Technology

wide variety of opinions on Lemmy.

The only range I see is on the leftist end of the spectrum. So you have everything from socialists (far left) to big government progressives (middle left?), with a handful of people on the mainstream left (left leaning?). I don't see anyone really on the right end of the spectrum, i.e. anarcho capitalists (far right, but not Nazis) to mainstream conservatives (e.g. Mitt Romney, John McCain, etc).

I found a "conservative" community complete with a Gadsden Flag, but it's just lefties poking fun at conservatives. It really is leftists all the way down here, and the most common perspective I see is that conservatives are all literally fascists. I'm certainly not conservative, but my family and neighbors are, and I honestly have to look really hard to find someone who is actually intolerant (assuming it's not election season, that is, otherwise they out themselves). In fact, I see more rainbow flags than Trump flags here, and my district votes 70-80% for Republicans (many local seats are uncontested) and my state almost always goes to the GOP w/ >65% of the vote for statewide offices. In fact, my governor is openly protective of trans kids (but he doesn't actually fight for anything, he's a disappointment)...

The only time you'll see someone right of Biden on this site is a half dozen comments down a chain or downvoted to oblivion, because Lemmy is even worse about using the downvote as "disagree" instead if "not constructive" than Reddit, and it was a huge problem there.

I'm leery of Biden’s mass pardons. And Trump’s.

I'd certainly rather correct the bad laws than rely on pardons (which can absolutely be abused, e.g. Hunter Biden), but in general, I prefer to err on the side of not locking people up in jail. If I were President, I'd absolutely pardon all non-violent drug offenders, for example, because police unfairly enforce that law to target POC, while at the same time working to revise the law to make those pardons unnecessary (I think jail time for victimless crimes like drug use is "cruel and unusual" and therefore a violation of the 8th amendment).

I'd rather there be a few more murderers and rapists out there than a few more innocent people locked up in prison. That's why I'm against the death penalty, and why I'm in favor of Ross Ulbricht being released (he was made an example of, instead of receiving proper justice). Ross Ulbricht was first and foremost an activist, and IMO that should never come with a life sentence, especially when there's no violence whatsoever.

I’d rather have government waste than people who can’t get what they need

Sure, but that doesn't have to be the only two options.

Government agencies have no motivation to be careful with money, provided they don't run out. In fact, many budgets are "use it or lose it," so there's actually the opposite incentive. IMO, we shouldn't even need to do a budget at all, here's how I think it should work:

1. Budgets are automatically adjusted for inflation every year
2. Unused budget rolls into a surplus, which can grow up to some fixed percentage of the overall budget (say, 50%)
3. Surpluses can used as needed, like to pay for large cap ex items
4. If an agency exceeds the surplus cap, the budget is reconsidered (i.e. cut) and the excess is paid out as a one-time bonus to employees in the agency
5. If an agency cuts costs while meeting objectives, a portion of the excess (say, 50%) should be paid out as a bonus

Basically, we should be encouraging spending cuts within the org. The approach Musk and Ramaswamy are taking is dangerous IMO, but that doesn't mean we can't make painless cuts.

It seemed odd that Trump wanted to ban it. It seems odd that Trump wants to reverse it.

I don't think it's that complicated:

• ban - China = bad, and TikTok is Chinese; owning the Chinese = good
• unban - turns out people like TikTok, so banning is bad PR; let's "pause" the ban so people like me

He didn't reverse the ban, just delayed it, so he's trying to appeal to both sides of the issue. It's just typical populist nonsense.