Macron
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
31 points (94.3% liked)
Asklemmy
49073 readers
494 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Capitalism.
Also, if I work hard I will be rewarded.
Crypto
a video to help people understand the problem with crypto: https://youtu.be/YQ_xWvX1n9g
I know the video says it's about NFTs, but it touches on Bitcoin and blockchain first as background.
Socialdemocracy :(
What did social democracy do to you?
To me? it is lefternmost political movement allowed to exist in Polish public space, so for years it pretended to not be what it really is, the left wing of fascism, and i believed that.
For example when after completely disastrous "reforms" by AWS and UW (direct predecessors of current PiS and PO parties) in 1999, succdems won a most landsliding victory in post 1989 history of Poland, they realised policies that had nearly nothing in common with what they promised, but the usual neoliberal austerity. That did pissed off nearly all of their voters and in next few elections their results have been abysmal. Recently they got some more support and get a partial generational exchange, but they only went even further right, openly making coalition with right-liberals of PO.
Social democracy as a concept would work if those doing it would have a spine and not be traitors of the working class.
But whatever is sold as social democracy these days (or actually the last 20 years at least), I absolutely agree is a scam.
At least in Germany, there is no left party that is both realistic (not trying to be pacifist when facing bullies, or promising unrealistic things making sure they will never get more than 15%) and also truly acting in the interest of the people, sadly. SPD is the German version of what you said, slightly softer neolibs in sheep's clothing.
Gym membership.
The scammers didn't get what they wanted, but they did get into my account. I got a call claiming to be from T-Mobile telling me that someone was trying to order an iPhone online to a second address and it was flagged as potentially fraudulent. They had all my basic account information, so it seemed like they were just asking me for verification, but really they were fishing for the additional details to confirm the order, not cancel it. It was when they tried to change my password and T-Mobile texted me the security code that I realized what was happening. They must have gotten my username and password from a data leak. They hung up when I started asking for proof that they were really T-Mobile. I'm glad that they didn't get all the way, but I'm still embarrassed that they got as far as they did.
I was 16 and saved all my money for my own laptop.
Was looking at a MacBook Pro, which was sold on eBay as an outlet unit with minor defects (like scratches) for a third less.
Bought it and sent my money through Western Union just to never see it - or any laptop - again
16 year old me was more than heart broken...
I was around 12 or 13 and saved all my money for a PS2. Found one on eBay (using my fathers account), won the bid, transfered the money and just never got it. No PS2, no money. But I learned very early not to trust people on the internet. Guess that was worth the price in hindsight.
Is Western Union used for anything other than scams? What's it for legitimately? Can't you just send money via your bank?
International money transfers, iirc
Yeh, I can send money from bank to bank internationally already. The banks use the SWIFT system.
As said, I was young...
No shade on you man, you were young, just wondering if any who isn't being scammed ever chooses to use that service or of it's basically dedicated entirely to facilitating scams.
What about scams you're born into, but stayed in waaaay to long? If so Mormonism and the Republican party.
Good for you for getting out of that!
Thanks
Religion.
A couple years ago I spent a few hundred on various audio plugins for music production. I also spent a few hundred on a DAW with all plugins. I was hooked by the flashy marketing and celebrity shilling, especially when I was stuck producing on the Corporate OS.
There's plenty of FOSS plugins (including ones built into your DAW) that are at least as good as what Izotope and Native Instruments are selling for 100's of dollars. Furthermore, they don't have invasive DRM and don't try to sell you features you don't need.
If you are a Linux music producer (or are interested in becoming one), I recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaDoRa5n8nQ
Rental housing scam. A place came up for rent near me with more rooms and I deseprately needed it for my kids but it turned out to be a reupload of a house that used to be for sale and the guy fooled me with the "application fee" thing along with trying to get me to pay him more money to allow pets but I learned by then it was fake and called him out on it and he ghosted me
Yeah this is why Iβve stopped using Craigβs List. Most of the listings, last time I was looking, were scams. I lost a few βapplication feesβ and was always ghosted. Iβll never again respond to an ad that has any fees whatsoever until I can see with my own eyes that the property is real. Hunting for a place to live sucks so much.
I saw this clip on eBaumsworld when I was like 12 and was overjoyed that we had finally done it and all the climate change stuff I learned about wasn't going to be a problem.
Haha I never knew there was a real person attached to that myth. I was hearing about that as a big conspiracy theory from teachers when I was kid all the way here in Australia.
That's interesting he did produce an actual machine that could move though. I was reading the Wikipedia about him and they don't go in to that exactly. They point out that his design and vehicle were just using conventional electrolysis and thus couldn't work as claimed, but it still moved. What was the catch then? It uses a battery to do the electrolysis, does it just use up all the battery to inefficienly split out the hydrogen using more energy than gained from the hydrogen in the process? Making it a really weird electric car?
Stanley Meyer's invention was later termed fraudulent after two investors to whom he had sold dealerships offering the right to do business in Water Fuel Cell technology sued him in 1996. His car was due to be examined by the expert witness Michael Laughton, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. However, Meyer made what Professor Laughton considered a "lame excuse" on the days of examination and did not allow the test to proceed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fuel_cell
Probably the dune buggy never ran on the system he claimed. He was a fraudster, so probably it was just running on gas like normal while he was claiming it was all water.
Ah I see my confusion now
His "water fuel cell" was later examined by three expert witnesses in court who found that there "was nothing revolutionary about the cell at all and that it was simply using conventional electrolysis."
I initially took it to mean they'd examined the fuel cell in the vehicle but the way that's written it's not necessarily the case so it was probably a separate demo prototype to the buggy.
Pump and dump of penny stock. π€·
Buying a car from a dealership.
New car it used car?
I've only bought two new cars but don't consider the depreciation a scam, it's something everyone knows is going to happen going into it so although I feel I made a bad choice doing it, I don't blame the dealership. The high-pressure bullshit is also to be expected, sadly.
Used, OTOH, is an absolute scam. On trade-in, they make number adjustments to get the used car basically free and on the sale-end, they dress it up, tell the buyer that it's been through a 5,000 point quality check and sell you whatever got bought at auction or traded in. They get even scammier if you finance through them. I've seen 16% interest rate for a buyer with an 800+ credit score.
The whole thing is predatory in nature.
Voting this century.
Rush my passport. Fell for it because it was being provided by fedex!!! I filled it out at one of their locations!!!
In the end it does absolutely nothing, and its stupid fucking expensive. Nearly lost $2000.
This guy told me he'd give me great items. I'd just have to follow him into the woods so he could give them to me.
I didn't make it out of there alive.