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
It strikes me that this is a great example of the utility of quote-tweets (whatever you want to call them) that #Mastodon developers have refused to implement, talking as if they would bring social media to its knees.
In reality, they have real practical use that can't be duplicated through other means, and they help head off complaints like this one.
@maniajack no.
It's a check on the power of the executive branch, keeping it in line with the democratic process instead of giving it a blank check to act as it wishes.
And that is especially important because occasionally someone like Trump will be elected, and we need to make sure his power is limited.
volkris
boosted
There should be an option to make your Roomba swear when it bumps into things.
@sc_griffith it's more finance than economics.
The money has to come from somewhere, and that has nothing to do with supply demand graphs. It's not so complicated.
No matter anything else, the company would have to recoup the cost for those tests from somewhere since it can't print its own money to cover it.
We can go into some of the complications that you bring up, though they are a bit beside the point.
For example, if the company could reduce total payouts because people get sick less, then why isn't it doing it? Is it intentionally raising its own costs of doing business? That seems unlikely.
@sc_griffith where do you think insurance companies get the money that they pay in claims?
They don't have their own mints, so that money has to come from somewhere, and in the end it comes from their customers.
@burner what? The evidence is pretty public, eyewitness accounts confirmed by multiple independent witnesses and lots of footage available from various independent sources.
It's almost like this person is declaring that the evidence is not available as a way of convincing people not to go looking for it.
@sc_griffith you'd be paying for them either way, whether directly or through your insurance premiums though.
And if you pay for them through insurance premiums then the company would take a cut to afford their overhead.
So this is just you cutting out the middleman.
@godsouza I don't think they're dancing around it so much as refusing to buy into that falsehood.
It's like saying the state department is dancing around dealing with the earth being flat. No, it's just that the earth isn't flat.
No I saw it, like I said above, parliamentary systems bring in their own problems so adding transferable votes to a parliamentary system won't fix this.
@silvereagle i don't think it was snatching defeat from victory as much as giving it a shot and realizing it was a lost cause all along.
They were facing intractable social problems contentwise, so they couldn't go back, but they were facing intractable technical problems should they try to expand into ActivityPub.
It sounds like they worked on both fronts for a good while but eventually had to admit that the platform had been without a future all along.
@TonyStark well the problem is that a lot of press outfits are misleading their readers about risks, and yes, that's the media's fault.
So many outlets are publishing so many clickbaity, sensationalized claims about things that simply have no basis in how the US government actually operates.
And so the public ends up divided between those who believe the reports and those who know better.
When I hear #Trump supporters describing him as not part of the establishment I roll my eyes thinking about the guy who headed **the entire executive branch of the US government for four years.**
But mainly I think of the press that utterly failed to frame their reporting accurately to lay that on the table, instead obsessing over him personally instead of him as chief magistrate.
And that's why we can't have nice thi... government.
@lauren that's not how the US government works.
Congress doesn't shut down government. Rather government shuts down if our representatives don't agree that it should continue.
This distinction is vital as it underlies the basic design of the separation of powers in the US design.
No, GOP isn't lining up to shut down government. They simply don't have that power.
@AnthonyFStevens firstly, I think you're just flat out wrong that it's achievable. Everything I see says it's not achievable at all, much less very achievable.
But even assuming you're correct:
the "unfettered US support for the Zionists" isn't going anywhere.
So first I think you're wrong based on history, but even if you're right, it's still unachievable even under your own model.
Reality is that many wonderful things in the world are simply physically impossible.
We can't grow those wings, no matter how nice it would be.
@resuna but throwing in a third party is just more bashing the head against the wall, that you mentioned above.
The problem isn't the lack of third parties. That's a solution, or at least a mitigating response, to the electoral system.
You're right to point to changing the electoral system, but the real change is implementing ranked choice voting.
The first past the post electoral system risks wasted votes which leads to a two party system as people organize themselves in response.
And no, a parliamentary system doesn't fix this either. Rather, it undermines accountability by breaking the link between a voter and their representative.
@brianklaas sure he's facing calls to step aside for someone else to run.
It's just that there's disagreement, and others want to watch the world burn with this guy as the candidate.
@AnthonyFStevens yes, jumping out of a plant and hoping to grow wings is an impossibility, just like a two sided ceasefire and two state solution.
That's my point :)
No, it's not achievable. We have generations of history showing that to be true. It was tried over and over again. At this point it's simply foolish to keep believing in the thing that failed every single time it was tried.
Sadly.
So, given that reality, what's the best path forward? What's the best out of only bad options?
Just clinging to the solution that we know doesn't work is not going to serve anyone well, well except for those who benefit from selling that snake oil.
I know this is an old thread I just came across, but I wanted to throw in that #IPFS is so much more than just a Bittorrent competitor, and it's a shame that the word isn't getting out about it.
IPFS is more a database than a filesystem, and it stinks that they settled on that misleading name.
And it provides a system for referencing content that goes far beyond just the P2P aspect of it. You could engage with IPFS through normal web servers if you really wanted to.
Basically, IPFS provides a way to address database fields whereever they are, with cryptographic signing and semantic information.
The p2p part of the project is only a side benefit. A big side benefit, but a side benefit nonetheless.
@slashtechno well, a nice thing about IPFS is that it makes domains less needed in the first place.
But I get your point, and I suppose this is one of those few applications where blockchain would actually be a really good solution.
The whole problem with domains is that there has to be some authority keeping track of them, and it happens that that's exactly what blockchain does well.
@AnthonyFStevens but that's not an option on the table in any realistic way.
So since ceasefire & two state solution is not an option, any call for a ceasefire ends up being, for all practical considerations, a call for maintaining the crap that's going on now.
It's like saying you're calling for jumping out of the airplane without a parachute to grow wings and fly down to the earth. Well, since that's not actually going to happen you're just calling for jumping out to plummet to the ground.
And that's what the quote above was pointing out.
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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