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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 29th, 2023

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  • Same. My partner and I have heard so much about this that we have over several months randomly brought up topics that are absurd and foreign to us.

    We do it like this: while preparing dinner or so, one of us scribbles a word on a post-it note and we engage on it as though we’re making plans or looking to buy something. We have phones, Google Home speakers and Nest devices nearby.

    There are a few challenges:

    1. Make sure the topic didn’t come up from an internet interaction you already had.
    2. Don’t, under any circumstances, search the internet about any of those topics.
    3. Simply remember that you’re running this experiment. We keep track of topics we’ve raised through handwritten notes.

    I feel that ordinary people are terrible at running these experiments because it’s honestly really difficult to be impartial and evaluate the results with statistical significance. As soon as you encounter one match, the pattern matching part of your brain will scream “told you so!” even if the success rate is 1%.

    And guess what? Literally none of the topics appear as targeted ads for either of us.









  • I certainly have; I bought a VW four years after the TDI emissions scandal. I’m by no means immune to this.

    As an aside, the fact that the Wikipedia article didn’t exist doesn’t mean the issues cited in it weren’t already widely reported in the media. Some infamous court cases go back to 2017, including SEC fraud and union busting. False claims have been Elmo’s standard operating procedure with promises such as full self driving and range first becoming broken beginning 2016, and speed of supercharging and battery swapping in 2013.

    This is of course to say nothing of the outright taxpayer fraud of Hyperloop and the Boring Company, but that’s a story for another day.

    If you’re curious, here’s a nifty website that’s been tracking his truthiness: https://elonmusk.today/


  • That’s completely relatable. I was in the market for a new car in 2019 and ironically chose for VW despite the emissions scandal.

    For me, buying a car remains a multi-year investment, because I bought it to serve a purpose over an extended period of time. I ran the numbers for 10 years between different manufacturers, each with different base prices, but also prices for subscriptions, service and repairs, and contrasted against long term costs of alternatives like public transportation. What exactly defines an investment is somewhat of a grey area and I guess the same logic would disqualify a home as an investment. The only real difference is that a car is always a bad investment (unless you take Elmo at his word).

    It’s unfortunate that the dealership situation has weighed in to your decision, as Tesla abused their position as a new entry into the market to be exempt from state franchise laws. Most other car manufacturers have been selling cars longer through the conventional dealership model and are literally forbidden from adapting. Some states have maximum market share requirements which were put into place after the popularity of Tesla took off, effectively squeezing new entrants like Rivian out of state markets like Washington. This issue is more about state regulations and how Tesla uses and abuses its power to increase their profit margin.

    I’m not at all arguing in favor of dealerships—don’t get me wrong. But the fact that Tesla doesn’t have them is not because of any innovation, but an unfair competitive advantage.








  • This is a terrific comment! Why didn’t you provide all that information in the original post? It was so extremely misleading that my skepticism meter maxed out.

    Thank you for providing all the background information with sources. Because your original post asserted journalists were murdered, then mentions Aaron Bushnell without any further context, it suggests that IDF murdered him. I believe I’ve made myself clear in my original comment that this is very misleading. I’ve also pointed out that the linked content from that original post is not adequately sourced.

    Now that you have taken the time to provide more details about the story, I understand that this is just a misunderstanding due missing context in the original post.

    Like I said, I’m sympathetic towards the cause. Reading back my comments, I don’t believe I “said stupid shit,” am “too much in denial” or am “brainwashed by some zionist indoctrination.” I encourage everybody to have a healthy dose of skepticism but don’t appreciate your hostility and wild accusations.

    (I’m interested to learn about that gig to earn money by saying stupid shit, though.)