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PaperclipPerfector  13d ago (text post)   2775 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 21, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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There's certain content -- certain types of gore, certain furry content, etc -- that gives me "the ick".

Sometimes I remember that many people get the same "ick" feeling from anime art in general, particularly the type of anime art that gets criticized as "overly-sexualized".

What are some times when you were reminded of the unbridgeable gap between different modes of perception?

Clickbait thumbnails fill me with utter revulsion.

You know the ones. Giant faux-surprised face projected deep into your simian hindbrain, grabbing your eyeballs and therefore your attention without your consent. You might consciously not give any fucks what this annoying soyjak is so startled by, but it does not matter. You will look anyway because there is a face, and faces are important, says millions of years of evolution. What's he looking at? Is something happening? Predator? Mate? Monkey get banana? And the text.. you can't not read the text. It's bold and bright yellow, and all caps, and there's a giantfuckingarrow pointing to it. And an emoji (another face) You are pwned. You cannot unsee it. You can only feel rage and vow not to click on it.

I feel similarly when I find an article that is supposed to be about a subject I'm interested in, only to be presented with an article that is about the author, with the ostensible 'subject' as the backdrop for a largely biographical story. I'm fine with autobiographies if they are explicitly that, but an article that is supposed to be about, say the history of telephone technology, is in fact about the authors trip to a telephone museum, or the crazy encounter she had while researching the subject.

You are pwned. You cannot unsee it. You can only feel rage and vow not to click on it.

This is an excellent way of putting it. Even worse is when the video topic is something I actually do want to see, and then I have to decide if it’s worth the dirty feeling of clicking on it…

Yeah. I feel bad for the video creators who, probably, are making good videos, but are stuck in this equilibrium where they have to use a stupid clickbait thumbnail or else no one will watch them.

I can't say I find my attention hijacked like you describe, but I share your distaste. When I see a channel start making videos with those thumbnails, it's a fast track to the "don't show recommendations from this channel" button. I refuse to engage with anyone who makes thumbnails that stupid.

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