MagicShel @ MagicShel @programming.dev

25+ yr Java/JS dev

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2 yr. ago

The loss of journalistic integrity is the most damaging result of the enshittification of the internet. I've thought for years about how to fix this, but I can't think of any way. Information is a commodity with no intrinsic value. So "news" whores itself out to donors with an agenda or advertisers.

This was supposed to be better than the gatekeeping of the 70's and 80's where you had a few major papers and 3 TV stations, and they could bury stories that went against their self-interest or agenda. But somehow we've made it worse.

Two things I would never go to school for these days: teaching and journalism. And that's fucking tragic because those are maybe the two most important jobs there are.

I'm definitely not saying it's bad. There are tons of possible reasons to explain my experience besides ECT bad.

It is, or at least was, a controversial treatment for anxiety. And my grandma was drug seeking. She just wanted to be bombed out of her mind on Xanax, so I can even see looking for other treatment options out of desperation because nothing worked the way she wanted and they wouldn't give her enough Xanax.

I get it. It was just hard to watch her after her treatments. At first the memories came back, but eventually they didn't.

But that's just my experience. I'm not going to argue with medical science because even if future science shows mistakes were made, it's not like I have the knowledge or experience to do better. But science grows by being challenged and proving itself or being proven wrong. I'm okay with it being challenged by actual professionals - not by Scientologists.

I think I was petty clear it's an anecdote. There's not very much to discuss here other than us nodding our heads in agreement that Scientology is bad. This is a discussion board. I discussed.

100%. I am self-aware here. I'm not a professional, I just was in frequent contact with her during that part of her life. She was in one of those independent living places after my grandfather died, but still had her wits. This wasn't end of life care. We could carry on long conversations about all kinds of things, past and present. If you're implying it was dementia or Alzheimer's, she never was diagnosed with either and lived another 15 years or so.

I know, anecdotes aren't data. I trust the medical profession as a whole. But there have been a lot of reproducibility issues with studies that have come out, particularly in the area of mental health. And between that and my experience I'm okay with taking another look at the data. But if researchers and clinicians are satisfied, I won't gainsay that.

Not sure what to think about this. I hate Scientology, but I'm pretty iffy on ECT. My grandma had those treatments for years and it seemed to treat her anxiety by destroying her memory. I looked it up and treating anxiety with it is "controversial."

That doesn't make me an expert in it and maybe there are folks it does wonderful things for, but at least in her case they probably should've just loaded her up with Xanax. Not that that is a wonderful option either, but that was really all she wanted and I think she put up with the ECT to try to convince them she needed it.

So Scientology can get bent but I'll allow for the possibility that maybe the stopped clock could be right here. Or maybe you folks have all seen it work much better than I have.

Edit: I should make clear - science should be challenged by researchers, not Scientologists. That's how science works - withstand falsification. If this causes any non-idiots to look at the data and reaffirm the treatment, I'm for that. As stated, Scientology itself can get fucked and die in a fire.

The thing that makes Nazi merch interesting... is all the fucking Nazis who died wearing it and opposing them.

But golden freedom shoes and copies (not originals) of NFTs should definitely go into a hall of shame somewhere.

Unless it's too humiliating to be a paid user and you hide your check.

I've visited NY and Chicago, but I guess my digs were nice enough not to notice. And I used to live 75 minutes (assuming no traffic lol) from DC—far enough away that I didn't have to deal with that kind of thing. Just like maybe some highway noise from far away.

I did once have a townhouse that had a rail track in the back yard, but I know what I was getting in that case. It was only noisy when there was a train.

Other than NSFL content, I can't imagine anything sounding less interesting to watch than those two douchebags jerking each other off.

I'm not really a fan of execution. It would be a shame if that happened in any but the worst cases. Just trying to motivate doing one's best. Maybe you only need the carrot and not the stick.

I think anyone who wants to lead a country or hold office should be forbidden from it. Figure out some qualifications to disqualify anyone truly unfit to lead and have a lottery for everyone else. Maybe give out extra entries for volunteering or other public service, but make the process uncorruptable.

Then at the end of their term everyone gets to vote on how good a job they did. Maybe execute or imprison anyone who gets a bad enough score. If you get high enough, you get a nice pension and favorable mentions in history books. Either way, no one is eligible to be picked again. They could advise the next administration if everyone agreed.

I can think of a hundred ways this could go badly, but I'm not sure the result would be any worse than what we've got.

Entropy.

No. I just worry about the things I can change and not the things I can't.

There is no organization of people, from a marriage to a nation, that can't be unbalanced. Someone always has influence (wealth, power, knowledge) that can be used corruptly or violently to take from another.

That's valid. And I'd be surprised if that could be watermarked.

They cut someone else's fiber? That seems like a trespass or destruction of property, but probably not your property.

I can't actually walk in. There's no local branches for this particular place. But even if I could, they can't close it while transactions are pending. And if new transactions hit, the account goes negative and then you can't close it until you bring it back positive.

I understand there are fraud concerns on both sides of that coin. But it isn't easy.

What are you going to do about it? Money and power dominate every system. Monarchy. Feudalism. Communism. Democracy. Even anarchy is rolled by the person with the biggest guns.

I don't hate it. I'm just not sure it's feasible. We'll see.