this post was submitted on 06 Jul 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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Ok so how does a cancer kill its host?

It grows until it consumes so many nutrients that the other living cells don't get enough. The host literally starves even if he eats plentifully.

The same applies for the US: The billionaires are not only hoarding wealth, but by doing so they're crippling the economy for workers and everybody besides themselves.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yup! Of the things we could be, we're most like a virus, but parasite might work. Most parasites don't kill their hosts, and if they do it's a secondary action - it usually isn't the parasite itself that kills the host, but some virus or bacteria the parasite transmits. There are some really nasty parasitic worms that will kill you, or make you wish you were dead.

We're definitely not symbiotic, like most macro and many micro organisms are.

If we consider the the ecosystem as the host, we're killing it; and individually, we're micro-sized to the Earth, so I think virus is the most accurate model.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Currently, our collective behavior is parasitic and destructive to the environment, yes. But it's important to draw a distinction here - a virus or bacterial infection or a parasite are locked into their respective strategies. They cannot help being what they are.

We don't get that excuse. Humans are the ultimate generalists; we specialized into learning and communicating new behaviors between ourselves. Unlike the flu or a ringworm, we have the capacity to change how we interact with the environment.