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
The #Texas #abortion case has been badly misreported, with reporters once again saying the exact opposite of what was in a ruling.
Texas's law does not prevent abortion in the case as it's been described, so it was always strange to hear that it was being blocked.
Well, the court spelled this out in its ruling, over and over in fact, trying to say it nine different ways so that there is no mistaking it. But the press misframed it nonetheless.
For example:
> "A pregnant woman does not need a court order to have a lifesaving abortion in Texas. Our ruling today does not block a life saving abortion in this very case if a physician determines that one is needed under the appropriate legal standard, using reasonable medical judgment."
volkris
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volkris
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Shrimpfluencer.
9,990 orders of shrimp paste:
The woman was having a meal with friends at a hotpot restaurant in Kunming, a city in southwest China. When everyone's selections arrived at the table, she posted a photo of the spread on the Chinese...
https://jwz.org/b/ykG9
I thought this report was a refreshingly balanced and realistic description of the #engineering challenges behind #Tesla 's development of the cybertruck.
With all the sensationalism and drama out there it's nice to see reporting that presents actual experts describing how R&D is done.
volkris
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volkris
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Governments need to get off Twitter and at first glance this seems easy: set up a gov-centric Mastodon instance and convince governments to move.
Except it's far more complicated than that.
In evaluating if this was an endeavor I wanted to pursue (spoiler: no) I wrote up a list of things to consider for this to be done well. Hopefully it helps someone else in solving this problem.
volkris
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@Cătă No problem. Mastodon doesn't know what to do with the title, so it ignores it. I put titles on almost all my posts, Mastodon removes them, and that's it.
volkris
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scodd pilgrim comics/film/series comparison summary (thematic spoilers only)
comic: loser starts dating manic pixie dream girl with historic relationship problems, fights her exes, realises he's a loser, goes through character development to become slightly less of a loser, they date happily ever after (?)
film: loser starts dating mpdg with historic relationship problems, fights her exes, they date happily ever after
series: after a new relationship immediately hits a crisis, mpdg addresses all her failed past relationships and comes out of it with character development, resolves to stop running away from the losers she dates
it's kind of interesting how the series is mostly ramona & her exes having character development and scott having zero or debateably negative character development lmao
volkris
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A US drone killed a Somali mother and her daughter – but no one was found guilty https://lemmy.zip/post/6039990
Boy people let themselves get obsessed over the mythology surrounding Elon #Musk.
It's not good for them, and it's like, people taking an alternate reality game waaaaay too seriously.
Anything that doesn't fit their plotpoint is clearly part of the in-game conspiracy.
Some notes on #bluesky under the hood.
I've heard from some who looked at the protocol that it's horrifying, so it was interesting to hear from someone saying it was workable.
@volkris @maegul I do like it much more myself (I've been hacking on it since April). It fixes some issues that AP has like the ease of account mig...
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@admins Holy itchy trigger finger Batman. I went through their list and they blocked journa.host because they are “an instance of journalists?” I would consider this a badge of honor. You aren’t truly on Mastodon until you’ve been blocked by .a*t! We made it, folks!
I'm seeing a good bit of misinformation about the lawsuit against Media Matters, which is funny because it's a lawsuit alleging misinformation.
For example people are saying the suit is over scrolling too fast without looking at the next line in the complaint that finishes the sentence to say that led to misleading results being reported, and THAT is the charge.
It's one of those sad cases where people are so eager to take things out of context that they don't even finish reading a sentence much less an entire document.
Such is the state of the world.
volkris
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Another person criticized me for promoting my Patreon. Let me put this into perspective. People spent $74.6 million to see the 2019 film Cats in theaters. At the current rate, it would take 34,158 years for my project to bring in as much money as Cats. I like to think Low Quality Facts provides at least as much entertainment value as Cats, a film which one critic described as "The worst thing to happen to cats since dogs".
In conclusion, here's my Patreon:
https://patreon.com/lowqualityfacts
volkris
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volkris
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Me, finishing another long day at the tortilla factory: "Well, that's a wrap!"
volkris
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As usual we turn to @ScottManleyHimself for a breakdown of todays #SpaceX #Starship test flight and possible causes of the RUDs.
volkris
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There seems to be a great gulf between space industry followers and people who don't usually follow space industry news but do so they can bash Musk. Reminds me of that time someone was utterly convinced that private companies had no business working in space when NASA is the one that nurtured this public private partnership for greater efficiency. Government can't do everything folks. It's not God. 🙄 #SpaceX #starship
volkris
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I once saw a woman on TikTok who only had one hand. One of her arms ended at the wrist. And she made a video explaining how she puts her hair into a ponytail with just one hand.
It was interesting! She was so brave to share that. I appreciated her answering a question I never knew I had. So I gave her the token of the realm: a like.
Reader, when I tell you how many amputees I saw after that. Good LORD. It took weeks for me to convince the algorithm to stop.
This is what TikTok does.
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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