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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 10th, 2023

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  • Never been part of that community personally, but thanks for helping to support the platform. Even if you’re not seeing much traction, it’s appreciated. What would you think of picking the most engaging Reddit content and migrate it here to help boost community size? Or maybe posting to Reddit with a watermark/credit leading to your Lemmy community?


  • I think Lemmy would either need to find a way to wean Redditors off of their dopamine machine or replace that dopamine machine long-term to sustain an exodus from Reddit. Either that, or Reddit will need to break their dopamine feedback loop. There are some cracks showing, and that might have already killed the platform in the long term, but it’ll keep going from pure momentum for a while. Maybe as long as months or years.

    Seems like there’s more sexists and racists than I used to see over there, which is definitely offputting. I’ve found communities that are supportive of thoughtful discussion are more appealing, and Reddit definitely lacks that lately, outside of some small, relatively niche communities.


  • trafguy@midwest.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlThe rent is too damn high
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    1 year ago

    Would you be willing to share how you make that work? I can’t imagine living on my own for that much, let alone raising 3 kids. What does a weekly meal plan look like? Do you drive? What are rent and property values like in your area?

    Edit: Just ran some numbers, and I can see how that could be possible, but it’s dangerously lean. We shouldn’t need to live like that. I commend you for making it work, but would like to say that you’re definitely worth more than $20k/yr (especially with all those home improvement skills, but regardless)



  • trafguy@midwest.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlCan we please
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    1 year ago

    You’re welcome to dislike something, but that doesn’t mean you need to discourage someone else from liking that thing. You can share an opinion without making it sound like it’s a sin against nature to disagree with that opinion.



  • trafguy@midwest.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlNext level
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    1 year ago

    I’ll have you know it’s perfectly unnatural when I invert my corporeal form to assimilate my terrified victims into the eldritch void where my soul used to be.

    But in all seriousness, agreed. It’s not possible for something that’s part of nature to be unnatural. All behaviors are natural. Some behaviors pose a threat to the individual or society at large, and that’s the only case where any action should be considered, but only as a harm reduction strategy rather than punitive. An individual’s sexuality, gender identity, etc., definitely don’t qualify as dangerous.




  • Thought it might be helpful to compare the USSR to Wikipedia’s definitions of fascism and communism. These definitions can be wrong or could be different than what they were at the height of the USSR, but perhaps it’ll help with finding common definitions. I’ll admit that my knowledge of USSR culture/governance is limited, so feel free to critique/refute any of my interpretations.

    Fascism:

    Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement,characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

    Checklist (hidden for brevity)
    1. +Dictatorial leader: Stalin wasn’t exactly a democratic ruler. Check.
    2. ?Centralized autocracy: AKA: One person has final say over any government decision. Probably, but maybe not depending on your definition?
    3. +Militarism: Definitely had a significant military focus. Check.
    4. +Forcible suppression of opposition: Yeah, that sounds par for the course for modern Russian government.
    5. ?Belief in natural social hierarchy: Does semi-deliberate wealth disparity and nationalistic superiority complex count?
    6. ?Subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race: Sounds likely, but not 100% sure.
    7. +Strong regimentation of society and the economy: Pretty sure the USSR had a planned centralized economy.

    It hits 4/7 pretty firmly and the remaining 3 are plausible.

    Communism:

    is a left-wing to far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology… whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state.

    Checklist (hidden for brevity)
    1. XCommon ownership of the means of production of goods/services: Weren’t these state-owned?
    2. XCommon ownership of the means of distribution of goods/services: ^
    3. XCommon ownership of the means of exchange of goods/services: ^^
    4. ?Allocates products to everyone in the society based on need: Wasn’t there significant poverty while others’ were well-fed? If distribution wasn’t tied to labor, then it could be argued this fits, if somewhat imperfectly.
    5. XAbsence of private property: Oligarchs don’t exactly scream “lack of private property”
    6. XAbsence of social classes: Again, oligarchs and poverty
    7. ?Absence of money: Can’t comment on this one
    8. XAbsence of the state: There was 100% an overarching state

    Hits 2/8 at best, but I would be surprised to learn there wasn’t money in the USSR.