this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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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:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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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.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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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.
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Locke. That's the name Peter used. Valentine used Demosthenes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Hegemon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Puppets
Together they created polarized populace ideology that ultimately allowed Locke (Peter) to win.
Peter is a verifiable sociopaths in the book. And against his nature becomes a "good" ruler.
In reality. This is not how sociopaths behave. They are selfish by the very definition and care only for power and personal gain.
Peter is a problematic character.
Reminds me of Dexter. I love the Dexter show. But Dexter as a person type does not exist in the real world. Vigilante serial killers are a thing, yes. But Dexter only targets bad guys because he dad told him that it will make it easier to not get caught.
Real serial killers have basically kinks or fixations on targets. It's often sexual for them.
Dexter is portrayed as mostly asexual with a handful of exceptions. And sexual gratification never being part of his murders.
Anyway. I'm just explaining how often sociopathic people are often glamorized in media to make them out as some sort of savior.
They absolutely are not. Glamorizing sociopathic tendencies is how trump got elected and why so many such people are running billionaire companies.
Hoarding wealth doesn't make you smart/genius/inventor. It just means you have no integrity. No empathy or sympathy.
Sorry, getting off topic.
Peter becomes a very interesting character. But aside from his early behaviors in the series, he is not consistent with a sociopath. Instead of orson writing him as evolving past his early mindset. He just dumps some exposition or a statement every now and then to remind us Peter is a sociopath. As he has no behaviors consistent with that label. Instead it's just used as a way to remind us why valentine doesnt trust him.
She could have remained untrusting of him regardless if his behaviors changed or not. Because of their histories.
Anywho
Locke is based on John locke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke
Demosthenes : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosthenes
I remember the same confusion when I read it. I think the only logical conclusion for the story to hold together is that childhood bullying != sociopath.
It's been about a decade since I read them but I did read all the ender books. I recall that I quite liked them but they weren't perfect and I was always annoyed at some of the labels being thrown around without any strong evidence.
I remember there was some inconsistencies or plot holes around the people with genetic OCD. But I can't recall why I felt that way, only that I did.
I did appreciated the true use of time distortions from space travel. Which is rarely done in scifi.
I can see why they are considered one of the top scifi series ever written.
At least they don't go into fever dream territory like the last few dune books.