That was my initial gripe with the other commenters. Nobody ever likes the one-size-fits-all software platforms. It’s always got too much of what you dont want and not enough what you do. All these social platforms are free., why mix them when we can use the ones we want. Installing Lemmy and Bluesky apps is easy, but if you later decide you dont want Bluesky, you just uninstall. If all those people would come here, you’d have to get people to defederate or you have to pack up and leave for another instance. That seems a lot more hassle to me than just using a second app.

Lemmy is great as-is. Let’s be proud of it. It gives me a day’s worth of content as it stands now…probably more than I actually should use it already!

Yup, I just replied to another comment, what’s so bad about having a place that’s just regular people? I enjoy having my comments actually read here and getting to know some of you to some level. I’d lose interest in this place if it turned into new Twitter. I can’t compete with Taylor or Beyonce or whoever the flavor of the week is. We can have both platforms if we so choose, so why wreck one for the sake of another?

Exactly. For all the things that typically get complained about: one product trying to do everything, people coming in to monetize things, feeling like your voice gets lost in oceans of comments, it seems like people forget that when it comes to the Fediverse.

The same guys that spent all that time being mad about potential federation with Threads are mad that this place isn’t going to be Twitter 2.0? It doesn’t make sense to me. If you want ads and celebs, go see them at their place. Keeping this just place us regular people doesn’t need to be a negative. There’s room for both.

I saw the mention of it protecting abortion rights, but I was confused about that because as far as I know, nowhere requires someone to be married for abortions or any type of healthcare.

The quotes and comments I saw made it sound like the stance was this doesnt happen enough we should risk losing any rights unnecessarily, but I feel there should have been some specifics mentions what those rights they’re protecting actually were. The stats seem all over the place too, from as low as IIRC around 50 child marriages since 2019 to an estimated 1600.

This all seems like something people should have some real facts and figures on, but that I cant find them is really raising my eyebrows for a number of reasons.

I don’t disagree that what you’re saying shouldn’t be controversial, but after the crying they’ve had about athletes taking a knee, a one-off promotional beer can, and whatever other snowflake stuff I’ve repressed memories of, it just sounds extremely risky.

Lethal response training as a whole definitely needs work, but it’s something beyond the abilities of volunteer vets and animal handler. It feels like a psychological issue more than an educational one I obviously care about the animals, but shooting people is a greater priority, and reducing that should in turn help the doggos also.

We’re here for fun. Celebs are on social media as part of their brand. It’s them doing business, and they’re going to use what the feel will reach the largest audience with the least effort on their part, and something with corporate backing likely has customer support for moderation, hacking, and whatever else. They’re not here for a digital revolution, they’re here to keep their name and income stream out there.

I imagine it’s the same reasoning why a business will pay for Red Hat when they could run Linux for free. It may or may not be the best option, but they feel it offers tangible benefits.

Rescues have no guaranteed funding. I have not encountered one anywhere in the world that gets a single cent of public money. They also get free help rescuing animals on occasion from police. Even the hint of going after them politically I can guarantee would get them a Bud Light style boycott and nobody wants to be the private business or donor that supports the shelter that hates cops. They don’t have time or resources to deal with that. Drama is the last thing a rescue needs.

I’ve been thinking about how Ukraine has been able to hold out against Russia for so long, but the US just surrendered to them without a fight. Never thought I’d see the day. But at least our pending top intelligence person already has contacts inside the Kremlin… SMH

My first thought was what’s up with California?

I could find a bunch of articles talking about the usual stuff like conservatives and evangelicals arguing in favor of avoiding a ban, but Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are also frequent supporters of avoiding a ban on child marriage. The only reasoning I could find was “we don’t have enough data,” but I’m struggling to think of any positive things about allowing it. From the articles, it sounded like fringe religious beliefs and questionable things regarding immigration laws, but I am skeptical the pros of allowing child marriage for those outweigh a number of cons I could name.

I wasn’t able to find any actual articles from PP or ACLU themselves about it, so does anyone have any insight? This seems a bit out of character for both orgs.

I went to look at your comment. I’ll be polite and summarize it instead of sharing the exact quote.

I was 18 and had a 17 year old girlfriend and we had a ton of sex. That’s what 17 year olds do.

If you don’t understand how the power dynamics are different between 2 nobodies of similar age vs a 17 year old and a 38 year old federal representative and his local gov buddy, you may want to read some things written about consent written in the last decade.

When I was 17, someone almost 40 was considered old as hell.

Edit: Article on coercion vs consent

They had her out of state, where she likely didn’t really know where she was, likely had no one to get help from if she felt she was in a bad situation, and was there with very much more adult authority figures, and there were drugs at the party, so she may have also been under the influence.

You also can’t fault someone for taking time to want to testify. She probably felt at least partially responsible, and he is a national figure. It takes time to get up courage to open yourself up to the whole world getting a chance to say things like you must have wanted it or did something to deserve it.

It is unfortunate. I try and be mindful around new people to look visibly happy, or at least not in a bad mood. But I can’t fault anyone for playing it safe. Especially since being harassed isn’t something you can undo or something anyone should have to build a tolerance for. They may have also been in a previous incident that we don’t know about.

If they’re overreacting or not isn’t really a strangers’ business. We start to venture into egocentrism to think their behaviors have anything to do with us. It’s just a live and let live thing. There’s plenty of people over been nice to, and they still never liked me for one reason or another, but it’s no biggie.

If it was a repeated thing, like they saw you every day and actively avoided you, that’s a somewhat different story, but some person we only see once, it’s not worth the mental energy to worry about it to me.

They do have principles, however oddly flexible they may be.

My family and the gf’s are probably 90% conservative. They know I’m not, and to an extent they treat me differently. But I don’t think they’d wish anything bad on me as they might a stranger.

You see this in the face eating leopard articles where they’re always like “I never wanted them deported, they’re one of the good ones.”. Once they get to know someone, they see they’re really not so different at the core and that they’re good honest people like they see themselves.

I really think it’s just some bad wiring in the empathy part of the brain. Most of these people still have a chance to learn better views on the issues. Some may truly be hateful misanthropes, but I feel that is a very small minority.

It’s easy to hate conservatives right now, and I won’t say anyone is wrong to be angry. The only non-violent way we preserve rights though is by getting people to understand strangers and develop that empathy.

Most of us probably know a number of hard to love people right now, but it’s taken time to make them ignorant and hateful, so we can give up on them or we can put time into undoing what has been done to them. I can’t tell anyone what is right for them, but it’s something we all need to bear in mind.

Exactly. I’m from a pretty small-town area, at least back then it was. We hardly had any diversity in school, and how are you supposed to really understand different things with no exposure?

As I started working different jobs, I’ve met people of numerous cultures and races, those who have been homeless, people who have been subject to different kinds of abuses, rich people who are nice, rich people who are jerks, and people that have all sorts of beliefs and justifications for them. I don’t think most of us are born into that type of situation, and it’s possibly not in a young child’s interest to have that kind of understanding thrust on them too early, so we need to have realistic expectations for people to figure things our.

There also shouldn’t be a deadline for it. I was always happy to hear one of my grandparents form a progressive opinions, even after 60-80 years. It’s never too late to make the world better or to be kinder to your fellow people. Some people never get there, so we should always be proud when they do. At some point, they’re more on our side than not, and gatekeeping isn’t going to speed it up.

I never understand why someone would feel offended by something like this. I doubt many people are riding public transit to make new friends. Most seem to want to be ignored there.

I’m of bear-like physique and I assume to a lone woman on a train car that has no clue who I am, potentially intimidating. Likely, I’d expect neither of us would pay each other much mind. If she decided to get up and move to an empty car, it probably still wouldn’t dawn on me right away why she moved, as I’m minding my own business. If I did realize, why should I be offended though? If anything, it’s a good strategic move on her part. She’s not there to get to know me, and she’s darned well not there to potentially get to know me in a negative way, no matter how slim the chance of that could be.

Should they require separate cars? Of course not. But I don’t see how it could be seen as ant-man. If your first thought is to be seriously angry at someone for not trusting a stranger, to me, that pretty much proves them right.

I was raised with Republican beliefs, but got off that train during the 2nd GWB admin. The times were there were any middle ground to find between mixed political couples is long gone. When the only topics anyone spends time debating are morality, religion, and discrimination, what middle ground can exist? Facts don’t weigh into debates for Republicans anymore. They have chosen feelings in the face of data. They choose to knowingly follow ignorance. It becomes a zero-sum game, where they either wear you down into going along with them, or they get ignored and cut off.

Being open to others’ opinions, experiences, and education helped me to see a different world view, but it didn’t seem so frowned upon back then. But now the desire to get rid of the Board of Education, promote a purposefully biased curriculum, and treated the educated as an enemy, I don’t know how people are supposed to get shown a different truth than what they have been indoctrinated into.

After reading this comment and the article, I feel there is actually some perspective hidden here that may need addressing.

While a million dollars to most of us seems unobtainable, a billion dollars is still unobtainable to most millionaires. It’s 1000x or 3 factors of 10 or however you wish to look at it. Huge difference. Nobody if offered either a million or a billion dollars would say there’s no substantial difference.

Google tells me Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are worth about $150 million each. That’s a hell of a lot of money to be sure.

Current market cap on Unilever is around $144 billion. One thousand times more than either Ben or Jerry.

When we’re in a time where some are starting to say even a million dollars is no longer a guaranteed good retirement savings, and when people with 150x that much are being silenced, maybe we also need to update our thoughts on the ongoing class warfare around the world.

While most of us here have different realities than Ben and Jerry, their lives are drifting closer to ours than they are for the billionaire class. To me, that is a bit scary to think of. That’s concentration of power to a much smaller group. About 1.1% of the world population, 59.4 million people, are millionaires, there are less than 3000 billionaires.

When division is what is keeping us fighting each other instead of focusing on who is really calling the shots, I feel this is an important distinction to consider. Maybe getting pissed at millionaires has now become futile. The upside is it is easier to focus on 3000 people than 60 million. That isnt to say millionaires are also an issue, but it may no longer be the most pressing one.

Open to your thoughts, I just think these numbers are pretty staggering.

The spotted owls had long known of the impending demolition of Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger…The last ever message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to hoot “The Star-Spangled Banner”, but in fact the message was this: “So Long, and Thanks for All the Mice.”

I was thinking today we’re not far from having a new Fugitive Slave Act, only with migrants. At this point, I don’t think we can really say anything is off the table. I don’t know any check or balance that isn’t currently compromised or 1 executive order from elimination.

I was originally planning to start the 2nd annual SuperbOwl Owl of the Year event on Election Day, and I’m glad I decided not to do that!

I started it on Saturday instead to give people time to cool off a bit, and one the plus side, I’ve seen a few users I haven’t heard from in a while chime in again, but the initial response has gotten almost 10% downvotes, which I find pretty shocking. It was a big success last year and really raised the sub numbers, and even if you dont care about the “competition” you still get the same pics you would anyway.

A bit disappointed overall due to having dipped about 20 places on the active community list. I feel likes are still trending downward, and comments were feeling lower as well. I’m hoping it’s just election stress taking up everyone’s energy for social media and we’ll bounce back soon. I still try to be a place people can come for a smile, so it’s a bit sad if people aren’t doing that.

Fun free and quick unique thing at the airport to have fun with while you’re already there:

When you are at the airport in Terminal C. There are two places where four walkways cross. I guess the architects thought it would be fun if they created an echo chamber. So if you stop in the dead center and speak it echoes and scares everyone around you. It’s a lot of fun so try it when you are passing through the airport. They are located near C14 and C45. If you don’t know they are there, you will walk right past them.

Open: As long as the airport is open. Location: Intersection near gates C14 and C45