xapr [he/him] @ xapr @lemmy.sdf.org

Posts

5

Comments

420

Joined

2 yr. ago

I still prefer lemmy.sdf.org. They also have an empty blocklist (from what I can tell - the version of Lemmy they're on I don't think splits it off into a separate tab), they're also from Oregon from what I recall, have 2.5x more monthly active users than lemmy.today, and they're a non-profit that's larger than and longer than only their Lemmy instance.

Again, I don't get the hexbear issue. I wish someone could explain to me what the problem actually is.

Thanks, I edited the post and noted that lemmy.zip was UK-based after I originally posted.

https://discuss.online/ is US based and just defederated hexbear

That's a negative for me. I don't want anyone blocking instances on my behalf unless those instances are doing blatantly illegal stuff.

Content accessibility can be an issue due to the way instances only fetch remote communities if a local user is subscribed. Also, having a larger userbase usually means that the instance has been around long enough to show some good track record for the instance

Yeah, that's true. I did use some of the great Lemmy community directory sites to find some communities that weren't already subscribed from my instance. I understand that better community discoverability is planned for upcoming Lemmy versions.

I understand that the gigantic stickers thing was actually a bug that has been fixed several Lemmy versions ago. I haven't seen a giant sticker/emoji from hexbear in quite a while. I can sort of understand what you're saying about the confrontational tone and namecalling though.

I suspect that your perspective of the world (geopolitically speaking) is very different from mine, so it would probably not be a constructive use of our time for either of us to go into the details of what you wrote.

Yes, a lot of instances have blocked them, and I have yet to see a proper justification for it, other than that they confront people's beliefs. As for being obnoxious or rude, I would love to see some example exchanges that make people think that. Unfortunately that has been difficult to come by so far. From what I have seen, they call people liberals, fascists, etc, and in turn people call them tankies, etc. Seems fairly even to me so far.

According to https://midwest.social/instances, it does not appear that your instance has blocked hexbear (see blocked tab), so your not seeing much of them seems to reinforce the idea that blocking them doesn't seem justified. (Edited for clarity).

I think it would take a massive, earth-shaking event for any other major party to be formed in the US. I understand that ballot access in most states is an extremely high barrier that blocks anyone except the major parties. Of course, the two major parties made sure to make it that way.

Yes, it makes an incredible amount of sense to fine people proportionally to wealth/income. I don't know what they do to prevent the scenario you're describing, but would hope that they have addressed that possibility.

I just don't get all the anti-hexbear hate I see on other Lemmy servers. Questioning your mainstream/western/capitalist beliefs and arguing about it shouldn't be ground for blocking them. I have yet to see any egregious behavior from them. Sure, I see somewhat outrageous takes on their own hosted communities, but have yet to see them cross the line on other servers.

I can't either.

What specific policies should I be demanding of our politicians to make housing affordable again?

1. Ban corporate ownership and excessive individual ownership (ex: > 10) of homes.
2. Remove most barriers to building lots of new and higher density housing (ex: four-story multi-unit buildings) except legitimate safety and ecological concerns.

Look through this list and sort by monthly active users (MAU): https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy

The server location info doesn't seem 100% accurate, but it should still help. I would suggest either the instance I use, lemmy.sdf.org (run by an American, technology-oriented non-profit org), or perhaps lemmy.zip, which also looks good - I started looking into it but haven't fully vetted it yet.

By the way, I don't think that being in a larger instance has much benefit, by the way. In fact, I tried one of the larger ones and found that it suffered performance-wise, so I went back. You can get pretty much everything from every other Lemmy instance, especially one that doesn't block and is not blocked by other instances (lemmy.sdf.org also applies here).

Edit: lemmy.zip seems to be subject to the laws of the UK, according to their code of conduct.

Whoever downvoted me must be a millionaire?

Thank you, I knew this but forgot it when I was posting.

The publicized hope of increased violence is a scary indicator that we’re approaching closer to commonly associated fiction-based dystopias🫠

Honestly, I realized a few months ago that we're already way into dystopia territory. It clicked for me when I read a news story explaining how there are people in Los Angeles that make it their business to rent old, beat up vans and RVs parked on the street for homeless people to live in, for several hundreds of dollars a month. I did a search and found another article about it, linked below. How much more dystopic can things get? In fact, any of the massive homeless encampments we've been seeing are already plenty dystopic.

Edit: oops, it seems I had left out the link - https://abc7.com/los-angeles-vanlords-rv-renters-rvs/13322319/

Instead, punishment for ALL crime should be proportional to the perpetrator's annual income. That's how they do it in Finland (and it seems also some other Scandinavian countries), for instance. They have had at least a couple of instances of over $100k speeding tickets, for example. This makes incredibly SOOOO much sense that it will never happen in most capitalist countries.

Some references: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/finnish-businessman-hit-with-121000-speeding-fine

True, good points!

You're welcome! I just wanted to let you know that you're making a difference. :) Thanks for the offer to answer questions and also for the link to the speech!

Thank you for continuing to suggest Parenti's book! I think you're the poster who has been regularly suggesting it in your posts as a first read, correct? If that's the case, it was thanks to you that I read it! It's a great book. Once I finish this I will work down the rest of your reading list.

I'm almost finished listening to Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti, one of the books in the list that @Cowbee@lemmy.ml posted as a reply to your message. I think it's been a great introductory book - brief and easy to understand.

It's wide-ranging book even though it's brief, and one of the things I found interesting about it was that he not only gave credit where it was due (ex: producing vastly more egalitarian society with all the benefits that come with that) but he also pointed out some shortcomings, such as the failure of centrally planning national economies, like someone else has pointed out in another comment here. I highly recommend the book.

Edit: I also wanted to say props to you for being open-minded and trying to learn and understand instead of just swallowing the narrative we've been fed our whole lives.