this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
734 points (97.2% liked)

Showerthoughts

36359 readers
1198 users here now

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:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

We are just finding out about a child sex trafficking ring involving politicians and billionaires, the world’s richest man does a Nazi salute at a political rally, and the President being an adjudicated sex criminal is probably not the worst thing he has done…

Meanwhile I’m standing here in the checkout line feeling guilty about whether or not I should tip a barista

Something is wrong with our collective notion of morality, and my individual understanding (Oh well, here we are)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] haloduder@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 day ago

He also puts into perspective how easily manipulated we all are.

We still give the most amount of power to the least trustworthy people. It's disgusting.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 59 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

On a related note, the latest Trump administration cabinent picks and antics unironically cured my impostor syndrome.

If these gaggle of fucking demented backstabbing morons are good enough to run this country...

And they can show that about half the country is actually so stupid and or intentionally blind and or evil to somehow not realize their cult leader just obviously is a huge rapist and pedoohile...

Then I am better than this country.

Better qualified, more empathetic, more competent.

Turns out it was just angry clowns gaslighting us the whole time.

Well uh fuck em, this is all so stupid that I now actually have the correct amount of self-confidence and self-respect, it is indeed this entire society that is a joke, not that I am somehow fundamentally inadequate.

[–] stelelor@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 days ago

"Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it." Plato knew what was up.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

it's easier to get ahead with a weaker skillset if you're ok with fucking over someone else to get there.

[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

angry clowns

We are stuck in a surreal angry clowns horror movie.

[–] etherphon@lemmy.world 248 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And make sure to turn off all the lights and appliances you're not using to save power for the AI. This future is trash.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 39 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And reduce your water usage because it's a drought. While we grow water heavy crops like almonds in those drought stricken regions and foreign investors from arid countries grow water heavy crops like alfalfa solely for export back home.

[–] freeman@feddit.org 7 points 3 days ago

Or specifically bred/GMOd soy and corn which gets used for animal food instead of soy and corn humans could eat.

(Nothing against GMO, but against our high animal produce consumption)

[–] WiseScorpio@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Chatting with a buddy of mine this morning. He is looking at stuff he did in his life. He went to see the play, Annie, when he was a kid.

"They wouldn't do Annie today, it's too woke" I said. Then, it dawned on me. "I'm wrong. Annie would be totally fine.

Short review: 'An orphaned girl is bought by a billionaire real estate magnate and groomed at a luxury resort," would fit right in with the morals of a political party

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 130 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Just finding out? Haha, no, we've known about this ring for the better part of a decade now. The wealthy and powerful probably a lot longer than that.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 66 points 4 days ago (7 children)

Even the next part:

world’s richest man does a Nazi salute at a political rally,

Don't get me wrong, horrible and completely unacceptable.

But sure as shit is nowhere near the line of what's happened with the last 100 years:

The Business Plot, also called the Wall Street Putsch[1] and the White House Putsch, was a political conspiracy in 1933 in the United States to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as dictator.[2][3] Butler, a retired Marine Corps major general, testified under oath that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization with him as its leader and use it in a coup d'état to overthrow Roosevelt. In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the "McCormack–Dickstein Committee") on these revelations.[4] Although no one was prosecuted, the congressional committee final report said, "there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

In case anyone's eyes glazed over instead of reading, two key points:

wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization with him as its leader and use it in a coup d'état to overthrow Roosevelt.

And even more importantly:

Although no one was prosecuted, the congressional committee final report said, "there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."

Shit didn't just get bad, it's been bad.

And the way to fight it is an opposition party like FDR.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Actually over 2 decades, now. Epstein's plea deal was in 2008 under Bush.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Our leaders are so disconnected from the average person only them being forced to confront their own mortality can snap them out of it.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Pika@rekabu.ru 17 points 3 days ago

While people in power are absolute evil most of the time, this is not an excuse to change your own morals for the worse.

Small acts of kindness, when taken in decent quantity, change the world no less than massive fraud and sex trafficking.

That said, one of the most moral things to do is to be on the lookout for powerful people doing nasty things and do everything in your capacity to prevent or at least retaliate. This makes abuse less common, and goes a long way to restore democracy and responsibility for everyone.

[–] benni@lemmy.world 31 points 4 days ago (8 children)

Are you really feeling guilty about not tipping because of the moral implications, or do you just feel socially shamed? Important distinction.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 9 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Considering the idea of shame is society's way to enforce it's version of morality, I would argue no it is not a distinction.

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] lerba@sopuli.xyz 17 points 3 days ago

Don't expect the world to reward your good behavior. You will find your own internal motivation, or maybe not. But judging others never ends well. Just focus on your own actions. Nobody says being a good human being is easy...

[–] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 57 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Capitalism rewards the most heartless greedy pieces of shit. Simple as. It is, in fact, not the best type of economy for any kind of moral society.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 49 points 4 days ago (2 children)

No, your notion of morality is accurate, there's no reason to race to the bottom because someone else sucks more.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] PicardyNerd@lemmy.today 6 points 3 days ago

Apparently this is not a shower thought🤔 /s

[–] crash_thepose@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago (5 children)

You should tip the barista

[–] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Her employer should pay a living wage that doesn't need to be subsidized by tips

[–] bystander@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I also don't know why we tip in Canada, they have the minimum wage paid. It's still not a "living wage", but the retail worker has the same wage.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah also who tips the people who picked your vegetables in the field?

[–] Bamboodpanda@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Tipping isn’t gratitude, it’s a system that lets corporations avoid paying workers a living wage. The barista earns a few bucks an hour, relying on tips to survive because the company doesn’t want to pay them fairly.

It’s not the barista’s fault. The corpos' use them as leverage to perpetuate their shitty behavior. If you don’t tip, they suffer, not the business. That’s emotional blackmail dressed up as generosity.

If we keep tipping just to hold the system together, it never has to change. Real change would mean companies paying fair, livable wages up front, even if it makes the coffee more expensive. I’m fine with that and I feel others should be too.

Tipping should be a "thank you", not a lifeline.

If we truly cared about baristas, we wouldn’t just tip, we would be be advocating for a better system that doesn’t force them to depend on tips to survive. A mass refusal to participate in this broken model is the kind of disruption that could force companies to actually pay fair wages.

Instead, we keep tipping because it feels easier and safer in the moment even though it traps workers in a cycle of dependence. I get it. It’s uncomfortable to stop doing what feels like the right thing. But sometimes, real support looks like pushing for change, not maintaining the illusion of it.

Yeah absolutely this. I live in a country that pairs a fair wage to service workers, so the 3 or 4 times I've actually tipped over the years has been able to show gratitude when someone has gone above and beyond on what is a special occasion for me. But until you have fair wages, all you're doing is paying a secret fee that's left off the menu for the worker to be able to survive.

[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I used to think that.

But if no one tipped, all the employees would leave, and the employer would need to slowly reconsider their life choices.

My sorry ass still tips 20% on everything in the moment though.

[–] HiddenLychee@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (8 children)

Why? If all I order is a drip and they don't have to do anything special, doesn't the cost of my coffee cover everything?

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Just finding out? Hasn't all of this been known for almost a decade now?

[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

Don't forget, while the Qanon BS is flourishing, a former Speaker of the House (3rd in line to the presidecy) gets imprisoned for molesting at least four teenage boys.

[–] Asswardbackaddict@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (13 children)

Maxwell's father worked for various intelligence agencies. This appears to be a blackmail operation by the Mossad and/or the CIA. The former Israeli Prime Minister visited Epstein's home several times.

load more comments (13 replies)
[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

we known it since 2019, when he epsteined himself. and it went back decades, the MSM did thier best to not report it for the last 4 years. because too many politicians, both US and the world leaders, plus many donors. just like with the panama papers.

[–] BurgerBaron@piefed.social 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I've learned paedophiles seem to be naturally skilled with grabbing power throughout history and the present is no differnt. I'm more aware of that fact now.

I've also learmed a large percentage of humans actually are fine with their leaders raping children. One might think they're fine with it in general.

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 5 points 3 days ago

They have no morals, which is why they can grab power so easily. They're not playing by the rules. Thus to win consistently, you'd need to cheat as well.

Then you're left with two options. Cheat to win too, or rolling heads.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

I would go with modern socialism/communism but, ever since Joe McCarthy, america tastes bile in their throat every time those words are bandied about. Pavlov and B.F. Skinner would be proud.

[–] RealFknNito@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It's a tough go for the people who believe in pacifism or nonviolent change.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Tedesche@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Morality and laws are for the plebs. If you’re rich or powerful enough, you get to do whatever you want, so long as you don’t harm another rich or powerful person.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Strider@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I am surprised by you being surprised, I knew for about 10 years.

Epstein also definetly did not kill himself but the media in my country is already reporting him as suicide now, and people forget.

[–] Balerion@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago

Honestly, I think my moral OCD needed to hear this.

[–] outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The thing is:

The little things do matter. They shape who you are. They shape the lives of the people around you. They're important.

But this is like a death-penalty-on-the-table-murder-trial being interrupted by a nuclear bomb. And that shit always happens.

Yes this other shit happens more, yes it's a priority, and yes none of your everyday decency will influence it in the slightest, but it still matters.

You just also have to fix that other shit.

It's not'nothing matters' its 'fuck, more work'.

load more comments
view more: next ›