4grams

I was speaking in metaphor but in this climate I guess you can’t anymore… you have a point one side is clearly worse, I’m not trying to make a “both are the same” argument. My argument is that neither will save us.

The dems have had a winning strategy for ages, they just fight harder against it, than they do their political opposition.

I have come to the conclusion that the entire system is wholly corrupt, top to bottom. There are decent folks in there, but they are VASTLY outnumbered. Yes, one party is worse, but when given the choice between shot or stabbed in the back, I kinda want to pick neither.

Same, been camping twice this summer and both times I was taken aback and both seeing them (it’s become so rare), and how few there were. Used to be swarms of them in my backyard, not I go camping just to see 3 of them.

Exactly, early social media was tons of fun. It was like the early internet but easier since anyone could make a profile with any info.

Then it had to be monetized. They had to glue eyeballs via attention, no matter what kind. Now it’s all rent seeking, innovation is 100% about what can produce an immediate return, no care for the long term. The grift economy…

It was not social media, that was about the people. It’s what the social media companies did in search of dollars that did it in. Greed. Full stop.

Well said. It’s all about bending the curve in the right direction, enough little changes make up to a complete change in direction. I feel like that’s one of our big problems, people want the easy button now, instead of understanding that it takes diligence and work to get shit done.

I don’t know why obvious propaganda works on so many people. People I assumed had functional brains, just turn them off whenever the online. It’s fucking maddening, and I don’t see any way to combat it.

Why do we need celebrity owned cell carriers? This article makes it sound like a bad thing Ryan Reynolds’s exited Mint, but at least the stars of arrested development still have a cell provider.

I mean WTF, I like that there is competition but what the fuck is wrong with us that we prefer celebrity endorsement to actual features, value, longevity, etc.

I know it’s a bigger question than what I’m asking but this is all part of the rot that our economy is experiencing. All vibes, all promises, all scams, this country runs on nothing but grift.

As an American, the scariest part is how little most seem to care about it. Well, that and the fascism.

I wish every one of these investors a huge payday. Just sucks who they will be paying.

I really enjoyed the first game, not AAA new game price enjoyment though. I mean, I got as much fun out of it while playing as I have anything else, it just wasn’t as rich and deep as a fallout game. I give it a pass since it’s establishing a new universe but as much as I liked it, it’s most certainly a blue light special fallout clone.

So, asking inflated AAA prices seems, somewhat short sighted. I’d absolutely pay what I did for the first game, 80 bucks is a hard no for me though. I might buy it when it’s cheaper, but by then I’ll likely have seen enough clips, read enough reviews and gotten busy enough to just forget about it.

Bummer.

Been saying that we’re headed for balkanization since the clown won his first term. Not seeing any reason to change that prediction.

My career has been in building infrastructure for internet services. I got into this line of work because I felt like it was democratizing knowledge and bringing people together. The way it’s instead gone, I regret being part of it, and I wish I would have gone into another line of work.

It sucks because it’s beginning to feel like a life wasted. I got in early, my career pre-dates the 1st .com crash. My first browser was Mosaic, then shortly became Netscape with the big pulsating “N” animation.

I LOVED the early internet. I loved the personal sites, webrings, IRC and newsgroups. I remember the first time I spoke with someone on the other side of the world (hello to my Canberra friend, it’s me, your midwestern buddy). I felt part of something that was new and exciting and fun.

Then ads came and it’s just gone to shit ever since. To the point where I now hate being online, all my shit is selfhosted and I barely interact with anything besides lemmy and mastodon (they still feel like the actual internet).

I used to be slightly disappointed my kids didn’t turn out as nerdy as me. Now I am just thrilled that I was able to be a cautionary tale for them.

I know expensive, shitty healthcare in the USA is a stereotype, but in my experience it’s also largely true

I had a brain injury from a bicycle accident. The fact that my health has bounced back, but my finances likely never will, tells me everything I need to know about our system. One injury, and I now have a lifetime of bills to pay off. I guess it makes sense in some sick way, I do owe them my life, but man, they don’t let me forget (even if my broken brain tries).

There’s more to it than that but of course that is a large part of it. We live in a society that prefers to reward a confident idiot to a pensive expert; essentially we reward dunning krueger.

When exactly did society decide to give the dumbest people on earth, all the money?

I don’t know why people think rules still apply. They might say something but they came out 9-0 against him and he still claims a unanimous victory and the courts, media and American public all just shrug.

Unfortunately much of this country has developed a vaccine for this apparently.

lol, couldn’t even keep the dumbest people on earth on board. starting to smell popcorn.

I have a google voice number for that. Most things no longer accept it though.