this post was submitted on 30 Nov 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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    • 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.
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Sounds familiar?

British Empire?

American Colonies?

Time is a circle.

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[–] CapnClenchJaw@lemmy.world 53 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So, a Martian Congressional Republic? It does sound like something those damned dusters would pull.

What next? The denizens of the asteroid belt calling for more rights and designating an Outer Planet Alliance, while a mysterious proto-molecule wreaks havoc on the Solar System?

[–] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oye kopeng, beltalowda need dem OPA to protect our rights. Sasa ke?

[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Ayo can I get a translation for us planetside? I no sasa

[–] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Hello friend, us Belters need the OPA to protect our rights, you know?

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 28 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Not terribly far off the plot of one of the great works of science fiction

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

My personal #1. Got to meet Le Guin at a play in Portland.

Also, the colonists from the view of the oppressor are "free on paper only" from their view.

[–] nymnympseudonym@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago

All her books are life-impacting

Would have loved to have been able to be yet another fan telling her how much she affected my life

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[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.today 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And then they all start talking like Texans, until the ring gates open.....

[–] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Alternately, a buggalo ranch, named the Wong place.

[–] mech@feddit.org 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

80+% of earth's surface is still completely uninhabited by humans.
I'm talking about the sea floor, Antarctica, most of Australia, most of Siberia, the high mountain ranges, and the Sahara.
It would be so much easier to build colonies there than on Mars.
Even if our worst predictions about climate change come true, hell even if warming was twice as bad, they would still be much more hospitable to human life than Mars.

We haven't colonized those places, because it simply isn't worth the effort.
So why would it be worth the much, much bigger effort to settle on Mars?

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But I want the Expanse timeline 🥺

(minus the blue goo, fuck that shit)

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Risk aversion alone makes it worth having 2 plants colonized. Putting all your eggs in one planet basket is poor long term risk management. But that's more thinking in the hundreds of thousands and millions of years before that becomes relevant.

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

People desperate to live on their own terms may think it's very much worth the effort. The pilgrims, buckle-headed weirdoes they were, probably thought as much when they boarded the Mayflower.

[–] PillowTalk420@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Sound familiar?

Yeah, it's the basis for a lot of sci-fi stories; though China is interchangable with any country, corporation, or mega rich jackass.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Bear Head is one of those variations.

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hey, will there also be slaves in this new "beacon of freedom"?

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

[错误 404: Comment 已被删除]

We’d be lucky to even live to see a human on Mars.

[–] reddit_sux@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah but in expanse it's implied global government through UN was formed first and then the colonies. So it wasn't a single country's colony.

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[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Only problem with this theory is there is no native population to exploit. Colonialism/empirism fails when you can't subjugate anyone.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But the US didn't really have any natives to exploit either, they basically genocided them. The exploitation was mostly done with enslaved Africans who they kidnapped and trafficked to the Americas.

So all they need to do is just bring over a population to exploit.

(Which I'm not saying is in anyway okay btw, fuck slavery.)

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[–] MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago

China has enough subjugated people at home, they will just bring someone to feel superior to

[–] melfie@lemy.lol 2 points 1 month ago

The trip to Mars will be similarly expensive to a trip to the New World back in the day. I can imagine history rhyming with something akin to indentured servitude. Especially if the rockets and resources on Mars are owned by billionaires like Musk.

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Only if they name the colony "Elon is a little bitch", but in Chinese. (Translation?)

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I actually don't know enough curse words / insults.

Maybe like: 伊隆係個死八婆 (Cantonese for "Elon is a dead bitch", in Cantononese, they add "dead" in front of curseword nouns to make it more dramatic lol, its shall not be construed as an actual threat, legally speaking)

Or maybe: 埃隆有小鸡鸡 (Mandarin for "Elon has a small dick" ? Idk I heard other Mandarin-speaking classmates say it.)

Deal. Is there a phonetic pronunciation you can help with?

[–] Aqarius@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

...Why is the first sign different? The first two would be "e-lon", right?

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Cantonese vs Mandarin

Different Sounds, Different Transliterations.

Idk how those even work, but that's just what the wikipedia says.

The reverse transliteration also has differences.

Like...

A Mainlander and a Hong Konger also have different name transliterations.

黃家駒 is "Wong Ka Kui" in Hong Kong, but if he had been a Mainlander, it'd be "Huang Jiaju".

Heck, even Taiwan use different transliterations, even tho its the same Mandarin as Mainland, like Tsai ing-wen would be Cai Yingwen, if she was a Mainlander

[–] Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

All I can think of is that meme of those 2 star wars characters. "Now there are two of them!"

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Yep, and then they become an imperialist oligarchy.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They already have a few of those right now. They don't seem too keen on letting them go.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Tbf, distance between Earth and Mars is way farther than England and American Colonies. A Martian revolution has much higher chance success.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

This is assuming a lot about China's capability of creating a self sustaining life support system on a dead planet.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Not an expert in this, but since east-asians are more family/clan oriented, i do think they are less likely to focus on individual freedom.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Fuck.

Maybe add some westernized Overseas Chinese to the mix... see what happens? xD

I could lead the Martian Revolution xD

[–] webp@mander.xyz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

But there is not much on Mars. With the new world, there were tons of resources to steal and make wealth off of.

[–] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

The disrespect for iron in this comment is too damn high.

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Down with Ultor! Glory to the Red Faction!

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

China would need to go through the same social progress that Europe did during the renaissance.

So you’ll need to kill off the CCP so that the people can start getting some liberty and freedoms.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Its so ironic how the first line of PRC anthem is

“起来,不愿做奴隶的人们” ("Arise, people who refuse to be slaves")

Then we get... this... gestures at Mainland China

like...

lmao

Omg they play that shit like everyday, I have that PRC anthem stuck in my head, I can still kinda remember it lol.

I remember when I was a kid, I kinda wanna sneak into the broadcast room and like... mess with stuff... you know, I was 6-7 and curious. But they locked the door to that room.

I remember once I didn't wanna do the... I think its the monday thing (or was it a monthly thing?, can't remember), where like they make kids stand in the schoolyard and they make announcement, kinda like how in the US, they made kids go to the Auditorium, know what I mean?

Then I remember the raising the flag ceremony in the schoolyard.

I remember just standing there... listening to some... announcement thing? that I don't remember because it was probably boring as hell. Probably like school related, when tuition is due (I wasn't allowed in public school due to lack of Guangzhou Hukou, but I didn't remember learning about this until later on when I was older), or like when school trips happen, or like when school is off, about academics... I assume that's what the announcements were probably about, I have no memory of any of the content of it.

Sometimes the sun is just shining and it gets like hot and it's annoying to be there and I get tired.

So I remember like one time I didn't feel like being there, I just sneaked away as everyone was in the process going to ans gathering in the schoolyard, and I just hid in the staircase at like the very top (roof access is locked I was lile by that door, but still in the staircase), and I just looked over the schoolyard from the 3rd floor. I just sat on the stairs, my mind wandering, and occasionally looking over to see if they finished the boring-ass "rituals" yet. (Y'all ever hate being in the auditorium for so long? It's like that) I think by the end of it, like it was an hour long or something, some 4/5 grader found me and... told the teacher? and... I don't remember what happened after, probably got in trouble for not being with the class lol.

It's so weird, memories are fuzzy, but I remember the emotions associated with school. I kinda always hated school, like... I'm just socially anxious. Didn't like to conform. I don't remember ever really making friends. (Could be due being uncomfortabke with the language. I spoke Cantonese at home, school was Mandarin, so it felt "distant" to me, like methaphorically speaking, like I'm in a different realm. Or maybe that's just being an introvert.)

My throughts are messy, not sure if any of it was coherent.

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[–] flandish@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

and after a while a regime change leaves an ousted guy running to mars to exile and then use its labor forces as cheap labor for american capitalists who then attempt to pretend mars was never chinese anyway.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Why China tough? They would just be walking in the footsteps of England at that point? Totally lame!

Would be way cooler if you built a chain of rebellions: Rome -> Britannia*/England -> America -> Mars. That’s like next level independenception or something.

*caveats: Britannia did rebel, but independence came when Rome just couldn’t afford to rule Britannia any more. They weren’t kicked out.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Because I'm ethnic Chinese and I'm biased and I wanna see people like me build a place of freedom, a democratic country, a country that I don't get discriminated in. Would be cool, no?

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 2 points 1 month ago

“A new life awaits you in New Taipei”

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah, it’s cool to colonise a new place, but what about the day when the colonists bite the hand that feeds them? In many sci-fi stories, Mars eventually rises against Earth.

History repeats itself, like the episodes of Power Rangers. The writers had only one script, and hardly any creativity, so they just made minor tweaks here and there and turned that napkin into a series.

[–] Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 1 month ago

You definitely should listen to the latest season of the Revolutions podcast!

[–] leftascenter@jlai.lu 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

almost the plot of "The moon is a harsh mistress."

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