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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)DE
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2 yr. ago

  • Well, would you be willing to do what they're doing in the name of "winning"? That's the real dilemma. How exactly do you maintain your own morality against an amoral adversary? Is it possible? It's the old trope of "becoming as evil as the evil you're fighting". I certainly admire pacifists for being able to hold to their ideals, but for me there's no easy answer.

  • I don't think they're entirely negative. Memes can be very creative. Nor are they all political. That's a weird argument to me. As far as humor, I think we're just demonstrating how subjective it is. I find plenty of memes very funny. Yeah, can't say I agree with really anything you said there, at least not as a blanket statement.

  • Okay, I appreciate such a considered response. I do agree it gets old seeing the same exact post over and over. Reddit was getting really bad with that. Of course there's always the question of why some people find something funny and others don't too.

    For me though, setting that aside, I just find the variations on a meme can be really fascinating. Then you have memes referring to other memes or imitating them, sort of like you described. Memes that descend into abstraction so as to become practically incomprehensible... I've had to research a few just to understand whay they were even talking about. I think at its best memeing is like some kind of collective conceptual art collaboration. Or like graffiti or music sampling. So interesting.

  • So, I'm not trying to be snarky at all, just genuinely curious, as I've seen several people on Lemmy brag about how much they hate memes... Like, why? Do you not enjoy humor, or just not find them funny or something? It's a bit like someone saying they hate dogs to me. I honestly don't get it.

  • It's the one problem with denying reality. Reality doesn't care. I just didn't expect the US legal system to be the place where the rubber met the road. Honestly I thought it would take physical violence, unfortunately. Although our legal system ain't perfect, it's a pleasant surprise.

  • Fair enough. Climate change was a bad example. Maybe I could have said something like aliens. I'm far from an expert on anything to do with anything related to aliens, but I'm willing to recognize that it's an open question. Similarly, I'm not really saying we should imagine we have the answer with Covid, I just don't think there's anything wrong with recognizing that it's an open question. In one of my first comments in this thread in fact (I have apparently been talking to multiple people and not always realizing they're different...), I stated up front that I doubt we'll ever have an answer. I suppose the point has been belabored quite a bit at this point. I appreciate your insights and that you took the time to share them without getting too... um... Reddity?

  • But can we talk about climate change? Because we sure do. We talk about complicated economics topics, social issues, human biology... I just don't see why the line is drawn at where Covid might have originated.

  • Of course. Again, I just don't understand the weird polarizing effect even bringing it up causes. By your own reasoning there would be almost nothing most of us average people should even talk about. I find that highly questionable as a blanket statement. We can certainly talk about what we think the experts should be considering without making our own conclusions about it.

    Edit: Just to clarify, you mentioned bioweapons. I haven't heard anything to support that. I just wanted to be clear. I'm not promoting any extreme theories or indeed any theory.

  • You don't think that a lab leak might suggest a need for more robust standards at such labs? It's flawed to suggest that there aren't differing future mitigation implications depending on how Covid started.

    As far as racists clinging to certain theories, that doesn't preclude rational people from talking about them as well. It's the same kind of reasoning that produces arguments like, "Well, we can't criticize Israel, because... Nazis!"

    And, frankly, I have always found the idea that Covid started in a wet market much more racially charged than the idea of a lab leak.

    The reasoning doesn't make sense to me on multiple levels.

  • I've never understood the resistance to discussing the origins of Covid. It's pretty important for understanding possible future risks. As far as being racist, I don't get that either. We have to be able to criticize other nations regardless of who they are. I have a lot of respect for what China has done over the last few decades, it doesn't mean they might not have screwed up and leaked a deadly disease out of a lab.

    The reality is that we'll probably never know for sure what happened because China blocked anyone else from investigating until long after the fact.