Conspiratorial thinking. Not really conspiracy theories per se. But hear me out! I’m Becoming More Worried How Many People Talk and Act Like They Have Nothing to Lose.

Did we actually start the fire? With Billy Joe returning to writing music in 2024, I may have to ask this question

Re-match election year, elder presidential candidates, global conflict multiple fronts, protracted economic enthusiasm with no meaningful correction in recent memory - sing these little ditties to the tune of REMs “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine!)”

A government becomes vulnerable if it’s people start to feel like they don’t have anything to lose and behave in desperate ways in protest.

Let’s count some ways that governments make sure people in all social classes of society feel like have something to lose:

-State lotteries (just feel for a little bit what it would be like to be addicted to scratch-offs, my friends)
-Legalized gambling
-Conspicuously someplaces-legal “illegal” drugs
-Even worse, legal drugs (I know this is gonna be a controversial take, but mood stabilizers, anti anxiety and anti depression drugs might be overprescribed.)
-Television shows / binge watching (again, 100% one of my vices and keeps me from getting too political oftentimes)
-Communities established around social justice causes (education equity, racial equality, police unity, anti-police brutality) / constitutional rights threatened by wedge issue politics (2nd amendment / abortion rights)
-Government subsidies and tax breaks for religious institutions
-Subsidies and tax breaks for entrepreneurs and high income families (making the upper middle class feel like they owe their financial security to the government who helped them achieve it)

I understand why things are this way. I’m one of the people who’s increasingly feeling like our current systems of government and a lot of our society just isn’t working right anymore. Sure I have my really good days where I’m excited to just live. But some days I’m doomscrolling hard, man. Other days I’m a really positive growth mindset, “don’t worry, be happy”, “we’re all in the same boat together”, kind of place. Was it always burning since the world’s been turning?

https://youtu.be/eFTLKWw542g?si=bPkWWOtNYKBvmm0_

Maybe I'm a pessimist but this is going to really resonate with the people who are "looking forward to AI" because they read headlines, but haven't actually used any LLMs yet because nobody has told them how.

Good point, though I would counter that there's a lot of blustering about taking our country back but I haven't seen many serious attempts or people capable of actually planning and executing such a thing, and I've had a good bit of contact with what y'all would consider to be American far right rebels.

For all I know, the far righties talking about their revolution is about as productive as the tankies talking about theirs. Nobody sees a future in this country where the workers seize the means of production and we actually eat the rich, right?

I've enjoyed my time on the fediverse but have been disappointed with the leveling off of growth and lack of participation in niche communities. I still visit Kbin several times weekly, but it isn't like the old days when I would spend tons of time on Reddit. I have left my old Reddit account redacted and haven't started using it again, as that time is over. There are some communities and niche interests that unfortunately, it looks like Reddit will always be the main home for since we didn't hit the critical mass for people to move those communities over here. Because of that, I've started a new reddit account (with my real name attached, and started actively participating in those communities). For me, Reddit is no longer a place to anonymously participate in community discussions (because those discussions were becoming increasingly worthless alot of the time), but a place to participate with my IRL identity in communities related to topics or hobbies I care about. The anonymous community stuff is fulfilled by Kbin/Fediverse which I prefer now.

Oh man that’s terrible all around. Sorry to hear/read you are going through that Izzgo! A friend of mine had some kind of nerve searing procedure that helped with that kind of pain, any options in that space?

Russia: Plane crashed
USA: Crashed into SAM, maybe

So I can say now after using it for a while that custom instructions was in fact a game changer. I’m using ChatGPT daily again for work and life things. Really exciting!

$24.99/month for 300 mbps up and down, Verizon Fiber. Northeast US.

Very disappointed to see my employer on here with a D rating. Internal comms said we were out!

OpenAI, 10A can have his commission check :D I guess I’ll resubscribe the premium now, had cancelled when browsing was removed and I felt like I was getting worse responses for a bit. Now I'm excited to try this out.

They are “inviting” mods to do even more free work in furtherance of Reddits profitability

This isn’t a problem. This is knowing how to reference community knowledge and technology instead of reinventing various shapes and sizes of wheels

One per year

You are right! I read and parsed it backwards and thought the comment was dire 🤣. Thought the OP was asking for plausible sounding falsehoods and the commenter said “you are loved and deserve happiness”. I retract my statement. I think Fediverse will stay nice. People on more main stream anonymous social sites are even mostly nice like this don’t you think?

Bigger instances and communities may end up being more PC over the years but I think smaller ones will retain this vibe.

Because of collapse or climate change? I don’t see the timeline as being that short at this time, but interested in learning more.

The Beta Band, Vulfpeck, Khruangbin, Holy Hive, Tame Impala, Hippo Campus, STRFKR, Greta Van Fleet

I agree with this unpopular (around here anyway) opinion. People should do what they want to do and post/read where they want to, but I have 100% stopped using Reddit (after 12 years of Reddit - > Old Reddit - > Alien Blue - > Apollo. Overwrote comments and will delete the account once I’m sure no reversion of overwritten comments is taking place. Reddit’s gotta go, man. Even Twitter has a place in the world now, but I can’t forgive Reddit, it’s just gross.

As humans we are biased towards action and forward thinking. From the perspective of where you are heading after completing the turn, it was a U shaped turn

This is great! I found this sorting by New and these tips are applicable for anyone (not only those suffering from ADHD) to have a more authoritative and confident tone to your digital communications.