Vodulas

joined 1 year ago
[–] Vodulas 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Can't sell you out if you never bought in

[–] Vodulas 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Discord works great on Linux nowadays. Depending on the game, anti-cheat might also be fine. I play Helldivers 2 without any issues. It's fine if you don't have the oomph, but Pop_OS and Bazzite are both super solid ditros with a gaming focus. I have been using Pop as my only OS on my desktop for months now and really only needed the command line for VPN access and Switch modding

[–] Vodulas 4 points 2 months ago

So depending on the cat breed… virtually no difference at all. The larger of the 2 cats that we feed (shed cat, remember “feral”)… is 20-22 pounds (the smaller brother is 16-17 lbs). He is just as heavy as an average bobcat. Though admittedly less “stocky”. But my point is that they’re similar, “virtually the same” or “barely different”. I never claimed 1:1. But if they’re 99% the same… then it’s the same. Marginally larger is not sufficient argument that they’re different. Bob cats are not like mountain lions. They’re not “huge”.

Just because some domestic cats can get as big as some bobcats does not make that the norm. Also, size is not the only differentiator, which is why I brought up breeding, food source, and habitat.

Check the graph of your own source…https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380/figures/2 It shows that normal owned domestic cats are not the issue, which is exactly what the comic is pointing “fun” at. The “owner” that feeds the cat and lets them outside from time to time are nowhere near the problem. You’re context switching between “Feral” and owned and claiming that everything is bad when it’s only one category or the other. This is literal bad faith argument.

Domestic cats and feral cats are the same species, so I apologize for not making that distinction in the one sentence. It is an easy mistake to make, and you did the same thing in your next paragraph:

Further… No, domestic cats don’t “tend” to live in colonies. They only do so only due to food issues and will arguably NEVER create social group unless it’s required.

And went on to describe feral cats. That being said, I literally said feral cats were the problem. From my previous comment:

The comic itself is about pets, not feral cats, so it makes sense that OP would be focusing on that. Feral cats are the biggest problem in the discussion about killing native wildlife (birds in particular).

Talking about bad faith, the part you left out in the description of feral cats is:

This does not inevitably happen, and some will live singly, **but it is not uncommon for small groups of co-operating females and kittens (matrilinear colonies) to develop. **

That [...] did a lot of heavy lifting in your version...

actually means 1.2 as an average… 1.2 and 1.4 isn’t that far apart.

That is a 15% difference, which in breeding numbers is huge. And this is talking about number of litters, so doesn't even get down to total number of kittens born (although litter size is pretty similar). Also of note, bobcats don't generally start breeding until their second year. Domestic cats start at 6 months of age, which is why we fix cats as soon as possible.

Then this comic doesn’t apply to a very large subset of owners who do the right thing and virtually all cats that make it to any human system at all. Now you can fuck off with pushing it onto everyone which is what OP is doing in half of their posts in this thread.

Who said it was about responsible cat owners? Show me where I said all cat owners do this? Or OP for that matter? He has been responding to folks that literally say they let their pet cats outside.

That makes the comic fucking stupid. It makes the OP a jackass for targeting a group of people who aren’t the problem.

The comic is about the health of the cats. Feral cats came up as a natural progression of that discussion. I don't actually like the comic, but it isn't about the health of wildlife in any way that I can see, but about the health of house cats. It is pretty well documented that outdoor cats do not live as long as indoor only cats.

And makes you an accomplice for shilling it as well by conflating the two groups of problem as if they’re the same.

Again, when did I say they are the same group? This particular thread was because someone unrelated said domestic cats would be outside if humans weren't involved.

[–] Vodulas 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Again, I never said other cats would not exist. The comic is about domestic cats, not native cats.

Bobcats are wildly different from domestic cats. For instance, they don't decimate local bird populations and they are generally solitary creatures. Domestic cats tend to live in colonies and do in fact decimate bird populations. In regards to juvenile bobcats, their range increases and they move to their own, mostly solitary, range as they get older. Domestic cats don't grow out of living in a feral colony. Bobcats breed less frequently (usually once, but sometimes twice a year) whereas domestic cats tend to have more than one litter a year (1.4 on average), so their numbers go up a lot faster. Adult bobcats are also 2-3 times as big as adult domestic cats.

And yet… OP is in the thread judging everyone for ANY cat being outside Not talking about “feral” at all and specifically goes out of their way to include ALL domestic cats period.

The comic itself is about pets, not feral cats, so it makes sense that OP would be focusing on that. Feral cats are the biggest problem in the discussion about killing native wildlife (birds in particular). The thing is, you don't get feral cats without people letting their unfixed house cats roam free. This is also leaving out the fact the that letting a house cat roam free is bad for the cat itself (shorter lifespans and more diseases/parasites), which is, at least as I have been reading it, is where OP is coming from.

[–] Vodulas 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I agree with the point of the cartoon, but I also agree it is not a good cartoon. There are bits of ableism and in general it just seems like it wants to be shocking to get a reaction. It is a good topic to discuss, but there are better ways to go about it.

[–] Vodulas 5 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Where did I say that? Felis catus aka the domestic cat would not be in North America. In fact, as I learned when doing research into their native habitat, domestic cats only exist because of artificial selection, so would not be anywhere. In regards to native species in North America, domestic cats hunt different species of animals compared to the native counterparts. They also tend to do so in smaller ranges, with higher numbers in smaller areas. For instance, bobcats tend to have ranges from about 3-8 square miles, with variations based on age, sex, and season. They hunt rabbits (and other rodents) and medium to large birds. Domestic cats hunt small rodents and birds, but live in much smaller areas with much higher numbers packed into that small area.

I do agree that humans are the problem. Letting cats outside, not getting them fixed, essentially creating feral cat colonies is the problem. I don't think anyone saying you should not let your cats outside is saying anything besides that.

[–] Vodulas 19 points 2 months ago

This is a good overview for folks that think cats should be outside. This particular quote stands out:

Although originally bred from their wild counterparts, domestic cats (which include feral felines and pets) are not native to any ecosystem, making them an invasive species everywhere they exist

https://www.popsci.com/environment/outdoor-cats-spread-diseases/

[–] Vodulas 9 points 2 months ago (6 children)

In their native habitat, not in North America. Probably, at least. Who knows, there wouldn't be anyone around to know

[–] Vodulas 4 points 2 months ago

Seattle too. Honestly I think it is just the nature of big cities where most middle to lower class folks can't afford live in them.

[–] Vodulas 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Netflix executives, apparently.

[–] Vodulas 8 points 2 months ago

Honestly I think that is just the extremely online left. Everyone I know IRL is like, yeah, the dems suck, fuck capitalism, but can you imagine how much worse it would be under Trump?

[–] Vodulas 2 points 2 months ago

I have Mint on a very old MacBook. It is definitely more akin to Windows. I went went Pop on my desktop due to the baked in Nvidia drivers. Of the 2, I prefer Pop by a long mile. To my eye, Pop is just more modern design wise and simpler to use

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