volkris @volkris@qoto.org
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
Who was impeached for stealing from Ukraine?
Sounds like you have a nice conspiracy theory there, but I would counter that maybe people simply think that the US is too far into debt?
@alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com
I think you pretty much illustrate my point here when you talk about trolling from the Speaker's chair of the House of Representatives.
How is it unserious to be a troll? Well there you go.
It also pretty well illustrates my point about the guy sounding like he was taking the low road over and over in his diatribe.
He did not come off as anyone with anything worthwhile to offer. Just a troll, a bad SNL character.
I suppose it's hard to tell the difference from the outside, not being able to read somebody's mind.
A person who says they are trying but doesn't seem to be making any progress, well I guess there's really no way to tell the difference without being able to be a mind reader.
But if you have any input on that I am all ears because a whole lot of us are a bit frustrated with certain people and not sure what to do about it.
Well you're generally talking about forcing one person to work for another person against their will, which the US has dabbled in in the past and decided we probably shouldn't.
If the rest of the world is still into that, well
@alfredo_liberal@universeodon.com
What exactly did you find amazing about it?
To me it sounded just really unserious.
volkris
boosted
RT twitter.com/@MuseZack: I like Twitter's view count feature because it lets you see things like how @hradzka's epic deep dive thread about a minor yet pivotal character in Conan the Barbarian is getting more eyeballs than, say, The Daily Show and the entire CW network. https://twitter.com/MuseZack/status/1611895965476323329
mentions three other social media sites
It does have video content. I just watched a couple of videos on Mastodon.
Well I can't read the article behind the paywall, but generally this argument comes down to an issue of unclear goals.
Generally people complain that wider highways are still congested but they miss that those congested highways are delivering more transportation from one point to the other.
The goal of a highway is not (generally) to be congestion-free. It's to get transportation from one point to the other, so the congestion is actually a sign of more use of the highway to get there, the wider highway being congested being a sign of success in that goal.
"Fix traffic" is a silly phrase since traffic itself is a fix to the problem of people wanting to get from one place to the other. We keep widening highways because it does contribute to that goal, though.
Oh I definitely know some self-described autistic people who have had no sign of adapting over the course of years!
It was an excellent list of words that he found that managed to start with the same letters. He sounded pretty proud of that list he made.
But there was no meat to any of it. There were some jokes where he took the low road, at least I think they were jokes, but there was nothing that was particularly substantial in terms of a legislator addressing a legislative body.
@TwistedEagle The problem isn't the numbers reported by the government.
The problem is people misunderstanding or outright lying about what the numbers are.
For example, yes, the unemployment rate probably really is 3.5%, but that rate is clearly defined "as a percent of the civilian labor force", and anybody not understanding that misunderstands the number.
It's not a lie. People are just mislead about what the number means.
@snookerarmchair 's comment is exactly kind of thing I'm referring to when I say I see people surprised by the amount of resources it takes to run a #Mastodon / #ActivityPub instance.
This thread highlights comparing against different levels of expectation.
Someone starting from a place where they expect it to take those resources doesn't change that someone else is surprised that it does.
Personally, I suspect we set the bar too low and waste resources because we tolerate systems that don't operate efficiently.
And thus we get ActivityPub, which seems to live down to those expectations.
This overlooks the definition of private, though, setting up a false argument.
Ownership by private groups is still private ownership. You can't just redefine that to be commons and hold it up as proof that commons works just as well as private ownership.
It would be like saying bikes go just as fast as cars, given that a car is basically just a bike and we're able to drive at 60 mph in those bikes.
The article falls into the trap of committing the same error in declaring the proposals to be wrong.
Since personhood isn't a scientific matter, it's no more right to try to use science to prove personhood doesn't begin at any particular point than it's right to do the opposite.
So it's not a "myth" to say personhood begins at point X. It's simply an opinion, not objective right but also not objectively wrong.
I suppose that doesn't make for a compelling headline, though.
Well, one feature of Fediverse and its instances is the idea that you subscribe to an instance that reflects your interests so that the local feed is people all discussing the things you're interested in discussing.
The problem is that people do have multiple interests, so some people open accounts on different instances just so they can have those different local feeds to engage with.
It would be better to bring that content to users rather than having users duplicating themselves to go after the content.
volkris
boosted
@matt I'm perfectly fine with Gargron making money off of Mastodon, but he should stop running it like a business, acting like everybody else is their competition. It's called the Fediverse for a reason.
One example: I read earlier today that he was considering implementing quote-posts. Problem is, there are already QP in the Fediverse, just not in Mastodon. That means there is already a standard, set by Misskey and adopted by everyone else except him. Do you think most people even know that? Of course not. For them, everything that's not Mastodon is Mordor. And do you think Gargron will implement QPs is a compatible way? Of course not. He will use his “market share” to say: “I don't have to listen to anybody else. This is, after all, _the Mastodon Network_.”
The Fediverse exists and thrives because of its diversity, but he just strives for uniformity. And don't be mistaken, he's been like that from the start. This behaviour is not new at all.
No, Republicans gained control of the House because of the outcome of elections throughout the country.
But Democrats have now found themselves with rules stacked solidly against them because they chose to refuse the 200 to 20 vote against fringe Republicans over and over.
It was their vote, they could have used it however they wanted, and they chose to vote with these Republican hardliners for some reason. And the result is that thanks to their vote the hardliners are now empowered instead of rebuked.
I actually do say that is their fault. Because it was their vote and they voted the way they did.
Really? That stuff seemed pretty superficial and unserious to me.
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
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