I used to agree with that. But then Covid happened and I listened to people on the radio call in saying “we gotta let a few old people go to save the exonomy.” As though human life was an acceptable cost.

I genuinely thought people at least were ignorant to the death tole to then but I was mistaken. It got so bad the host cut off calls.

The vaccine then came out and I watched millions shun it, despite being shown to be safe and effective. Sure, some folks thought they were dangerous (disinformation and all) but that radio show told me, some people want the world to burn.

There are people who saw devastation and don’t get vaccinated because it’s an acceptable loss.

This is about 2 decades old now but a bunch of people tried something sorta like a pacing car https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoETMCosULQ

I actually ended up switching to Kagi for this exact reason. Google is basically AI at the start usually spouting nonsense then sponsor posts and then a bunch of SEO optimized BS.

Thankfully paying for search circumvents the ads and it hasn’t been AI by default (it has it but it’s off) and the results have been generally closer to 2010s Google.

Ironically a common writing technique is B->C dialog.

Basically cutting out the preamble and post dialog. Most times even in my writing I include “Hello” since that would stand out, but generally get right to the point.

You see this a lot in movies too, if done well it blends in since your scene is focusing on the action and not rambling on.

There are exceptions (teens talking may include a “no you hang up” trope for comedic effect) but that’s used sparingly.

Honestly the only time I’ve said this it was a relief to know that the answer was yes, because while it sucks others are hurting it made me feel far less alone and obscure.