Airgoa @airgoa@qoto.org

@thor A general rule is that if you have anxiety over those things, you're wrong about 85%+ of the time in predicting a negative outcome.

I'd recommend very low impact and investment to start. Think of brief questions to ask strangers, neighbours, cashiers etc. Stuff like:
- "nice day" / "I hope this rain stops tomorrow"
- "hey my phone died, do you have the time?"
- Is there a bookshop nearby?
- Which coffee blend would you recommend?

It really doesn't matter.

The key is to prepare it in advance and only aim for a one sentence question, one sentence answer. That way it really can't go badly.

As you get more comfortable with those examples, you'll find it easier to ask more open questions or make statements that invite longer responses.

@codepuppy @Sphinx @freemo I think the reasons for regression and immaturity are really diverse, depending on both person and circumstance, and while it can be specific to a context it's often a pervasive personality change.

I think you're onto something in terms of roles of responsibility. Having agency and being responsible for things that affect others seems to promote maturation and I imagine the reverse is likely true. I suspect that the way a lot of welfare programs are devised they might actually create that problem, come to think of it.

I've also seen people react to certain traumatic events that way. It's not so much about the trauma itself but how people deal with it, and the build-up of toxic emotions like anger, resentment and self-pity.

I wonder how much people's jobs, friends and family affect their response to hard things too. Feeling supported but also not encouraged to indulge in harmful framing and ideation, and being brought into real world responsibilities might help people experience post traumatic growth, which is the normal response, rather than regression.

@codepuppy @freemo @Sphinx Communism and anarchism don't work *at scale* because we're not ants or wolves.

Not only do humans have certain patterns of loosely coupled version of eusociality, but also human neurodiversity plays a big role: eg differences in ambition, ability, interests, extroversion, extrinsic motivation.

There's this saying in software that projects end up with architecture based on the structure of their teams. Humans seem to thrive best with hybrid social systems at scale because we're so diverse.

As for leadership, it's so tricky! Being a great leader means a balance of listening to what the people want, doing a better job than your average constituents of determining what direction is best, and selling them on it.

Of course delegating such power and responsibility to anyone is full of both opportunity for success and abuse. Usually you get both, in the same person.

@thor Absolutely. Ideally what we need are better automated, user-driven systems for reducing the impact and reach of abusive behaviour, not delegating a censorship role to untrustworthy social media firms.

@thor They're an in-between thing because social media needs to be defined as a third thing but hasn't.

Essentially, curating makes you a publication. As soon as you say "we like this opinion, it stays, but this other is a bad take so it's removed" you're doing the job of a journal: picking which content to include.

What's at the heart of these issues is whether a line can really be found between abuse and free political expression, that isn't precariously vulnerable to abuse to further political aims.

It's like how virtually everyone in the US and world hates Nazis, but that just means everyone tries to categorize their opponents as Nazis.

So how do we create a social forum concept that ensures public discourse on political, economic and social ideas isn't dominated by who has the money or political power right now to dictate who the "bad guys" are and what "evil" is?

@thor @freemo It just seems very... suspicious. I mean sure, Twitter tries to ban content they don't like, yet I'm sure you could find Nazis if you looked. Calling out the Fediverse seems strange. Unless it was based on brigading by a bunch of "Mastodon apps must have built-in server block lists" people reporting it.

I guess the plus side includes more people installing F-Droid but this is a net negative for sure.

@thor Really, the whole world might benefit if the US had an explicit "public internet forum" act to lay out allowances for moderating abusive behaviour while requiring a forum to not censor legal expression of ideas based on eg political affiliation or beliefs.

I'm not even sure how that would be done, and hashing it out would be intense, but it's what's needed.

It would force social media to give users more control over what they see and how they interact.

@thor There's also the whole section 230 thing which changes that game. I believe it's supposed to make it possible for something like a social network to not be responsible for the content posted by its users, as long as they take down illegal content on request, I think.

@thor @freemo I don't find that very plausible here. I've tried out some of those apps and didn't notice an instance list for starters, but what are they even linking to? Most servers, particularly Mastodon, seem to lean in the direction of not allowing a lot of controversial content, broader even than "hate speech," rather than towards free speech.

@thor @freemo By the logic of banning apps from Google Play that can be used to access hateful content, the first thing to go would be Chrome, which not only lets you access arbitrary content, but also provides direct access to Google so you can search for it!

@codewiz A LOT of people learn best by doing.

Of course where to focus that energy is a different question. Now that computers are ubiquitous and we have calculators in our pockets always, the choice of what to focus on should probably shift to a higher level.

And yet, learning how to multiply numbers by hand does help with understanding how numbers work and what multiplication means.

It also helps with being able to estimate or even calculate in your head, which can be a very useful skill.

@fribbledom Definitely remember loadlin... Wow.