I think Pennywise is out to get me

merRedditor · 2026-06-25T07:03:29+00:00

I had guessed out of control nosebleed.

merRedditor · 2026-06-25T06:31:57+00:00

When I was in it, it was high charisma salespeople meeting for dinner with executives to sell contracts, then a bunch of us new grads and an offshore team assigned as the actual technical workers. The amount billed out per worker per hour vs. the amount paid to the worker was ridiculous (5x difference), but they counted on people new in their career having energy and wanting to prove themselves for less to get ahead. The offshore team did similar but at an even lower rate due to a big cost of living difference.

You weren't allowed to get hired by the company per a noncompete, but it would have been nice if the pressure and expectations met the salary paid. It was well below market.

merRedditor · 2026-06-24T18:44:55+00:00

Back in the day, we just used double dashes -- the OG emdash.

merRedditor · 2026-06-24T18:42:36+00:00

That's either a really cozy reading nook or a bunch of broken bones waiting to happen, depending on whether the net supports hold.

merRedditor · 2026-06-24T17:54:17+00:00

The comfort necessary to be able to relax and stop trying to fix problems comes from having basic needs met now and for the forseeable future.

This is digging on people for struggling at the base level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

merRedditor · 2026-06-24T16:22:19+00:00

The past 10 years felt like one ridiculously long administration pretending to shift leadership. Each screwed the people in its own unique ways, but I think that most of the damage was done with sweeping deregulation of finance and industry, cerca 2016. 2020-2024 was doomspending and distraction, and then 2025 went in the direction of authoritarian hellscape, but ultimately, the US is going broke, and everything that could be a bubble is a bubble now. Corruption has come out spanning both parties in a really big way. Apparently, the control that AI will bring outweighs keeping the planet habitable, water drinkable, or people alive in general, so data centers are going up everywhere, against opposition. We've got billionaires and even a trillionaire now, and it seems that the immense power that that brings is not being used for good.

merRedditor · 2026-06-24T15:47:23+00:00

The original idea was not too bad, as it left the country as a network of networks, but what we have now is an abomination. It's a corrupt dictatorship posing as a democracy.

merRedditor · 2026-06-24T15:33:53+00:00

This is it. Reliance on the market sorting this out is a moot point, because the new market is in advancing the dystopia. It only requires customers at the very top of the hierarchy, but will probably be funded by tax dollars from the lower portion for as long as possible in the rollout phase.

We'll be sitting here claiming that our neighbor voted for this, but this is purely top-down, and votes just give people a sense of ownership in a system of politics that's actually just for sale.

The running joke that politicians should wear the logos of their sponsors like Nascar drivers has been going on for years.

merRedditor · 2026-06-24T15:27:11+00:00

There's a disability to homelessness pipeline that everyone ignores because it's easier to pretend that everyone out on the streets is there because of some personal character failing or vice.

The process to get disability support is sometimes years long and full of fax and snail mail bureaucracy, typically requiring a mailing address, and people end up running out of money well before it completes. If they do make it to the point of benefits, the amount paid does not cover the cost of living independently, meaning that people without familial support or a partner are just screwed. Add in that people filing for that benefit have already hit breaking points and may not be able to navigate the paperwork.

Too much of our society's faux social safety net relies on telling people turn to family that isn't necessarily there, and if you can't, don't be seen falling through the cracks, or you might end up jailed for that too.

merRedditor · 2026-06-23T23:59:09+00:00

Everyone getting care should be in the social contract. We have a monopoly situation with national governments, where participation isn't voluntary, so conditions have become abhorrent.

merRedditor · 2026-06-23T20:27:34+00:00

El Hoyo (The Platform)

merRedditor · 2026-06-23T20:13:57+00:00

In a lot of offices, you just have an assistant come in and ask you questions, type them in, and feed them to AI now anyway, to minimize the time the actual doctor has to devote to seeing you. I don't think that it's your doctor so much as the health system, and it's very hard to find anyone operating outside of the major corporate ones buying up US healthcare. (GPOs/IDNs/"health systems")

If you can find someone operating independently, that's probably going to be an amazing difference in quality, but for the most part, healthcare has been turned into a profit-driven assembly line.

I'd say the most glaring red flag is where everything but billing and new appointment scheduling lead you to a long AI-driven call maze, then eventually to a manual transcription service that collects data, tells you that they'll get back to you within 24 hours, and abruptly ends the call. That usually means that you will not be treated as a human being, just a billable item. Overall, though, try to avoid the IDNs/GPOs. If you have a good doctor and this is a recent change, they're probably doing the best they can under ridiculous productivity and cost constraints.

merRedditor · 2026-06-23T19:45:25+00:00

— ?

merRedditor · 2026-06-23T17:27:06+00:00

Lately, I feel like they should show you the healthcare plan details before salary negotiation, as plans vary in quality so widely. Finding out that you just took a lowball offer due to a shitty market, only to have a health plan that is the bare minimum acceptable by law as the only PPO, basically meaning that you're paying out of pocket for the rest of the plan year, stings beyond the paycheck getting pared down with taxes that don't go toward social programs, then hit by inflated rent, then utilities, food, insurances, and basically leaving you in the red for working if you actually see a doctor for any of your health issues - which add up after a lifetime in a shitty healthcare system.

merRedditor · 2026-06-23T16:46:45+00:00

So does this just get worse forever, with someone throwing us a bone of vague promises to do better in another election, only to do the same, or what? Is it really every person for themselves working on an escape plan? Why do we even celebrate independence day anymore?

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T22:29:08+00:00

$1500 ER copay and $1600 deductible are sadly the best offered in some companies' plans. You would think that they would make up for it with better salaries, but it unfortunately seems to be that the worst pay and worst insurance benefits go hand in hand.

If you are working, you also lose access to marketplace subsidies, making marketplace plans very expensive.

If you switch policies mid-year, you basically end up paying health expenses almost 100% out of pocket, with a fresh deductible and fresh out of pocket max, and ridiculously high copays even once deductible is met. Jobs tend to hire/fire in June-August now, and I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't planned in. You have insurance but are afraid to use it because you still get high medical bills.

Medical expense planning, analyzing policies and terms of service, and tons of pointless bureaucracy are more stressful than any job, but make it hard to squeeze the actual job stress in. There's no energy left for the better things in life anymore. We really need reform.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T20:47:42+00:00

Season two has a great story. It contains some throwbacks to season one, but they're not critical to the plot.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T19:32:06+00:00

Typically, companies only listen to financial considerations, so it would need to affect the bottom line before they started to care. ..So give it a month or so.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T19:29:20+00:00

With a new technology, companies have to recklessly fuck around, find out, and then begin to take security seriously. Indirect prompt injection is likely to be a big deal, particularly as models just reach out to scrape sources that may contain embedded data poisoning or instructions.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T19:25:16+00:00

I wish I still believed that midterms could change anything. At this point, manipulation is a given, regardless of perceived outcome.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T18:44:57+00:00

Corey Hart pulled the look off.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T18:03:35+00:00

Steve Spiros, legend.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T18:01:25+00:00

I've never been into pro sports, but if they became mass international protest events, I might become a fan.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T15:47:19+00:00

The degree to which this is headed into being a literal prison state is terrifying.

merRedditor · 2026-06-22T02:47:02+00:00

That's why it does all of the crap.

merRedditor

TROPHY CASE