I use to dislike lemmy.world, because I kept seeing divisive posts from them trying to stir up hate against other instances. I find that kind of unprovoked unnecessary shit-stirring to be ugly.
But then I realised that these negative posts were always coming from the same couple of users, every time. So it wasn't because lemmy.world had that attitude, but rather there were a couple of zealots who happen to be on that instance.
And I think of that whenever someone says bad stuff about other instances; because it's probably a similar situation - just a couple of people giving the instance a bad rep.
Yeah, sound is better than light for that kind of test - but also still not good; because there are many things that block sound but don't block wifi, and visa versa. (eg. a well insulated double-glazed window is good vs sound, but doesn't stop any wifi; and a metal mesh can block wifi while stopping very little sound.)
I remember one time I spent ages trying to debug a wifi problem with my laptop. I was messing around with computer settings and router settings for ages trying to work out why my wifi had stopped working. But in the end, I found that it was entirely due to where I was sitting. I sitting in front of my desktop computer's very large monitor, and the router directly behind the monitor on a shelf in the room next door. The monitor was blocking the wifi. If I move the laptop or the monitor, it worked fine.
For computer services, I generally just look at the EU guides - because the EU is pretty good, and my main goal is to avoid mega-corps (not necessarily buy local stuff).
But for physical goods I do make some effort to buy locally made stuff. And fortunately we have good enough labeling laws that it is easy enough to tell what is Australian made and what isn't. (Not so easy to tell which companies are 'independent' though.)
The opposition party could obviously be better, but I think they were strong enough that "no preference" wasn't the right choice. (After all, choosing not to vote is essentially a vote that says "I don't care who wins".)
Previously I thought almost all of them were, but then I found out that someone I've known for years hold that view. Any mention that maybe voting for the democrats would be a good idea results in an angry speech about genocide; which somehow (I'm not sure how) even has them lean towards Trump.
I appreciate the staunch opposition to genocide. But its kind of weird to see someone take a single issue so strongly to heart that their reasoning ends up inverted such that the candidate they favour is worse even on their one issue.
Like, while thinking about what kind of phone we want - a small phone sounds pretty good. But when it comes time to buy it, we start comparing phones, and we see some small ones, and some slightly bigger ones, and some really big ones. We tend to go bigger than we'd originally intended because of psychological anchoring effects.
The slightly bigger phone is seen as a slightly better phone. "not too big" we think, as we compare it to some monsters; and the key stats such as screen resolution and battery capacity sound slightly better. So we tend to buy that bigger phone even if it isn't what we actually thought we wanted.
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I should say that I'm saying "we" in a totally generic way. I definitely don't do this myself. I've literally only ever owned smartphone in my life, and it isn't particularly big or flashy. I have an anti-phone attitude.
The USA government has enormous debt, which grows every year due to an enormous deficit. But historically people have been relatively comfortable with just letting that continue to grow, because it is balanced by economic growth and stability (roughly speaking).
But now that the government is somewhat unstable... bad things might happen to the currency. The debt will continue to rise, but the productivity and stability that underpin it are eroding. It may collapse.
Maybe not, but the majority of voters apparently support Trump - so effectively that means USA as a country supports Trump. (And thus the USA as a country is no longer reliable or trustworthy.)
They're not that cash strapped though. Their blog post says that they need the revenue to 'grow', and they go on to talk about the new people they've added to the board. So it isn't really about getting enough money to survive. It's about getting money to support a top-heavy company structure.
I've just skimmed over the conversation you're having here, but I can't see the personal attacks. Maybe I missed it. Which specific post are you talking about?
Mozilla are a non profit organisation. Their recent blog post says that they will invest in advertising to increase short-term revenue that they need to "grow". The blog goes on to talk about the increase in board members, and new leaders being added. The CEO and these new leaders are highly paid...
To me this looks bad. It looks to me that Mozilla's new leaders have pushed out the old; and are now moving towards advertising and selling user data not because they need it to stabilise and survive, but because they need it to pay the people making the decision to burn trust and reputation. It has become a top-heavy organisation, and greed has seeped in.
A few people will be self-enriched by this, and then the orgasation will be weaker as a result.
The change was accepted after a short conversation. So to talk about "refusing a small change so aggressively" is total bullshit, like you're trying to start a fight or something.
I'm not sure what 'more grace' you think Zelenskyy could have shown in a situation like that. Trump and Vance are telling him that he's "gambling with World War III", and telling him that he needs to say "thank you" - but without letting him finish a sentence. Trump was saying some really harsh stuff, but not allowing Zeleskyy to respond to it. This is the only time Zelenskyy tried to talk over the top of him; and you think it is "super annoying".
In the earlier parts of the meeting, Trump was not engaged at all. Trump commented that "I wasn't there then" while Zelenskyy gave context of how Russia has abused trust given to them in diplomacy; apparently Trump thinks nothing matters unless he is personally involved. This is the attitude Trump brought to the meeting, but you think Zelenskyy was "super annoying" and should have handled this senseless berating with more grace. I disagree with you.
I use to dislike lemmy.world, because I kept seeing divisive posts from them trying to stir up hate against other instances. I find that kind of unprovoked unnecessary shit-stirring to be ugly.
But then I realised that these negative posts were always coming from the same couple of users, every time. So it wasn't because lemmy.world had that attitude, but rather there were a couple of zealots who happen to be on that instance.
And I think of that whenever someone says bad stuff about other instances; because it's probably a similar situation - just a couple of people giving the instance a bad rep.