the_abecedarian
@the_abecedarian@piefed.social
- Comment on ‘An uphill battle’: why are midlife men struggling to make – and keep – friends? 3 days ago:
We've been physically separated by car dependency and the removal of free/cheap meeting spaces; distracted by the internet and streaming media; made to hate and fear each other by propaganda; and made temporary in our neighborhoods by rising rents and the hunt for the ever more rare decent job. That's why.
One way to meet people is to get a dog and walk them around the neighborhood. Another is to find local activity groups over discord, meetup, etc. Another is continuing ed classes at a local university or community college
- Comment on Why is so hard for musicians to have a good living and be famous? 3 days ago:
Agreed, its just a bit of a different structure now
- Comment on Do you like the centralized wen of today? 4 days ago:
We deserve an internet that is not merely a surveillance farm for billionnaires and governments.
- Comment on Why is so hard for musicians to have a good living and be famous? 5 days ago:
It's not the musicians' fault. https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/5006-new-hegemonies-streaming-platforms-and-music-production
Nothing under a capitalist economy is rewarded for merit, only profitability for the business owner or shareholders
- Comment on Which ia better etiquette? 1 week ago:
Do whatever your hosts do with theirs
- Comment on The name "seagull" implies the existence of landgulls, airgulls, and firegulls. 2 weeks ago:
also, spacegulls
- Comment on Reevaluating my password management 2 weeks ago:
Seafile or nextcloud
- Comment on I hear a lot of "ACAB", why don't I hear "APAB"? (P as in Politician) 3 weeks ago:
Cool yeah I need to look into liquid democracy more.
I'm sorta ambiguous about the law -- it is always a blunt tool in that it can't possibly cover every situation (despite judicial contortions) and every person's particular circumstances. It ages badly and can be hard to keep it up with changing times.
At this point, though, I'm willing to accept laws written and passed by community assemblies, covering their community. It'd be a huge step forward anyway.
- Comment on I hear a lot of "ACAB", why don't I hear "APAB"? (P as in Politician) 3 weeks ago:
I don't exactly know what it'd mean to merge the judiciary and executive. If we're just tinkering with the system, the most democratic parts of the system are the US House of Representatives, UK House of Commons, and similar population-based representation, so I'd want to expand them at the others' expense.
I don't believe that will solve much, though. In a hierarchical society, those on top will use any existing govt structures to their benefit, having more control when there is less democracy. In general, I believe in spreading power so thinly that it effectively disappears. Instead, people affected by a decision should be the ones to make it, not merely to vote for those who promise to do right by them.
- Comment on I hear a lot of "ACAB", why don't I hear "APAB"? (P as in Politician) 3 weeks ago:
Disagree in general that it can empower the marginalized -- it is at most a reflection of the power that the marginalized can sometimes use, either because they did things like strike or organize in the past, or because they have access to powers won by less marginalized people.
- Comment on I hear a lot of "ACAB", why don't I hear "APAB"? (P as in Politician) 3 weeks ago:
The law is just an expression, more or less up-to-date, of the existing balance of power between those who have power and those who don't
- Comment on What are your approaches to donating? 3 weeks ago:
Donate locally, to smaller organizations doing important work in your area. Your money will be so much more meaningful than a few extra dollars to a national organization or a politician. Mutual aid organizations are a good example.
- Comment on How often do thieves (and identity thieves) actually get caught and served justice? Are there actual examples of law enforcement actually doing anything? (Because I think most cops are just lazy) 3 weeks ago:
Cops have no reason to put forth effort unless you're at least locally important or someone above leans on them to make their numbers/look like they're doing something.
Also is it "justice" to put someone in jail? Let's say there's no way to return what was stolen (money spent, property sold/destroyed etc). It certainly doesn't stop them from doing more crime, it tends to force them into doing more bc it makes them less hirable and more economically desperate. It doesn't make your situation any better either. It's just more money for the prison companies.
- Comment on Why does America feel the need to control the world? Do what they say? Instead of taking care of their own problems at home? When did the US become police officer of the world and enforcer? 3 weeks ago:
There are privileges to being an empire and the capitalists in the US continue to use that empire to get access to those privileges. Favorable trade, commercial, and financing terms are a big one.
Also the US war industry pushes the country to intervene. You can see how there are interventionist and isolationist movements in the US fighting right now over how much the US gets directly involved in Iran-Israel.
- Comment on Mastodon updates terms of service to ban AI model training on user data 3 weeks ago:
That is not true. The terms of service cover "your access and use of Server Operator's ("Administrator", "we", or "us") instance". Access includes reading data from the server.
- Comment on Patreon will increase the cut it takes from new creators 3 weeks ago:
- Comment on Google is intentionally throttling YouTube videos, slowing down users with ad blockers 3 weeks ago:
- Comment on Do instances exist where you can be 13+? 3 weeks ago:
@Aurora: I think most Pixelfed instances/apps have a way to block NSFW content. You'll have to make sure your sister has NSFW content blocking on (and keeps it on) and you'll want to check in with her every now and then about her experience there. I think marking images as NSFW is optional for the person posting the content, so not every single NSFW image will necessarily be blocked. It's hard to give someone a completely clean social media experience.
One other thing you can try: look for instances that are focused on a topic your sister enjoys that is not likely to have NSFW content in it, like ppl who are interested in trains or playing a musical instrument. There are some here: https://fediverse.party/en/portal/servers/ (but you should check the server before she joins)
to all the commenters saying the fediverse is not a good place: these kids are going to be on social media, one way or another. It could be tiktok, bluesky, snapchat, or whatever else they can get onto. Some (but not all) parts of the fediverse should be accessible to them. Ofc that means someone has to do the hard work of hosting those instances, which is not easy. Just saying "this isn't for you" isn't doing teens or the fediverse or parents any favors.
- Comment on Is it really doom scrolling if it's just true? 5 weeks ago:
Doomscrolling is scrolling through your phone wallowing in depression/anxiety about these things. Moderate your news intake, spend some time doing mutual aid, ice watch, whatever appeals to you, and get more sleep.
- Comment on Why is DOGE still around if Donny and Elon aren't getting along? 5 weeks ago:
So doge is doing that work. Why get rid of it if it does what they want?
- Comment on Why is DOGE still around if Donny and Elon aren't getting along? 5 weeks ago:
DOGE is not just a Musk thing. Privatizing government has been a long term goal of the republicans and capitalists for a very long time
- Comment on Discord's CTO is just as worried about enshittification as you are 5 weeks ago:
Well if he does anything to stop it, the board of directors will remove him.
- Comment on Let's play this game again 1 month ago:
This is amazing and should be in a tabletop rpg session
- Comment on Let's play this game again 1 month ago:
Telekinesis
- Comment on 7 for me 1 month ago:
What, no formalwear option?
- Comment on The world was a nicer place before the advent of leaf blowers 1 month ago:
fair enough. It's another reason why grass doesn't make sense to me -- it's so incompatible with the landscape unless you put in the effort to make it habitable. Maybe there's a type of ivy that would have an acceptable max height instead?
- Comment on The world was a nicer place before the advent of leaf blowers 1 month ago:
I have lived in suburbs, subdivisions, and city neighborhoods with green space. People (or their landscapers) use leaf blowers in all of them.
- Comment on The world was a nicer place before the advent of leaf blowers 1 month ago:
They're loud, they kick up dust, and they happen at intermittent times based on when the neighbors do it. they also use fossil fuels. Loud mowers are annoying, too! If you -- heaven forbid -- want to keep your windows open and feel a breeze, you're going to get all of that noise and maybe even some of the dust.
I understand that we have to clear sidewalks and driveways so that accidents don't happen. People usually don't have so much sidewalk + driveway that a broom or something wouldn't do that job quickly. But then we have to blow the leaves off the lawn, too? I know that your HOA will kill you if you don't, but doesn't it seem silly to remove the leaves from a lawn, then buy and put down commercial fertilizer, when the leaves would have biodegraded into new topsoil? To spend so much time watering a lawn to keep it alive when the leaves would have shielded it from the sun? Why are we spending so much time, money, water, and effort to maintain sterile grass lawns? We can have beautiful outdoors spaces without being slaves to an HOA enforcing what plants we grow.
I understand that it's really the HOAs these days that are a big part of the problem. A good number of people in my HOA-less neighborhood have diverse plants in front of their homes. They look fantastic, they seem to take way less maintenance (I never see them mowing, watering, weeding, fertilizing, etc), and ofc they're much better for the environment.
- Comment on YSK You don't need Teflon pans for nonstick 1 month ago:
I didn't know about this technique, thanks!
You can also season the whole pan once and the nonstick effect will last a very long time.
- Comment on Stop Internet Searching and Start Asking on Fediverse? 1 month ago:
What's quicker: searching bad info sources online or searching better info sources at the library?
Also OP didn't say it had to be quick