Setting boundaries on how you interact with the AI, especially around sharing personal information, would be best. I don’t see anything wrong with how people spend their time so long as they set healthy limits.

Make sure you understand how AI works, too, it’s not a substitute for therapy because it’s designed to be agreeable and validating, but won’t give you feedback or suggestions.

My “deprogramming,” was more a series of small hints I was on the wrong path.

At first, people who tried arguing pushed me further toward the right. They came at me from inciting angles, making up facts to support their arguments. Yeah, the left bullshits too, and if you believe everything that supports your point of view without question - you’re not that different from the people you hate.

I remember someone asking me to a Fahrenheit 9/11 showing at university, called me a Bush supporter when I wouldn’t go. I wasn’t, I just didn’t like Michael Moore. Still don’t for the above reasons.

Looking back, I could have gracefully immersed myself in other viewpoints if it weren’t for the constant needling of wannabe academics and the automatic disdain they had for my views. I was attacked for even bringing up points because I was questioning myself. Honestly, I get why conservatives hate academia.

I will say some arguments stuck, though. Statements that sounded like complete nonsense in the moment make sense to me now, years later. It’s not wasted breath to share your views with someone, they’ll remember.

Regardless, I was still wrong and it wasn’t other people’s responsibility to educate me. I did that through meeting good, patient and understanding friends, actively trying to dismantle my biases, and through therapy. Oh, and some pretty intense acid trips. That shit will fast track you to a feeling of oneness with your community real quick.

Indigenous people of north america. Tokenized parts of tales and folklore are often misrepresented and not told by people who grew up learning the stories.

After years of trying to build a solid workout routine I’ve managed to do at least 40 min of cardio every morning for the last two months, to the point where I’m craving more.

I’ve started taking my writing seriously as well, and after some online courses have vastly improved over the last year. I’m working on a collection of short stories now.

Congrats on your new fear.

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/necrotizing-fasciitis-flesh-eating-bacteria

The flesh eating disease. It’s everywhere and you can get it from a minor cut.

Turn that into your armour. I threaten my friends and family with my search history so they’ll never be tempted to snoop.

A group tried something like that with Lojban: https://mw.lojban.org/index.php?title=Lojban&setlang=en-CA

All it takes is for leadership to slip up one time to start questioning everything else they told you. Like learning the tooth fairy doesn’t exist, casting doubt on the easter bunny and Santa Claus - except there’s incentives for belief. Would I go on with the charade while harbouring doubts? Escape entirely? Depends.

At the very least I’d carve a glory hole in the wall.

Fair enough, I can see how that would taint your view of the world. Admittedly, that was a time when a lot of us were poor, in a place where a lot of young people go to get away from their lives. We were all just trying to get by, so we shared what we could.

I probably wouldn’t have met mug guy, if not for the mug, and he was a delight. I say that as someone who grew up in a pretty insular, toxic, pay-your-own-way sort of family. Mug guy showed me it’s okay to ask for what you need and some people genuinely want to help you.

I thought it was interesting and uplifting to see people come together to support this guy in a fairly simple way. He just told people about his mug if they asked and didn’t belabor it from there. Even shared candy when he got it.

I worked at a restaurant, where there’s a lot of food waste, so I was happy to help someone out while he found his footing. He didn’t come back on his own, I told him to see me when I’m working.

It’s weird to spin that into a “parasitic” relationship.

For the couple months I knew him the mug was either in his hand or clipped to his bag.

I didn’t see his dates and I didn’t ask, but he came by for dinner once and ate his portion from the mug.

As far as I saw, it was a great conversation starter, he made a lot of friends and ate reasonably well.

Shout out to all my spiritual siblings who skip days to stockpile meds because we live in a nightmare world.

My groceries aren’t interesting, but I had a friend who only ate what went into a mug.

He carried around a ceramic mug, either collecting free stuff or telling people about his mug to see if they’d put food in it. Free samples, a few grapes, and occasional hand outs all went into the mug. I filled it with soup when he came by.

Trump either dies suspiciously or gets openly assassinated.

California secedes from the union which starts off hopeful but ends in their own Calexit debacle.

The severing of intercontinental data cables leads to the isolation of formerly global communities.

Calls and texts - and only through icons. Otherwise it’s do not disturb 24/7.

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A lot of the time, asking local businesses what they can do/order for you helps a lot. Just because they don’t have it doesn’t mean they can’t get it. Some local grocers offer delivery services. If you have the time, seed money and patience, you can grow a lot of food in a small amount of space.

My cat has a special diet, too. I asked if I could use pet food from an independent brand - since it was a food allergy, just a matter of excluding chicken and grain - and the vet said it was fine.

AWS is harder to avoid, but if you have to use a service, there are other companies who will put the effort in to take part of the pie from amazon.

I’ve tried and failed. No matter what, it keeps seeping in. Filters, only following certain communities and people, avoiding some platforms, it doesn’t matter. I’m considering getting a dumb phone and running off to the woods.

Hey! I thought we lost you! We need you back at Unhelpful Back Handed Comments.