@angelobottone@qoto.org
I teach #philosophy and work as a researcher for the Iona Institute (www.ionainstitute.ie) Abruzzese. #Distributism
Joined Jul 2019
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On 9 May 1950 Robert Schuman set out his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe, which would make war between Europe’s nations unthinkable. This proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the #EU. 1/2
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How Should We Approach Triage in the Crisis?
By Catherine Kavanagh The current crisis of care in nursing homes is explained by some as simply an exercise in triage, necessary because there are not enough resources to go around, and it is alarming how many people simply shrug it off as inevitable. However, before capitulating completely to the law of the jungle, it […] https://ionainstitute.ie/how-should-we-approach-triage-in-the-crisis/
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#European #politics is moving to #Mastodon #Fediverse
• #EuropeanCommission
@EU_Commission
• #EuropeanUnion #Agency for #FundamentalRights
@FRA
• European #DataProtection Supervisor #EDPS
@EDPS
• European Union Agency for #SpaceProgramme #EUSPA
@EUSPA
• European Ombudsman
@ombudsman
• #OpenSource Programme Office
@EC_OSPO
In case I forgot any institution or politicians, please respond!
Breda O’Brien: Learning to listen to those with whom we disagree is vital https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/breda-o-brien-learning-to-listen-to-those-with-whom-we-disagree-is-vital-1.4865168
The Somerville Quartet | The Point Magazine https://thepointmag.com/criticism/the-somerville-quartet/
Yet another study confirms the benefits of religious practice https://ionainstitute.ie/yet-another-study-confirms-the-benefits-of-religious-practice/
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👋 Hello new followers!
✨ We are an ethical alternative to Instagram!
▶️ Find an instance to join here https://fedidb.org/software/pixelfed #pixelfed
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16. Write something about yourself in your profile and add a picture. You don't have to use a real name or photo, call yourself whatever you want and use any picture you want.
17. Write an introductory post about yourself and give it the hashtag #Introductions, so that people can say hello to you
18. Make sure you use hashtags in public posts so they can be discovered more easily. Most searches on Mastodon depend on hashtags.
19. Posts on Mastodon are also known as "toots" (because that's the noise an elephant makes, and the Mastodon is an ancient ancestor of the elephant 🐘 ), while retweets here are "boosts".
20. Another good beginner's guide is @noelle's "Increasingly Less-Brief Guide to Mastodon" at https://github.com/joyeusenoelle/GuideToMastodon
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11. Mastodon instances and Mastodon servers are the same thing. It doesn't matter which word you use.
12. Don't worry too much about which server you choose, you can always move your account later (see here for details https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107939441820299376).
13. You can even set up your own Mastodon server if you like. You don't need any tech skills if you use a managed hosting service like https://masto.host or https://federation.spacebear.ee, who do all of the techy stuff for you.
14. You can find apps to use at https://joinmastodon.org/apps. You do not have to use the official apps, if you don't want to! There are lots of great unofficial apps which actually have more features than the official ones. You can see the unofficial apps on https://joinmastodon.org/apps by scrolling down to the "third party apps" section.
15. Servers listed on https://joinmastodon.org/communities have all signed up to a covenant (https://joinmastodon.org/covenant) which promises responsible moderation and reliable service.
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8. If you're blind or partially sighted, there's a guide specifically for screen reader users at https://www.starshipchangeling.net/mastodon
9. There is no overall owner of Mastodon, it's a collection of thousands of independent servers each with their own owner and set of rules.
10. There are no venture capitalists or cryptocurrencies or tokens or coins or web3 or NFTs or anything like that on Mastodon. Servers are entirely owned and paid for by their admins, and they rely on donations to keep going. Please be nice to them, they're doing you a favour by building this lovely corner of the internet.
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New people, welcome to Mastodon and the Fediverse!
Here's how to get started:
1. Find some people to follow over on @FediFollows, and through Trunk (https://communitywiki.org/trunk)
2. Find out your Mastodon/Fediverse address so you can share it with friends (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107248252715651564)
3. Invite people to join you on here by telling them to go to https://joinmastodon.org and click on "Get Started". It doesn't matter if they join a different server because the servers talk to each other (here's a bit more of an explanation https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107021461185874594)
4. Find out what the Fediverse is (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107044096139091624)
5. Find out why Mastodon being on so many different servers/instances is a really good thing (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107083735491993183)
6. If you see anything nasty, you can report it to your friendly server admin (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106540152842368591)
7. You can (sort of) verify your account if you own a website (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106274105538953001)
If you have any questions, @ me or DM me!
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Mother and Baby Homes report highlights how eugenics targeted unmarried mothers https://ionainstitute.ie/mother-and-baby-homes-report-highlights-how-eugenics-targeted-unmarried-mothers/
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Did you know there are centralized alternatives to the #Fediverse?
They are great!
Instead of being developed by volunteers for the community they are developed for millionaires with the sole purpose of getting them more money and influence over the "users".
They contain ads and algorithms, so you don't have to decide, what you want to see, but you get to see what makes you addicted, so you view more ads, buy more stuff and thereby support the capitalist system that we all love.
Instead of anonymity you get to enter your phone number and other form of identification, which totally helps against hate speech, right?
I could go on with advantages, but I think it's best you check them out for yourselves.
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Nice article in Low-Tech magazine on why it makes sense to buy second-hand laptops and install #Linux on them.
Via @Natris1979
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/12/how-and-why-i-stopped-buying-new-laptops.html
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Mastodon is part of the Fediverse.
The Fediverse is a collection of alternative social networks which are connected together through a common technical standard called ActivityPub.
People on the Fediverse can follow, comment, like or message each other seamlessly.
For example, the account @craftykat is on a video platform called PeerTube, but you can follow them, watch the videos, give them a like and comment on them without leaving Mastodon. Try it yourself!
Another example you can try interacting with is @Picturavis, which is on a photo platform called PixelFed.
When you use Mastodon, a lot of the accounts you talk to are actually not on Mastodon!
It can take a bit of time to get your head round this, because centralised social networks like Twitter or Facebook deliberately stifle interoperability.
The Fedi is different, no one owns it so there's no restriction on what people do with it. The ordinary user is all that matters on the Fedi 💪
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Religious practice makes us happy
Religious practice makes us happy, says Laurie Santos who teaches classes on the psychology of happiness at Yale University.
In an interview with the New York Times magazine, the popular cognitive scientist discusses what contributes to our happiness and, among other factors, she mentions religion.
She reckons that practising religious makes people happy. “There’s a lot of evidence that religious people are happier in a sense of life satisfaction and positive emotion in the moment”, she says.
But Santos also claims that religious people are happier not so much because of their beliefs but because of their actions. Being religiously active means to engage in social connection, to volunteer, to feel belonging to a community, to develop a sense of meaningful life together with those with kindred principles.
We get benefits not from theological principles but from the commitment to our group, she says.
This claim rebukes two common opinions among the critics of organised religion. Not only it contradicts the allegation that religion is repressive and detrimental, but it also confirms that it is organised religion - and not just spirituality – that makes us happy. Belief is not sufficient. In order to be beneficial, religious practice has to happen in some organised form, within a group.
“You need a cultural apparatus around the behaviour change”, she tells in the interview. This apparatus has two elements: theological principles and commitment to the group but the latter “doesn’t have to come with a set of spiritual beliefs”, she claims.
In another interview she explains that religious traditions induce us to do acts of charity, having gratitude, being in communities where we connect with others. All those actions give us a boost, but nonbelievers can get a boost from those habits, too.
Her position is problematic, nonetheless, for two reasons.
Firstly, it seems she suggests that all beliefs are equal and what matters most is the cultural apparatus around them. “Could someone get as much benefit from actively participating in a white-nationalist militia as he could be actively participating in a Quaker church?", asks the journalist.
In her reply, prof. Santos explains that she won’t advocate for such organisations, but she reckons that they give a sense of meaning and belonging to those who are involved in them.
Moreover, her claim that the benefits of religion can come from some substitutes is not convincing. Being involved in communal activities - from playing sport to engage in active politics- gives purpose and sense of belonging but I doubt it can be as meaningful as knowing that God is our Father and we are loved by him. They don't bring happiness, unless we understand happiness in a very narrow sense, as some kind of temporary pleasant experience.
People give up their lives more often for their religious faith than for their golf team or stamps club. Not all communal activities are equally valuable.
In any case, it is good to have one of the main gurus of the “science of happiness” confirming international studies which have shown that the level of happiness cross-correlates with the level of religiosity.
The contribution of religion to mental health and wellbeing is well established, and some surveys suggest that Christians are the happiest among the faith groups.
But one could say that the primary purpose of religion is not happiness in this life but to make us closer to God. It has positive effects, but these are not the best motivation for practising a faith.
Religion can be dangerous; it might involve persecution.
Still, those who suffer because of their faith do not abandon it, because they believe it is true even when it doesn’t make them happy.
It is good to pursue happiness, but it doesn’t lead us to God. Seek God, instead, and you will find happiness.
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Some Fediverse alternatives to "big tech" social media:
Twitter ➡️ @Mastodon
Instagram ➡️ @pixelfed
YouTube ➡️ @peertube
Twitch ➡️ @owncast
Goodreads ➡️ @bookwyrm
Facebook Groups ➡️ @mobilizon
Medium ➡️ @writefreely
You don't need an account on all of these in order to interact with them.
Because they all use the ActivityPub open protocol, you can (for example) use a Mastodon account to follow someone on PixelFed or vice versa. That's why they are collectively known as the Fediverse, because they federate together at a technical level.
Also, this is an incomplete list, there are many other Fedi projects out there such as @funkwhale or @inventaire that are not direct alternatives but are their own thing.
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I appreciate #Tutanota because they have one of the best track records w/it comes to protecting users.
If you are thinking about #Ukraine: 25% of revenue will go towards Ukraine Humanitarian aide.
#Email #privacy #Encryption #Security #Crypto #StandWithUkraine #fight4privacy
Religious practice makes us happy
Religious practice makes us happy, says Laurie Santos who teaches classes on the psychology of happiness at Yale University.
In an interview with the New York Times magazine, the popular cognitive scientist discusses what contributes to our happiness and, among other factors, she mentions religion.
She reckons that practising religious makes people happy. “There’s a lot of evidence that religious people are happier in a sense of life satisfaction and positive emotion in the moment”, she says.
But Santos also claims that religious people are happier not so much because of their beliefs but because of their actions. Being religiously active means to engage in social connection, to volunteer, to feel belonging to a community, to develop a sense of meaningful life together with those with kindred principles.
We get benefits not from theological principles but from the commitment to our group, she says.
This claim rebukes two common opinions among the critics of organised religion. Not only it contradicts the allegation that religion is repressive and detrimental, but it also confirms that it is organised religion - and not just spirituality – that makes us happy. Belief is not sufficient. In order to be beneficial, religious practice has to happen in some organised form, within a group.
“You need a cultural apparatus around the behaviour change”, she tells in the interview. This apparatus has two elements: theological principles and commitment to the group but the latter “doesn’t have to come with a set of spiritual beliefs”, she claims.
In another interview she explains that religious traditions induce us to do acts of charity, having gratitude, being in communities where we connect with others. All those actions give us a boost, but nonbelievers can get a boost from those habits, too.
Her position is problematic, nonetheless, for two reasons.
Firstly, it seems she suggests that all beliefs are equal and what matters most is the cultural apparatus around them. “Could someone get as much benefit from actively participating in a white-nationalist militia as he could be actively participating in a Quaker church?", asks the journalist.
In her reply, prof. Santos explains that she won’t advocate for such organisations, but she reckons that they give a sense of meaning and belonging to those who are involved in them.
Moreover, her claim that the benefits of religion can come from some substitutes is not convincing. Being involved in communal activities - from playing sport to engage in active politics- gives purpose and sense of belonging but I doubt it can be as meaningful as knowing that God is our Father and we are loved by him. They don't bring happiness, unless we understand happiness in a very narrow sense, as some kind of temporary pleasant experience.
People give up their lives more often for their religious faith than for their golf team or stamps club. Not all communal activities are equally valuable.
In any case, it is good to have one of the main gurus of the “science of happiness” confirming international studies which have shown that the level of happiness cross-correlates with the level of religiosity.
The contribution of religion to mental health and wellbeing is well established, and some surveys suggest that Christians are the happiest among the faith groups.
But one could say that the primary purpose of religion is not happiness in this life but to make us closer to God. It has positive effects, but these are not the best motivation for practising a faith.
Religion can be dangerous; it might involve persecution.
Still, those who suffer because of their faith do not abandon it, because they believe it is true even when it doesn’t make them happy.
It is good to pursue happiness, but it doesn’t lead us to God. Seek God, instead, and you will find happiness.
Radical assisted suicide organisation opens in Ireland to almost no reaction https://ionainstitute.ie/radical-assisted-suicide-organisation-opens-in-ireland-to-almost-no-reaction/
I teach #philosophy and work as a researcher for the Iona Institute (www.ionainstitute.ie) Abruzzese. #Distributism
Joined Jul 2019
