Unpopular Opinions V. FP should go down more often
999 replies, posted
the rare two for one bad opinion
Bobs Burgers being bad I agree but you better not be shit talking the first few seasons of Simpsons there mate
I think the earliest episodes didn't really feel any different than a standard live action sitcom. Mostly talking about season one here, since "first few seasons" could be like 10 at this point, relative to the whole.
Season 1 Simpsons was still really good tbh
It's weird thinking that Simpsons has been shit for far longer than it was good
I find it quiet funny how many people that were hugely anti-gun on FP are using "Court of Smith and Wesson" on Polidicks these days. The irony is almost strong enough to produce a bacteria culture for bog iron at this point lol.
There is legitimacy to this complaint, it afflicts all the main cast and isn't generally a huge deal but Sheldon's character borders on problematic.
For the most part, the characters in TBBT are just various permutations of "smart and nerdy but socially inept", and that's fine even if it is a trope that's becoming a bit tired. Sheldon, however, comes very close to mocking autism spectrum disorders. The writers of TBBT, both in-universe and out of the show, deny Sheldon being autistic, he isn't canonically autistic and wasn't written to be. However, he has a whole slew of behaviours in the show that are definitely autism-coded. "Obsessive behaviors. Social dysfunction. Regressive tendencies. Inability to grasp subtext and sarcasm. Avoidance of physical contact. Anxiety. Scientific savantism." Yeah, sure, they don't say he's autistic in the show but it moves like a duck and quacks like a duck.
This opinion isn't shared by everyone, even by all autistic people who watch the show, but this then comes with a series of unfortunate implications. A lot of the show's comedy is derived from Sheldon's social inability and his resemblance to what is essentially a caricature of autism. Specifically, the connections between "nerdy" behaviour and autism, and the "harmless" brand of autism that Sheldon all but has, is problematic because its popular peceptions of the links between neurodivergent behaviours and nerdy interests essentially as a source of cheap comedy. The message that Sheldon's autism makes him the funny nerd man and that that same autism essentially amounts to just a funny, socially inappropriate gaffe every now and again is the crux of some of the more well-argued "blackface for geeks" complaints.
The reasons for just how problematic it is stem from popular conceptions of autism that aren't accurate. Autism in real life can be seriously impairing. They will never air an episode of TBBT where Sheldon has a breakdown in public and strikes a stranger, or an episode where he falls into a depression because he gets ostracised for being too weird, or says something very offensive at an inopportune moment and causes a bridge to be permanently burned. In that same vein, it also isn't appropriate to portray someone as having "harmless" autism just because that's what you're supposed to be when you have nerdy interests. Someone's chosen set of specific interests shouldn't be stereotyped with a spectrum of disorders that people have no choice not to have.
I think this gets especially bad because as the show went on, and ran out of what little ideas they may have had at the start (as happens with most series), you get more artificial conflict out of thin air because Sheldon does not want to do thing, or cannot comprehend how a basic interaction works, and is basically the Squidward in a story where Spongebob is the reasonable one
i don't care about companies collecting data about me. the idea of a company spending money on trying to find out my interests and then more money advertising to me just for me to completely ignore them brings me great pleasure
A. you're not immune to advertising
B. current day ads aren't be-all-end-all of marketing technology. they'll adapt to newer tech and people's usage of it. it's not as simple as "you like cars, so you'll see more pop ups about cars" - who tf knows what, say, native advertising will look like in the future?
i don't think I'm personally affected by ads as the only things I spend money on are rent and whatever food is in the discount fridge at tescos. i just simply don't care about advertisers collecting data on me, I don't feel like my privacy is violated or that I'm being manipulated, I just don't care, sorry
To be real frank I'm sort of divided between tailored adverts and traditional ones. Irrelevant ads can feel like such a waste of time for everyone.
...That is assuming that data is collected for the sole purpose of charting traffic and demographics.
I mean, intention is one thing, but with how many data hacks we've had in the last couple of years, that goes straight out of the window
I think 99.99% of conspiracy theories are nonsense, but I totally think that all the mundane info collected by organizations like the NSA will be used to sway major elections in the future. Like, we'll be getting ready to head to the polls for the 2040 Presidential Election, only to get blindsided with a million headlines about "CANDIDATE REDTIE'S SECRET GOOGLE DRIVE FILLED WITH TWO TERABYTES OF GAY FURRY PORN" and how "CANDIDATE BLUETIE USED TO USE THE WORD "RETARD" IN TEXT CONVERSATIONS IN COLLEGE, ALSO HERE IS A SCREENSHOT FROM 2018 OF HIM TRYING TO EXCHANGE DICK PICKS FOR KETAMINE".
Though I get your point, I wouldn't be surprised if, in 2040, the revelation that a presidential candidate observed gay furry porn prompted applause and public admiration, cos this generation is full of kinky motherfuckers.
it doesn't stop affecting you just because you're willfully ignorant of how
why am i being willfully ignorant? you havent even tried to explain why i am wrong
"i just don't care"?
there is a difference between not caring and being willfully ignorant, someone who smokes 3 packs a day could be aware of the risks but just not care.
if "actually, you are affected by ads" and "it might get worse in the future" with no real explanation why is your attempt at telling me why i am wrong, can you see why i am not getting passionate about this?
those are reasons why you're wrong, yes. if you wanted elaboration you would've asked or countered, if you didn't care for either you would've said "i just don't care, sorry" and that's what you did
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24098643_Effects_of_Brand_Awareness_on_Choice_for_a_Common_Repeat-Purchase_Product
Results of a controlled experiment on the role of brand awareness in the consumer choice process showed that brand awareness was a dominant choice heuristic among awareness-group subjects. Subjects with no brand awareness tended to sample more brands and selected the high-quality brand on the final choice significantly more often than those with brand awareness. Thus, when quality differences exist among competing brands, consumers may "pay a price" for employing simple choice heuristics such as brand awareness in the interest of economizing time and effort. However, building brand awareness is a viable strategy for advertising aimed at increasing brand-choice probabilities.
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Gut Feelings
this is compressed to shit i know
Basically: in a blind taste test, 59% of people pointed to the higher quality peanut butter (out of 3 jars) as the better one. When the same, high quality peanut butter was put into a nondescript jar, against low-quality peanut butter that had a recognizable label, only 20% of people chose it, while 73% picked the familiar brand name.
Brand awareness, alone, affects your decisions, because your brain places a lot of importance in familiarity. What do you consider a luxury car? What's your image of high fashion? What do you think of when you think top of the line electronics? You may not have the money to buy a Porsche, but you can't tell me there aren't people out there scraping their savings account for a used BMW that, actually, runs worse than a car they could get for half the price. Even influence on things out of your reach can become influence on things you already do, your goals in life, your image of success. And, how good your peanut butter is.
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Marketing and advertising exploit as many things about human psychology as they are legally allowed to. The entire point is to manipulate and convince. See: "Foot in the door" technique
A group of women received a request to answer some questions about their use of soap products (a small request). After answering the questions, a larger request was made: that they would permit a group of men to enter their home and take an inventory of the products that they owned. A second group received the larger request without the preceding small request to answer the soap survey. Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser found that those in the group subjected to the foot-in-the-door technique in the form of the small request were far more likely to agree to the more demanding inventory request than those in the group that had been only asked the final question.
If you don't want to care, you don't have to, that's how most people go through life lol. Just know that bias affects you even when you're not aware.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/sports/basketball/02refs.html
This study caused severe backlash to the NBA. It was found that referees would give less fouls to members of their own race, and that white referees were more biased on average. They produced their own counter-study, which they claimed debunked it all (after review, it was found to conclude with the results of the initial one).
Either the refs received some form of communication from the NBA, or caught wind of the controversy on the news. This is what a newer study by the same author concluded:
Using new data, we confirm that racial bias persisted in the years after the study's original sample, but prior to the media coverage. Subsequent to the media coverage though, the bias completely disappeared.
Awareness Reduces Racial Bias
It's just a simple fact of life that you can never fully control what you're influenced by. Whatever's out there in culture and society has the potential to influence you. Which makes it funnier that you used "Tesco" instead of "supermarket"
that is good info, thank you. my "i don't care" was more directed specifically towards marketers keeping information about me, i am aware of studies like these where businesses will use any psychological trick they can to get you to spend more money, including the placement of products on shelves and what music they are playing through the speakers.
i'm a frugal person so i am normally very careful about tricks like these & i try to make the most cost effective choice wherever i can, i.e buying the cheaper product and only buying more expensive if there is a significant difference in quality. i hadn't even heard of my phone's manufacturer before i bought one, i got it because it was the cheapest for what it offered. there aren't many feelings worse than wasting money imo
i only said "tesco" because it's the store i live closest to, i have no brand loyalty whatsoever (i live near a sainsbury's too but i don't like shopping there because i once found a pube in one of my ready meals).
the tesco thing was just a comment on how brand recognition embeds itself in culture, is all. i see it thrown around as a stand-in for "supermarket" (or whatever the appropriate british word is) all the time in uk game shows. nandos seems to be a sort of cultural staple too, but of what, i never figured out
fruit juice > biting fruits
It kinda worries me how jumpy people can get about words. Slurs like "nigger" and "spic" in a vacuum are just noises and lines. It's the intent that's dangerous. It's intent that can turn a conversation into a fight and a fight into a tragedy. But whatever. It's easier to bring the hammer down on everyone rather than try to do a character analysis on any person who has a slip of the tongue.
Sounds like something a RACIST would say!
/s
I'm surprised Math gets such a bad rap. The whole point is consistency. There's no touchy-feely "be creative" bullshit. You either have it or you don't. And if you don't, there's proably a way to get it.
Does it?
I always hear much more criticism towards English (Lit & Lang) than Maths because there's no symbolic bullshit in quadratic formulas. English, meanwhile, is less of a 'You either have it or you don't' and becomes ' You either have it or you chat shit about the way a door was described as wooden in order to do well'.
On the other hand: I feel that dates who are over focused on "taking you camping" in the "woods" far "away from civilization" at "unknown" campsites, could very well be serial killers.
I don't think Joe is advocating for camping on the first date. But a lot of popular hiking spots are well populated, and is a pretty popular first date in my area.
Related, but my unpopular opinion is that this whole "the author *really* didnt mean anything by this" is often really overstated and just reads as bitter and unimaginative. More often than not, literary analysis touches on stuff that is totally intended. When I see people complaining about "the curtains are just red", I feel like they're writing off stuff like symbolism and metaphor entirely.
It may just be my way of seeing things, but I have never cared for going to movie theaters or restraunts for dates. Going hiking is not only free, but you also can do all sorts of other fun stuff. One date that comes to mind for myself was when my date and I went on a hike in Arizona, and did some metal detecting along the trail. We found all sorts of old coins and it was just so much more energetic and fun.
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