I usually order form Amazon for convenience, but sometimes use shopping.google.com. I look up every site before ordering though. Some of the sites that show up in the results are sketchy or deceptive. I also sometimes use Ebay if I’m ok with buying something used, or something very cheap of questionable quality (from people who I’m guessing are just resellers of Alibaba crap).

Disrespects satanists.

Yeah, mastodon definitely needs a better algorithm. Algorithms can be designed to promote whatever the maker wants. It doesn’t have to be designed to maximize engagement or the specific kind of engagement that tends to promote crazy conspiracy theories or fascist rhetoric. The algorithm could just be simple collaborative filtering with some randomness thrown in to pop “information bubbles,” which would be much better than what they have now.

Most leftists in the U.S. are democratic socialists, social democrats, are some flavor of anarchists; not authoritarian socialists… Most do not think violence is necessary, except for protection against the increasingly fascist right-wing. Many believe it’s possible to move closer to a socialist-like society by building mutual-aid networks and communities, and promoting candidates for government positions that align with their values; not through a violent revolution.

And yes, I would prefer systems closer to Scandinavian countries, which the right-wing here calls socialism. Ideally, I would like to see some kind of real socialism where the workers own the means of production (factories, stores, farms, etc) and controls it through democratic processes, not the investor-shareholders or the government. I think the term is anarcho-syndicalism, but I doubt that will happen in my lifetime.

I cannot imagine a system that would lead to more freedom, better education or innovation.

LOL.

Even though I acknowledge that other systems have been tried in the past, I also believe that all of them, except capitalism with a few social tweaks, have failed.

Capitalism fails every ~8 years requiring the use of vast amounts of public funds to keep afloat. I’d also say if fails daily if you look at all the needless suffering occuring in the world today, especially in the most “free market” countries and the countries these exploit. We have “socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else,” as Jon Stewart would say.

I’ve spent years working at a fossil-fuel-adjacent company, and I’ve noticed that even some intelligent people (consciously or unconsciously) avoid any information that that might make them think they may not being living a perfectly moral life, or information where the obvious solution goes against their “values” (pro-business, free market). They also grasp for any information that affirms their values and lifestyle, no matter how easily discredited the source.

It’s kinda worrying that it always seems to result in Nazi-like conspiracy theories like “the Agenda,” “Elites,” “groomers,” “cultural marxism,” etc.

If I use a private window, and don’t log in I get a lot of right-wing stuff. I’ve noticed it probably depends on IP/location as well. If at work, youtube seems recommend me things other people at the office listen to.

If I’m logged in, I only get occasional right-wing recommendations interspersed with the left-wing stuff I typically like. About 1/20 videos are right-wing.

YouTube Shorts is different. It’s almost all thirst-traps and right-wing, hustle culture stuff for me.

It could also be because a lot of the people who watch the same videos you do tend to also watch right-wing stuff.

In general, the algorithm tries to boost the stuff that maximizes “engagement,” which is usually outrage-type stuff.

Corps frame it as an individualist problem because they don’t want regulation, which is really the only viable way to attack the problem (and regulations needs to be backed by treaties with teeth since it is a global problem).

You can’t expect every consumer to research every product and service they buy to make sure these products were made with an acceptable footprint. And if low-footprint products/services are more expensive or somehow not quite as good, there will be a financial incentive to use higher footprint products (if individuals acted “rationally,” this is what they would do).

It’s just torture-porn primarily featuring things like rape, pedophilia, etc. The most disgusting movie I’ve ever seen. Plot is contrived, and just serves as a vehicle to deliver the most disgusting scenes of sexual violence they could think of. Acting is OK I guess. It seems like a fairly high-budget movie.

“Maker” stuff is fun. I picked up woodworking/furniture making, 3d printing, and electronics.

Yeah, it tried to hard to be edgy, failed, which only made it cringe. The main characters were the least interesting. Abel is not a good actor. Cinematography is pretty good though.

A Serbian Film

I watched it on shrooms when I was a teenager. From what I remember, it was pretty good as an art piece (atmospheric, cool visuals and audio).

Book is better for the plot/storytelling. IIRC the film was supposed to be a companion piece for the book.

I’m not too well-versed in world-history, but when you look up definitions of “left-wing,” and the policies Stalin implemented, there doesn’t seem to be much overlap. Seems like a lot of authoritarian leftists just used the idea of a vanguard party to seize power and implement policies closer to fascism and state-capitalism than those of communism. Similar to the National “Socialist” Party.

Threads doesn’t need to do an EEE attack. They’ve already gained many more users than the entire Fediverse. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to not join the Fediverse at all.

I would never use Threads, but I would use a Mastodon instance that federated with Threads. I already see many journalists and content creators I like trying it out, who either stopped using Mastadon long ago or never even tried it in the first place. If Threads started doing things that negatively affected my experience, I would then switch to a Mastodon instance that wasn’t federated with Threads.

I’m not a crypto supporter. I do find the tech a bit interesting. I guess, tech-wise, Lemmy would be more comparable federated crypto like Stellar or Ripple (dunno if these are still federated, or if more popular federated crypto exists; been a very long time since I kept up with it). Without some sort of “trust” decentralized systems are too expensive (resource-wise) to be worth it, IMO.

Off-topic, but I’m kinda surprised p2p networks haven’t really advanced since Gnutella. I believe they had the concepts of trust/reputation and self-organizing networks with “super-peers” way back then.

“If Rome possessed the power to feed everyone amply at no greater cost than that of Caesar’s own table, the people would sweep Caesar violently away if anyone were left to starve.”

• Eben Moglen

I think imposing artificial scarcity on art, information, and tools; and rationing based on those with the ability to pay is immoral. I mean sure, most art that people pirate is just empty entertainment. But imposing artificial scarcity on tools (software such as OSs, CAD, productivity software, etc), news, and academic papers behind expensive licenses that many cannot afford to pay is objectively immoral. If piracy did not exist, I am positive the world would be without many of the technological advances we have today.