UltraMagnus

joined 2 months ago

I haven't blocked anyone here, but on Tumblr I started unfollowing folks who posted about doom and gloom all the time. That site's more conducive to memes and TV show discussions than it is discussion about news/politics, and I don't like scrolling through a bunch of superhero memes and then getting hit with a post about the latest atrocity in the world. That stuffs important, but it's not healthy to fixate on it all the time.

It's important to curate what you're doing so that you dont fall into a doomscrolling trap or get ragebaited into arguments that go nowhere.

Well, any event could be "the straw that breaks the camels back" for someone who is apathetic about politics or supports trump. No single protest or action is going to cause millions of people to suddenly flip, it's going to be more like a slow trickle.

(Of course, you can argue all day about it not being quick enough, or it not accomplishing its goals in time, but it's not like other methods would be particularly faster)

A more ambitious pull request than just fixing some typos, for sure

Timing is a fools game for sure. Bubble could pop next month, next year, or even later.

If you're old, make sure you have a good percent in bonds. If you're young, make sure you have 6-12 months saved in case of layoffs and keep saving - market will look completely different in 20-30 years anyways so it's not worth worrying about.

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The other option is that the supreme court undoes a prior decision, like they did to roe v. wade. Texas v. Johnson was only a 5-4 decision (To be clear, I think this would be awful as well, but it is likely how the admin plans to enforce this, assuming they have a plan).

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 4 points 1 month ago

No, what you say makes sense, and I think it's part of the reason why linux usage (as a daily driver) is starting to increase now versus 20 years ago. It's just easier to install and use linux distros nowadays.

And most folks who want office for free are going to go with google docs, for the convenience factor.

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago

I disagree with the idea that some "great leader" would be helpful and not a liability. Or the idea that there aren't already leaders in the movement.

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 3 points 2 months ago

Yes. It's natural that participation will ebb and flow, that's why it's important for folks not to give up and say it was all useless after just one day. Having regular weekly events and a monthly "big" protest seems to be the strategy for maintaining momentum.

Escalation could also be useful - though of course that doesn't necessarily mean jumping to blood-and-violence, there are many other tactics that can be used (like the targeted boycotts, for example, or a general strike). Even more "passive" things like voter education (where polls are, how to register, etc.) can add up over time.

 

One of the shorter presentations at FediCon, but definitely interesting, especially since lemmy instances are very much driven by the user base (whereas Linux doesn't really change based on how many users there are). Also interesting since the speaker, Janet Vertesi, is one of the people working on the "Europa Clipper" project (the one where we're flying a satellite through Europa's geysers to get water samples, since landing and drilling under the ice is impractical. This has nothing to do with the presentation, I'm just excited about it).

Video Highlights:

2:00 - The current dominance of a few social media companies was predicted. Although there are lots of neat tools for opting out of Microsoft/Google/etc., but it's the community of these tools that matters

7:30 - Difficulties with how entangled folks are with mainstream tools (maps, calendars, clubs, etc.) - and how to overcome these obstacles. Interesting bit about how all the privacy toggles on Facebook, etc. give a false sense of security and discourage users from making bigger, more effective change. Additionally, behavior change happens at the group level, not the individual level.

12:00 - Building a network of "Tech Reclaimers" to help others make the change. Teaching social and technical skills (e.g., moderation - people are used to the technology doing everything for them on "traditional" social media), taking small steps, etc.

17:30 - Ongoing events

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 58 points 2 months ago

The assumption that you'll lose a lawsuit against a large corporation probably stops a lot of viable lawsuits from ever happening - good for him for giving it a go.

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Even if a movement went all "blood and violence" it wouldn't be done in a day. What makes you so certain that something is useless just because it doesn't immediately solve everything?

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 1 points 2 months ago

The newer zelda games are interesting since you can see how the world has changed between botw and totk, but on the macro scale you're definitely right. Most zelda games have formula of "all is well, bad guy appears to threaten realm, link saves the day, back to normal". BOTW was an interesting way to change that formula - hyrule isn't restored after you beat ganon, but things change with new settlements being formed and so on in totk

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago

To be honest, I don't know much about film at all! That is pretty interesting to hear about Kodak - if all the indie/"hipster" companies are dependent on it, then I can see why you wouldn't want to lose it. That was my bad for relying on memories of 20+ years ago - naturally, they would've changed since then

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