TheMeerkat's recent activity

  1. Comment on Oregon legalizes psilocybin mushrooms (for therapeutic purposes) and decriminalizes all drugs in ~health.mental

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    for the record, MDMA is not “completely” harmless; you need to supplement to prevent seratonin receptor damage.

    for the record, MDMA is not “completely” harmless; you need to supplement to prevent seratonin receptor damage.

    6 votes

  2. Comment on What memo did you not get? in ~talk

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    i never figured it out, hence the reply. :)

    i never figured it out, hence the reply. :)

    2 votes

  3. Comment on What memo did you not get? in ~talk

    TheMeerkat
    Link
    how to use Twitter effectively. like, i’m not being snarky here; i have been on Twitter in some capacity since 2008 and i still fundamentally don’t understand “how” to use it, despite trying my...

    how to use Twitter effectively.

    like, i’m not being snarky here; i have been on Twitter in some capacity since 2008 and i still fundamentally don’t understand “how” to use it, despite trying my hardest a few different times and wanting to. i’ve been told that writers “need” to be on Twitter for professional reasons, the same way artists need to be on Instagram, but no one has ever elaborated on what’s supposed to… happen.

    before that, i tried using it as personal social media a few times, but it was just shouting into a void and being marketed to.

    8 votes

  4. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    Fork Firefox and keep going from there. It's open source, and not impenetrably difficult to do (several projects already have).

    Fork Firefox and keep going from there. It's open source, and not impenetrably difficult to do (several projects already have).

    10 votes

  5. Comment on Inside the Republican plot for permanent minority rule in ~society

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    The Intercept has a good article responding to common objections about court packing like this.

    The Intercept has a good article responding to common objections about court packing like this.

    7 votes

  6. Comment on Google announces Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A 5G phones, new Chromecast, and Nest Audio smart speaker in ~tech

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    may i ask how, from a place of genuine curiosity?

    may i ask how, from a place of genuine curiosity?

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda, id Software, Arkane Studios, and more in ~games

    TheMeerkat
    Link
    genuinely surprising. if they were going to be bought by anyone, though, i’m glad it’s Microsoft; console exclusivity doesn’t affect me at all as long as they keep making PC releases, which this...

    genuinely surprising.

    if they were going to be bought by anyone, though, i’m glad it’s Microsoft; console exclusivity doesn’t affect me at all as long as they keep making PC releases, which this pretty much guarantees.

    this is also a good microargument on why console gaming has been terrible for decades, though, and why i cannot imagine the appeal.

    11 votes

  8. Comment on The Results of the Actual Unofficial 2020 Tildes Census in ~tildes

    TheMeerkat
    Link
    thanks for running this, @Grzmot! i’m kind of surprised at how little things changed from when i was running this.

    thanks for running this, @Grzmot! i’m kind of surprised at how little things changed from when i was running this.

    19 votes

  9. Comment on The Results of the Actual Unofficial 2020 Tildes Census in ~tildes

  10. Comment on Michael Bloomberg drops out of US Presidential race, endorses Joe Biden in ~news

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    There feels like an obvious difference between naturally dropping out and literally every establishment candidate dropping out within four days of one another and then endorsing/stumping for the...

    There feels like an obvious difference between naturally dropping out and literally every establishment candidate dropping out within four days of one another and then endorsing/stumping for the remaining establishment candidate in Texas, the make-or-break state that Biden was suffering in.

    As I said in my comment a little bit above, it isn't a conspiracy, it's downright boring political dealmaking, with some solid evidence (like the Obama phone call) behind it. I'm curious why you think a bland backroom deal between ideologically-similar candidates is even noteworthy enough to count as a Bernie Bro/Yang Gang “conspiracy”?

    7 votes

  11. Comment on Michael Bloomberg drops out of US Presidential race, endorses Joe Biden in ~news

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    We know for a fact that Obama had a phone call with Buttigieg just before he bowed out. It's a very normal inside-baseball thing to do; an almost-boring example of routine backroom dealing to...

    We know for a fact that Obama had a phone call with Buttigieg just before he bowed out. It's a very normal inside-baseball thing to do; an almost-boring example of routine backroom dealing to consolidate behind the candidate the establishment wants more. No one made them; it's just an easy thing to argue for. Buttigeig was definitely going to get hit hard on Super Tuesday, with downright pathetic poll numbers and an ability to inspire no one who actually listens to the insipid drivel his entire candidacy was based on, so they politely laid out the options: ‘you have no bargaining chip here besides your high-tier ability to fundraise, and that will disappear after Tuesday. Stay on the party's good side, drop out now before you get embarrassed, endorse Biden, and we'll back you when it's Your Turn™/get you a nice job inside a Biden administration.’ It's just the obvious correct choice for the low-polling moderates.

    Also, unlike the RNC, the DNC elites actually do usually keep their word—you can see generations of this backroom dealing play out every year—so it's a convincing argument when you're a soulless corporate power-chaser.

    8 votes

  12. Comment on Charleston Democratic debate Discussion thread in ~talk

    TheMeerkat
    Link
    I never thought I would long for the good old days of NBC, but the moderation tonight has been an absolute nightmare, and has made watching this an exhausting slog. As an aside, it feels very...

    I never thought I would long for the good old days of NBC, but the moderation tonight has been an absolute nightmare, and has made watching this an exhausting slog.

    As an aside, it feels very intentional that despite being second in SC polling, Sanders somehow keeps getting booed in response to every answer, whether good, bad, or standard, in direct contrast to every previous debate. I'm sure the fact that CBS had half an hour of commentary about how unelectable he is directly before the debate started had nothing to do with that, either.

    12 votes

  13. Comment on Non-opioid treatment for pain: Sean's Story in ~health

    TheMeerkat
    Link Parent
    Respectfully, I included a variety of citations, and the links you've provided so far include the story/interview of a single individual, your own uncited interpretations of my evidence, and a...

    Respectfully, I included a variety of citations, and the links you've provided so far include the story/interview of a single individual, your own uncited interpretations of my evidence, and a list of unsupported bullet points. I linked to “opinion pieces” alongside evidence-cited testimony from numerous doctors and a Cochrane meta-review (which you immediately dismissed without substantive cause).

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Non-opioid treatment for pain: Sean's Story in ~health

    TheMeerkat
    (edited )
    Link
    We tried this in the US a while ago. It went terribly, because opioid prescriptions, which can be vital for chronic pain patients’ basic quality of life, are neither causative of addiction nor...

    We tried this in the US a while ago. It went terribly, because opioid prescriptions, which can be vital for chronic pain patients’ basic quality of life, are neither causative of addiction nor responsible for the spread of opioids. Legitimate opioid prescriptions have been massively reduced with no correlating drop in overdose deaths.

    The findings of this systematic review suggest that proper management of a type of strong painkiller (opioids) in well-selected patients with no history of substance addiction or abuse can lead to long-term pain relief for some patients with a very small (though not zero) risk of developing addiction, abuse, or other serious side effects.
    […]
    Signs of opioid addiction were reported in 0.27% of participants in the studies that reported that outcome.

    From: https://www.cochrane.org/CD006605/SYMPT_opioids-long-term-treatment-noncancer-pain

    I would also suggest reading Neat, Plausible, And Generally Wrong, this Scientific American article, and this National Interest article.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on The 2019 Tildes Census in ~tildes

    TheMeerkat
    Link
    Hey—it’s the user formerly known as @Kat, and I just wanted to thank you for taking this over and say that you’re doing a great job. Keep it up. :)

    Hey—it’s the user formerly known as @Kat, and I just wanted to thank you for taking this over and say that you’re doing a great job. Keep it up. :)

    13 votes