Ambulocetus @ambulocetus@social.cleverlibre.org
Nemo me impune lacessit
Voted Best Psychic Of 2026
Non-practicing intellectual
https://www.metafilter.com/user/99809
Certified freak, seven days a week.
謙虚だが弱くはない、自信に満ちているが誇りに思っていない、神秘的だが不魔法ではない
Joined Mar 2020
@Are0h I know it's difficult to see that kind of thing and not want to tell them what time it is, but they have these simple but effective rhetorical tricks. For example, if you try to tell them the truth, they say something like "well if that's true then why are you so defensive?"
The secret to effectively shutting them down is to not let them force you into playing defense. But at the same time you can't let them see you get mad, because they will use that agianst you too.
The answer is to go on the attack, but not with insults or threats. With Socratic questions. It sounds too simple, but it is actually very effective. Ask them questions like:
What exactly do you believe?
How confident are you about that?
How do you know that the thing that gives you the confidence is a reliable method?
If you found out that thing was wrong, would you change your mind?
or my favorite-
My friend says something different. How can I tell which of you is correct?
They *will* try to side-step and distract you, but for this to work, you must be focussed. The first question they don't want to answer, that's the one you keep asking and asking and asking. Keep asking the question until they either answer it or they let everyone see their true colors.
This method is based on #StreetEpistemology but #streetEpistemology is non-confrontational, and I'm all about being confrontational with evil, so I call this method Weaponized Street Epistemology
@offby1 Some people say I'm too pendantic. And it's really hurtful because nobody likes a pendant.
@BenAveling @futurebird I can offer no more help than that. Perhaps if you ponder it for a while you will see what I mean.
@ZachWeinersmith The full name of the dish is "pizza pie". How can it be a pie if it's just a cracker sprinkled with some flavorings on top?
Ambulocetus
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‘A symbol of what humans shouldn’t be doing’: the new world of octopus farming - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/25/a-symbol-of-what-humans-shouldnt-be-doing-the-new-world-of-octopus-farming #AnimalWelfare #Wildlife #Farming #Environment #Food #Sustainability #SaveTheOctopodes
@BenAveling @futurebird Perhaps I have a b etter way to think about it that may make you feel more comfortable with it. Long before the prefiix "cis" was used RE gender, it was used in Astrnomy. A cis-lunar orbit is an orbit which is within the orbit of the Moon, and a trans-lunar orbit is one which is outside of the orbit of the Moon. The trans-lunar orbit didn't change from one orbit to another. In this case the prefixes mean "within" and "beyond"
A joke from 1942:
Do you know what they call the table where nine people sit enjoying lunch with one Nazi? It's called "the Nazi Table".
The same joke updated for 2023:
Do you know what they call the table where nine people sit enjoying lunch with one Nazi? It's called "Twitter".
Ambulocetus
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Ambulocetus
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With the disproportionate amount of press coverage of #OceanGate, I hope that more people learn the lesson that capitalist techbros cannot be trusted because they make fast-and-loose corner-cuts like this ALL THE TIME; it's the rule, not the exception. However, it tends to go unnoticed when it doesn't fail in such a dramatic and instantaneous way.
Tangentially, this is why I worry about the rush to (mis-)apply LLMs in such fields as medical care and insurance (or the inevitable lacks thereof).
Ambulocetus
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Astonishing Agate
- A dinosaur cervical vertebrae with air pockets filled with gorgeous agate. Enjoy!
By #MarlèneThiery
#Geology #GeologyPage #Nature #minerals #crystals #gems #Nature #NatureLovers #NaturePhotography #Photographer
Ambulocetus
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The Parable of the Killer of Hundreds vs. the Killer of One
The Killer of Hundreds and the Killer of None met to resolve their differences.
The Killer of Hundreds said, "I offer a compromise, we shall only kill fifty."
The Killer of None replied, "I offer only that we shall kill none."
The onlookers cried out in shock and surprise! What sort of compromise was this?
The Killer of Hundreds smiled coldly and said, "You should be more reasonable. Clearly I have compromised, and you have not. If you will not deal with me reasonably, how are we ever to proceed?"
The Killer of None replied, "You offer little compromise, killer of hundreds. For you, to compromise on the number of people killed sacrifices none of your position that people should be killed.
"However," The Killer of None continued, "For me to concede to even one of these murders would be to compromise all of my position. Once I cross that line, what argument can I ever possess for one against fifty or hundreds?
"In truth," the Killer of None explained, to the voices of all present, "You are sacrificing nothing, while asking me to sacrifice everything. For some things there can never be any compromise."
Do you know what they call the table where nine people sit enjoying lunch with one Nazi? It's usually called "the Nazi Table", but sometimes it's called Twitter.
So I heard that on Bird Chan you can't say the word "cis-gender" anymore. Can someone explain why anyone who isn't a far-right reactionary is still there?
Ambulocetus
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This whole submarine thing is a preview of exactly how "space tourism" is going to go
Ambulocetus
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We're very excited to be joining the #fediverse, so here's our #introduction post:
We are the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR), an archive preserving materials from the entertainment industries. We are home to over three hundred collections from playwrights, television and movie writers, producers, actors, designers, directors, and production companies.
Housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Library-Archives Division, the WCFTR is one of the world’s most accessible #archives and is regularly visited by researchers from around the world. Research undertaken in its collections has revolutionized the scholarship of American #cinema, #theater, and #television.
We provide in-person and remote access to our collections. Learn more here: https://wcftr.commarts.wisc.edu/index.php/access-materials/
We use social media to share news about new collections, upcoming events, interesting materials we've found, and projects that we're working on -- as well as learning about what you're working on!
Ambulocetus
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#intro
Uh, Hello, I'm new here.
I knew mastodon or the fediverse stuff from a youtube recommendation and how the 'general' internet is coming to an end.
So uhh...
Hi people of the...
Fediverse...?
I am very new and unknownledgable towards these kind of stuff cus' I was pretty used to twitter, and I was expecting mastodon works like twitter but I was wrong. This is definitely something unique experience that I am witnessing, and I am enthralled, of a kind of things I found on the wired.
So, I will appreciate if some of you could give me a thing or two about this place.
(Sorry if I made mistake in some grammar. Not a native eng speaker 😅)
Ambulocetus
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@LiLightfoot Me too, but with fascism.
Ambulocetus
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1982 - "Tell them."
"I did. They laughed."
1992 - Tell them again."
"I did. They laughed."
2002 - You must keep telling them."
"I do tell them, everyday I tell them
few will listen"
2012. - "They must listen or it will be too late"
"It is too late."
2022 - "Is it really still too late?"
"It's way past too late. Fewer people are laughing."
2033 "Why did no one tell us?"
"Oh we did, many times, many ways. But we have made progress. No one is laughing anymore."
#ClimateEmergency
Ambulocetus
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From an AP article:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions.
U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18.
Arkansas’ law, which Moody temporarily blocked in 2021, also would have prohibited doctors from referring patients elsewhere for such care.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Voted Best Psychic Of 2026
Non-practicing intellectual
https://www.metafilter.com/user/99809
Certified freak, seven days a week.
謙虚だが弱くはない、自信に満ちているが誇りに思っていない、神秘的だが不魔法ではない
Joined Mar 2020
