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Joined 9 days ago
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Cake day: November 6th, 2024

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  • They aren’t really the same answer.

    People suggest that Mastodon is too complicated for the average knuckle-dragging moron to use (and it might be, but frankly I consider that a pro, not a con) because it has “servers”, as if the entire point of the internet wasn’t to have a global network of communication across a multitude of clients and servers. Do these same people think the concept of websites and email are also too complex for the regular person? Maybe… But again, if the regular person is that fucking dumb do we really want have them in our community at all?

    What’s more, BlueSky is supposedly federated (or “will be”™), and as such it’ll have to deal with all of the same challenges around federation that Mastodon deals with, and people are kidding themselves if they think otherwise.

    Otherwise I agree with your last sentence. Social media is about money and fame, first and foremost. The average person will always go where the most money and fame are concentrated.



  • Yep. I’m glad you see it that way too.

    We don’t make art or music anymore, we make “content” for YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. Kids don’t grow up dreaming to make the next killer movie or fun game, they want to become a rich and influential “content creator”. If they are lucky, the “content” that they make for big tech company “platforms” will eventually lead to them gathering a dedicated group of loyal followers over whom they can hold a strong “influence”, and that influence can be traded for money via advertising corporate products.

    What it comes down to is that the tech corps have money, and they will use some of that money to entice people to make “content” for their “platforms”, and that’s a big part of the framework of the modern era. If they ever gain the ability to create genuinely desirable “content” using AI, they will instantly cut out all of the human money-sinks from their business model.




  • Wasn’t Socrates also considered an asshole? Not that I’m equating these influencers to philosophers, but at the time the people considered him to be mocking their culture (religion).

    Everything we know about historical Socrates we know from his students, and I don’t think there’s a lot of evidence to suggest he was an asshole. Socrates was allegedly put to death for thought crimes against the city-state and the state’s patron gods, as voted upon by a jury of his “peers”. His philosophy was not counter to the idea of gods, nor do I think it was particularly anti-authoritarian, but clearly people didn’t like what he had to say or the questions he was asking, so they up and killed 'em.

    Personally I think that makes the Socrates the good guy and the people of Athens circa 400BC the assholes, but to each their own.

    Either way, there’s a big difference in my view between a person who is influential for their ideas, creations or achievements versus someone who is an “influencer” because of the “content” that they create for the corporate tech platform of choice…






  • Oh both can be true, but in this case they are not.

    There has always been valid reason to give arms to Israel, and there continues to be today. If you think that alone amounts to “supporting genocide” you’re about to be pretty upset when you watch the actual genocide that unfolds in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank over the next 4-8 years. Trump and Netanyahu are about to go scorched earth on Palestine like never in the history of the ~80 year war.

    Bernie fuckin’ Sanders could be POTUS today and he’d still send weapons to Israel, because they are our main ally in the region who also happens to under near-constant threats and attacks from multiple angles. The absolute best we can reasonably ask for is that weapons are sent on a conditional basis, but nobody wants to talk about that reality.


  • I mean, they aren’t wrong, are they?

    Hamas is all but defeated, Hezbollah is also on their back foot, and even the model caliphate, Iran, has proven to be almost completely ineffective against Israel’s defense system. Europe will make empty gestures about war crimes via the toothless ICC, and America is now totally controlled by the Republicans who never wanted a two-state peace process in the first place.

    Israel has never in their short history had a better opportunity to go for the power play and deal with the Palestinians however they please, and under Trump we can expect that they won’t get even a little bit of push back from the US, regardless of how harsh and violently they want to play it.

    I expect a fucking bloodbath and a full annexation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and possibly parts of southern Lebanon.

    But hey, the American people have spoken, and I guess that’s what they wanted.




  • Are you talking about buildings or people? Because the death toll in Gaza is estimated to be ~40,000 while the population is ~3,000,000. That’s 1.3% for those playing along at home.

    Which, if you’re a bit slow on the uptake, means get ready for Trump and Netanyahu to have their way with the remaining 98.7% of Gaza.

    But hey, that’s democracy I guess. Personally I enthusiastically voted for Harris, but the people of the US and Israel have spoken and so now we let the chips fall where they may.