this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
500 points (97.2% liked)

Showerthoughts

34121 readers
1052 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Everything that makes advertisers happy is to the detriment of humanity as a whole. Everything that makes advertisers' jobs easier also makes it easier for authoritarian governments. "Innovation" is no longer about creating new things, it's about taking what already works, breaking it, shoving ads on it and charging a ransom in the form of a premium subscription.

On the other hand, there are endless ad-skipping tools, pages and sites where the main attraction is the lack of ads without a subscription. More and more people are talking about how intrusive and annoying ads are, even those who make their living from them. As the efforts of big tech to please advertisers grow, so do the efforts of ordinary people to screw them.

Very Cyberpunk.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 98 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Advertising is pollution

All advertising is a psyop

All advertisers are eco terrorists and gaslighters.

They are enemies of normal people.

They have forgone their humanity and our planet and our own well being.

They should not exist.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 48 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

Advertising doesn't have to exist.

Like, we could just pass laws restricting or outright banning certain kinds.

I think people just forget that we can tell corporations they can't do whatever the fuck they want.

[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 31 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Think about how much waste in bandwidth and electricity happens just to make a webpage unreadable.

Marketers are the opposite of accomplishment.

It’s a job that only exists in capitalism

If you’re a marketer and you read this, fuck you personally.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 9 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

It’s a job that only exists in capitalism

Not true. Government-sponsored propaganda campaigns need advertisers ("ads" are just corporate propaganda), public works projects need to be advertised for awareness, politicians will need people to advertise their candidacy, political movements will advertise their positions, and unless this is a command-control economy where one thing is delegated to exactly one entity, you'll probably be advertising some service or product you do or make.

[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

lol capitalism AND propaganda.

I stand corrected.

Is advertising just capitalist propaganda?

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago

Your name is Punk Rock Sports Fan.

Suppose a local punk band wants to inform people that they will be playing a show. So they print out some posters and hang them around town.

That's advertising.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 8 points 18 hours ago

they forget because the corporations pay for propaganda to tell them it's impossible

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

And then those people can go do something useful with their lives!

The catch: it's honest work

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

They could just make media that people actually enjoy with that advertising budget...

Like, you get that's an option, right? I don't think anyone wants their creative visions to be used to sell beer to college kids with burping frogs.

We don't all have to like the same 10 movies a year the big studios decide we have to like either.

Those resources could be spread around to more people making a much higher quantity of media that doesn't have to try to appeal to everyone.

Prioritizing profits over everything doesn't lead to a better life except for a very very small percentage of us, so why do we all go along with it?

We can literally just stop putting profits over everything and 99.99% of our lives would improve immediately