anon6789

That was my initial gripe with the other commenters. Nobody ever likes the one-size-fits-all software platforms. It's always got too much of what you dont want and not enough what you do. All these social platforms are free., why mix them when we can use the ones we want. Installing Lemmy and Bluesky apps is easy, but if you later decide you dont want Bluesky, you just uninstall. If all those people would come here, you'd have to get people to defederate or you have to pack up and leave for another instance. That seems a lot more hassle to me than just using a second app.

Lemmy is great as-is. Let's be proud of it. It gives me a day's worth of content as it stands now....probably more than I actually should use it already!

Yup, I just replied to another comment, what's so bad about having a place that's just regular people? I enjoy having my comments actually read here and getting to know some of you to some level. I'd lose interest in this place if it turned into new Twitter. I can't compete with Taylor or Beyonce or whoever the flavor of the week is. We can have both platforms if we so choose, so why wreck one for the sake of another?

Exactly. For all the things that typically get complained about: one product trying to do everything, people coming in to monetize things, feeling like your voice gets lost in oceans of comments, it seems like people forget that when it comes to the Fediverse.

The same guys that spent all that time being mad about potential federation with Threads are mad that this place isn't going to be Twitter 2.0? It doesn't make sense to me. If you want ads and celebs, go see them at their place. Keeping this just place us regular people doesn't need to be a negative. There's room for both.

I don't disagree that what you're saying shouldn't be controversial, but after the crying they've had about athletes taking a knee, a one-off promotional beer can, and whatever other snowflake stuff I've repressed memories of, it just sounds extremely risky.

Lethal response training as a whole definitely needs work, but it's something beyond the abilities of volunteer vets and animal handler. It feels like a psychological issue more than an educational one I obviously care about the animals, but shooting people is a greater priority, and reducing that should in turn help the doggos also.

We're here for fun. Celebs are on social media as part of their brand. It's them doing business, and they're going to use what the feel will reach the largest audience with the least effort on their part, and something with corporate backing likely has customer support for moderation, hacking, and whatever else. They're not here for a digital revolution, they're here to keep their name and income stream out there.

I imagine it's the same reasoning why a business will pay for Red Hat when they could run Linux for free. It may or may not be the best option, but they feel it offers tangible benefits.

Rescues have no guaranteed funding. I have not encountered one anywhere in the world that gets a single cent of public money. They also get free help rescuing animals on occasion from police. Even the hint of going after them politically I can guarantee would get them a Bud Light style boycott and nobody wants to be the private business or donor that supports the shelter that hates cops. They don't have time or resources to deal with that. Drama is the last thing a rescue needs.

I've been thinking about how Ukraine has been able to hold out against Russia for so long, but the US just surrendered to them without a fight. Never thought I'd see the day. But at least our pending top intelligence person already has contacts inside the Kremlin... SMH

I went to look at your comment. I'll be polite and summarize it instead of sharing the exact quote.

I was 18 and had a 17 year old girlfriend and we had a ton of sex. That's what 17 year olds do.

If you don't understand how the power dynamics are different between 2 nobodies of similar age vs a 17 year old and a 38 year old federal representative and his local gov buddy, you may want to read some things written about consent written in the last decade.

When I was 17, someone almost 40 was considered old as hell.

Edit: Article on coercion vs consent

They had her out of state, where she likely didn't really know where she was, likely had no one to get help from if she felt she was in a bad situation, and was there with very much more adult authority figures, and there were drugs at the party, so she may have also been under the influence.

You also can't fault someone for taking time to want to testify. She probably felt at least partially responsible, and he is a national figure. It takes time to get up courage to open yourself up to the whole world getting a chance to say things like you must have wanted it or did something to deserve it.

After reading this comment and the article, I feel there is actually some perspective hidden here that may need addressing.

While a million dollars to most of us seems unobtainable, a billion dollars is still unobtainable to most millionaires. It's 1000x or 3 factors of 10 or however you wish to look at it. Huge difference. Nobody if offered either a million or a billion dollars would say there's no substantial difference.

Google tells me Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are worth about $150 million each. That's a hell of a lot of money to be sure.

Current market cap on Unilever is around $144 billion. One thousand times more than either Ben or Jerry.

When we're in a time where some are starting to say even a million dollars is no longer a guaranteed good retirement savings, and when people with 150x that much are being silenced, maybe we also need to update our thoughts on the ongoing class warfare around the world.

While most of us here have different realities than Ben and Jerry, their lives are drifting closer to ours than they are for the billionaire class. To me, that is a bit scary to think of. That's concentration of power to a much smaller group. About 1.1% of the world population, 59.4 million people, are millionaires, there are less than 3000 billionaires.

When division is what is keeping us fighting each other instead of focusing on who is really calling the shots, I feel this is an important distinction to consider. Maybe getting pissed at millionaires has now become futile. The upside is it is easier to focus on 3000 people than 60 million. That isnt to say millionaires are also an issue, but it may no longer be the most pressing one.

Open to your thoughts, I just think these numbers are pretty staggering.

The spotted owls had long known of the impending demolition of Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger...The last ever message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to hoot "The Star-Spangled Banner", but in fact the message was this: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Mice."

I was thinking today we're not far from having a new Fugitive Slave Act, only with migrants. At this point, I don't think we can really say anything is off the table. I don't know any check or balance that isn't currently compromised or 1 executive order from elimination.

I was originally planning to start the 2nd annual SuperbOwl Owl of the Year event on Election Day, and I'm glad I decided not to do that!

I started it on Saturday instead to give people time to cool off a bit, and one the plus side, I've seen a few users I haven't heard from in a while chime in again, but the initial response has gotten almost 10% downvotes, which I find pretty shocking. It was a big success last year and really raised the sub numbers, and even if you dont care about the "competition" you still get the same pics you would anyway.

A bit disappointed overall due to having dipped about 20 places on the active community list. I feel likes are still trending downward, and comments were feeling lower as well. I'm hoping it's just election stress taking up everyone's energy for social media and we'll bounce back soon. I still try to be a place people can come for a smile, so it's a bit sad if people aren't doing that.