this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
112 points (91.2% liked)

Showerthoughts

42120 readers
254 users here now

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:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • 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.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] vandsjov@feddit.dk 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

When a person is an ass, the word "ass" is a negative stigma. When an animal is an ass, it's just a donkey.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago

A person can also have a nice ass

[–] orenj@leminal.space 1 points 6 days ago

Or my cat, where it gains affectionate connotations

[–] meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Wine is an alcoholic beverage. Vodka is an alcoholic's beverage.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 6 days ago

Wine is Not an Emulator

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Context matters. Go figure

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

If you drink enough vodka, your blood becomes alcoholic.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In portuguese, we have a different word for alcoholic person (alcoolatra), which helps avoid this

[–] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

And it's got "cool" right in the name!

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's also nearly impossible to defend alcohol consumption without sounding like an alcoholic.

[–] little_tuptup@sh.itjust.works 0 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I'll take a stab at it.

It's a safe drinking supply. That's a big part of why humans drank it for thousands of years.

[–] JennaR8r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 days ago

Sure before modern civilized times when the water supply was filthy with human waste, that's why everyone had to drink alcohol. Because they polluted their own water supply with shit. Glad science figured things out and got us back to drinking water again.

The idea that people drank beer because it was safer than water is a myth. They drank for the exact same reason we do today…you get a buzz. A side benefit was that beer had calories in a drinkable form. The safety of the drink, as in not full of harmful microbes, was an indirect but not primary benefit.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 points 6 days ago

"Damn it, Beer, you're alcoholic!"

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 3 points 6 days ago

If the adjective means, "has or pertaining to containing alcohol," then it's simply the chronic condition of a human choosing to be that way that draws the stigma.

[–] anakin78z@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

One is a noun, the other an adjective, and as such they carry different meanings. For example, someone could eat a tart (baked good) that is not tart (sour).

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

Off a tart - pretty freakin' sweet

[–] DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Dammit DaMonsterKnees, you have Lupis.

[–] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 2 points 6 days ago

It's never lupus.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

No, on the beverage and food, it is a stigma, too.

[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (3 children)

You have discovered homonyms

[–] orenj@leminal.space 5 points 6 days ago

Homonyms should not exist, get a new sound. i am the #1 homophobe

Wait, not like that

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This bothers me. I looked it up and it's right, but I want it to be wrong for words that have the same root meaning. It's not like skate (the fish) and skate (the activity). You're an alcoholic because your blood is alcoholic. They're so closely related.

Does this mean every second definition of a word in the dictionary is also a homonym? How different does it need to be?

I hate English.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago

Does this mean every second definition of a word in the dictionary is also a homonym? How different does it need to be?

"homonym" == "same-name", so, yes by definition. it has the same name as another definition.

[–] icanbrewmushrooms@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

You're an alcoholic because your blood is alcoholic.

This is false, that's not what the noun 'alcoholic' means.

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Being an alcoholic is a negative trait; a Martini cannot beat his wife in drunken rage.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

#NotAllAlcoholics 🍸

[–] Uranus_Hz@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In Wisconsin “alcoholic” is only an adjective.

We don’t have alcoholics in the other sense here, just “professionals”.

[–] fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 days ago (3 children)
[–] Uranus_Hz@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

You would think that a state with such a high rate of heavy drinking coupled with pretty lenient DUI penalties would be a very dangerous place to drive, and yet Wisconsin ranks 34th (out of 50) for drunk driving deaths per capita.

[–] JennaR8r@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago

Wow, look at the contrast between Nevada and its neighboring states Utah & Idaho. Imagine being an alcoholic in Nevada then crossing the border to a soda pop state. "I'm cured!" 🤣

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

West Virginia surprised me, Wisconsin didn't

[–] radiofreebc@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Are you kidding? For a lot of alcoholics, their only redeeming quality (to their friends) is the fact that they're an alcoholic. It's an identity for a lot of people without one.

Sad but probably true... I was gonna say "I wouldn't know" but then I recalled my army days, lol.