To most of us, few things are more bothersome than the dreaded cookie banners. On countless websites, you’re confronted with a pesky pop-up urging you to agree to something.

Thanks to dumbass EU laws fussing over nonproblems like (check notes) targeted advertising. Really? I voluntarily give out information to an ad-supported service I don't pay for, they turn around & use this to try to show me more relevant ads, and I'm supposed to pretend the internet was ever private & shit my pants over this? While I can understand safeguards from identity theft, cookies aren't that, I don't understand how this concern ever blew up.

Before those laws, those cookie banners didn't exist & I was happy not clicking them. I was under no illusion that online privacy exists with free services running on ad revenue that can track online activity and try to harvest voluntary information that's mostly worthless to me. Free shit in exchange for mostly worthless information & ads I ignore seems like an obvious bargain, but some hypochondriacs had to stir everyone into a frenzy to bitch & moan about it. Do they think the world just runs on magic?

Do people still have to say unalive?

Censorship is goddamn stupid. They should just tag content & let people decide what to filter.

What is a guy with 3 wives supposed to look like?

Wrong argument: he's literally citing the supremacy clause.

A better argument would be that same constitution prohibits violation of limits on federal power, especially the bill of rights, enumerated powers, judicial review.

Features

Nice things about PieFed:

• Written in a common programming language that many developers understand and which has a bright future ahead of it. Python, of course! This will enable more contributions from a wider range of people than if it was made with Erlang, Ruby, Rust or PHP, for example.
• Constructed in a simple and straightforward manner that new contributors can come to grips with quickly. No fancy algorithms, special design patterns, fragile build process, or front-end framework. Just Flask with sprinklings of vanilla JS and htmx.
• Keep third party dependencies to an absolute minimum, to make server administration easier. Python + database (PostgreSQL) and you’re good to go! Redis optional.
• Consume few resources, to make it cheap to run. Many examples of federated software are bloated Rube Goldberg machines that require hefty servers and serious server administration skills, making money a constant problem. PieFed instances will be small and nimble.
• Emphasise trust, safety and happiness, drawing inspiration from the Mastodon Covenant.
• Built to last using tried and true technology that will still work decades from now.

Differences between Lemmy and PieFed

• Comments with -10 score are collapsed by default.
• Communities are organized into topics. See https://piefed.social/topics.
• Image-heavy communities can have a tiled/masonry view, like https://piefed.social/c/pics@lemmy.world
• People who get downvoted a lot end up with a ‘low reputation’ indicator next to their name. You’ll know it when you see it.
• Hide all posts based on keyword filters.
• Keyboard shortcuts.
• Upvotes in meme communities do not add to reputation.
• Better UI design (somewhat subjective!)
• Improved hotness ranking algorithm (subjective)
• Voting is private.
• See also features for healthy communities.
• Each community has it’s own wiki.

Mastodon Covenant & "safe spaces" are overmoderated trash. Features for healthy communities consist of Reddity moderation tactics.

Heavy handed moderation is the main reason Reddit disgusts me, so no thanks, & fuck that shit.

Egyptians had cool, mystery animals no one can figure out to this day.

It’s deeply troubling that a Muslim was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives this morning. This should have never been allowed to happen

I believe our government should reflect that truth.

She's right: leading prayer in Congress at all should never be allowed. Government should reflect the truth of a secular government.

a third party […] will break the 2 party system
ignore all other 3ʳᵈ parties

bruh

I told them if they have a Gmail account, just use the + addressing feature, otherwise, just create a Gmail account.

If they couldn't get a login reset sent to their email, then that's broken. If they have to create a new email account just for you, that's bullshit, too.

Capitulate like weak-ass bitches, get treated like bitches.

They did that, too.

The lengths to which administrators have been willing to go also suggests their actions are not mere capitulation, but rather a strategic alignment with the Trump administration.

On March 5, nine Barnard students were arrested for staging a sit-in to demand the administration reverse the prior expulsions of three student activists. Soon after, Columbia updated its public safety protocols to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on campus without a judicial warrant in the case of “exigent circumstances.”

Then, on March 8, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent master’s graduate who was a lead negotiator with the Columbia administration during the Gaza solidarity encampment, was detained by ICE.

Columbia never responded to his email pleading the university for protection the day before his detainment.

On March 11, Ranjani Srinivasan, an international graduate student whose visa was revoked by the Department of Homeland Security on the spurious charge of being “involved in activities supporting Hamas,” fled into hiding and eventually to Canada after Columbia withdrew her from her Ph.D. program and the university’s campus security allegedly allowed ICE into her apartment.

Two days later, Columbia allegedly allowed ICE into the dorm room of Yunseo Chung, a junior at Columbia who was arrested at a pro-Palestine protest.

That same day, 20 more students were expelled, including Grant Miner, the president of the student workers union.

The Trump administration had delivered what Katherine Franke, a Columbia faculty member forced into early retirement for her pro-Palestine views, called a “ransom note.”

It gave the university a week to, among other things, suspend or expel student activists, centralize disciplinary procedures in the Office of the Provost, implement severe restrictions on public assembly, adopt the definition of anti-Zionism as antisemitism, and impose administrative oversight of the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies Department as well as the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and the university’s Tel Aviv program.

Columbia not only acquiesced to all the demands of said letter, but exceeded Trump’s dictates by suspending faculty governance of the Center for Palestine Studies

Cowards & bitches lacking principles & integrity.

Maybe it’s a lack of social intuition, or just a failure to grasp the bigger picture but too often, the left underestimates the power of cultural resistance. Ridicule, art, memes, jokes these are tools that shape perception and cut authoritarianism down to size.

The right certainly uses this tactic against the left. Look at all their cringe viral memes, online propaganda targeting generation z/α, & trashy displays on their cars & clothing.

Like this?

That's pretty good: could that go in the OP body or is editing not possible?

Not in the OP. For primarily text content, images of them are pretty pointless: there are links to source, quotes, etc.

That's a pleasant idea: best ways on going about that?

The good times. 😌

Tacos are delicious, though. 🌮

Make them publishers or whatever is required to have it be a legal requirement, have them ban people who share false information.

The law doesn't magically make open discussions not open. By design, social media is open.

If discussion from the public is closed, then it's no longer social media.

ban people who share false information

Banning people doesn't stop falsehoods. It's a broken solution promoting a false assurance.

Authorities are still fallible & risk banning over unpopular/debatable expressions that may turn out true. There was unpopular dissent over covid lockdown policies in the US despite some dramatic differences with EU policies. Pro-palestinian protests get cracked down. Authorities are vulnerable to biases & swayed.

Moreover, when people can just share their falsehoods offline, attempting to ban them online is hard to justify.

If print media, through its decline, is being held legally responsible

Print media is a controlled medium that controls it writers & approves everything before printing. It has a prepared, coordinated message. They can & do print books full of falsehoods if they want.

Social media is open communication where anyone in the entire public can freely post anything before it is revoked. They aren't claiming to spread the truth, merely to enable communication.

That it's irresponsible to sell a false bill of goods: a company sincere about not giving a fuck & that merely puts out an advisory is more credible than one that entertains illusions that fact-checking all social media isn't a foolish endeavor. We don't get that in reality, so why should we pretend we can get that online? Ultimately, the burden & responsibility to work out the truth is & has always been with the individual, and it's irresponsible to pretend we can sever or transfer that responsibility, especially in an open medium like the town square, social media, or general reality.

There's also the intractable problem of settling the truth. Why should anyone trust a company or anyone to be arbiter of truth? Infallible authorities don't exist & they are inevitably going to get this wrong & draw wild conclusions like that pro-palestinian protests are antisemitic & need to be censored. While they could merely place notes/comments of fallible, researched opinions, we already get that with discussions like in real life.

Social media isn't a controlled publication like an encyclopedia or news agency that chooses its writers & staff. It's a communication platform open to the public.

Instead of promoting a false sense of confidence that lowers people's guard with assurances no one can deliver, it's better to cut the pretense, admit there is no real solution, and remind everyone the obvious—unreliable information from anyone is untrustworthy, so they need to grow up, verify their information, and keep their guard up.