I wonder if this surgery would be illegal in Texas.

Fish pond toilets and pig toilets are still a thing in some parts of India

I frequently take a dumb.

The counter-argument about “the end of human civilization” is so hollow to me. I mean, what benefit does human civilization bring to anyone other than humans? It’s a circular argument. There’s no inherent need or reason for homo sapiens to continue ad infinitum. We could save literally countless other species by letting the single most destructive one die out.

Now, do I want to actively end the life of myself or anyone I know? Of course not. But at the same time I’m also never, ever having kids.

Much of the developed world is sliding into fascism because of climate change-driven migration. Environmentally, every decade for the foreseeable future will be worse than the one that preceded it. The technology that was supposed to make our lives better and easier is instead used to depress wages, or simply mechanize away jobs.

And all the while, most of those in positions of power - and their most loyal voters - are dead set against a universal basic income, instead opting for ever more oppressive wage slavery, simply because profits have to grow every quarter in spite of their natural tendency to decline.

These trends, along with many others, mean that the average child born in a developed nation today can more often than not expect a lower standard of living than that of their parents. And that pattern has no reason to reverse. The people running the world into oblivion have suckered too many rubes to go along with them via a false sense of cultural solidarity and hostility toward anyone they’re told not to like.

The line is going down. It’s been going down since the neoliberal turn, and nothing we do will pull it back up at this point. Too many global biophysical and socio-political systems have been broken in a self-reinforcing manner to revive the vitality of this planet as long as we continue to inhabit it. The best I personally can hope for is some global-scale healing to begin a couple hundred years after we’re gone.

Disney has for the last few decades positioned itself as a premium product at a premium price (think the entry costs for theme parks, cruises, etc.) much the same way Apple has. They clearly think their content is worth the premium, so they’re going for it.

Also, a lot of their best films are going public domain in the coming years, so they need to maintain and grow their revenue stream somehow.

Shedding ABC, eliminating physical media, and increasing streaming prices makes total sense if you think the way they do.

CPAP.

We need to block ads so that ads die. Anti-angiogenesis for advertising. Get a less annoying business model.

That said, I have YouTube premium at that I don’t see ads.

We just muted the TV during the ads and did something else until the show came back on. Ad breaks for regular shows like dramas were a predictable length of time, so you could time your bathroom or fridge run pretty well.