I get what you mean. My point is that it's a mistake to say AI art is giving people something they can't have otherwise without spending exorbitant amounts of money, when we're talking about something that is inherently a luxury good. And in the context of the OP meme, specifically when we are discussing the perceived value of art as something handcrafted — special because it's "made with love".

I used food as an example because of the OP meme, but art is not a need like food is. Art isn't a utility tool like a car is, either. If you can't hire an artist, which isn't that expensive if you're looking at cheap spaces like Fiverr or even /r/HungryArtists, you have options. Personally I don't see a moral failing in using AI art (at least, non-commercially...copyright gets messy) but I do think it's silly to pretend it has the same quality and craftsmanship as a piece by a skilled human artist. I expect it'll get better with time, but having messed around with these tools you will not get the same quality and coherency of output as you would working with a human, even if ChatGPT's new image generation model is leagues ahead of what it was before. There's a pretty popular series of posts here on this sub from some guy generating images of his "OC" and the AI can't even get her eye color right image to image, for instance. It's fun and quick and easy but even people who rely on AI image generation for work recognize you usually need quite a few iterations to get something usable, let alone properly good.

If you're focusing on profits, then that's a different discussion than what the OP's gf is addressing imho. Custom handmade art is valued highly because of the time not just to make the piece for the customer, but the time/skill that has been built up until that point. We pay high salaries to software engineers for similar reasons. And again, I don't see AI art detracting from skilled artists at this point in time, similar to how I don't see AI detracting from the jobs held by (at least more skilled) developers just yet...

Art doesn't have to be "affordable" because its value is subjective. Monetary value itself is subjective, too. A thousand to me is life-changing, but to Bezos it's a rounding error. People joke about modern art but it shows how subjective art really is. Some people spend hundreds on furry porn from such and such popular artist, some people won't spend more than $10 on a custom painting of their partner. I agree consumers don't care about the process, but it's clear there are people who value the human touch like OP's gf (harhar). My point with saying you could choose to learn to draw instead of saying only rich people can afford the luxury of custom art is that art is one of the most accessible hobbies, even children can start drawing without lessons. Your choosing a Big Mac because you don't see value in a handcrafted burger, that's one thing. Your choosing a Big Mac because you do see value in a handcrafted burger but think it's overpriced and yet refuse to cook at home as you have no interest in cooking is another.

As for the humanistic aspect of art, it's kind of like, why draw portraits when you can just take a photograph? Why bother with writing poetry at all? Why bother making music if AI can whip up a song in a minute? I've seen people frame honing a creative skill as pointless "suffering" and it's kind of sadly funny because it speaks imo to a complete misunderstanding of the point. The point isn't just the end product, even if that's what matters most in a consumerist mindset. You can drive a car instead of hiking, so why hike? You can buy flatpack furniture from Amazon, so why learn woodworking? You can listen to music, so why do karaoke? Heck, you can just about google anything and get a halfway decent result eventually, so why even go to school? I know this is kind of getting away from the OP but I hope this makes sense.

But in my understanding this isn’t about “perfection” it’s about being handmade, a human touch. There is no monetary gatekeeping to learning to draw or paint.

If you’re thinking about it from the perspective of a consumer alone, handmade custom art costs more money than ai generated art for the same reason a burger from an artisan chef will cost more than a burger from Maccas. You’re paying for their time, experience, and skill. That, I guess, is “gatekept”. But nothing stops you from making handmade art for yourself and learning how the same way nothing prevents you from learning to cook your own burger. Pretending McDonald’s paper thin soggy burgers are an inevitability for the poor is defeatist imo.

FWIW I’ve been blown away by AI images recently, but I don’t think it’s replacing skilled artists just yet. It’s the worst it’ll ever be but you can’t really pretend there aren’t consistency or weird artifact errors, and with rate limits good luck generating a decent image without spending quite some time on it anyways.

This is my first time ever seeing QAnon memes and I am floored. I know they joke leftists can’t meme but dear god these are terrible. Or maybe I’m not enlightened enough 😵‍💫

Ditto. I was SA’d as a child by a POS and I had thought of him as the norm for his type (right wing, wife beating, and a “businessman” in his head alone).

What stings is the SA and harassment from men I wouldn’t ever have thought of as unsafe - most of them were as left as they come, a few were very openly queer, some at the time identifying as nonbinary or genderfluid, and a few were my close friends so there was a lot of trust there. Generally pro-feminism and into nerdy stuff, plus most of them weren’t significantly bigger/taller so I didn’t feel particularly unsafe. Like of all the people who should “get it” I thought they did and so I let things go that I shouldn’t have. Out of all of those cases, only two of those guys did such while I was in a relationship. The rest were “friends”, or so I thought.

In the end the phrase “not all men but (almost) always a man” seems to generally hold true. I don’t automatically distrust guy friends but the instant one starts making weird comments or testing boundaries, I call it out now instead of giving the benefit of the doubt. Especially at our ages (late 20s to mid 30s) we should know better! IMO the best ally these guys have is our own self-doubt/guilt and not wanting to make them out to be the bad guy or being overly sensitive. Learning, sadly much later, how common this was and that, yes, even “good” guys can in fact not be good, was a painful lesson. Thank christ I never had an interest in bad boys lol.

Ghosts hate this one weird trick!

There are always loads of desks on MP, sometimes genuine solid wood ones and not pressed wood + laminate, and they’re usually quite cheap compared to retail price. I got a solid wood, like actual proper wood, desk off MP a few years ago for like $10, the dude just wanted it out of his house bc he was moving. It sucks but big + heavy + highly competitive item = taking a loss.

If your area is anything like mine, there’s dozens and dozens of desks in better condition/undamaged, sometimes even NIB, for cheap and they’re probably all the same junk quality anyways. What you paid for it new from a retailer != its value to a buyer.

This is so cool!! Love the eyes and lil suckers!

If you haven’t kept up, the supermarket simulator series is fantastic!

Rip to the theory that it would be a cool icon or something other than a plain C :’(

I appreciate the thorough response. IIRC that was a problem when image gen was rolling out in mainstream right? I remember seeing some hilarious(ly awful) snafus of “diverse” Nazis. It makes sense to try to be neutral and reflect the dataset that way, even if the dataset is itself unbalanced.

I guess my frustration is it just reinforces white as a “default” and Asian (or really any non-white race) as inherently other. Being Asian, it would be nice to see ourselves reflected in an interpretation of anime. This is so small and truly not a big deal but it’s like seeing a western live action adaptation of an anime and everyone is white — Avatar isn’t (strictly speaking) anime, but it reminds me of the Shyamalan adaptation.

Hopefully we can get more balanced datasets in future. Racial bias in AI is a touchy topic but it is interesting to see it so visually here.

But why default to white each time?

In fairness, 350 USD is the same price OP paid in CAD so I guess it does seem a pretty decent price.

Wish I could upvote more than once. It is a mindfuck to say the least and especially the part about warming up to the abuse, particularly when they think the victim is well and truly trapped, has sadly happened so so many times to so so many women (happened to my mom). It’s something I don’t think many people fully grasp about abuse, it’s a frog boiling kinda thing and you don’t really realize it until it’s too late. By then you’ve been whittled down so much your boundary for what is unforgivable has shifted considerably.

God though, the amount of posts I’ve seen where after they get married/pregnant a woman’s bf/husband does a 180 really is scary. I sometimes wonder how they can hide it so well, or if it’s just that by that point the red flags have been so small they haven’t set off alarm bells yet.

Yup, at some point they have to want to help themselves. I’ve made it clear for instance that I’m there if something goes wrong but I’m not going to reward learned helplessness and perpetuate that cycle.

It’s a fine line between recognizing some of this cycle does require an internal effort to break out of versus outright victim blaming, and online makes it tough for nuance.

And many abusers are great manipulators, they don’t usually come out with their red flags a-blazing (if only). They’re good at exploiting weaknesses and they’re good at sniffing out former abuse victims ime but they also are exploiting things that many women are raised to be (people pleasing, demure, etc) and there is added pressure to be those things societally, especially to their male partners. Those behaviors even sometimes get ignored or waved off so they never get challenged by outsiders either. Like boys in middle school approaching girls and invading their personal space, snapping bras, flipping skirts, even adult men catcalling, it starts small imo and then balloons into stuff like controlling male friends their partners talk to.

If I had to compare it, I guess it’s like weight loss? If only it were as easy as to simply consume less. It’s complicated and difficult. But generally, shaming people is a terrible way to encourage weight loss and you kind of have to straddle the line between that and encouraging someone to take healthier steps. In the end though they have to want it, and no amount of external encouragement is going to change what needs to.

The part that always gets me is they are clearly crying for help, but then double down and say their guy is “really a good guy besides [glaring obvious dealbreaker issue]” and everyone doesn’t know all the good things about him. I’ve had friends who I had to ask to stop venting about their shitty bfs to me because it would turn into them venting ➡️ me criticizing the bf ➡️ them breaking down defending him. Like clockwork.

I do think part of it is something similar to how women struggle to leave abusive relationships because they can’t square the abuse with the abuser (my mom did for over a decade), they think oh he’s just bad when xyz, he has bad days, etc. Even if the guy isn’t outright abusive I see a lot of the same thought processes. IMO a part of it is also women being socialized from birth to accommodate men and put their needs second. Like, you grow up learning you should be “kind” above anything else and that good girls are obedient/subservient/etc and that “women’s work” is inherently lesser and demeaning…and is it shocking they grow into women who feel guilty standing up to their dickhead husbands who won’t change a nappy? It’s beyond depressing.

I have diagnosed ADHD and ASD and have been met with this same bs from some doctors and psychs — can’t possibly be autistic/have ADHD because I had good grades/finished uni/am employed in some capacity. It’s wild. Both are disabilities but people with disabilities can still thrive in certain areas. There are absolutely people with ADHD and/or autism who are gainfully employed, went to uni, got good grades, etc. There are people with ADHD who are doctors ffs.

Seek a second opinion, this guy may be right or wrong about you having ADHD but his reasoning is insane. He also shouldn’t be prescribing meds like candy based on that reasoning.

4o yassified him, goddamn

Some places are jerks about it though, I’ve rented my entire life and had LLs who consider things like that to be “damages” and will absolutely fine you if they find out, I’ve had a LL flip out over Philips Hue smart lights which don’t even really need to be “installed” like a bidet or thermostat does! Then there are nice ones who don’t really care what you do so long as you put things as they were when you leave. It’s an interesting spectrum. Recently had a LL who refused to let us install a smart lock or thermostat and then ended up installing one when we were about to move out, was mildly infuriating lol. My current one does surprise inspections and told us we needed explicit written permission for any changes to the fixtures which is fun.

That said, full agree and what they don’t know technically won’t hurt them. It doesn’t damage anything and unless something goes horribly wrong, there’s really no traces left behind. A decent LL understands that. But some LLs are extremely controlling and/or just not good LLs and OP’s sound of the latter type :/

These are cute but like others said, economy isn’t doing hot and non-necessary purchases slow down a lot. At a glance as a buyer, I didn’t even realize there was a crochet gummy bear! IMO that’s really cute but the buckets themselves feel very interchangeable outside of the extra decoration (bucket, ribbons, paper cutouts) + no obvious handmade element, so they do kind of feel like a hard sell at $30 - even though they are likely worth that much in your time and effort + materials cost.

A few posters mentioned a lack of clear theming and I think that would help a ton in making these attractive to buyers! Unfortunately though, for myself at least, I would say that unless the candies are in some way handmade, I would rather buy from a candy seller than a bouquet maker if that makes sense. If you’re into crochet, maybe angling into that might help more! Either way, really cute - just hard to sell esp in today’s climate :(

That is so, so weird. I wish I could offer more info but my best guess is maybe someone is fucking with your packages, whether at the warehouse, delivery, or even on your porch. Given they're limiting your return options, maybe it's on Amazon's end...but if your parcel was opened, my initial gut reaction is porch pirate? The intro post suggests it's only Amazon parcels with this issue which is extra weird.

I've read emailing [jeff@amazon.com](mailto:jeff@amazon.com) works here but I dunno if that holds up, might be worth a shot. You can try contacting CS too since this seems too consistent to be a few one-off bad apples.

Until then, as much as it is less convenient I would probably shop in-store and shift away from Amazon since you're likely wasting a lot of time/energy/money on getting the wrong stuff and having to return it.

I order a fair bit (usually cat treats) and also very rarely get a wrong item, esp an item in a completely different category. Not one to ride Amazon’s d but I can give them that much and since I too live near a warehouse I get cat stuff quicker than Chewy.

Are you ordering from third party sellers a lot? That sounds really unusual but you could just be unlucky. I’ve heard Amazon does restrict/take action against “problem” accounts - I return maybe 5-10% of what I buy, only ever bc of damage, and I always have the option to print a UPS label and drop it off and/or take it to UPS. Did you used* to have that option and it’s gone now?

Either way super sorry this is happening :/ It sounds incredibly annoying and CS is basically no help at all, I’d bet the rep says something to get you off their back with no actual help.

I'm glad to see that's "ex" 👊

What is a box if not a really inconvenient backpack /s

Pardon the dust and cat hair!

Imo it’s a problem when it is interesting with other aspects of your life. If a hot woman asks you for sex and you, idk, skip work or neglect your kids or whatever for it, that’s absolutely in the realm of unhealthy or even addict(like) behavior. If you’re neglecting basic self care tasks or homework or doing the dishes to jerk off to porn all the time, if you feel compelled to consume porn even if you don’t want to…I do think that edges uncomfortably close to addiction. The same way I’d say someone who feels compelled to doomscroll, even if they want to stop, is flirting with something that sure looks like addiction.

If it’s not interfering with your life or causing distress and specifically in the case of porn, impacting your sexual health (either on your own or with a partner) then it’s whatever. Some men end up with ED because of overconsumption of porn and that is a clear sign to stop and get help. As for porn itself, a lot of people have ethical qualms about traditional porn but that’s not really within the scope of this. Sounds like you’re of two minds, you can’t resist the temptation but you also feel in control of your use. I’d probably step back and disconnect porn from masturbation and sensuality in general; you can have a healthy, sexual relationship with yourself and your body without relying on porn to get there, and if you feel like you “always slip” that kind of sounds like it might be worth at least trying to do it without.

Your brain is wired to reinforce pathways you frequently use, if you’re always using porn to destress or whatever you will eventually train yourself to be dependent on it. It’s not quite like heroin etc but it does play on the literal most naturally rewarding pleasure pathway we have (orgasm), so it’s not surprising it becomes addicting in some ways. And of course, worth noting porn isn’t exactly good for forming an understanding of healthy sexuality and sex. If I had a nickel for every time some dude slapped a coochie or a girl supposedly came a gazillion times bc pp so beeg or the weird pseudoincest stuff, I’d be richer than Bezos hahaha