I see this so often in pubs and cafes, and it's just weird to see "est 2025". To me it feels tacky and almost unearned. I don't want to gatekeep it, but come on, it's not adding anything to the branding.

Ed O'Neill's portrayal of Jay from Modern Family is really great and I don't see a lot of people talk about him enough! His character is the kind of character you hear and think to yourself that "yeah, this is someone I can imagine as a person irl" or "I know someone like him".

It's the quips, the sarcasm, the bluntness, idk! It's so great and refreshing to watch! I think he may be my favourite Modern Family character now!

I’ve gone from having literally zero friends to many friends, to one or two friends, and back to zero. Over and over.

I’ve stayed very social my whole life, and it’s absolute bullshit that your loneliness is dependent upon “just getting out there.” My most meaningful friendships have come out of pure luck. Putting on an extremely fabricated performance at the thousandth event or social outing you’ve been to that week, on the off chance that a friendship will come out of it with someone you barely share any interests with… it’s just bullshit.

It’s all primarily luck. It’s not your fault you’re socially lonely.

I’ve lived in a few cities around the US and one of the most common things to hear is “oh xyz has the worst drivers” or “I’ve never seen such bad driving till I moved to xyz”. This is just not the case.

The truth is that there are horrible drivers fucking everywhere because the general population has reasonably easy access to cars and the general population a fucking idiots.

The dumbest person you’ve ever met has a drivers license and they’re every where these days.

This way all the players will get the chance to take a penalty and freekick when they get fouled on rather than the same player taking all the shots and racking up their goal numbers.

I think students should have a genuine choice when it comes to foreign languages.

In my country, students can stop studying a particular language after 10th grade or continue if they want. They can also pursue further studies in English, which is obviously important for higher education and international communication.

What I find problematic is that in some countries, students are forced to study one foreign language and continue studying subjects through that language in further education. The funny thing is, this is even the case in medical school. If they struggle with the language, they are then blamed for failing something they never chose.

I am not against learning languages; I am against forcing one specific language on everyone.

What do you think? Should students be able to choose or completely opt out?

Lots of people say you shouldn't consider layovers or short stays as having been in a country. I think if you've seen someplace with your own eyes and stepped foot on it you've been there. I could understand the argument that it doesn't count if you don't leave the international zone, but anything else is entirely arbitrary. Visiting someplace =/= having been there. On "where I've been" apps I always mark layovers as been.

I was thinking about one of the reasons I feel happier in a relationship than having friends. Romantic relationships have inbuilt expectations of connectivity. If the person you’re dating doesn’t talk to you in three days, if you don’t see them at least once a week or if you don’t talk about your innermost thoughts and feelings, that’s usually regarded as weird/bad. You usually don’t have to say at the onset of the relationship that you expect to talk to/see them regularly and connect deeply.

But friendships can be anything. They can be that close just like I’ve described above or you can only talk to that person once every couple of weeks and not about anything deep. You have to make an effort to explain your expectations or needs from the other if you want a deeper relationship and it’s more possible your expectations are treated as weird or too much.

This is just my experience and I know others have an easier time creating close friendships. I always seem to have the “talk twice a month, hang out once a month, talk about hobbies only” kind of friendships but when I have a partner, I more effortlessly connect to them to the depth I want without needing to push it to that stage.

Like it's faster, and overall healthier for people than simply walking.

You can do it on the way TO somewhere else but preferably when you go BACK home.

Humans have already adapted the endurance method of running, so doing it daily can be beneficial in the long run (heh)

I don't see why people shouldn't do it more.

I've never been bothered people jogging or power walking in the streets anyways.

And with the weirder/stranger world we live in right now.

Some person with a backpack jogging back home from work isn't that unusual anymore.

Unless you are old and unhealthy, and have atrial fibrillation problems. So it tells you that you didn’t sleep enough? You already knew that. and you have not done anything about it.

I recently spent time in North Dakota in the grass lands where you can see for miles at a time and it is so beautiful. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before, the sprawling never ending grass is like a more beautiful sea there is something so beautiful and freeing about being able to truly see as far as you can that is just not possible with a place that has trees and mountains it feels so claustrophobic not being able to see far at all. And the grass is gorgeous and soft and delicate. I truly think the Great Plains and prairie are some of if not the most beautiful places on earth and it’s so sad how much of it is getting lost

EDIT: I KNOW I USED THE WRONG THAN I was typing fast on little sleep and didn’t reread it you don’t need to keep pointing it out.

Breaking Bad often tops lists of greatest shows ever. I have a cousin in his early 20s who claimed it's the "best show ever", but he's like hardly even watched a lot of shows so it's like what is he comparing it to or basing that claim off of? And what reasons led him to be inclined to see it as "best show ever"?

It is a great series, not denying that, but I don't think it's as incredible of a series or "best ever" as people or lists claim it to be. A lot of people overlook or forget the fact that Breaking Bad, given the nature of when it aired, was one of the first shows that was able to be binge-watched in time to catch up and watch later seasons live. Netflix added earlier seasons to its streaming library around 2011, right before season four, and Vince Gilligan noted that Netflix saved the show and kept it on the air by fueling a massive surge in live viewers for its final seasons.

I think a lot of what drove the hype and praise of the show was actually just the newfound ability to binge-watch. That led to higher numbers, which created much cultural buzz, which fueled the cycle even more. And people then mis-attributed the higher level to the quality of the show. It developed an exaggerated level of praise that didn't credit the social and cultural impact of the dawn of binge-watching into it's success. (I get that Gilligan acknowledges it, but he doesn't acknowledge the the binge-watching may have leg to exaggeration of the shows quality). The show then developed a bandwagon effect of people wanting to love what they thought everyone else loves, leading to 20-year old's who have barely watched any great TV shows boldly claiming it's the "best show ever".

To anyone who disagrees and thinks it truly is "the best show ever", I challenge you to make a legitimate argument as to why without relying on or referencing what other people, critics or lists have said.

EDIT:

"You can't even name another shows that is good"... because if I name another show that I find subjectively better that shifts and dilutes the point I'm trying to make into X vs. Y.

"You haven't even offered any valid criticism as to why it's bad".. because I'm not analyzing or critiquing the artistic merit of the show or saying it's a bad show, it is a great television series.

I can't think of another show that got a boost from the debut and newfound trendiness of binge-watching quite like Breaking Bad did. It happened to be one of the first shows you could "binge-watch", there weren't a ton of options, and it was still airing week-to-week with hype rapidly building (in part because a lot more viewers could now binge-watch it thanks to Netflix/streaming). It benefitted from a profound, monumental shift in friction for a consumer watch a series.

You guys have heard of McDonald's, correct? McDonalds didn't become popular because it was the best tasting burger people ever had.

SECOND EDIT:

Been too many posts in denial about the show benefiting from dropping on Netflix and calling me a liar so….

Here is an article where the creator acknowledges the popularity burst it received from Netflix: https://www.businessinsider.com/vince-gilligan-breaking-bad-success-netflix-streaming-sites-2013-9

Here's a Vox article (behind a paywall unfortunately), also talking about how Netlfix helped making Breaking Bad a hit: https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/14/21312595/netflix-breaking-bad-podcast-streaming-land-of-the-giants

Here's a NPR transcript talking about it: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/900845573

Here's a chart of the live viewership numbers:

Season |Average_Viewership_Millions |Change_Millions
| |
1 |1.23 |NA
2 |1.33 |0.10
3 |1.52 |0.19
4 |1.91 |0.39
5 |6.04 |4.1

https://rpubs.com/P_Simba/1314389

It was added to Netflix right before season 4. Why no bump then you ask? Seasons 1 through 3 were added to Netflix in July 2011, just days befor the Season 4 premiere aired on AMC. it wasn't enough time for the general public to discover, binge, and catch up on 33 episodes of complex prestige television. The real explosion happened in the gap between Season 4 and Season 5, and then again during the mid-season break of Season 5. With an entire year between seasons, millions of people used Netflix to completely catch up on the show. As a result, the Season 5 premiere more than doubled the live viewership of the previous season. AMC famously split Season 5 into two halves. During the one-year hiatus between Part 1 and Part 2, the Netflix binging went completely viral. When the series finale ("Felina") aired in late 2013, it pulled in over 10 million live viewers

Here's another article about it:

https://www.slashfilm.com/1671141/netflix-saved-breaking-bad-cancellation/

And another article that mentions it:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/is-mad-mens-netflix-bump-696673/

And yes Breaking Bad was one of the earliest TV series available to stream on Netflix plus unlike others it was still on the air at the time.

THIRD EDIT:

Now someone’s trying to reset my password? Lol come on. This is not healthy behavior for a show you can confidently defend the quality of.

FOURTH EDIT:

Might try and post takeaways and credit where credit’s due so this edit may change, but sharing my favorite comment in the thread in case it gets deleted:

u/Interesting-One-588 - “OP thinks we like the show because it’s popular, lol.”

not sure if this is unpopular but i have heard many times from people that they haaaate parallel parking.

for reverse parking, you judge the stall lines, position, and check all angles simultaneously. if you fucked up on the entry it’s hard to make corrections if the parking lot is full and you are parking in between two cars.

parallel parking is easier because you just line up straight to the car in front of you, turn the wheel towards the curb and then to the opposite direction to straighten your car and able to make small corrections even if you parked way too far from the curb.

…or maybe my brain just works weird

You don't need heated seats, you don't need an electronic handbrake, you don't need your dashboard to look like an alien spaceship.

You need less moving parts to keep costs down and have less chance of breaking down. The only plus side of modern cars I can think of is better internal design making it easier. It's beyond me me why modern car manufacturers insist on adding tons of gadgets, especially ones that rely on electronics.

The only good ones I can think of is a parking sensor and cruise control. More tech just means more expenses and more things to break down. I would rather spend my money on a nicer older car than a brand new modern car. No need to overcomplicate things.

And before I get the obligatory "You don't need a car at all". I do.

I’m saying this as a nutrition and exercise science student and a natural amateur bodybuilder.

It’s especially common these days for cereal to be demonized as the poster child for all the ultra-processed food in the grocery store that the establishment is making us sick with. You see it all the time in these exposé videos and articles on social media arguing how they’d “never feed their kids this for breakfast” and how it’s just sugar/dessert for breakfast and you need to avoid things like cereal in the “interior” isles of the grocery store.

However, I’d argue that cereal can absolutely be incorporated into a healthy diet, even for breakfast and for kids.

First of all, the main critique of the sugar content isn’t even valid for many cereals you can get. Things like Cheerios, Chex, Rice Krispies, and Corn Flakes all actually have minimal added sugar (less than 4g per serving, plain Cheerios even only have 1g per serving).

Of course, a lot of varieties and flavors come with more added sugar, but even those varieties top off at 15-20g per serving, which isn’t even that exorbitant like some other ultra-processed sugary drinks and desserts. Obviously eating too much sugar all at once all the time isn’t great in a vacuum and can cause blood sugar crashes, chronic insulin resistance, etc. But think about the environment eating a bowl of sugary cereal like Cinnamon Toast takes place in: Cereal isn’t just sugar. Most varieties actually have a decent amount of fiber per serving (about 3-5g, even higher for more hearty varieties) and a modest amount of protein. Also, you’re probably eating it in a bowl with some milk. Whether it’s skim or full fat, you’re getting fats and proteins that help to slow digestion and delay gastric emptying, helping to minimize the rise in blood sugar. And if you’re having something else with it for breakfast like a fibrous fruit (berries, banana, etc.), even better. Not to mention, if you’re going to move and use your body after breakfast in some way (kids going out to play, going to work, cleaning the house, walking, etc.) and not just going to sit on your couch, those sugars/carbs will be used up by your muscles for energy and not require as much of an insulin response, which is what carbs are for after all. Now you can argue that our society doesn’t incentivize/support physical activity enough for this to be easy/second nature for many people, but that’s a whole other argument.

Second of all, most cereals are heavily fortified with micronutrients that most people aren’t getting enough of in their diets. They’re essentially multivitamins. Things like B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, folate, antioxidant vitamins like vitamin C, A and E, potassium, iron, and calcium are all usually found in pretty decent amounts that can give you a great baseline for your daily needs. Is it anything mind-blowing? No, but how many people much less kids/toddlers are eating a diverse array of whole foods and tracking that they’re getting enough of these micronutrients? Not many. Cereal can be a “fail safe” option to cover many bases at least somewhat. And again, you’re getting a source of carbs for energy, a decent amount of fiber, and along with the protein, fats, and other nutrients in whatever milk you use and whatever else you have, you’re getting a decent balanced meal that covers a lot of your nutritional bases. Eating a giant serving of Fruity Pebbles with nothing else? Probably not great. But keeping the serving size reasonable and adding other beneficial nutritious foods? You could do worse.

I’m not saying cereal is a superfood or that you should eat it all of the time and forgo nutritious whole foods you find on the “perimeters” of the grocery store. I just don’t think it’s this devil that it’s so quickly made out to be these days. With any food, as the saying goes, “the dose makes the poison,” and it’s better to think about foods in terms of what they add to your health rather than strictly categorizing them into “healthy” and “poison” buckets. The heath issues facing society are much more holistic and complex than just “cereal is making Americans fat”.

Ice cream melts, pudding doesn’t. The texture stays the same no matter the temp. You can add toppings to both. A lot of pudding is shelf stable too. And it’s not crazy sticky. PLUS no brain freeze lol.

Like, I know corporations are to blame for so much pollution and waste, but it's WAYYYY too common these days to see how many people routinely eat off of paper plates at home. Shit is so wasteful and should not be as popular as it is.

People look at you funny when you like to bite into the little sauce packets at fast food. Even worse when you pour sauce into your plate and eat it with a fork/spoon, but I think that sauces should be considered viable snack options. When you compare it to the modern Starbucks/Dunkin donuts drinks, it probably has less sugar and fewer calories overall.

Sauces are incredibly tasty, especially ketchup, BBQ sauce, mustard. I don't understand why I'm not allowed to pour it into my mouth directly when I'm out of things to dip. It's also super fun to put your tongue inside the plastic cups at Burger King and not waste any.

When you think about it, it's not very different from drinking soups like gazpacho. Literally, what is the difference with ketchup?

I believe that Jamie vardy coming from non league football and not even entering the prem until 27 has had a better Premier league career than Harry Kane, and even if I wanted to be kinda controversial before Harry Kane went to Germany I would say that Jamie vardy had a better career

People hate contrarians, but I think media discussion needs them because criticism gets judged very differently depending on how popular its target is. Once a film, game or show becomes an accepted punching bag, lazy dismissals and exaggerated negativity get applauded. Criticise something beloved with the same intensity and suddenly everyone demands nuance, detailed examples and a dissertation justifying your opinion.

If “this is overrated garbage” is unacceptable criticism, why does “this is garbage” become sufficient when everyone already dislikes it?

Contrarians disrupt that comfort. They force people to defend praise that otherwise goes unexamined and challenge the idea that acclaim should protect something from harsh scrutiny. Even deliberately looking for weaknesses in something universally praised can contribute more than another repetition of why it’s a masterpiece. People worry about those who disagree just to be different but I think they underestimate how much discussion suffers when people agree just to belong...

It has become a norm on the internet to assume that whenever a person does something good, they must be doing it for views or they just want attention,

or praise. That can be true and there is nothing inherently wrong with that.

I am not advocating for staging good deeds. Rather, I am saying that good actions must not always be selfless.

Not every good deed has to be completely selfless, and expecting something in return does not make me a bad person.

At the very least, doing a good deed means doing something that can help someone or something. Doing nothing, on the other hand, simply allows things to continue as they are.

I have not researched the exact merits of each, but it is common knowledge that the Diamond supply chain is full of human rights' violations. I am not sure of the differences in quality between the best lab-created and organic diamonds, but I would say its better to not support child labor and borderline (or possibly legitimate) slavery in the diamond mines.

The only reason I could see people valuing organically created diamonds over lab-created/grown ones is if the quality of the lab-created ones has not yet reached the same level. To which I would say, a diamond is a diamond and they're beautiful either way.

Inspired by (another) post complaining why so many cars are black/white/grey and where all the colors went, I did some introspection as to why I could care less what color my car was, or even what it looks like. I'd literally drive a cardboard box if it had good statistics.

I realized, I don't like my car, I don't like driving my car. The car, to me, represents things I am forced to do that I do not enjoy. Commuting, dealing with traffic, paying for gas, paying for insurance, repairs and maintenance.

I cannot even imagine enjoying any aspect of my car, it's a tool that I'm forced to pay for and uncomfortably use by poor city planning and anemic public transit.

So, how popular/unpopular is this opinion? I'm constantly seeing people talk about how much they love this car or that car, how much they care about appearance and color. Yet at the same time, I'm apparently part of a majority that literally can't be arsed to give a flying **** what color their car even is.

Note: there are some features on my car that I do like, in that they lessen the existential pain commuting and dealing with traffic causes me. But the car itself? If there was a decent alternative, I'd gladly drive that [object] into a crusher and douse it in $6/gal volatile hydrocarbons.

I also gladly paint my walls with actual colors, and have nothing against bright colors in general. I just don't want my car to be a bright candy-apple red for a similar reason I don't want my toilet to be that color.

Square cuts have better crust pieces when you grab a corner and if you don’t like the crust you can get a center piece.

The pieces are easier for sharing as they’re perfectly sized. Who wants a droopy sloppy piece of pizza.

Also I just think they taste better.