Imagine you would see a fact that contradict your deepest believes, the core of who you are. This fact is uncontestable, is evidence in its purest form, is something that happened and you know with 100% certainty that it happened. But this fact also is against what define you as a person, your most profound thoughts. Either political, religious , philosophical or moral believes, whatever sits deepetin you.

Do you think this evidence would make you change your mind, or not?

(In your opinion)

I'm using DDG, but I'm not satisfied with it. The quality of answers is subpar and I find myself switching to google or LLMs when I'm researching some things where community opinion matter (for some reason reddit and forums are undervalued by DDG algorithm).

I could try daily driving alternatives, but I know I will be biased and it will noticably slow down my workflows.

BE

What song have you played way too many times and still aren't tired of?

Trying to find new music that isn't just algorithm recommendations. Drop yours below.

I am subscribed with GasBuddy and have a few times participated by reporting updated gas prices in the area.

This is the first time (to my knowledge) that they've sent me an offer email. The email came from et-reply@email.gasbuddy.com, so it looks legit, but I'm not sure.

Also, if I do claim this offer, will it be a digital tap to pay 'card', or a physical card? Because my devices don't support tap to pay...

What side hustle actually helped you make money during a rough financial phase???

Being honest, I'm going through this right now. I need money, and I'm trying to figure out something realistic I can actually start, not some "make $10k a month" course pitch, just something real that's genuinely worked for regular people.

If you've been through a similar phase, I'd really appreciate hearing:

What did you actually do,and how much time did it realistically take before it started paying off?

Did it need any upfront investment, or could you start with basically nothing?

Would you recommend it to someone in a tight spot right now, or was it more trouble than it was worth?

Not looking for generic lists, genuinely want to hear what worked for real people who've actually been where I am right now. Any advice is appreciated. 😶‍🌫️ >--___^___^#

What's your honest thought on happiness, given how different everyone's life actually is?

Some people have more money than they could spend in ten lifetimes. Some people don't have enough to eat today. Some kids grow up with parents who genuinely love each other and build a calm home. Some kids grow up listening to their parents fight every single day, absorbing all of that tension without ever asking for it. And somewhere in between, most of us are just going through the motions, trying to figure out what we're even chasing anymore.

Here's what's been sitting with me lately.

As kids, we all had this idea: when I grow up, I'll buy this, I'll do that, I'll finally feel like I've made it. There was so much excitement attached to the future.

Then you actually get there, whatever "there" was for you, a job, a certain amount of money, a certain lifestyle, and the excitement is just... gone. You got the thing, and you feel strangely normal. Maybe even a little empty. Like the finish line moved the second you crossed it.

It's like we're slowly becoming more like machines, going through routines, chasing the next milestone out of habit rather than genuine desire, not really feeling much either way.

And I can't help but think AI is making this worse, not better. It's optimizing everything, our feeds, our recommendations, even how we spend our free time, but optimization isn't the same as meaning. We're more efficient, more connected, more informed than any generation before us, and somehow a lot of people feel more disconnected from any real sense of purpose or joy.

So I'm curious what people actually think:

Is this just what adulthood is, and we romanticize childhood excitement more than it deserves?

Is it inequality itself, seeing some people struggle to survive while others have more than they need, that quietly numbs everyone's sense of what "enough" even means?

Is it the home we grew up in, whether it was calm and loving or full of tension we never chose to be part of, quietly shaping how much we're even capable of feeling happy as adults?

Or is it something newer, like constant optimization and technology, that's actually changing how capable we are of feeling excited or content in the first place?

Not looking for a neat answer. Just curious what this community actually thinks, because I don't think I've figured it out myself.

Specifically the ones that post like bots but are not marked as bots.

The accounts that post into all sorts of comms including many they aren't a member of. The posts are usually pretty low quality and its clear the operator is not curating anything.

I find them annoying so I block. What do you think about it?

Y'all are just haters for god sake all the people who are hating my movie haven't even looked at it but just saw ai and started hating thinking it's cool it's the future of movies hate it or accept it i don't care https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr3ivBGoGmzgr8m_18y4m6BlcHQm_EBNc this is my movie playlist if you just gonna doing blind hating comments ignore this post but if you are genuine person please watch it and give genuine feedback y'all are not even capable of making this

6 months of 2026 are already gone and I feel like I've wasted a good chunk of it. Need some direction.

I'm free for about a month right now. Right now my days look like: wake up, check trades, watch series, repeat. I do intraday trading on the side, but I've been in a losing phase, and I've noticed my entire mood for the day depends on whether I'm in profit or loss. That's a problem in itself, but it's also making me realize I'm not using this free time for anything that actually builds me up.

I don't want to look back at the end of this year and realize I spent another 6 months just watching series and stressing over green or red candles.

So I wanted to ask people here directly:

If you had a genuinely free month, what skill would you actually spend it learning? Something practical, not just "learn to code" as a buzzword, but something that actually paid off for you personally.

Any podcasts or channels that actually added value to how you think, not just entertainment dressed up as self-improvement?

For those who've traded before, how did you stop your mood from being tied to daily P&L? Did you find something else to focus your energy on instead?

Not looking for generic "just be productive" advice. Looking for specific things that actually worked for you, even small ones.

What are the best places you've been to that are actually worth exploring?

Not looking for the obvious tourist checklist, more curious about places that surprised you, felt different from what you expected, or just stuck with you long after the trip ended.

Could be a country, a random small town nobody talks about, a trek, a street you wandered into by accident, anything.

A few things I'd love to know if you're up for sharing:

Where was it, and what made it stand out for you?

Was it planned, or did you just stumble into it?

Would you actually go back, or was it a one-time kind of place?

Roughly how much did it end up costing you, and did it feel worth that amount looking back?

I'm building a list for future trips, and honestly the best recommendations I've gotten have always come from real people's experiences rather than "top 10 places to visit" articles that all say the same five cities.

Drop your favorite spot, I'm genuinely taking notes.

I’m impacted by the wildfires in Colorado, had to evacuate and currently staying in a hotel. I expect my house is still standing (solar and some network devices were still responding until all power was cut off in the area and impacted the local ISP, and any fires in my immediate vicinity seem to have been controlled). The fires did get near or possibly to my home but the area is all grass and scrub, no trees so it was controlled. Hotspots were extinguished and I’m a bit outside the actual fire perimeter, with no real fuel for it to burn in my neighborhood further. Fingers crossed, I’ll get to go home in the coming weeks.

I’ve never been in a situation like this though. Even if the house is still standing and structurally sound, there’s probably smoke damage, possibly other burn damage from hot ash (the main fire perimeter reached within a mile of my home).

For anyone who’s been through a wildfire like this and gone home, what should I expect, and what hazards should I be aware of? Will things like clothes, bed, and so on be salvageable? Are there things that 100% should be discarded? And can the house just be cleaned and aired out? And is there anything specific structurally inside and outside I should look out for that might not be obvious?

Thanks!

The Death Note lets you kill anyone by writing their real name in the notebook, although you must know their face.

How do you stop your mood from being controlled by your P&L?

I've noticed a pattern in myself over the last 8 months of trading: green day, I feel great, confident, like I've got life figured out. Red day, everything feels heavier, even things unrelated to money.

It's not just about the money itself anymore, it's that I've let a number on a screen decide how my whole day goes, sometimes how I treat people, how I see myself, whether I feel like "I'm doing well in life" or not.

I know logically this isn't healthy. But knowing that hasn't been enough to actually change it.

So I wanted to ask people who've been trading, investing, or even just dealing with unpredictable income for longer than I have:

Did this ever stop being tied to your identity for you, or does it just get more manageable with time?

Did you build any specific habit or rule that separated "how my trades did" from "how my day/mood goes"?

Is there a difference in how people who've been doing this 5+ years relate to losses compared to someone 8 months in, or does everyone struggle with this at some level?

I don't think the fix is "stop caring," because that's not realistic. I think the fix is something more specific that I haven't found yet. Curious what's actually worked for people who've been through this longer than me.

TL;DR: Gained too much weight after I fell and broke my arm + couldn't really move for a while. I have a lot of trauma related to sports, like I was forced to play football like any other Hungarian kid, and I was awful at it, which made others be angry at me for it, which made me reluctant to do it. Even if I manage to do it, I often get brutal, crippling muscle pain, which makes me fo it even less.

Since I"m Hungarian, I cannot rely on health care at all, especially mental health, as it was the very first thing that got cut, amd I cannot afford private care.

Ok so, this is a weird question, but i remembered this scene from a movie and i think it was in the beginning where it introduces the main character, a teenager, whom is seen going into a public restroom to opening a box for a phone. He then takes the phone out and replaces it with a ~~Rick Scott~~ rounded rock* the same size and wraps it with saran wrap and used the hand dryer to heat it up, sealing it like it was never opened. Then he walks to a phone store and talks to the cashier to return it.

Probably not the most detailed, but that’s all we can remember from it and it’s driving us crazy not remembering it. Lmk if you know it, thank you!!

Update: THANK YOU SO MUCH @neidu3@sh.itjust.works :D movie was Hotel for Dogs

Now we may watch it with our significant other later :3

That are just as efficient for growing plants

Whether intentionally or not, what do movies depict or present wrong a lot of the time?

Is a 5’2" girl and 6’2" boy an ideal height combo for a couple?

Saw this pairing come up in a conversation recently and it got me curious what people actually think. A foot of height difference is pretty significant, so wanted to get different opinions on it.

Things I’m curious about:

Does a big height gap like this actually matter for compatibility, or is it just an aesthetic preference some people have?

For those in relationships with a noticeable height difference (either direction), does it cause any real day-to-day issues, or is it just something people online make a bigger deal out of than it actually is?

Is there an “ideal” height gap at all, or does it really just come down to personal preference and has nothing to do with how well a couple actually works?

Not trying to start a debate, just genuinely curious what people think, especially those who’ve actually experienced a similar height gap themselves.

I realize I've spent over a year in an organization where things kept falling apart because, ultimately, people in the organization just plain didn't like me.

It started, perhaps, when I brought up that HR's onboarding process made me uncomfortable because it involved a third-party sending out a third-party email to go to a third-party website to entire our personal information. Since this was a training by the larger corporate IT department, and we had just finished talking about the dangers of phishing, I thought it was a good time to mention it.

Mistake.

The next week I was visited by someone who took issue with, "not what I said, but the way I said it". Lesson: don't embarass HR in company-wide trainings.

Anyway, after a few similar call outs by me, I was labelled a trouble-maker, sidelined, ignored, and mistreated. This is an organization, I note, that assiduously avoids contradicting or discomfiting superiors in ANY way. That is deffos not my style.

Anyway, my question really isn't about my toxic workplace, but what you learned about YOURSELF by working in a place that didn't like you.

I'll give you two more stories:

1

When I just graduated from school, I started working with a team model. I was paired with someone with fewer certifications, and I was to lead us boldly on our mission. The person I was assigned was a very beaten-down older, brown woman in a field dominated by young white women (seemingly universally with long, straight hair). She seemed to be universally disliked and disrespected by everyone. Because I was incompetent both at my job and my Spanish (sabo kid in denial), this woman essentially did my job and HERS and still got treated like absolute shit.

She invited me to an event that had nothing to do with work, an event for an organization she volunteered for where she was on the board. People treated her with respect and, in return, she was bright and bubbly. I saw a completely different side of her that night.

Lesson: Where we are beaten down, we get small. Where we are supported, we flourish.

(Kind of an aside, she was from a small country, and when I told her I was visiting, she INSISTED I go see one of her family members; he turned out to be an extremely well placed person in the government; she wasn't royalty, exactly, but she had a social prestige in her country that was unsustainable as a middle-aged brown woman with an accent in the USA.)

2

I was working retail at one store. I'd been there for maybe two years. I always lived in fear of being fired, and when I made mistakes that I worried about getting me fired, nothing happened. I learned that, ultimately, what mattered is if people liked you, and, there, people liked me.

I eventually had to leave because of some restructuring but the manager found me the EXACT SAME POSITION at a nearby store. After a few weeks, I noticed people did NOT like me. Conversations were kept short, nobody ever volunteered to talk to me,. I got along with exactly one cashier, who was an awesome dude. It wasn't a horrible experience, I was allowed to do my job and I did, but there was always an empty, hollow feeling.

Then the original store invited me back and it was like night and day. "Oh, so this is how people act when they like you." I'd almost forgotten. I loved going into to work to see my work buddies and I loved shooting the shit with them during downtime.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/questions/p/1235213/how-do-you-keep-yourself-sane-and-happy-while-1-right-wing-fascists-are-getting-powerful

How the fuck do people don't get radical or depressed?

References for claims mentioned in the question:

• Freedom House, 16-April-2026;
• Oxfam, 19-January 2026;
• UN, 4-March-2026

Right now, I have a mess of bookmarks, open tabs, and things saved haphazardly in different apps. I want a system where I can organize it all and also keep it reasonably private. Open to all suggestions, whether that's an app or a tool or a personal trick or some completely different way of interacting with the internet.