Okay but do you ever lose an argument?

I lived in a rural area and the nearest phone for emergencies belonged to one house that lived a quarter mile away.

The owner of the phone got hooked on WoW on dial-up at some point and basically ended the party line for everyone.

If it’s a personal friend group and we’re talking about life or sharing things or watching a piece of media, or the meeting is about each other, sure, makes sense to show up and “be there.”

When it’s gaming acquaintances and we’re just playing a game, it feels odd and out of place.

Ah, so your idea is a dead-man’s-switch, clever.

I used to basically do it. I was talking to young guys online since before Reddit, and then when Reddit blew up I was right there as well on the frontlines of a huge relationship-related subreddit doing the same thing. I never fancied myself an expert, but I am good at communication and a lot of these guys just needed help being explained how dating and relationships “work” and expect some kind of proceduralism around it.

You can scream until you’re blue that it’s not a system with rules and levers you pull, but if someone is neurodivergent, they’re going to be stuck on “X leads to Y, which means Z” mentality about relationships, and then they will try to apply that thinking in real life, meet rejection or embarrassment and get really bitter and angry. Right wingers and grifters (but I repeat myself) seized onto this with a thousand different “systems” erupting like volcanos in Iceland, covering whole swaths of people with bullshit “redpill” and “PUA” bullshit.

I tried. I really did. I had great success with the guys I focused on, but for every self-described incel who thanked me for helping turn their lives around, 30 more were waiting behind him, each angrier and more foul-mouthed than the last.

It was too much, and it’s extremely exhausting.

The hottest place to download AOL punters and warez!

I agree, the app makes it very easy to share and collaborate and make communities around sharing content, so I think there’s going to be a vacuum that will get quickly filled by up-and-coming companies trying to compete on ground floor.

Took me a second, then I remembered the sound.

State subsidized autism relationship advice hotline.

Not even kidding, this would probably help the whole of our society. This is why people flocked to Andrew Tate and his ilk.

Like I said, they don’t actually need to. You’re going to have your own silent buddy watching everything you do!

They are also often just people who are good at listening. People who can hang out in social gatherings and get people to brag about themselves are some of the strongest assets in intelligence.

People LOVE to brag and talk about privileged knowledge they have, so a large portion of the job is pretending to be having a good time and drinking while actually taking detailed notes about what everyone is saying and comparing those notes. I nearly ended up in that line of work but the story took a wild turn and I ended up losing my inside connection.

I’ve known people in intelligence-related positions and learned that this really happens, and they do get approached by beautiful women at times. It’s incredibly obvious but I guess there are enough people out there desperate for the attention that it works enough to keep using it as a tactic. (People in intelligence are NOT like you see in Hollywood media, they’re mostly just normal schlubs with weird jobs and have all the same weaknesses and personality quirks as anyone else.)

Utterly wrong analysis.

It would absolutely, 100% go to trial, and the prosecution could easily prove an intent to harm.

As much as the Better Call Saul kinds of legal arguments look clever on TV, in reality the law is much more about vibes and how people interpret what happened.

I love how comments are immediately flooded with recommendations.

(I cannot connect with kpop at all, even after spending several years carpooling to work with avid fans who would play all kinds every morning and evening.)

You think that’s old? Let’s talk ICQ.

Extremely, there are explicit laws against booby trapping your own property and you can face full prosecution even if it harms only burglars.

Oh no, so I won’t get to see that one person who is always the only person who turns their camera on so you get to see a live feed of their messy bedroom, weirdly harsh lighting and piles of junk while they try to eat dinner while playing video games.

Slight correction:

Lemmy has about 100 active users and seven of them are 50 of them.