maplebar

Sadly people voted against Ranked-Choice Voting in multiple states this year also, so good luck making any progress with regards to that...

The real dirty truth is that Rashida Tlaib belongs to a 1500 year old delusional authoritarian cult of personality that spread across Arabia and the Mediterranean (Gaza included) by force of genocide, violence and cultural destruction, and that (not unlike evangelical Christians and orthodox Jews) Muslims in America will always be loyal to their backwards, oppressive religion rather than to fundamental concepts like democracy, secular society, equality, and justice under the law.

There is no such thing as an anti-genocide Muslim, as the prophet Mohammad himself was nothing but a violent conqueror and killer of all who opposed his dogma. Ask these hypocrites how it happened that Arab Muslims ended up living in Gaza in the first place...

I would tell the entire "uncommitted" voter base to fuck off. Here, I'll do it again.... "fffffuck off".

The main things these clowns are uncommitted to are democracy, rule of law, secular society, the constitution, justice, etc.

And now, unsurprisingly, they have helped enable a fascist authoritarian takeover of the United States by taking our democracy hostage in the name of some stupid ~1500 year old holy war and a shitty piece of land governed and funded by the worst possible people.

So, in return, I'm now "uncommitted" to giving half a shit what happens to them, here or abroad. The people who didn't vote to stop Trump are to blame for what happens next.

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"(tm)), 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.

Why would the #1 backers of Palestine do this?

I thought that Islam was an open and accepting cult, but now I'm confused because this just seems oppressive and toxic!

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.

You want the bullshit "Mastodon is too complicated and hard to use!" answer or the real answer?

BlueSky has rich people behind it.

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..

Dude looks like a mid HD remake of an N64 game.

The concept of "influencers" and "content" is just some dystopian shit that came out of some corpo's mouth at a tech company boardroom meeting and stuck. The fact that our modern culture is built on this kind of bullshit is a condemnation of modern people.

Man I'm sick of "famous" people being given carte blanche to act however they want. Lock this dipshit up and throw away the key.

I'm afraid you're the one who has fallen for it...

There were plenty of reasons to vote for the Democratic candidate in 2024--climate change, affordable housing, healthcare, global stability, a continuation of what is actually a solid economy (especially when you look at markets, GDP growth, take home pay, employment numbers, and the latest inflation numbers).

But, funny enough, that's all irrelevant to anyone with half a brain.

The real reason to vote for Harris in 2024 was as a means of voting against Trump and the fascist clown posse known as the Republican Party. This is the part where I could spend an hour writing our all of the reasons that Trump and the Republicans have been, continue to be, and will be bad for the country and the planet, but if you haven't figured that one out by now you're beyond help just like all the people who made the terrible decision to allow this to happen.

I don't blame the politicians for being politicians--that's like blaming a dog for barking. I have reflected deeply on this past election, and the only conclusion that I can logically reach today is that it is the American people who are to blame for putting these terrible politicians there in the first place (either by voting for them OR failing to vote against them).

One day America will cease to exist, and if there is anyone left on Earth at all, their history will accurately show that it was the American people who dumbed themselves to death.