Trump will just turn it around with a sharpie.

I never thought I’d say it, but I don’t even use YouTube anymore. I might go there once a month to watch a tute, but only if I absolutely can’t find help from any other website.

Well, I disagree. I didn’t touch Reddit for a year and finally went back about a month ago.

• THE ADS. Fuck me, the ads now!

• The corporate plug-ins. I had a legit, verified business comment on my post and then PM me after it.

• The videos freeze more often than makes me comfortable clicking on them.

• The pop-up trash now; “follow this”, “click here”, “did you know”, “ICYMI”. The U.I looks like Yahoo’s home page now.

Is it dying? I don’t know. Is it exhibiting every square inch of desperation, turning the corner from what was once cool, to what is now every pixel monetised and sponsored? Yup!

If you stick it out here for long enough, three things will change.

1. You’ll begin to really like it here. It’s different but it grows on you, and it’s growing with its users.
2. Your addiction to these noticeboard-type socials will dramatically reduce. There’s something about Lemmy that’s less addictive in a good way.
3. You’ll eventually go back to Reddit and see it with new eyes, realising just how quickly it’s dying.

When I’m hanging out with the lads I like to announce that I’m going for an [insert friend’s name] out of my [insert other friend’s name].

I’ve gotta push a Steve out of my Bradley.

Linux users and vegetarians. Neither can shut the fuck up. Both have made it their identity.

Are you a Linux user?

Hey everyone, shut up! This guy is a Linux user and he’s here to tell us about using Linux.

In Australia.

“Got a spare smoke there, bro?”

“No, mate. Sorry.”

“FUCK YOU, YA WHITE CUNT!”

I’ve had this word-for-word interaction probably 100 times this year already.

Religion.

You’re all like Star Wars fans to me.

Garbage V2.0

Yeah I truly hope petitions work but everything I’ve ever signed hasn’t done shit. I think petitions are just a way of letting us think we have a voice.

Well, in essence, propaganda is advertising. And advertising leans on satisfying perceived need.

So if I’m selling you shoes it’s to satisfy your physiological, social, or self-fulfilment order need. Shoes are functional, make you cool, or make a statement.

Propaganda is fulfilling some need to be effective - probably fear based in the social, safety, or belongingness orders, and carried via viral channels like word of mouth or social (viral).

I haven’t really thought about it too much but it’s just a communication or a reinforced message; it’s just advertising. Think about it that way.

And with regard to Russia, they are all ‘fear the West’ and ‘national pride’ driven, compounded over 3-4 generations. It would be such an easy spin.

Shit, my guy or gal.

That’s put my mind massively at ease. Thank you for putting the time in.

And yes, behavioural/clinical is exactly the path I’d go down.

I’m not. I’m aware of how selfish it is but something in my system of belief that I have (undefined? spiritual? no idea?) says that when I’m dead, I should be ALL dead.

Like, if there’s any kind of afterlife, will leaving a functioning part me behind hold up the transition? This even sounds fucked up to me because I’m 100% not religious at all.

I would just prefer all of me to be dead or all of me to be alive. Not fractions of both at the same time.

Personally, I think every woman should go to jail for keeping her eggs in her ovaries. That’s child imprisonment.

How dare they.

“Look how generous and righteous I am”

Also Drake. Also Shaq.

Both give away heaps of money… but only in front of heaps of planned cameras rolling.

That’s not charity. That’s using the poor for PR and clicks for profit, no different from Bum Fights.

Change my mind.

What echo chamber?

Test it yourself. Try saying anything positive about him. Say he has nice eyes, I don’t care, and watch the downvotes flow.

As a matter of fact don’t even be positive, be neutral. Say something like, “I haven’t formed an opinion on this yet” and watch what happens.

I dunno, man. Sometimes I’m really concerned with the echo chamber here. If you look at Lemmy and Reddit, it’s nothing but an Elon-hating amphitheatre, yet objectively, the guy still seems to be soaring up all the lists that matter.

So, something isn’t right. The guy is obviously popular in places that matter, and it’s worrying that places like this never, ever, ever show it.

I’d like to think Lemmy isn’t one-sided and biased but it clearly is.

And for the record, I’m not pro or anti-Elon. I’m not plugged in (or care) enough to know shit about the guy. But what I’m not going to do is Boomer-lean into one source and parrot the sentiment. Isn’t that what us Gen-Ys and Gen-Zs are supposed to despise, and be too internet savvy to fall for, or are we following our parents into ignorance?

Stupid question: what the shit do you do with your 15 years of communication history if your email provider falls off a cliff?

Well I can’t see at night so cry about it, bugs.