this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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A pro-russian movement is going on in the world and is destabilizing the whole society. Wars are being fought, and more will likely be started. Alliances are being torn. This is, in part, due to Russian propaganda, russian bots and the like. The sentiment is shifting from anti-russia to pro-russia.

Creating bots, or accounts, that have russian characteristics that are obviously anti US (specifically anti republicans) and offensively so, would be a net positive to the world.

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[–] TheLunatickle@lemmy.zip 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Russian bots do a lot more then just claim "russia good U.S bad". They primarily echo the most extreme positions on both sides of any argument aka they also say "U.S good Russia bad" with the express goal of antagonising and polarising discussions.

They aren't trying to brainwash you so much as make you angry and disengaged, their success in America for example wasn't just in supporting right wing nutters (although they definitely invested more energy into bolster the political rights views) theu also posed as left wing nutters. Successfully shifting dialogue away from calmer more logical discussion and into the realm of extreme emotion.

This us also why "both sides are the same" is so problematic, it is exactly the result the Kremlin is looking for, they want people to be burnt out and convinced that nothing they do will matter, because then only the most politically extreme people will vote and conservative views consistently cultivate more extremists then progressive views.

Basically, no, more bots will not solve this problem. Adding more bots that are obviously anti murica and sound Russian would just be doing what russia is already doing. You would be doing half their job for them.

[–] shiftymccool@piefed.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe I'm just dense but this feels a lot like the right wing's contradiction of the immigrant that is lazy but also taking all the jobs.

If the goal of the Russian bot is to polarize discussion, how is "both sides are the same" also the goal?

[–] TheLunatickle@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

"Both sides are the same" Is an argument that frequently pops up whenever corruption and corporate ownership is brought up in regards to the Republican party, The idea being that the democrats are Also corrupt and corporate owned there for who you vote for doesn't matter therefore your vote doesn't matter. Aka political disengagement.

Not sure what you meant by the first part? Can you please show me where you see the correlation?

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The sentiment is shifting from anti-russia to pro-russia.

What shit hole corner of the Internet are you hanging out where pro-russia content is becoming the norm?!

And why would you think AI chatbots would do better against them than actual humans?

Oh.....

Dbzero0.com

Yeah, just make a new account on a new instance and block your old one

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

"We want to make Russian propaganda palatable through AI"

-dbzer0.com

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It would be quite the race that would end up in endless flame wars and even more instability.

[–] nothrone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Ya, probably. And they sure have more money to spend on it.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

What are you smoking in the shower?

[–] Quilotoa@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Bots are bad, more bots are good? What?

[–] beSyl@slrpnk.net -1 points 2 weeks ago

I think you are being very naive. That is a very reductionist view of the topic. Something can be bad, yet be used for positive.

[–] nothrone@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Chemotherapy is bad. A patient is dying from cancer. Patient receives chemotherapy and lives.

Chemotherapy is bad, more chemotherapy is good? What?

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

More chemo is not necessarily good. Chemo is like poison and you hope it kills more cancer than normal cells, that is not always the case. Not a great example for your argument.

[–] nothrone@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 2 weeks ago

Chemo is like poison and you hope it kills more cancer than normal cells, that is not always the case. Not a great example for your argument.

That is the whole point lol

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Chemotherapy is not bad. It cures people. Try again.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Chemotherapy is bad for the person receiving chemo, it's just even worse for the cancer. Yes, it cures people, but nobody in their right mind would use chemo on a healty person and claim that it wasn't bad for that person.

If you have ever seen someone going through chemo, it's really rough on them, and it's only done in the hope of getting rid of the cancer and being able to stop using chemo.

But the analogy doesn't make sense for the discussion on hand, because what propaganda bots do is polarizing, creating distrust, dividing society and cause people to do stupid things due to being angry.

Propaganda bots do that by posting extreme statements on all sides of the political spectrum. They post both pro-russia and anti-russia stuff, pro-capitalism and anti-capitalism, pro-trans and anti-trans, and so on.

So making bots to post anti-russia stuff is doing half their work.

An anti-russia bot would not be chemotherapy, it would be injecting cancer cells into the patient.

Maybe one could make a bot that posts moderate views and content advocating for reconcilliation or something like that.

[–] nothrone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 weeks ago

It is bad. Something can be bad and cure people. You see, you are just committing logical fallacies.

Chemotherapy IS poison. It is cytotoxic. The goal is to kill the cancer before it kills the patient, but it is toxic.

A similar argument can be made for the use of bots, as was my showerthought.