The original poster in the screenshot is “confessions of a diabetic,” and based on her avatar I’m taking an educated guess that her illness is not lifestyle-caused. That’s what makes your comment tone-deaf: a person with an incurable disease makes a statement, that other people with incurable diseases resonated with, and you start going off about lifestyle changes like it’s contributing to the conversation and not just making chronically ill people feel bad. Why bad? Because it’s a) a reminder of all the times they tried in vain to fix their condition with lifestyle changes, b) overlooks that most chronically ill people do actively engage in (often extreme) lifestyle adjustments to help manage symptoms, and c) reinforces the idea that if chronically ill people just tried harder they could be cured).

Putting “a lot” in front of your statement doesn’t negate that it’s out of context, and thus insensitive and not contributing to the discussion. It’s a case of “you’re not a member of the group of people that are commiserating here, so maybe this conversation isn’t for you to participate in.”

“Just chewing on plastic, what’s going on with you?”

Yes, most chewing gum is literally made of plastic, because of course it is.

You sound like RFK Jr. Yes most people in our modern world don’t get enough exercise, but it’s not a panacea. Exercise, sunlight, and clean eating alone won’t do more than nudge most chronic illnesses. Hell, the latest on ME/CFS is that exercise can actually worsen symptoms.

“All I needed was exercise and/or a healthier diet and I felt great!” folks were not truly ill to begin with, just slacking. There’s a huge difference, and insinuating otherwise is a giant slap in the face to those who’ve tried these things (and likely so much more) and are still struggling with debilitating health issues. To use a car analogy, regular oil changes and premium fuel won’t compensate for a broken axel.

Me trying to raise kids

Well there’s your first problem

“thinks the Japanese are evil” needs to be a lot bigger…

Have you never heard of a “career change”?

You are both correct. A decade is a perfectly acceptable time frame by which to judge forex, however the two decade window fills in additional context.

Y’all grow a mean sugarbeet

Certainly not the studio’s best work but far from bad

I would add to this that covid did cause a major resurgence in a different flavor of prepper: “back to the earth” people who strive to, among other things, produce more of their own food (be it growing produce, raising livestock, or even doing more cooking and baking using raw ingredients rather than relying on premade food). Interest in gardening, homesteading, baking, and learning to live off the land skyrocketed during peak covid. Sure a lot of that interest has subsided, but much like how the great depression permanently changed the attitudes of people who lived through it in regards to reusing things instead of tossing and replacing, the experience of scarcity and uncertainty regarding basic goods (for most first-world folks, for the first time in their lives) made a permanent mark on at least some of the population. And this is a much more practical type of prepping, because instead of coming from a fantasy of what disaster might befall the world, it was a direct response to a disaster that actually happened.

I actually think this is brilliant. Most Americans have no knowledge or personal connection as to where their food comes from and what goes into producing it. The ag sector is also, sadly, rife with worker abuse, farmers commit suicide at way higher rates than the general population, and our food system is getting increasingly industrialized and specialized, with small farms getting gobbled up by megacorps. But because agriculture usually happens away from population centers (sometimes far away) there’s not a lot of public awareness (or sympathy) of issues. Meanwhile soil depletion and unsustainable practices are setting the US up for all kinds of potential future disasters (second dust bowl, anyone?), and that’s before you factor in climate change.

So yes, let’s have all Americans get even a few months of experience with our food system!

I heard that the Milo and Otis allegations were an urban myth, but when I went to verify this I found that the actual truth is unknown (and possibly forever unknowable)

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/animals-abused-milo-and-otis/

True, but it’s less of a universal experience than in the 90s, and thus would be significantly less relatable to a growing population of teens, many of whom have few or no accessible third spaces left. My understanding is it’s mostly upscale malls and shops that are still thriving; most other standard mall retail has moved online.

He also talks about how they chose 1999 very intentionally for the simulation, as it was the peak of human civilization before the era of the machine. But nowadays instead feels like we’re already entering the era of the machine: we spend most of our time on devices and are surrounded by surveillance and now AI is entering the mix. Plus the 2020s also has featured a variety of other dystopian features like pandemic, inflation, extreme inequity, growing monopolies, the rise of fascism, and a very real chance of WWIII from multiple directions among them.

You have to remember 1999 was in fact an exceptionally peaceful and optimistic time in western society (at least in the US, which is where the film focuses on), but the year still had its “everyday woes,” making it the setting with a perfect balance between an ideal life and a crappy one. 2024 is way too far in the crappy direction.

Given how humans have been running things, I, for one, welcome our new mycelial overlords

Hey, we invented fat-free “butter” so why not

(Edit: sarcasm, to be clear)

I wish we lived in a world where I could

Saving Private Ivan

I mean, you could totally make Home Alone II today as long as you set it pre-9/11, so I take this to mean “these movies that were set in the ‘present day’ could not be redone and set in the ‘present day’ of 2024.”

You couldn’t make Back to the Future because 21st century streets are no place for minors on skateboards.

You couldn’t make American Beauty for a LOT of reasons (including prevalence of digital video, marijuana legalization, increased public awareness/concern about pedophilia, etc)

You couldn’t make Clueless because shopping malls are dead (or at least nowhere near as cool as they used to be)

You couldn’t make Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream because heroin and cocaine are quaint drugs by 2020s standards

You couldn’t make Paris is Burning because Harlem gentrified big time (I know this is a documentary but still)

You couldn’t make The Matrix because no one would believe human batteries would be happy and content living in a simulation of 2024 (also no telephone booths)

I almost said The Truman Show because we basically live in that world already but fuck it, I wanna see a 2024 version where the producers have to keep desperately introducing crazier plot developments to try and compete for a TikTok-addicted audience unamused by “just another reality TV show”, and constant set issues like cast members getting fired right and left for sneaking smartphones onto set.

Off the top of my head: being multilingual appears to have various benefits for the brain, such as delaying the onset of dementia.