Religion
this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
57 points (76.6% liked)
Ask Lemmy
37739 readers
1241 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Customer service. People have normalized that positions of power can be used to abuse others.
Humans
I think it has to be something that poses an existential threat to human life on this planet, so cars (and other inventions dependent on fossil fuels) is a pretty good pick for the top of the list, IMO. I saw someone in the comments pick animal agriculture, and that, too, contributes to the existential threat of a warming planet; so that, too, feels like a good pick for the top of the list.
For me, though, nuclear weapons has to be the worst thing we've ever invented. No other invention is capable of ending human life on this planet so quickly and so thoroughly.
Shareholders.
Social media year over year shows it was a mistake.
Either leaded gasoline or pfas
Leaded gasoline is an Amazing answer. Fuck. Take my UpDoot.
It's likely LLMs in their current corporate circular funding form and cryptocurrency.
car alarms
industrialization.
it's caused unfathomable damage to us, our planet, and the organisms we share our world with.
it's also saved just as many as it's harmed, but there is an upper limit when our planet dies and we all die with it.
Advertising.
Some level of advertising is surely okay, right?
If I open a bakery and put a sign out front that says "Baked good for sale!" I don't think anyone would complain but that IS advertising.
This begs the question: What level of advertising is okay?
A level that does't require selling people's data
I can't specify a threshold, but it really comes down to the level of invasiveness.
This begs the question
Nope. It just raises the question.
I miss the days of requesting big thick catalogues be sent to you in the mail from companies you’d want to do business with. They’d send you a catalogue once or twice a year and then stop if you don’t buy anything for a while. I think that was a good method, the same way I don’t mind seeing other things available on websites I’m buying from.
I also don’t mind stuff like local coupon/advert mailers that come once a month or whatever, but those tend to all just be big companies advertising “sales” that always run these days, rather than anyone I’d want to try to support. But I like the idea of packaging up all the ads they want to send out and delivering them in one go. Maybe with an opt-out. All other junk mail, stuff you didn’t request, should be banned.
And I think signage on store windows and stuff is fine, as long as it’s not an eyesore, but billboards and rooftop signage should definitely be banned. Protruding signs like that hang off the side of buildings should also go.
Meatspace advertisements are the worst imo, because there’s very little you can do to avoid them.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Capitalism.
Cars are too prevalent in most countries, but they are undeniably very useful when used correctly. I would probably say the social media does more harm than cars, but idk if it's the worst invention. Lots of candidates.
I've been alive long enough to have become an adult before social media happened.
Social media is the correct answer.
I've never witnessed something have a more detrimental effect on society.
As an American, our discourse, especially political, went absolutely apeshit at the same time social media and smart phones started becoming a household thing. We absolutely would not be in the situation we currently find ourselves if not for social media.
There are simply too many ignorant humans for social media to be anything other than a total disaster.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Lead pipes.
Leaded gasoline has to be worse.
Lead pipes are fine. Step 1: Install. Step 2: ignore one generation of aggressive residents. Step 3: never touch the pipes again
The corporation.
Religion. So many of today's issues stem from the magical thinking inherent in religion.
It's easily disprovable, but even in the face of countless arguments against it, people still willingly throw themselves into it by the millions. They're too fearful of the unknown, they're fearful of belonging somewhere when we die and religion is the prime example of how easily controllable people are when they're fearful.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Slavery. Even after banning it pretty much everywhere, people still find ways to treat others as disposable property.
Head on! Apply directly to the forehead
https://youtu.be/Is3icfcbmbs
Never actually did anything and never actually claimed to. Most people assumed it was a headache relief but the company never said that. They just said to put the shit on your forehead
Chemical weapons
So far crypto currencies. So far they seem to expend a huge amount of electricity and used mostly for speculation.
Disposable vapes come to mind, although the real answer is probably some extremely depraved torture device.
24 hour news networks.
News used to just be the news when there was a half hour of local, half hour of national twice per night with a morning show for fluff, weather, and brief news updates. 24 hour news needed to fill the whole 24 hours and also pay for itself by getting eyeballs on advertisers. That’s when all of the sensationalist stuff started taking over.
A financial system that breeds billionaires
Greed
Greed isn't an invention, it's a personality defect
view more: next ›