That would be amazing! No need for 2% to be the end goal instead of just a good start. A good government serves all its citizens, not just the ones with big bank accounts.

I know 2% is fairly laughable when we’re talking normal people money, but this is 20 million per 1 billion.

when simply considering the 10 biggest fortunes in France, the tax would bring in no less than €13bn for the state.

A country can do a decent bit of good for people with 13 billion.

The full report lists suggested practices to mitigate the damage we do, from more ecologically minded agricultural practices and shifts in our diet to accelerating development and funding of renewable energy and delivering it to the third world, as they are many times left with only the worst fuels to use for everything.

It’s all things that require large amounts of money with great long term but no short term benefits for those with money, a slight bit of personal inconvenience as we as societies learn more planet healthy habits, and a small amount of compassion for those less well off than us, most likely due to a lack of compassion in the past.

I will not be holding my breath…

The full report is worth a glance, as it’s divided into sections where it looks at individual continents and discusses some of their unique problems. I mainly stuck to reading the proposed solutions sections, as I have reached my limit on dealing with all the different impending dooms going on recently. Even the countries that are doing some good changes are still not fully committing to it, even as they see positive results. We’re past the point of being able to wade into this stuff. But with worldwide societies trending towards more selfish and nationalist tendencies, I feel things will continue to worsen for the remaining half of my life.

I try not to be a downer about it, but it’s hard when I see and read about it every day.

Gang members “came in shooting and breaking into the houses to steal and burn. I just had time to grab my children and run in the dark,” said 60-year-old Sonise Mirano on Sunday, who was camping with hundreds of people in a park in the nearby coastal city of Saint-Marc.

Similar ones [gang attacks] have taken place in the capital of Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is controlled by gangs, and they typically are linked to turf wars, with gang members targeting civilians in areas controlled by rivals. Many neighborhoods are not safe, and people affected by the violence have not been able to return home, even if their houses have not been destroyed.

More than 700,000 people — more than half of whom are children — are now internally displaced across Haiti, according to the International Organization for Migration in an Oct. 2 statement. That was an increase of 22% since June.

Port-au-Prince hosts a quarter of the country’s displaced, often residing in overcrowded sites, with little to no access to basic services, the agency said.

This is a key difference that certain parties leave out when discussing “illegal immigration.” These people aren’t coming here to take your country or your job or whatever you imagine the case to be. They are asylum seekers, not just from Haiti, but anywhere that this type of situation is daily life. They don’t want to come to America, they want their own homes to be safe, but they are not, nor will they be in the foreseeable future.

If anyone in America, England, Germany, Greece, etc was in the same situation, they would be doing the same, because no one would want to live in that or to put their families through this. But all those that want to close off the borders to these people are swatting away those hands reaching out for help. All these major countries did things to help create the situations these people are trying to escape from, but they refuse to own up to it. We did these people dirty and then we ignore them as they die for it.

It’s just so frustrating to see, and to not see any country showing us a good example of humanity or compassion.

Wow, this guy’s voting record and the bill’s he’s sponsored read exactly how you’d imagine too.

He was in the Air Force 30 years, was a commercial pilot, and a cop, and none of those jobs ever seemed to manage to teach him to manage the mildest level of stress, judging by his past news stories. What a delicate individual.

Very inspiring article, thank you for sharing!

Llusco and her fellow Aymara guides are changing the face of tourism, traditionally a male-dominated industry. She has done two entry-level mountaineering courses and wants to travel abroad to do more advanced studies.

“At first it was hard, the men looked at me strangely, like I didn’t belong,” she says. “Still now, there are often times when I’m the only woman, or one of very few, working on the mountain.”

Bolivia’s Indigenous population has seen greater recognition since Evo Morales served as the country’s first Indigenous president between 2006 and 2019, but it is not an easy place to be a woman; in 2021, the country had one of the highest rates of femicide in South America. “It has been very difficult for me, and the whole group, to face the sexism and discrimination we’ve had to go through,” says Llusco. “We have stumbled because we are women who wear polleras.

“But we also have support that encourages us to keep going. Together, we are stronger. We support each other and teach our children to follow in our footsteps.”

The cholitas escaladoras are part of a wider movement, which has been fighting for their rights since at least the 1960s, that also includes the cholitas luchadoras (the wrestling cholitas) and the cholitas skaters.

The cholitas escaladoras, which have now splintered into three groups, have received worldwide attention for their achievements.

This is why you can’t go by a headline or the article summary…sometimes you actually need to read the article. It isn’t about the clothes whatsoever.

She’s discriminated against for being a woman, a native person, someone who speaks the “wrong” language, wears the “wrong” clothes, and gets hated on just for being herself or for enjoying the things she does, in the way she wants to do them.

She’s concerned for the great environmental collapse of her homeland. She wants her peoples’ traditions to carry on to the future. She wants people like her to be proud and enjoy life in their way.

Her and her friends are doing things most people can’t do with all their fancy high tech gear, and they’re doing it in their daily wear, but they still get hated on for it.

That’s why they have articles and movies about them and the rest of us don’t. If you can’t find something inspiring that you’d be proud of a person for in this article, I don’t think the issue is the author or the subject matter. It’s a really good article in my opinion.

Suggestion: BS from MS about Al helping a pharmacist filling Rx

Totally agree with you. I feel bad for the young people that didn’t get to experience the Internet before business started to take it seriously. The Fediverse is a nice taste of those days though!

I’m not sure what to make of your “helped me get through feeling much like OP”.

I’ve talked extensively with Blaze and others on the Fedigrow community about pretty much your exact set of bullet points over the past few months and the shine started to wear off Lemmy for a bit. You’re far from alone in feeling how you described in your post, as can be seen in most of the replies here.

I think it’s just taking a step back and being able to appreciate what we do have. We haven’t turned into some complete right/left hellhole, the top posts everyday add up to thousands of comments, we have some quality content providers, and some really fun commenters. I certainly wouldn’t be ashamed to show someone my Lemmy feed.

It’s good that you still have the drive to want to keep improving things around here in the ways you feel comfortable contributing to. Many initial hurdles to getting on Lemmy feel resolved, and so many in apps are equal to the Reddit apps for most use cases. Many initial accounts were probably from people trying to figure things out. I know I had like 5 accounts and only really use 1 now.

I think we’ve just hit a plateau for now. My personal feeling is working on the culture is our best way forward to be different than Reddit and to pick up more people looking to escape the toxicity. The time to set our tolerance levels for certain behaviors is now before we get too big to reign it in. We’re a pretty good group now, and I hope it stays this way or gets a little better like last summer.

I’m glad when I see people speak up like this though. It makes us all reflect on the guys and bad we see here and to think about where we stand ourselves in all of it.

You and the Fedigrow crew helped me get through feeling much like OP a while back. I think that was a really good idea, because it is tough and emotional at times doing what we do. It can be easy to feel alone when you put yourself out there every day and feel like nobody is around or like you’re doing something wrong and people are falling off.

I never set out to be anybody here, but I was done with Reddit, and wanted to keep something that made me smile continue on, so I just sucked it up and did what needed to be done. You guys make it worth it, and as long as the people that do show up are having a good time, I’ll do my part to keep the party going. I get old, pre commercialized web vibes from Lemmy, so I’m gonna stick it out here as long as I can, because this is the kind of thing you don’t just get anywhere anymore.

Appreciate the shout out as always! We have a great set of people here, and we should all be happy with this place we’ve built together, even if it’s still a humble, cozy place. I feel we have organic growth, and it will come in waves as Lemmy builds and improves. Just keep doing what we’re doing and we’ll be good!

I feel it is pretty stable here. I post every day, and it’s been a tad slower lately, much like I believe Blaze said, feels due to people going away for trips. Weekends are a decent bit slower, where usually they have been busy. That’s where I notice it the most. My subs are lower than at the start of the year, but they’re still going up slow but steady. Interactions are still steady, which is my main concern. As you’ve mentioned, people want to see that interaction. I don’t want to say my content is useless, because people don’t need owl pics and animal rescue facts every day, but I typically get 100+ likes per post, and a handful of comments.

The key I feel though, is I have the same people coming in regularly every day, or every other day, and they are also participating. They make the place look alive more than me just throwing things out there. But that is a specific thing I work on, as much as the post content itself. When people come and make comments, I give them my full attention. I talk back to them, I laugh at their jokes and puns, I take time to answer their questions, I pay attention to what content they like or don’t like, how I post links. I treat them like they were clients. And now in return, they see that the community is a fun place to hang, and they come back regularly, even though I’m not giving them anything they couldn’t find, but I am adding value to their days. I make them smile, I make them feel like their effort commenting matters, I make them feel like they motivate me to keep posting (because they do!), and I teach them about things they never expected to care about.

But it’s a lot of hard work! I try not to think about the time I put into this just for fun. Many of us have been here before the API exodus or before and have put in hours posting to nobody or a dozen people until we’ve built up momentum. Most people won’t even upvote, let alone comment or post, so it’s going to come in waves building up this place. You’re still in the wilderness here. We’re still pretty much the first wave of Fediverse settlers. We’re here while it is rough, setting the foundations of what will hopefully come, keeping us from fading to nothing. I don’t think new people appreciate that point. It’s not like 25% of Reddit broke off and came here with all the posters and the audience, we’re starting from scratch. I think what we have is amazing for a bunch of nobodies with no corporate cash. We’re all volunteers, building the social media we want to have. We should be proud of it, no matter what stage it’s at.

Moderation is an area I feel could be stronger. Most threads are pretty good, but some could use a bit more reigning in. Part of the problem I see with that though, is the vocal part of the community is already hating on “heavy handed mods”, and you missed all the trashing of Beehaw for doing what I considered to be appropriate moderation. The Fed is full of a pretty diverse group of people. I talk to people from multiple countries, and the amount of LGBT I’ve gotten to get insight from has been amazing. It’s really helped me grow in my understanding of some things just being around all these people. But we need to ensure everyone is treated equally and respectfully, and there are many that want to bring Reddit behavior over here, and it’s up to the mods and commenters to decide if that’s what we want or not. I don’t want it, but many see no issue. I’m glad when people comment on it, because if people just accept it without speaking up, no one will know.

There is a lot of good here, and even with 50k users, there’s going to be much more mid and crap than gold, but it’s here. Your comments look good, and you seem to stick to things you enjoy and avoid some that drag you down, and it’s important to notice your own behavior if you click stuff that is going to annoy you. I hit delete on a lot of comments when I wade into some of these topics. Some stuff I just don’t want to get involved in, especially as someone that is at least somewhat “known” around here now and is too lazy to make an alt. But I remind myself I’m here to have fun, and if I want news without the potential drama, I’ll leave here and go to AP or whatever. I’d hope posters would make stuff to help you have a good time, but it’s our job to cultivate our own experience ultimately.

I could go on forever talking about this stuff, but I’ll stop for now. Just give it time and explore more, and since you seem to comment, keep doing that. It’s the best thing for this place. Post, comment, give feedback, repeat.

I still think this is a near perfect movie. I will still watch it every now and then, and I feel it holds up perfectly. The soundtrack is 100% dated, but I think the songs are awesome and I listen to them occasionally too.

Summit kicks so much butt! I’ve tried about a dozen apps, but this is the only one I use, though Connect was good too.

The dev is great, and I’ve gotten lots of help and same or next day fixes whenever I’ve reported issues.

It’s beautiful, versatile, and powerful, with a great person backing it up.

I never thought I’d say this, but can we channel a little Andrew Jackson energy in regard to the courts?

Did some more digging to get us some more helpful info here. I assembled quotes from 3 articles to make you guys a more cohesive story. Take that AI, I’m coming for your jobs! 😆

First quote is from OP’s PBS article. The rest is assembled from this BBC article, and this other article that the BBC referred to for their info.

Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India, where the poor cannot afford licensed brands from government-run shops. The illicit liquor, which is often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase potency, has also become a hugely profitable industry as bootleggers pay no taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product to the poor at a cheap rate.

The district police had arrested one person on Wednesday, June 19, identified as Kannukutty (49). He is accused of peddling the liquor. The police had also seized 200 litres of liquor from his possession. According to the police, Kannukutty had mixed methanol in the country liquor and had sold it in packets.

Family members of the deceased, however, told TNM that the police are complicit. “Illicit liquor is regularly sold in this area. The police know. If someone complains, they will stop for 10 days but resume again. If a person complains, the police will tip the peddler off on who raised the complaint and immediately, that person is threatened by the peddlers. That’s why people have refrained from complaining. The peddlers definitely pay a sum of money to the police to continue selling illicit liquor,” a family member of a victim said.

Another family member of the victim added that Karunapuram’s Dalit Colony has seen the most number of deaths. “The sale of illicit liquor is so rampant here that even 13 and 15-year-old boys are being sold packets by peddlers. These peddlers are now also selling Marijuana. Today, despite so many deaths, no one apart from the Tahsildar and a few police have come to this Dalit Colony. We want the officials to initiate strict action and put an end to the sale of drugs and illicit liquor,” she added.

A day earlier, Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed his shock over the tragic incident and announced actions against officials who failed to prevent it. In a post on X, MK Stalin said, “I was shocked and saddened to hear the news of the deaths of people who had consumed adulterated liquor in Kallakurichi. Those involved in the crime have been arrested in this matter. Action has also been taken against the officials who failed to prevent it.

Authorities have also suspended a senior police official and ten members of the state’s prohibition enforcement wing - which overseas the smuggling of illicit alcohol in the state - for negligence.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has announced a compensation of 1m rupees ($12,000; £9,425) to families of those who have died and 50,000 rupees each to those who are hospitalised.

It may be noted that earlier, in May 2023 as well, 22 persons lost their lives after consuming illicit liquor in Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts of Tamil Nadu. The Villupuram police had confirmed that the fatalities were due to the presence of methanol in the spurious alcohol consumed.

“The deaths caused by illicit liquor in the past two years under the DMK [Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam] regime have decelerated Tamil Nadu by four decades, taking us back to the 1980s,” said K Annamalai, the state chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He demanded that the minister in charge of overseeing the sale of alcohol should resign immediately.

I try to put a lot of emphasis on encouraging new posters and commenters. I don’t get why you’d come to the “wild west” of social media to just be solely a lurker. You should want to be an explorer and a settler, forging that new frontier. I won’t hate on the lurkers, they will always be the majority, but why deal with the quirk, less ease of use, and less content to not want to help shape what it becomes?

I came over intending to lurk, hence my crap username, but what I wanted wasn’t here, but I didnt want to crawl back to Reddit, so I started building, and it’s great. People are friendly, you have less competition for attention, and the userbase is largely supportive of whatever you do because you’re doing something.

But ultimately, as long as we arent on an extended downswing, we’re doing well. I’ll keep making posts and giving positive feedback, so hopefully it keeps catching new people with the bug to interact.

The increase in monthly is just mainly replacing users leaving as the active 6 month seems to be going down the same rate as active monthly is going up. Am I reading that correctly?

Total users doesn’t concern me too badly, as I’m more happy to see daily post and comment counts going up. I feel activity needs to be our focus rather than headcount. A packed stadium is kinda pointless if nobody is on stage putting on the show! 😁

Just have the Hussars bring buckets with them next time they come…