faith than believing that huge numbers of unassociated people are not intentionally deceiving you though, so comparatively, you don’t need faith. Because faith is required for “knowing” literally anything other than that you exist, saying something requires no faith is obviously hyperbolic.

I mean, I can get a gas chromatograph, then test it however many times I need to, to prove to myself that it’s accurate, then use it to test whatever I’m suspicious of. I don’t feel the need personally, but if a person wants to, they can. It’s honestly not even as expensive as I would have expected- plenty of options under €1000.

And for more advanced science, the same applies- it would require a lot more faith to believe that everyone with more than two college chemistry classes is lying about the nature of the world than that they’re not.

But yes, you need faith in either direction. Just a lot less of it if science is real.

Only what you aren’t capable of reasoning on your own. I can’t reason astrophysics, so I take what astrophysicists say on faith. I can reason some physics, though, and I have to either accept that there’s a giant conspiracy with upper level physics, or that the people who study it know what they’re talking about. Each takes a kind of faith, but the latter requires much less.

Is it “hate” to think a platform sucks?

I’m older than she is, but she looks like she’s got at least fifteen years on me. Being a fucking monster ages you.

I mean, yeah, it’s not a big deal if you don’t think about it further. I don’t like knowing that the people who are supposed to be impartial and who might have to intervene in a situation in which I find myself in danger don’t think I’m as valuable as a German citizen is. If the police had faced consequences, I would be a lot less concerned, because as you said, bad things happen everywhere. With no consequences, it means there’s tacit systemic acceptance of that type of behavior and attitude.

As for why a bastard would want to be a cop? You don’t get to witness a man burning alive as a banker.

As I said, it’s better here, but that doesn’t mean it’s fine or good.

I mean…. German cops are friendlier than American cops, but they’re still bastards. Oury Jalloh, the fascist WhatsApp group from Hessen, and similar things happen here too.

You know how it seems like people got dumber?

A legitimate military operation that will definitely be considered terrorism?

I just can’t read it as anything other than warfarin- how’s it supposed to be pronounced?

Tumblr survived botification largely culturally intact

I’m an American immigrant in Germany and the idea that homeschooling is illegal here really used to chafe at me. I get it now though: not everyone who wants to homeschool their kids also wants to make sure no mandatory reporters see evidence of their horrific child abuse, but everyone who wants to make sure no mandatory reporters see evidence of their horrific child abuse also wants to homeschool their kids.

Other interventions for that are either not thorough enough (biannual social worker visits), or much greater an imposition on the parents and way too expensive (biweekly social worker visits). It’s simplest to just make school compulsory, and it values the privacy of the parents over their control of their children. In some small percentage of cases, kids lose out on learning exclusively from very knowledgeable people, but parents can still educate their children outside of school, and way more kids are saved from damaging environments because of compulsory schooling.

It wouldn’t compel me to hurt people, but I definitely get more into kinks the more time I spend with them (to a point). Violence in media has never had a noticeable effect on me though.

It reads to me like you’re saying the above commenter has moved the goalposts, but they were answering their parent commenter directly. I didn’t downvote you, fwiw

It’s worth separating the fate of the Pledge from the fate of philanthropy more broadly. Some of the wealthiest people in tech are still giving; they’re just doing it on their own terms, through their own vehicles, toward their own chosen ends. At the start of 2026, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) cut about 70 jobs — 8% of its workforce — as part of a move away from education and social justice causes toward its Biohub network, a group of nonprofit, biology-focused research institutes operating across several cities. “Biohub is going to be the main focus of our philanthropy going forward,” Zuckerberg said last November.

They’re just trying to extend their own lifespans

They’re responding to the last sentence, which literally says that humans aren’t wired to be good people.

Chilis always had a fucking terrible dry-ass black bean burger as a vegetarian option, but Applebees had broccoli alfredo that was pretty palatable. It’s not like the chilis one was vegan, either.

Pro tip: lie to the people around you about stupid stuff.