Not really, but also kind of all the time. I’m mostly here for memes and shitposts, just as a kind of substitute for actually having friends, and its doing that pretty well.
Nothing truly productive or useful, in the sense of somethings changed my beliefs for the better, or I feel ive made a positive contribution. Its been pretty negative in that sense, as the politically minded people online will jump at you if they suspect wrongthink, so ive learned to just avoid them as much as I can help.
This place is mostly doing exactly what I want it to most of the time though so its good.
Yes. The people here are neat.
People are nice here imo
In terms of politics, which is mostly what I discuss on here, I once read a Cowbee post that actually made something click for me that I hadn’t understood, basically, that a socialist system should seek to nationalize industries primarily once they’ve become sufficiently developed that incentives for growth are no longer necessary or useful. Previously, my framework had been more along the lines of state-run for necessitities and private for luxuries, without consideration of the level of development, but Cowbee’s explanation clicked for me and connected the concept of enshittification to the question which transformed the way I looked at things.
Um. Other than that, for all the discussions I’ve been in, not a lot else comes to mind. I find it really difficult to have high level discussions with people I don’t already broadly agree with, because people just aren’t interested. Whenever I attempt to pose a real question, or pick people’s brains in a meaningful way, it just gets ignored. People just really like screaming at each other over the same like three topics forever, everything gets reduced to team sports, and those categorized as being on the other team get completely dismissed. Like honestly, that weird cult of “Soulism” that we have on here is at least more thought provoking and mentally stimulating that the 10,000th shouting match of “tankie!” “lib!” “tankie!” “lib!” “Genocide denier!” “Genocide enabler!” blah blah blah, it all gets so boring.
Sometimes I really miss being in school and writing essays, where I could know that someone was going to read it, think about it, and provide feedback. Trying to talk about anything high-level on here is shouting into the void. But everywhere else I know of on the internet is even worse! The only spaces where people actually engage with the sort of questions I’m interested in are spaces where everyone broadly agrees with my perspective already, which also gets boring.
Sometimes, I just need something interesting and challenging to mull over while working an understimulating job, and it’s hard to find that.
, I once read a Cowbee post
Did you bookmark the link, by any chance?
I’m not sure which post @[email protected] is referring to, but in simple terms, markets are useful in that they stitch together and connect production. This is a progressive development on disparate, unconnected production, be it for necessities or for luxuries. However, once production is all stitched together, it’s easier to see the whole and plan it, by which point the progressive aspects of markets have outlived their usefulness.
What’s key, though, is control. Class struggle remains alive until it ends. In order to maintain socialist control, the large firms and key industries need to be dominated by a working class state. This way capitalists cannot leverage control over the means of production and turn it into political power, they are kept to secondary and highly competitive industries in a birdcage. They may fly as they see fit within those bounds, but the owner of the cage can shrink it as they see fit.
Capitalism’s historic role is in connecting humanity. In other words, in socializing production. The working class’s historic role is socializing distribution as well, moving from the chaos of markets to a scientific plan gradually after siezing political control.
Hope that helps!
Unfortunately not, this was a long time ago. But I’m sure if you ask them they’d be happy to explain.
Yeah I had a decent back and forth with someone about vegan/vegetarian foods advertising as imitation meats instead of the ingredients they’re made of. I don’t know that it changed my opinion, but I at least understand the “why” better now.
The fact that it keeps me off Reddit is a huge plus.
Yes, often. I do however struggle finding nuance sometimes. I am a very curious person by nature, and want to learn and explore tech. Anything related to AI is almost completely hopeless here. I see it as a tool and so far it has been quite useful for me in many regards. There is lots of problems with it, but I prefer philosophical discussions about it, and learning of its potential uses. Ways of broadening my horizon. I have heard all the anti-AI arguments thousands of times, and agree with most of them. I do also see its value.
The shitposting is 🧑🍳🤌💋
Lots of funny, good natured people just doing the meme thing.
Tons of them. Just today I taught one person about bird biology in regards to feather replacement and another I am helping prepare their family farm to hopefully host a barn owl nest we desperately need in our state.
It is also due to the great conversations I had here with people everyday that encouraged me to get involved with wildlife rehabilitation 2 years ago and it’s been one of the greatest adventures in my life. Everyone has been so supportive and has helped me develop my knowledge by asking great questions and sharing their enthusiasm with me about so many beautiful animals.
I’ve also participated in some political threads when the events were local and I’d been able to add nuance to the conversation. The trick is to just read the room and see if the thread is already trending hostile and just learn who is here to be combative vs to have real discussions.
I also just try to not be a jerk myself. I said something yesterday that got a more outspoken communists a bit insulated and I explained what my point of the original comment was a bit better and they calmed down when they saw I wasn’t being insulting to their beliefs.
I just use the same guidelines for conversation I would in real life here, and almost all my interactions here are positive ones.
The womensstuff community has been quite a positive corner of the fediverse for me.
I’ve also had great chats about music, punk specifically, and food with other lemmings.
I see you in that community a lot. I can’t participate in it myself, but it is always interesting reading it and seeing perspectives so different from my own. I’m glad you find it enjoyable enough to contribute to the space and keep it alive.
I had a great discussion on Mastodon about the logic of making bike helmets a legal requirement or not. I learned a lot and actually changed my mind on the subject…
Unheard of! You are the chosen one!
So do you think they should be a legal requirement or not?
No. Obviously I think if you can wear them you should, but making them required reduces the willingness of people to cycle, so as a strategy for swapping from car to bike, it is less effective.
Interesting… So do you feel the same about motorcycle helmets?
Indeed I have. We recently got a used truck, and the windshield wipers and radio didn’t work. After some outside research plus some discussion on Lemmy, I figured out the ignition switch wasn’t activating the accessory systems, which require power from the yellow wire.
So, the truck is missing the dome light, but there’s 4 wires hanging above the rear view mirror, black, white, orange, and yellow…
I touched the orange to the yellow, and guess what, the radio came to life! So I told my roommate to try the wipers, and sure enough they work too!
We now have a toggle switch for that dangling under the rear view mirror for that.
Thanks again @seathru 👍
Someone taught me private space and profile best practices in GrapheneOS today. Really useful information.
Saving that 😄
No
Wanna discuss something?
No.
This is not an argument!
Yes it is!
No it’s not!
It is now.
Are you enjoying this?
yes, almost everyday. would not be here if otherwise.
i have also had many of these threads removed by mods, or end up in harassment/insults from other users who didn’t like the content of the discussion being discussed. lots of people want to derail or silence productive discussion because it makes them uncomfortable or doesn’t support their preexisting biases. especially about social or political problems.
the problem is certain users just HATE anyone who says anything they disagree with, and need to paint everyone who doesn’t agree with them as irredeemably evil. I’ve seen people write fan-fictions about me personally, based on a few comments I’ve made. and further, they are OUTRAGED that anyone upvotes my comments or anyone agrees with them, and usually start reporting such comments to get me banned from that community. and these folks… are convinced they aren’t the problem. It’s me and my views that are the problem, and been to be silenced, rather than discussed.
I like discussion and asking questions and interactions… a lot of folks in life in general are incredibly threatened and hostile to this type of socialization. but it’s cool when folks also share that mentality and share their insights and experiences or thoughtful speculations.
