this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
58 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

39708 readers
2157 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Arancello@aussie.zone 4 points 38 minutes ago

united states is a democracy

[–] Flying_Dutch_Rudder@lemmy.world 1 points 26 minutes ago

“Can you find me an outlet that works”, during a building wide power outage. We have critical systems that run on UPS and wanted me to unplug something so their laptop battery didn’t die.

[–] Asafum@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I knew a girl that was convinced that ~90% of planes crash...

I had to ask her "do you really think they'd keep making them if almost all of them killed people?"

[–] breezeblock@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Who did she grow up to vote for?

[–] Asafum@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Almost certainly Trump. I've lost contact with her and her husband, but the brief interaction I had with him a few years ago he mentioned communist Democrats so I have to guess they're magoos.

[–] breezeblock@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

I was certain that i was asking a rhetorical question — but not at all surprised to be literally correct…

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 7 points 1 hour ago

When I read the news for the past 17 months or so, I swear it gets dumber every day.

[–] soupguy@lemmy.world 1 points 33 minutes ago

A teacher in highschool put this up on the screen and told us to read it to ourselves,

"Aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

Then some bright light in the back of the room asked if that was actually true after fully comprehending what was in front of them.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 8 points 1 hour ago

Once in Kindergarten I overheard two adults talking. They were concerned about kids drinking from the same cup because of ... AIDS. That day I learned that even adults could be ignorant. I definitely knew that AIDS could only be transmitted through blood and specifically not through spit.

I didn't know about the other way but after hearing about AIDS in the news my (I think) brother assured me that it couldn't be transmitted through spit.

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 70 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Asafum@lemmy.world 6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

You don't get it though! If you just let the absolute greediest people in the world keep all their profit then they'll definitely share with you!

I actually had a coworker say a few months ago that he's a Regan Republican because he believed in trickle down economics... I literally said "really man? And how many more decades of being wrong do you need before you realize it still doesn't work, is five decades enough?" To which he didn't have a reply...

[–] EponymousBosh@awful.systems 5 points 1 hour ago

At the zoo, by the meerkat enclosure, I heard a woman ask an employee "what kind of cats are those?"

[–] justdaveisfine@piefed.social 65 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

One time I was at a grocery store and they sold out of a particular drink I liked.

A manager was standing nearby and I asked when they would restock it.

"Never." He said. "It always sells out and I don't want to constantly order and restock it, so I'm not going to get more."

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 22 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Reminds me of the story of the warehouseman who refused to give someone the last of an item in the warehouse because that would mean they'd be out of stock.

[–] punkwalrus@lemmy.world 14 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Ah. There's a reasons for that, as told to me by a supply sergeant in the military. A lot of suppliers had a BEL (Basic Equipment List), which says all stock must have a minimum and a maximum of XYZ in order to meet government spec. Some large items, like diesel generators, have a BEL minimum of 2, but also because of their size and storage complexity, have a maximum of 2. So it order to get a new one, you must get rid of one of the old ones. But if you get rid of the old one, you are below minimum BEL, and could fail inspection or an inventory check, if it takes a while to get a new one. Large items don't always "hang around," but they get manufactured on demand, so the only way to get a new one is to be without one for a very long period of time. Thus, you risk failing inspection. The best way to avoid that is to keep two and never order any.

Military logic.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

On top of that, everything is ordered by article number. So it happened on a boat that they needed two replacement bolts for the engine. The engineer wrote the order, and the captain signed it and sent it to HQ.

They were informed the order would take (a long time). When they finally got the word that the order was in, they were astonished that two heavy load trucks were waiting for them. Each containing a turbine nearly as big as their boat. Which had nearly the same inventory number as the bolts. With two digits switched.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 15 points 3 hours ago

that's just cheating the system to achieve some metric

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 21 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

seems like a funny joke tbh

[–] justdaveisfine@piefed.social 10 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Which would have been funny. They didn't ever restock the drink, though.

[–] JennaR8r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Sounds like the shopkeeper was more interested in resting than infinite profits & money.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago

"Monkeys are brown because they eat bananas. You know how flamingos turn pink because they eat shrimp? Well monkeys eat bananas and bananas turn brown" -two dead ass serious girls I met

"People didn't use crossbows when trying to siege a castle because the bolts fly in a straight line, so they fly over castle walls" -college history professor, about to be surprised gravity existed in the middle ages

[–] newton@feddit.online 59 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 21 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] areakode@riskeratspizza.com 24 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

I can beat that. Trump president... twice...

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Kennystillalive@feddit.org 49 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

We won't tax the rich more, coz they are gonna leave if we do.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 22 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

I was once stopped by an elderly couple.

One side of the couple was arguing that the sun went out at night.

The other couple was arguing that the moon covered over the sun at night, and that's why we couldn't see the sun.

They asked me to clarify which one of them was correct as an independent third party, and I told them that the earth rotates, and so when you can't see the sun, it's because it's on the other side of the planet.

They both paused for a moment, looked at each other, and then looked at me and said, "oh, yeah", and that was the end of the argument.

[–] core@leminal.space 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Should have said its because the mothman spreads his wings at night and covers the sun. But he only does that so he can see you better because he sees better at night.

[–] abcd@feddit.org 3 points 1 hour ago

I‘m sure both agreed that what you said was stupid when you left 😂

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago

Sounds like they were made for each other.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 46 points 3 hours ago (5 children)

Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and a representative will be with you shortly.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

"Call volume is higher than normal"

The fuck it is. If anytime I call is 'higher than normal', change what your "normal" baseline is or stop lying to me.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

The normal volume benchmark is taken at 3AM on a national holiday, which also is on a Sunday.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 3 hours ago

"Please listen carefully as our menu items have changed."

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s worth retelling.

I briefly knew a guy, absolute hick ass trailer trash, who said a large number of incredibly dumb things to me, but this one stands out. He once told me that Southern Baptist was the one true religion, because, and this is a direct quote, “His name is John the Baptist, not John the Catholic!”

And for him that was a QED moment.

Dumbest motherfucker I’ve ever encountered.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 22 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (3 children)

I was at a trailer park party once as a non-white person in the south.

Apropos of nothing, I was approached by probably the skinniest human on the planet. Like, he was so skinny you couldn't tell if you were looking directly at his bones, or if his skin was actually a paper thin covering over his bones. He was so skinny, he could have performed in some sort of advertisement explaining how the price of a cup of coffee could help feed the starving southerners.

As I was scanning my periphery to see if I could identify the Necromancer that was animating this creature, this person told me, of their own volition, that in church they had learned that white people were made by God and therefore had souls and black people evolved from monkeys and therefore did not have souls.

In his mind, this was a way of reconciling the truth of evolution with the faith of his church.

He had no idea that he had just lobbed the most racist thought that I had ever been exposed to in my entire life at me.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 37 minutes ago (1 children)

the most racist thought that I had ever been exposed to in my entire life

Damn, the white southerners have started behaving themselves since I left a couple of decades ago if that’s the worst you heard! Barely even joking, I’ve met so many people where I live now who are from the south that say ‘I just had to get the fuck out’. Gorgeous places, tiny clusters of great people, and vast swathes of shit straight out of Deliverance.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 points 11 minutes ago (1 children)

I am struggling to think of anything a human being could say that would be more racist than:

"This entire group of people are soulless homunculi, p-noid zombies, there is nothing going on behind their eyes, when they die they just die."

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 9 minutes ago

Oh, they can throw in a lot more racist stereotypes and racial slurs! Not doing that to your face is what we’ve been conditioned to accept as progress for the south.

[–] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

In his head, you are now the non-white friend he can claim he has to prove he’s not racist.

(Also, username checks out…?)

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 31 points 3 hours ago

I've already told that story but anyway: a relative told me that the GDPR was a conspiracy from Europe to destroy the European internet (why? why not!)

So that guy literally deleted his own web site (full of old stuff, it was a big project) so that... he would not be forced to delete his own web site by the big bad Europe.

He is also anti-vax, and allergic to Wifi and Bluetooth... except when he is in our house filled with Wifi and Bluetooth (but we have never told him, he could die!)

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 17 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

"This isn't what I voted for!"

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Those people are at least smarter than the ones who DID vote for this.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Or those who have still to understand that what is happening is actually due to their vote.

[–] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 30 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Somebody once told me they don't read recreationally because authors are lazy for making readers do all the work of imagining what their story looks like. He was completely sincere, and actually became agitated at the idea of people reading anything beyond manuals or mandatory sorts of things.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 11 points 2 hours ago

“Salt is making a comeback.”

—Mother in law, after a quadruple bypass.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 17 points 3 hours ago

giving rich people more money is important for 'job creation'.

the lie that killed the middle class

[–] mannycalavera@feddit.uk 16 points 3 hours ago

Ladies and gentlemen your 47th President of the USA....

load more comments
view more: next ›