I still read the same things I used to…there’s just a red banner indicating that I’m banned, and I can’t comment. Since they banned me, I’d be happy to leave entirely, if I found the same variety of content. That might be here, but I’m simply not that familiar with Lemmy and how it’s set up, and have too much on my plate with other commitments to spend much time investigating, especially when I only have a few minutes to kill, and know what I want to read or see.
I’m permanently banned from Reddit. I don’t like Lemmy nearly as much, but it’s probably just that I’m less familiar and haven’t figured it all out. Finding subs that I liked in Reddit was much easier, but there’s the obvious moderator issues with Reddit - mainly that I’m banned.
The problem could be that, with all the advancements in technology just since 1970, all the medical advancements, all the added efficiencies at home and in the workplace, the immediate knowledge-availability of the internet, all the modern conveniences, and the ability to maintain distant relationships through social media, most of our lives haven’t really improved.
We are more rushed and harried than ever, life expectancy (in the US) has decreased, we’ve gone from 1 working adult in most families to 2 working adults (with more than 1 job each), income has gone down. Recreation has moved from wholesome outdoor activities to an obese population glued to various screens and gaming systems.
The “promise of the future” through technological advancement, has been a pretty big letdown. What’s AI going to bring? More loss of meaningful work? When will technology bring fewer working hours and more income - at the same time? When will technology solve hunger, famine, homelessness, mental health issues, and when will it start cleaning my freaking house and making me dinner?
When all the jobs are gone, how beneficial will our overlords be, when it comes to universal basic income? Most of the time, it seems that more bad comes from out advancements than good. It’s not that the advancements aren’t good, it’s that they’re immediately turned to wartime use considerations and profiteering for a very few.
My mom (boomer) has been scammed twice, and it’s not been a simple issue of naivety or even stupidity…it’s been that, and a bit of greed, thinking more about what she’d get out of the deal, than how much sense the whole thing made, in each case. The underlying thing that attracted the scammers in each case, were her Facebook posts about going on multiple vacations and cruises.
The first one was the scam about an inheritance in probate, in Nigeria. She just had to send the money for the courts to get past probate, and then she’d be able to claim the inheritance left by her mysterious relative. Now, the maternal side of my family is Polish and Romanian, and the paternal side is British and German. I just don’t know who she may have thought bounced over to Nigeria and keeled over.
The second scam was the Exxon executive, who woke up in a hospital bed after a car accident, missing his wallet. The hospital was holding him captive in his hospital room until he could pay his bill, which somehow she could help with, by sending Amazon gift cards. The greed part comes in with him apparently having his phone, and being able to send her pics of his cars, properties, and bank statements. The stupid part comes in from about a thousand different directions and 4 dimensions…I mean, she even met his “daughter” in a video call, and adoption was discussed (the mother was apparently long dead). My mom spent a full career as a RN - in hospitals (in the US) - where they don’t incarcerate people until the bills are paid. Additionally, one would think that since any Tom, Dick, or Harry, missing their wallet, but with their phone, would be able to get ahold of someone - anyone, who might be able to contact a financial institution or work colleague, to secure proof of funds availability, replacement credit cards, or access to their finances. An executive with Exxon should definitely be able to show at least enough bling to pop themselves out of “hospital jail,” one would think. Finally, Amazon gift cards?
With my sister going through their correspondence, we found the name he gave my mom to be one letter off the correct spelling of the Exxon executive in the photo of himself that he sent her. The location of his grand home, on Google Earth anyway, appears to be the pool maintenance shed at a motel in TX.
Me: “Mom! It’s a scam.”
Mom: “No! I love him, and he loves me! I’m flying out to meet him, and help him out of the hospital. His daughter is picking me up from the airport.”
Me: “Wait. You said you were thinking about adopting his daughter when you got married - to this guy you’ve never met in person. The daughter is an adult?!”
Mom: “No. She’s 16 and has her driver’s license.”
Me: “So wait…she lives in his house with no adult supervision, since her father is hospital-bound. She has access to the car, but somehow can’t help with transportation, banking access, or the replacement credit card/replacement ID situation?”
Mom: “You’re so negative. You just don’t want to understand.”
Me: 🙄😒🫤
Wow! We have 5 vehicles in our household, a camper, and we used to have 2 motorcycles. 1 vehicle was inherited after a death on the family, 1 vehicle was found in a sales-paper/magazine called “The Trading Post.” The camper was bought new from a dealership via eBay, and we saved $13.5k buying the 5th wheel version of the same camper that we walked through locally in VA, in its tag-along version - I just had to drive to IA to get it. The 3 other vehicles and 2 motorcycles were bought through eBay, and they’ve all been good experiences.
Oh, you can set up a dual boot system, so you don’t have to completely jump ship. They also have setups that run entirely on a thumb drive now.
I did dual boot for a little bit when I want into business 14 years ago. While I liked Linux, I wasn’t sure I could run a business without Windows, but soon discovered that everything would be just fine without Windows, and got rid of it.
I’m in my mid-50s. I play Warzone 2100 and BOS wars on my computer. I’ve has Steam for several years, and have a game there…I think it’s “World of Goo.” I like to stick to games that serve as stress relievers, and take no more than about an hour. Between owning a business, 2 teens, 3 schools, 4 sports, a wife, a house that would love to fall apart if I’d only let it, a lawn to mow, and 2 antique cars I love to keep driving, I don’t have much more time to let myself be sucked in to some of the really cool stuff I see.
I recently bought a replacement PS2 though…the old one broke, and I’m still in love with GTA Vice City. I usually just steal a cop car and do vigilante mode until I’m killed though.
Oh, I don’t discourage them from using/learning Microsoft products at all - they just don’t happen to be in our home, because as consumers, my wife and I don’t spend our money in Microsofts direction. While I can’t say it with accuracy anymore, because it’s been 20 years since my switch, one of the selling points with the Linux distributions was that some of them looked and felt like either Mac or Windows. My Ubuntu distribution looks pretty similar to my wife’s Mac, and the initial installation of Linux Mint, several years ago was made to look and feel like Windows XP. Honestly, the last time I touched Windows was before retiring from the US Navy, where the Submarine LAN was run on Windown NT - but I retired in 2009.
If my kids came home with a Windows PC, or the cheaper option, wanted to turn one of my laptops into a dual-boot machine, I wouldn’t care…more exposure to (that bad word) diversity in operating systems. I don’t think they’re missing out on not having Microsoft in our home though. Microsoft Word in the Tux world is Open Office, Microsofts Excel is Calc, etc…if you know one, you’ll be able to work on the other.
I think our allies are doing everything they can do. They can’t “help” us militarily. What they can do is help us economically. Then the US attempted to help itself during trump 45, what did all the censures, panels, investigations, lawsuits, and eventual impeachments amount to? Liberal tears. Prior to Inauguration Day, one of the democratic strategies discussed, was to let trump do his thing, without all the interference. Of course there are the lawsuits - anyone can sue anyone. Maybe the way to get MAGA voters to recognise how terrible trump (and MAGA) is, is to just let things happen, to the point where the MAGAs get pissed at MAGA.
Our allies are doing their part to come to our defense by retaliating on the tariffs, moving away from buying American goods, finding other trade partners, moving away from depending on the American Military, and potentially moving away from the US Dollar. No matter how this all plays out, it will hurt Americans, because in this case, the threat to America is coming from within America.
In the end, if our democratic republic survives, do we really need to be the “world police?” Do we really need a military that’s bigger than the next 13 militaries combined? I’m not really saying that we should or shouldn’t, but the “liberal world order” that has been enjoyed since WWII is expensive, but well worth it, considering what the cost of WWIII will be. Additionally, the expenses endured by the US in “running the show” also bought the influence of American Interests all over the world. Do we really need to run the show? Do the interests of the US align with that of our allies close enough, that we could simply be members of the team, instead of having to watch the “orange dipshit” shove his way to the center of the front row of every photo, where national leadership is gathered.
America has lost its way. Our allies are doing everything they can, to help our nation recover from the threat within. While President Turd-gurgler swings his bludgeon of tariffs, then no tariffs, then new tariffs, Canada targets its tariffs at the people who voted for the president and his tariffs. When the half of the nation who didn’t vote for trump is joined by the half of the nation who did vote for trump, the trump problem can be solved. Until then, any objection to trump is simply another liberal tear.
And don’t forget the importance in supporting our institutions, the ones that DOGE is working hard to kill.
My 1st desktop had Windows 95 on it. It worked OK. A few years later, I bought a laptop pc with WindowsME (Millennium Edition), and it became the last Windows product I’ve owned. A work colleague installed Windows 2000 on that laptop, and it worked for a couple months, until I got my “blue screen of death.”
At that time, they started selling the ePC notebooks, available with WindowsXP or Linux (the XanderOS) I stepped out of my comfort zone, and got the XanderOS variant, and have had Linux computers since. I’m currently using Mint on an old Panasonic CF-30, and Ubuntu on 2 laptops built by System 76.
My wife likes Mac, but I’m not a fan. My kids get a pretty rounded experience, between using their moms Mac, their dads 2 variants of Linux, and their Chromebooks at school.
Well, this is America, and parents are free to make those kind of choices. My children will not be working those fields (especially considering they’re in VA). As always, the poor and their children will be the most exploited in this endeavor, but considering these same people are orange voters, I really only feel bad for the children.
“The beatings will continue, until morale improves.”
Or the poor stop letting themselves be taken advantage of, and the not so poor, but poorly educated or informed, graduate to better informing themselves. All the information is available out there. People simply need to open their eyes and consume it, instead of being told what to think from a talking head on tv.
Says the man who has a maid, a butler, a staff waiting with a coffee and strudel for him at work. Every conference call is set up and waiting on him to start. Everyone is lined up to lick his boots at all time, to ensure the person who’s time is “the most valuable” never has to spend an extra second listening to anyone or anything they don’t want to. Give me a break.