• 11 Posts
  • 138 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 29th, 2023

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  • Geez. that timezone separation is more fucked than I realized lol. I’ve lived in different time zones but always near the center of it and I didn’t know there was such awful cut offs that zigzag through states like that. Sucks that user stayed hostile though, not sure if they just want to argue about everything timezone related or just too embarrassed to gracefully exit.


  • You’re just like almost there, that graph isn’t about lengths of days. It’s an arbitrary representation of what someone would consider a “normal” time for the sun to set and rise. The gradient in colors is because of the shape of the earth, the blocky lines are probably the cut off counties/states that follow different timezones (would need to verify source for that though). I’ve gotta split but hopefully someone can explain it better in the mean time if you have more questions.




  • I’ve been seeing gross stuff all around about voting records. For context that matters, I live in NC. It’s fucking non-stop from all sides. I’m trying to find the ad I saw with a relative while over at his place that played on Tubi that he was watching. I just heard it in the background while I was cooking and was flabbergasted. This ad was very clearly anti-Trump but then commented on your vote is registered and can be seen (completely false) with a threatening overtone. It went by so fast, both of us asked wtf just came on and I assured him his vote is private but they can check “IF” you voted (he’s an independent and primed to believe the worse of all scenarios thanks to social media and news, but is mindful when he thinks for himself).

    I doubt it was anything like the actual DNC making the ad, was more than likely a superpac. Trying to find an obscure ad that plays on streaming in a localized area isn’t as easy as it used to be. Doesn’t help that youtube and ddg just gives me a bunch of useless shit that aren’t even ads or commercials (who’da thunk it would be hard to SEARCH for a commercial to watch). Regardless, every single ad used in this context needs fined into oblivion and the people involved need jail time so others don’t continue it on for every election to come.

    Also, the downvotes for you are undeserved. There’s some fucking sycophant political worshipers that either got shipped into here or have drank the kool-aid this election cycle. They literally cannot hear anything negative without becoming triggered. It’s really setting up the next administration to not have to do anything but wait another 3 years and proclaim democracy is in trouble again.




  • Again, just baseless conjuncture that sounds “almost right”. You have the general principles, you even reference Econ 101, but analysis and expert opinion goes further (why there’s so many armchair champions out there, unfortunately). Please cite some actual sources that have analyzed the systems and what your perspective has been formed by. This just seems like base-level pandering that gets no where like a “group chat” on one of the mainstream news outlets.

    Things do not happen in a sterile chamber. You can’t create union movements when they’re getting destroyed by officials

    For approximately 150 years, union organizing efforts and strikes have been periodically opposed by police, security forces, National Guard units, special police forces such as the Coal and Iron Police, and/or use of the United States Army. Significant incidents have included the Haymarket Riot and the Ludlow massacre. The Homestead struggle of 1892, the Pullman walkout of 1894, and the Colorado Labor Wars of 1903 are examples of unions destroyed or significantly damaged by the deployment of military force. In all three examples, a strike became the triggering event. (link)

    Your AI argument is fear mongering, as I stated above, with sources, a net increase in jobs is projected. This is the telephone/computer technology fear now for the 2020’s. You’ve yet to provide an actual argument for why technology shouldn’t proceed. Should oil and gas not go through the same transition? God forbid we have less administration and more skilled workers, as my sources concluded would be the outcome.

    Yes, supply-demand is a fundamental pricing mechanism, as econ 101 will teach. Unfortunately the subsequent classes that economists take after also include the million different factors with changes that mechanisms output. For further understandings, I would suggest Unlearning Economics (here is one of his videos going over a Sabine Hossenfelder’s video on capitalism). He comes with credentials,

    My background is as an economist who specialises in behavioural economics. I did my PhD in economics at the University of Manchester and from 2019-23 was a Fellow at the Psychological and Behavioural Science Department at the London School of Economics. I remain affiliated as a Visiting Fellow.

    I have quantitative skills including mathematics, statistics, and coding which are illustrated by my PhD and current research. I am also a published author, with my book The Econocracy selling 15,000+ copies and having over 200 citations on Google Scholar. I also have excellent communication skills and have presented both my research and book at numerous conferences and universities.


  • You know, something always feels a little off with an underpantsweevil comment. I could never put my finger on it though, always seems so close to being factual but for some reason skewed. I think it’s the declarative statements which turn out to be more of an opinion or editorial piece that’s only backed up by other vague references much like a matt walsh or tim (can’t remember his last name) might make.

    Wages have been rising…as demand eclipses supply.

    This is a weird general statement that reinforces that “supply & demand” is a worth-while endeavor that has worked out for everyone economically and socially. Of course wages have been rising… it would be beyond a depression if the average salary went down for the past couple of years. The important caveats are completely missed though…

    While salaries are up, salary growth is down — the increase in average earnings is lower compared to the 7.3% rise between 2021 and 2022. The gender pay gap, while shrinking by 1% over the last 10 years, was only cut by 0.7% between 2022 and 2023. This means the average male makes $63,960, while their female counterparts make an average of $53,404

    The average white male earns $64,636, while the average Hispanic or Latino male makes $47,996 annually.

    With the annual inflation rate for 2023 at 3.4% for the year — up from 3.1% previously — salaries aren’t keeping up. A Smart Asset report based on MIT’s Living Wage data found that the average salary required to live comfortably in the U.S. is $68,499 after taxes.10 This is nearly $10,000 higher than what the average salary currently is. link


    AI… are you talking about like a general AI or chatgpt? What right-wing or doomscrolling blog are you reading about AI from? All these companies trying to cram some type of “AI” into their program is a problem for sure, but it’s just a fad which only the most useful implementations will stick around. If anything, the companies are spending more trying to make it work (which it doesn’t).

    Amazon Fresh kills “Just Walk Out” shopping tech—it never really worked - “AI” checkout was actually powered by 1,000 human video reviewers in India.

    Here is an article by the Mckinsey Global Institute.

    One of the biggest questions of recent months is whether generative AI might wipe out jobs. Our research does not lead us to that conclusion, although we cannot definitively rule out job losses, at least in the short term. Technological advances often cause disruption, but historically, they eventually fuel economic and employment growth.

    This research does not predict aggregated future employment levels; instead, we model various drivers of labor demand to look at how the mix of jobs might change—and those results yield some gains and some losses.9 In fact, the occupational categories most exposed to generative AI could continue to add jobs through 2030 (Exhibit 4), although its adoption may slow their rate of growth. And even as automation takes hold, investment and structural drivers will support employment. The biggest impact for knowledge workers that we can state with certainty is that generative AI is likely to significantly change their mix of work activities.


    But market forces are happening even in absence of legislative action. Union activity is reemerging as a socio-economic force. Not everything rests on a federal majority manually raising the wage floor.

    Interesting you’ve again promoted “market forces” (reminds me of trickle-down economics). Union activity has been beaten down by a war being waged for decades, proper legislation and officials protecting the rights of Unions are the only way they will continue to have a chance. The recent changes in the Biden administration shows that unions can stand a chance if the branches of government would actually support it.

    Wouldn’t having a federal majority, manually raising the wage floor, protect future workers when the AI revolution comes? If the market determines the wage minimum, won’t your points become moot when there is no more demand? I’m just still flabbergasted that you believe “employers can’t pay the minimum rate, because their employees wouldn’t be able to do basic shit like travel to the jobsite or afford to eat.” I don’t know what social circles you are in, but this isn’t the reality most lower income people are facing.


  • It might be more akin to a Trump escort service. You can buy him for a few nights and go around seeing the sites (rallies) like some kind of weird instagram influencer where you can get the attention you’re craving (news cycle) and everyone will be calling you again (media) to reinforce how important you are.

    Of course that only lasts for like a day since Trump is a gold fish, he’ll be back to insulting the industries and generally dismissing Musk unless he stays right in his peripheral view.



  • lol and here I thought that comment was absolutely ludicrous.

    “Let’s make this Black spouse somebody who has a really close relationship with another Brady, and that’s how this Brady met them. Give them a foundation so this isn’t a token position.”

    You do realize why this is racist right? It’s a natural progression to age and begin dating, I doubt they’re doing similar back stories for every single Brady. To single out that a white/black relationship requires a precursor of events to be acceptable is just hidden/sly cultural bigotry. It might be easier to swallow for the older viewers of the show (who again, are being racist here), but I’ve seen these reboots trying to cater to younger audiences who will give them that social hype.



  • Lemmy’s kinda helped me see a different perspective. It’s just old man talk. Like, the internet is still there. Everything that once was, still is. Just a lot more shit the rest of everyone is usually using. Stop trying to keep up with everyone using all these popular sites for everyday life like they did with TV. Find obscure websites and dedicated forums for your topic. Don’t rely on Googletm to find the internet for you. Before, you actually had to find a site (magazines, social/network circles) then hope that site had a search function if you’re looking for something particular (this is the old internet everyone craves lol, it wasn’t perfect by any means/rose tinted glasses).

    You can use the internet just like you did back in the day and have the same experience. It’s just that the majority of the world uses the connection for a “TV”-like feed with main popular sites and apps. There’s still more people using and improving the “old internet” compared to the 90’s, so it’s only a net positive in my book.


  • allow me to be the batshit representative from lemmy.ml to argue with you :P

    Honestly, I just hate the instance bashing. Most people didn’t have a real informed “choice” when it comes to their first instance. This seemed like an instance with good uptime and connectivity to me compared to the single admin instance I had before, the only factor that really matters to me. I see what you’re saying about % of users, but those people exist on every instance and like you said, they can just jump over and make a new account. If I’m being judged by the .ml next to my name and not the content of my reply, then they were really never going to listen to anything I had to say regardless, so I’ve decided to stay with this instance.

    I think you’re seeing more arguments on those instances because it’s more of a melting pot. People who all agree with each other’s perspectives and have similar life experience aren’t going to have a lot to discuss besides patting each other on the backs and talking about subtle nuances of the subject matter. I do agree with your entire premise of the downvotes, which is why I’m replying to begin with. I like the thought of a downvote system, something that would hinder off-topic or abusive material, but it’s just horribly abused by users.

    A proper system would see two competing articles and the one which provides the most information with a legible format would be upvoted the most. Now it’s which one has the most comments, what user uploaded it, what website was the article published on, which headline is catchier regardless of the article’s own words being taken out of context, what instance/community is this being posted on, etc etc.

    Maybe I’m just confused and using this site and reddit wrong. From my conversations about downvotes, my understanding is less time is being spent on reading the article or links, and more just running through upvoting/downvoting like it’s tinder matches. I don’t get it because it’s not like youtube suggestions where you’re creating an algorithm for your likes/dislikes. You’re just creating a general feed of populace attention-seeking content and creating the pattern for a hive mind to form.

    I think any of the many solutions would be a step forward, votes being public (all your other interactions are public/not done anonymously, and likes/dislikes has no commonality to democratic voting so people need to stop conflating the two), blocking any downvotes like lemmynsfw.com successfully implemented (you can still report off topic, etc), can only dowvote in joined communities or content you’ve engaged with, and many other ideas. All sorts of solutions that will stop us from going down the same path as Reddit, luckily we have instances to experiment different approaches with that we can point to for data in the future. I guess I prefer more of a forum style but those always get overtaken by zealous admins/site ideology and eventually hyperactive community members meaning it’s hard or not worth the effort to actually engage with the drama surrounding the subject you want to discuss (even some shroom forums get like this, absolutely crazy).


  • I’m not sure on the technical aspect but I think “instance blocking” should be an OPT-IN message sent to users of the instance. For example, say lemmy.world wanted to block lemmy.ml, hexbear, and reddthat. Each instance is added to a “Suggested blocked instance” setting in your profile and a message is sent to the user notifying them the opt-in option is available. Could have a whole list with descriptions besides the instances for why the suggested block option is there. Users would be informed with an actionable option and not automatically opted in. Could just be a toggle-able switch list in user settings.


  • oh, number 2 is worse than you think. I picked up on a talk show on the radio the other night with a guest author who wrote, “Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion”. They’re actively teaching to avoid empathy,

    In Toxic Empathy, Allie Beth Stuckey argues that empathy has become a tool of manipulation by left-wing activists who bully people into believing that they must adopt progressive positions to be loving. She explores the five most heated issues through which toxic empathy is deployed: abortion, gender, sexuality, immigration, and social justice.

    This is what fills the airwaves around here of which a lot of elderly and rural citizens are inundated with daily.


  • If you’re a real North Carolinian then you have friends, family, and neighbors who are Republican. You would know better than anyone what information gap and knowledge is being presented to them with local radio and their social circle. Stop spreading misinformation, that damns us all. Instead try to educate and show them the subtle difference in what’s being presented to them and the logical fallacy the republican mindset leads to. There are no militia hunting down FEMA

    abandoning door-to-door visits, after receiving threats that they could be targeted by a militia, officials said … a man with an assault rifle who made a comment “about possibly harming” employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Authorities got a description of a suspect’s vehicle and license plate and later identified him as William Jacob Parsons, 44, of Bostic. Sheriff’s officials said in a statement that Parsons — who was armed with a handgun and a rifle — was charged with “going armed to the terror of the public,” a misdemeanor. He was released after posting bond. The sheriff’s office said initial reports indicated that a “truckload of militia” was involved in making the threat, but further investigation determined that Parsons acted alone.

    edit: forgot article link





  • I unfortunately have the same feeling. Around Iphone 4 or so (when they were a lot smaller and sleeker) I got a slim phone case that could hold a card and my ID. It felt so nice going on a trip with only that in my pocket (not having to worry about if I feel my wallet in my back pocket, etc) but I couldn’t get over the fact that if I lost the phone I would be utterly screwed and a long way from home. Tend to always have a back-up now adays since I don’t want to have to put up with that.