I’ve found what mitigates this is keeping an eye on where the post comes from. If it comes from something like MemesOfProduction, it’s probably not safe to say “oh, capitalism isn’t as bad as all that”. But if there’s a politically tinged post in Technology, you’ll find more normal people around who aren’t Chekists.

We’re suffering from pedomania right now, seeing pedos under every bed but it’s actually a rare thing. If you have an astronomical number of children online it’s going to “feel” like they’re in danger of falling prey to predators. Especially with the modern expanded definition of pedo where every freshman dating a senior is the victim of a grooming predator.

But if we want zero tolerance, the best thing to do is to promote parental controls. And if we want to get draconian about it, then charge parents with negligence if their kids become victims because the parents weren’t using parental controls.

From my understanding, the situation is statutory rape. An 18 year old senior with a freshman girlfriend is a statutory rapist. A life sentence is pretty stiff already.

It worked best when YT had banner ads instead of video ads. Today you get Wix rolled for a minute or two before you get to the Rick.

This is the one I love. It’s next to the Astrodome.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/gVgHQPd7vXytGnHCA

Granted, it usually is almost empty. I’m not even sure it was designed to be a bikepath/sidewalk originally but my god it is heavenly to ride down. I think it’s maintained by the city because most sidewalks are maintained by the landowner, and are thus usually almost trying to murder cyclists.

Seems like they overthunk the bike lanes. I think just extra-wide sidewalks work best. If they’re heavily trafficked then they can paint lanes for bikes and pedestrians on them. In my city, the best bike paths are just giant sidewalks that can accommodate fleshy human traffic in general.

You might not realize it, but the Fediverse is social media so a ban would be rather detrimental to this place.

Governments know about parental controls. They know it’s the most effective, most efficient, and least destructive way to deal with this. They don’t care. And they don’t care about the children. If they cared, they’d develop their own parental control software, offer it for free, and encourage it’s use.

If they really wanted to get draconian about it, as they are doing now with age verification, they would pass laws to prosecute parents who don’t use parental controls for negligence.

But it’s not about the children. At all. It’s about preventing you and me, and all of us from talking to each other and entertaining ourselves. It’s about turning the Internet into TV, a one way faucet of entertainment and information controlled by the wealthy .001% where us peons can’t talk back.

These age verification laws are just the first step. They kill small forums and games like Urban Dead, and leave only sites controlled by megacorporations that can afford the age verification infrastructure and the massive corporate fines if a single kid sneaks in. Once you get used to this, it’s easier for you to accept not being able to communicate online at all, or start your own forum, or YouTube channel.

I don’t get it either. Is the model labelled neanderthal known for acting like a neanderthal?

That’s what I’m saying. If someone is verbally abusing you, it’s a sign they are being deceptive.

It’s generally safe to assume they mean it, unless proven otherwise.

The sentence you’re replying to completely agrees with this. I think you misread it.

Even if the hateful remarks are understood to be ‘‘a joke’’, I don’t think that’s any less damning. These are not the type of things to joke about, and most reasonable and/or decent people realize that.

I was thinking in terms of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal or someone adopting a Colbert-style character, like the one from his old show.

Can you give me an example of something like that playing out on a serious real-life topic such as politics/race/genocide etc?

With politics, it usually comes in the form of verbal abuse.

Non-profits seem to work better when they produce a product. But when they produce nothing and just have a goal, they don’t want to close shop after achieving that goal. Like MADD. The woman who founded it left a quarter of century ago because she accomplished what she set out to do. Those running it today don’t want to lose their meal ticket.

Non-profit means the corporation isn’t set up to make a profit and the business operates off of donations instead of selling a product. So there is always a profit motive. I wish more people understood this. Everything from Greenpeace to MADD is still a corporation ran by people who want to make lots and lots of cash.

I’m trying to discuss things in pure logic so as to emotionally unload the reasoning. Bad faith means they are being deceitful. Whether someone says “Hello. You look nice to day.” or “we should torture indigenous people” how can one glean that they don’t truly believe that? Though the second one is so outlandish, I would assume it’s satire since I assume innocence.

Unless you’re reducing bad faith actors to people coming up and saying, ‘‘hey everyone, I’m acting in bad faith!’’ (which the vast majority of bad faith actors do not do) - which is ridiculous.

It’s been my experience they eventually do. If someone is telling me I look nice and I take it as a genuine compliment, but they’re acting in bad faith, that’s going to drive them up the fucking wall that I’m so dumb that I don’t assume bad faith like they do.

Even with an ethical element tied to the statement, an accusation of bad faith is a bit of a non sequitur.

A: We should torture ducks and masturbate to their suffering because they have three feet.

B: You are acting in bad faith.

I’m using 7.5 which I installed in 2023. Have they really had 20 updates in two years or am I’m misunderstanding the numbering?

That’s the problem. Comcast is famous in the US for being utter dogshit. So is ATT. And that’s pretty much our choices.

In Threads, WWIII starts when Russia invades Iran after a US backed coup.

yes but how often does your internet go down?

About once a month. Not for very long, but it is an annoyance. Xfinity usually does maintenance between 1am and 2am, and the Internet will be out for about 30 minutes to an hour. About once a year it goes down for at least half a day.

My OS hasn’t gone down at all in 20 years. I don’t want that to change. If an OS stops working for an hour once a month for maintenance, it’s a piece of refried shit.

In some discussions, faith, good or bad, doesn’t matter. If a politician says that ducks have three feet, whether they say that in good faith or not, it’s wrong. So it’s still best to assume good faith and logically explain how it is incorrect. To respond to such a statement with an accusation is a fallacy.