Mearcfara

It's a dick move to say something like that to someone else, especially in a public setting.

I developed prosopagnosia (face blindness) after a brain injury in the military. As a rule I try not to bring up my work history, but that phrase pisses me off enough that I'll let myself break the rule under those circumstances.

My issue with this is that it seems to imply that the elites don't want us engaging with any media at all (probably partially true- an uneducated/apathetic population is easier to govern). However, it seems that you assume that the media itself has integrity, which I would argue is flat out not the case, except for maybe one or two outliers like AGNB/Channel 5 (and even he has bias and some skeletons in the closet).

I would argue that this collective loss of media integrity, in America at least, goes back to at least the 1880's, and the point of no return could marked to a few years before 1974, when Christine Chubbuck killed herself on live TV in protest of sensationalism in the press.

This does not mean that going the way of the ostrich is the right way, however. It just means that I think we can get a better result out of honing our powers of discernment and logic so we can figure out what exactly we believe, and then carve the bullshit off whatever the media is trying to feed us so we can figure out what's actually going on. Or, even better, not even seek out the information, but allow the information to come to us, where we can apply these same tools and get a good answer.

Elon likely never read Foundation, and it's frustrating that he's getting credit for it.

I do firmly put that on the people not doing their research, though. We should absolutely be bullying the shit out of people for being disingenuous in this way.

Thank you so much for taking the time to lay that all out for me. I'm sure you've had to do it once or twice already, lol. I'll absolutely start curating the stuff I'd rather see. Maybe part of the friction I'm feeling is a procedural rub with marxists/leninists, and it would make sense/be hilarious if I've wandered into the middle of their space.

Do you have any less political servers you'd recommend? Besides the servers/services you recommended? Or is it largely an issue with the server i'm on?

That you know of

I don't keep up with the news, is this something someone like mr. Beast did?

I think this is a little bit outside of the ask, but I'd like to find a place that is both positive and relatively politically neutral.

Part of what drive me here was that the tip of the iceberg (facebook, instagram, tiktok) feel so deeply infused with ads/ai/influencers that even the content I like is likely deceitful. This bums me out and makes me not want to use social media.

Places like reddit and any of the #chans have less of this, but the baked-in politics in both make of them bum me out.

I like that Lemmy feels like it's actual people, but the politics and negativity can get to be a little much for me. I don't like to think about things I don't like, and while I can the value in being informed of things that I may need to act on, I don't think that constantly bringing up things we take for granted is helpful.

What I want to be doing is getting to build and be a part of something positive and purposeful, something people do because they're passionate, something that is so cool that the shitty stuff outside kind of pales in comparison. I've met lots of cool people on here that are that way, and I've been able to filter some of the negativity out by ignoring posts that I know will bring that out in people, but still, it would be cool to see something like that.

I hope it's as simple as finding the right instance for me.

I love this idea. It would also be a lot of fun to load in niche locomotive sounds and see the secret train nerds light up when they hear a DC-10 or whatever

It's cool that they copped to it as well as they did. I wouldn't have expected that.

I think longer writeups help to provide for the inevitable nitty-gritty (you can't click the button because it's not there, etc) while also provide for holistic development, kind of like how incognito mode doesn't really mean anything because google is still tracking you.

A few things motivate me to move to Linux. I've been made aware of the privacy concerns with Microsoft, and since they're sunsetting Win10, I expect there's a bunch of security exploits that will be leveraged almost immediately. I also don't like doing things I can't lay out logically, and I haven't been given good enough reasons to get a new OS/machine, especially because tech is a very small part of my life (I have a thinkpad from 2012 and use it like your grandma uses her PC). Improved UI, inclusion of AI, and whatever other capabilities are things I didn't ask for. That leads into the principle of the argument, I just won't be in an abusive money-based relationship with anyone, person or corporation. Microsoft doesn't seem like they'd be a good friend, or even a good business partner, and I don't like the underlaying vibe I get from the services they provide, so I just won't participate in whatever they've got going.

Linux, on the other hand, seems to be functional enough to meet my needs and comes without all of the other stuff Microsoft does that I've already complained about. In other words, Linux seems like a Honda Civic, and I'm good with that.

I appreciated your description of the depression loop that came from the exposé youtube videos on Win11. It's something I'm deeply aware of within my own life (I started with the Christine Chubbuck thing) and have taken leaps to get away from that whole cycle of mental torture (it feels kind of Plato's allegory of the cave). Have you been able to develop/connect/apply that line of thought elsewhere in your life?

I'm not aware of the stuff with Firefox specifically, but I think I can agree with the premise. It seems that this boils down to the question of whether "good enough" really is.

This line of thinking is particularly relevant within this community. For instance, Proton/Tuta isn't immune to subpoenas, so the only way I can think of to have truly secure email is to have a self-hosted service with a dead man switch. However, most email providers block most self-hosted email servers... so one either needs to compromise, or not participate. It's an uncomfortable place for a lot of people, and calls into question their morals as well as their commitment to the same. I think this is why points that may seem spurious may often creep in, because we're all trying to find something to better inform our decisions in uncertain circumstances.

Of course. It seems that one of the foundational truths of antifascism is the approach that fascism, operates in all tenets of life, not just on the debate floor, and so if one resigns themselves to only confronting fascism using the establishes channels (i.e. voting), they are "leaving the back door open", so to speak.

This leads to a certain suspicion toward all things; for example, not accepting trump's dismissal of project 2025, because it is a forgone conclusion that lying about something that is exactly something a fascist would do.

However, I think that worldview can complicate (and at times create tension with) other discussions, i.e. Proton. Someone who may not consider themselves fascist or antifascist, and just wants to degoogle, may look up Proton and feel as if they don't have the tools to separate the stuff which isn't in the scope of their inquiry from the stuff that does, which what I think is going on here.

To put it another way, it's like someone saying they want a burger and asking if mcdonald's is good, then being told that mcdonald's sucks because their food is unhealthy, they facilitate factory farming, and they take advantage of the economically disadvantaged. While those data points are important to the person sharing their opinion, and may very well extend to the life of the individual asking, it doesn't say anything about whether the food tastes good or not, thereby leaving the initial question unresolved.

So while the data points about proton's CEO (and anyone else who may be implicated) may be true, and while there may be wider implications as well, it can serve to muddy the waters for those who are coming in perpendicular to the conversation.