Ask Lemmy

I'm an engineer. It's my job to be wrong until I'm right.

I thought I was wrong, once. But I was mistaken.

I'm wrong all the time. My amazing ADHD lets me finish stories in my head when someone starts talking, and it never goes the adventurous amazing way my brain told me it was going to go.

I was wrong thinking that having access to information would change the world for the better.

My childish self honestly had no idea that so many people would rebel against their fellow man and common sense rather than learn and accept that they had some wrong information about something.

My hopeful naivety kept me blind to the idea that people are fundamentally stupid, and will fight to the bitter end to die like the dogs they are rather than take one step as a human being that has the tiniest little flaw.

And that includes myself.

There are a few controversial subjects I’ve changed my mind about recently, and it only happened because someone actually took the time to engage with me instead of just hurling insults and trying to shut down the discussion. I’m not even going to specify what I changed my mind about, because I know I’d just get attacked again - for views I don’t even hold anymore.

I'm wrong all the time.

Just yesterday I was talking to a friend, mentioning that it is insane how it was only a few years ago that a province in my country removed the rule that all government buildings need to have a christian cross on the wall.

Turns out the conservatives successfully fought that change and it's still mandatory.

It's impossible to be correct 100% of the time

In 1992 I thought the GOP was being hyperbolic about Bill Clinton's history of sexual predation. Im not proud of that.

Oh goodness, 24 years ago I was uninformed, narrowminded and had been brought up sheltered and rather conservative. So I used to be hugely trans- and homophobic. I wasn't actively hurting or confronting anyone, but I was definitely a big part of the problem.

It actually was webcomics that deprogrammed me. That showed me a world I simply did not know but quickly felt empathy for. Those were normal, lovely people who simply existed differently from me, they weren't a threat and they had so many struggles pushed on them only for being different.

Today I'm far-left, progressive, super empathetic, happy that a lesbian friend calls me "one of the good ones" and that I, as a huuuuuge white cis guy, can be an ally and create a safe space around me for everyone who needs it.

I didn't realize "banal" was pronounced "ban all" and cluelessly described something as "b-anal"

I misspelled Denuvo earlier and two people had to be jerks about it.

I recently thought geese just ate bugs in the grass and even said so, but apparently they graze on the grass. I admitted my mistake when I found out a couple days later.

I'm remodeling a house and I've learned that my initial idea is always wrong and it will take me 3 days to accept the right answer.

Several times as viewable here on the Fediverse; this account, my P.D. account, accidentally posted a comment to the wrong post as viewable in the modlogs😣, CCing lemmy.ca admins and P.D. admins.

Making mistakes all the time is painful; hopefully I've repeated less of them as time continues or so I hope anyways...

I thought the cat wanted to be pet— it did not.

I bet it did want to be petted but its a cat... so those things change pretty quickly and most of the time your gonna be the last to know

I am wrong about almost every major decision I make on my life. I am never wrong about trivia though

Omg last night at pool league. 9-ball playoffs. I, possibly the best player on our team, called a timeout to “help” the worst player on our team, and gave solid advice on what shot to take, but failed to understand her skill level and failed to give additional helpful details (like how hard to hit it). She missed the shot and set up her opponent for an easy win and we ultimately lost the tournament by one point. Sigh. Big ole goof and totally my fault.

I've been a short-tempered bitch with people when I really shouldn't have been. Haven't been that way in years, but in my youth it happened several times. There's also been moments I've looked back on in my youth and realized I had some views that were the result of institutionalized racism that I didn't even realize were racist until I'd educated myself years later and realized my poor judgement.

I thought trumps handler wouldn’t let him actually do tariffs

I....

...oh God..

..assumed some salvia divinorum extract (20x ~~fuck~~) was weak, as I had vaped it, with minimal effect. I was instructed to use a torch lighter to properly get it to temperature. I predicted a moderate boost in strength.

...

Alright, here's a rhetorical question. Have you ever closed a door multiple times without opening it? I have. I also saw 3D space below 3D space, and multiple time points at once.

My room mates said I was banging on things loudly.

Oops.

Anyways, I'd 100% do it again. I was scared out of my mind, and thought I was sober at that (you literally can't imagine), but it was absolute comedy gold in retrospect. I also kind of went in blind. That's what I get for being negligent--a good memory.

I now smoke plain leaf bowls pretty regularly.

I am an unethically resilient force to be reckoned with and I didn't ask for this. I'm not complaining, though. I love the funny chaos leaf.

I also used to be an orange man endorser. Ew.

A link to my salvia post. It's missing details. I had a bit of amnesia.

It got me, even after I knew how strong it was. It still got me.

It's "Revved up like a deuce."

Not "Wrapped like a dou..." well you know.

First heard that song in 1981... Learned the correct lyrics in 2020. 39 years of being wrong, but I think I'm in good company.

Also learned that the version that most people know is actually a cover done by Manfred Mann in 1976. The original artist is Bruce Springsteen and he recorded it in 1973.

Part of keeping an open mind is realizing when you were wrong. Most recently, I have realized that liberalism, at least as practiced in the USA has no future, no possible way to defeat the rise of far right politics, and no real plan to even try. It's an inherently unstable system that only worked because of the post-World War 2 economic boom and the ripple effects of that boom. Now that things are evening out again, American liberals are just sticking their heads in the sand imagining that it's the 1990s and that all things can be fixed with a healthy stock market, when that wasn't even really the case back then and it's becoming more and more obviously false as time goes on.

We need something drastic to change and fast, or we're just completely fucked with Trumpism. Socialists and other left-leaning groups are the only ones that realize we need to fight hard and fight now, and establish alternative centers of power to corporations and the government, instead of just hoping that the corporations will be good or that the government will stop itself from doing bad things. I don't even think a fully socialist economy will even work at least in the short term(not opposed to it in principle, I just think we need hybrid economies short term to ease into it), but if I have to pick between that and whatever the fuck the Trumpists are trying to make, it's an easy choice.

For years I drove past a sign for Eastport on my way in to the city centre. No-one every mentions Eastport on the news. I decided it must be the single most boring suburb in the city.

Last year I realised the sign actually reads like this:

East

Port

And things finally clicked.

I used to think the lyrics in The Go Gos "Our Lips are Sealed" were "Honest Lucille."