@CharlieKruse_474 I think Oscar Wilde would be the first to point out the irony of quoting him on this. 😃

@Usama_Backhair Too many people are getting caught up in polarisation, and ignoring the capacity to build.

Polarisation is an earmark of (failed) totalitarianism, where each pole is arguing for its universal centrality, in an effort to dominate the other.

We have the freedom to construct our own commons, and determine our own centre.

This is allowed for by the system, and while totalitarianism is a threat, diversity and tolerance are actually shared values.

All it takes is living into it.

Capitalism is rife with problems, but there is one opportunity that exists within free enterprise which is unusual.

Free enterprise gives openness to explore things that are not capitalism.

This kind of experimentation is not possible in all other systems, because it threatens the system.

However, it is possible to build a co-op, a collective, a whole thriving alternative society within capitalism. It may not have the labels or structures to support it well, but it can exist.

I don't follow sports. I have no interest in them. They're pretty much a non-entity to me.

But I'd like to make a rare exception here to congratulate Taylor Swift on winning the Super Bowl.

@LnzyHou @NiveusLepus @th3j35t3r @White_Rabbit People are conditioned to be overstimulated.

When that overstimulation feeds and is fed by algorithms aimed at maximising commercial gain for the platform, it ends up being all gas pedal and no steering wheel.

@th3j35t3r @White_Rabbit I know. Its growth potential is limited because of that. But the people who are here are so grateful to be here.

I'm perpetually frustrated by the phenomenon that good things grow slowly, and awful things spread so fast.

@th3j35t3r That's pretty much exactly how I feel.

Like...they're both a waste of time and energy...?

Bluesky just opened its doors wide. (Has been invite-only for a long stretch.)

Opinion question: which looks like a more productive investment of a small organisation's time and energy:

If you're at the level of planning your retirement that it's coming up in every meeting, every conversation, every decision, then just retire.

Seriously.

I've seen this play out too many times in my life. People hold out for reasons, long after they've checked out.

Just. Go.

@corlin The concept of parents' rights cannot not sound like ownership or control. As stated, it's revealing a massive glitch in our culture; children are often regarded, and treated, as property.

The reality is that when kids go to school, they disappear into a world that is opaque and foreign to many parents.

Opportunistic conservatives have weaponised this ignorance with propaganda, and tied it to their LGBTQ+ ignorance, and their anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda.

Children's rights are human rights.

@corlin Lenovo and Dell are in this game, too. Lenovo is the brand our office uses -- we have several of their mini models here, and I've been impressed by this equipment's quality and longevity. I don't have experience with Linux on them, but Google assures me they get along. :-)

The current model:
ThinkStation P3 Tiny Workstation

I believe it was some time in the late 70s or early 80s, computer scientists realised that the way computing was being done would eventually require more programmers than there were human beings living on earth.

This resulted in sweeping changes in the industry, including standardising computer hardware and software across massive sectors of the industry.

This is the kind of response needed to our looming intersecting energy and transportation crises now.

Just, y'know, action.

@danielbsmith @tyghebright Hmmm, I'm not concerned about the national population being alarmingly affected by LGBTQ+ people.

For one thing, many SGM (I'm taking it for a test-drive) folks are starting families and having children. 🙂

Further, I don't think a reduction in population is the end of the world. While our global economy is predicated on perpetual population growth, that seems unsustainable. So we need to fix the system -- global population shrinkage seems inevitable.

@LiberalLibrarian These are generic ones. And I just double-checked -- they're lime and chili.

They look like this -- no idea where all they are available:

https://voila.ca/products/411716EA/details

Lime & pepper flavoured peanuts are such a great snack to have on the counter. They're healthy. They don't go stale. They're too intense for me to binge on. They're just a great little jolt to grab a mouthful of every once in a while.

@Minholkin It's such an epic throwaway in that movie, too. He was a master of deadpan.

@ErFlynnArt From my perspective, if that ever legal action started, it would never stop!

The whole health care "system" in the US would be liable.

This phenomenon tracks with nearly every example of majority privilege. (It's not just a Western, or Northern, thing.)

But this gets really strange when colonisation means dominance in wealth and power, but not majority. I grew up in a country in southern Africa that was a former British colony. Colonisation's effect on the country was deep, broad and unpredictable. Internalised prejudice infiltrated the whole culture.

Most white supremacists didn't start off with the intentional choice to be white supremacists. They just grew up as the default, assuming they were the centre of everything. This is a view which was reinforced by every message being addressed to them (not just in their language, but also in their dialect and even accent), celebrating them and pandering to them.

When their position at the centre of everything was first challenged is when whiteness suddenly mattered to them: different = a threat.