Read up on cognitive biases.

People are social animals. We form groups and we stick with them. Some of our cognitive biases are very clearly geared toward preserving the cohesion of the group. The truth is very much secondary to group cohesion.

Individuals vary a lot, however. And some individuals are much more open to changing their mind than others. Groups are stronger when they have a variety of different personalities within them. Different people can have different roles within the group and help it adapt to changes.

But what if you grind the head into sausage? How do they deal with that? I guess the sausage grows into a new head without memories?

They never die! That’s the absurdity of “death isn’t a thing but otherwise nothing else changes.”

Their face is still burned! You’d have to reduce them down to a brain in a vat. But then all they have is the memory of that searing pain.

The claim is no death. That means if you burn someone at the stake their body turns into a charred husk but they’re still alive and now they’re trapped in this state of unimaginable agony forever, unable to die but also totally helpless and in constant searing pain.

Burying someone alive. Or trapping their feet in cement shoes and throwing them into the ocean.

Yeah. I remember people talking about how in the 1950s you’d go for a drive in the country during the summer and your car’s windshield would be completely covered in bugs. It was like a rainstorm there were so many. Now you can drive through those same areas and not even get a single bug hitting your windshield.

Yes, of course. Health care generates revenue for health care providers, not the state. For the state it’s just another expense on the balance sheet.

The problem with universal health care is that 70% of expenses go to treat 10% of the population. These are often very sick people near the ends of their lives. Frequently the money doesn’t appreciably improve their health or well-being, it merely provides many expensive (and often painful) treatments that extend their lives.

This is the really ugly side of health care that we don’t like to think about because it involves difficult discussions about quality of life and death. We would much rather not think about these things and instead throw more money at the problem. Unfortunately, medical technology has advanced a lot in these areas and so there is an ever-growing array of treatment options to extend life without restoring quality of life.

I have seen this exact story a bunch of times. I haven’t bothered to complain. I just chalk it up to a Lemmy thing.

That’s not particular to Americans. Lots of people put their heads down rather than try to fight. Look at Russia!

This phenomenon is called depoliticizaton. Philosopher Vlad Vexler talks about it often.

Reminds me of German chancellor Franz von Papen. He was instrumental in bringing Hitler to power but he never accepted responsibility for it, even though he lived until 1969!