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a phenomenon I think I've witnessed is what I might call...
Many people interact on this Internet of ours via many different outlets espousing many different opinions. Yet, often, certain opinions seem to froth to the top in people's minds when convenient for those people. Depending on the views of Those People, they may attribute a form of "group-think" to those Internet outlets where many opinions are being collected. I find Reddit to be a major example of this phenomenon occurring, if only because it is the "front page of the Internet."
I'm writing this as I go and my thoughts are scattershot, so read disregard the previous stuff. Or read into it further.
My main point is: we (or...I) often read many opinions and thoughts from many different people on the Internet and kinda roll it all into one. Personally, I experience this when I read different experts giving their expert opinion on many subjects and condense it in my mind to "wow, everyone is so damn smart and I'm not" when in reality it might be closer to "wow, a person who is an expert in their field is so damn smart in their field but probably not as smart in other fields (and I'm not, too)."
But, also, this goes for ideology. People may read many different ideological opinions and only register those that are counter or pro their opinion depending on how receptive they are to a certain viewpoint at that moment. Which makes it easy for someone to say "wow, <website> feels x about y! What a buncha <jerks>/<friends>!" And, also, those people may speak on the supposed hypocrisy of a community and say something along the lines of "When <community> sees THIS they act like THIS, but when they see THAT they act like THAT" disregarding the fact that THIS and THAT groups are entirely different groups of people.
Well, when you scroll through all the voices in these communities that give us voices, are you cognizant of this? Or do you tend to blend all the individuals into some shit-colored mess?
[M/29/small town India, English isn't my first language]
I'll admit to being what is called a country bumpkin. The education I received was lacking in many ways, I wasn't taught about the real world, I never really thought about how the food on my plate was grown or how we plunder the living world for resources etc.
My question is, how did humanity reach 7 billion plus people without even paying a thought about educating the kids properly.
There is a bitter irony to the fact that we have all been convinced to use the word "growth" to describe what is ultimately a process of depletion and breakdown. tweet
If we are depleting the earth of all resources, how will coming generations live?
But if we don't grow, how can we progress?
Edit: Why can't we have good quality education for everyone and good quality healthcare for everyone on this planet?
(Semi-throwaway account because of personal details)
This is prompted by /u/Adys comment to /u/Kuromantis.
I'm currently 14, and online I've refrained posting my age on my main account (on this site and others) to avoid it becoming a point in discussions (most prominently with politics, but any topic).
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Is socialism achievable in our lifetimes? I'm M/29/India. I haven't read Marx or Kropotkin.
1 Honestly, at some point you have to ask yourself: if our economic system doesn't secure public health and well-being, and doesn't protect and regenerate ecology, then what's actually the point?
2 This economic crisis is revealing that the main reason we all have to work for wages isn't just to buy the things we need, but to pay rents and debts - in other words, to give money to the holders of capital.
If capitalism is preventing a large majority of human population from leading happy and dignified lives, then why can't we change the economic system?
Answers for this question can be anything, and they don't have to be broad, something-that-affects-everyone things like the coronavirus or climate change. This can also be stuff that's specific to your field, societal norms, health habits, technology, entertainment -- whatever you think is relevant to the question.
Also, due to the nature of the question, please extend the principle of charity to people in this thread. People will likely be answering from a place of frustration. Keep that in mind when choosing how to respond to them!
I think it's clear that all tildes political discussion leads to intractable arguments. Considering tildes was created to foster high quality discussion, I was wondering if it's even possible to have nuanced political discussions online. In person discussions work for me because I have base levels of respect for all the people I talk to, but that's quite difficult to get online. Are we doomed to snark and condescension filled megathreads, or is there a better way to structure the conversations? Are there additional political ground rules that need to be set up?
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Many people have plenty to do just figuring out how to protect themselves and take care of their families. Others are busier than ever with essential jobs. But at least some of us are stuck at home and could probably be doing more to support the common effort, something besides avoiding infection and watching it happen.
There are many to choose from, but what charities do you think are most deserving of support, and why? What are good ways to volunteer?
Edit: LessWrong has a section of their link database devoted to work and donations
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Mine is about my spirit animal.
Manatees have long been known as gentle giants, and somehow sailors once confused them with beautiful women. What fewer people know about manatees, is that they control their buoyancy with flatulance. Their whole life is floating around and eating seagrass. They get gassy and start to float up, so they let a few farts out to get back down to the seagrass. And you thought dolphins had life figured out.
What are some of the clever, ingenious, or potentially even shameful shortcuts or workarounds that exist in your field (or that you know of from others)?
What problem or hassle do they alleviate/make easier?
Is the trick always worth it, or are there significant tradeoffs you have to take into account?
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I've been progressively getting more excited about cannabis over the past year or so; we had a chat about drugs a while back, I figured we could try one specifically about cannabis.
I've been really enjoying Durban Poison lately, I tend towards feeling compassionate and really loving and open to folks around me, though that depends somewhat on context. Jack Herer and derivatives have been nice as well, but they're more for tasks that need some focus like programming or writing.
I've been trying a couple indica/evening leaning strains lately, but I haven't found one that I've really loved (my ulterior motive for starting this thread).
We should probably start a ~talk.casual, but maybe all talk on tildes is somewhat causal, and that's cool too, Also, this is aspie special interest territory for me, so if y'all don't think about this as much, I can do strain recs if that'd be something that was nice for you. Though, I don't some (relatively) that much, so someone on the internet could probably do that better.
Also, yes, I know that COVID-19 falls under SARS; I already got the gentle warnings from my dad.
(edit: thanks whoever tagged nsfw.drugs! Also the cannabis tag makes more sense as well)
I've seen a lot of different attitudes towards the virus and I want to talk about one of the more toxic ones.
You might think I'm referring to people attending lockdown parties or other dumb things like that; no. I am referring to those who usually mean well, but forget to remain human in the process. Please read on, because this might be something you yourself are doing without realizing it.
The last few weeks have been, and the coming months are going to be, a time of careful balance. You might hear politicians say they "want to fight the virus without creating a bigger problem"; usually it's about the economy, but it applies to everyone on a personal level as well.
DO: Treat this virus seriously. Through collective action, we can limit its spread and its deadliness.
DO NOT: Become selfish. I'm not just talking about "fuck you, got mine" hoarding. I am talking about prioritizing your own health above everyone else's. (Caveat: this obviously applies to different people, differently. Especially if you are at risk, now may the time to be a little selfish, without being ungrateful to those who would help of course.)
DO NOT look down on people you see going out; you don't know why they're out. Maybe they have to be because they're part of the ones who still have to go out to keep the world running right now. Maybe it's the first time they go out in two weeks and they direly need it not to become depressed. The virus, and the measures to tackle it, affect many people differently.
DO NOT deprioritize mental health. Yesterday, I've heard someone laugh when I mentioned that. In the past decade, the world has made great progress towards accepting mental health as important. It still is; the virus does not change that.
DO: Check up on your friends, family and neighbours. Ask how you can help and be there for each other. Be neighbourly, as they say. If you're out and see someone else, give them a smile, they very likely need it right now.
DO NOT treat health workers like they have the plague. You know those people clapping at their windows "for health workers" at 8PM every day? Maybe you're part of them. Yet I've heard several stories of people not-at-risk who aren't willing to be in the same room as a nurse or doctor. Obviously, this doesn't just go for health workers, but they are those most affected by it. So be careful.
DO: Read up on (or maybe simply remember) the AIDS scare of the 80s. There is a lot to learn from the way humans treated each other at that time. A lot of lessons to learn so that we don't repeat them. I know it's scary for a lot of people, but right now, the world needs kindness.
Most of all: DO NOT stop hugging your loved ones when they need it. I don't want to live in a world where this statement is controversial. Be careful, but be human.
It's already started a little, but over the next day or so, the internet will be filled with jokes, pranks, fake "announcements" from companies, fun interactive activities, games, and so on. A lot of these can be quite clever and interesting so I think posting about them in general is fine, but in the interest of preventing them from completely taking over Tildes, let's try to keep as many of them restricted to this thread as possible. Ideally, a separate top-level comment for each individual item would be good.
If something particularly discussion-worthy comes up (like an ARG or activity that a lot of people want to talk about), a separate thread is reasonable, but please make sure it has the "april fools day" tag. That way, if anyone wants to avoid seeing the April Fools' Day threads, they can use the topic tag filters and filter that tag out.
The above text was taken from last year's April Fools megathread, so I figured we continue with the same idea this year. :)
With April Fools day upon us, what are your favorite pranks?
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Whether it's a personality trait you have, an experience you've been through, or a way that you "come across" to others, or something else entirely, what's something that people commonly misunderstand about you? Why do you think that happens? How do you feel or respond when you're made aware of it?
Recently found one in a perfect state. I sterilized it and now I can have one. Just wanting people's opinions if they saw someone with an n95 mask instead of a surgical mask. Like, it could go to a hospital or something.
edit: I should mention I have type 1 diabetes
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Are we ever going to stop profiting off misery of our own kind?
I'm not very knowledgeable about this stuff. How long do we have left, like, 10-15 years at the most?
corvid-19 has taken over my thinking. I haven't been this depressed in a very long time. Feels like I'm living in a sort of fog. I usually have national news on in the background during the day but the coronavirus is taking over. I don't know if I contracted it. I have been in a funk the last 2 or so weeks. My temp reader (which i don't trust) says im 2 degrees below 97.6. I don't know, i just had to get this off my chest.
I personally see:
The enaction of the progressive policies that have been continuosly amplified over the last 5 years during the election of Bernie or Warren (in the US, be it after 2020 or 2024)
Increasing regulation of the Internet (be it the breakup of tech conglomerates, increased pressure by VC investors for the companies in the red to turn a profit or more surveillance by 3-letter agencies in bad faith)
Increased tension between the US and China as China becomes increasingly more powerful especially over tech companies
A recession which throws the item in the top 15 years down the line.
Automation and AI begin to become more pressing issues during the next depression, leading to people taking candidates like Yang more seriously.
"Apophis 2029 is gonna hit the earth." "Finally."
Edit: Ok, here's some non-political predictions:
Mojang runs out of already existing biomes and dimensions to overhaul in minecraft, so they'll shift their development focus to adding more unique biomes, worldgen and mechanical depth and maybe some sort of progression to the game (more complex combat, more dimensions, more bossfights, more mobs like the iron golem with better attacks, more Redstone components, more unique worldgen). By the time this happens, hytale will already be a big competitor and great at al this, causing high controversy that Microsoft is stealing their ideas.
This also applies to mobile phone makers as they get rid of all notches, bezels and ports and so they either focus on specs and battery life and nirvana is supposedly achieved at 1600$ per phone, in making the phones as cheap as possible , which makes people get mad about the working conditions of the laborers or in even more exclusive wearables like now.
A new manned moon landing, finally. This time the whole journey will be streamed live on an 8k camera via starlink.
The (further) normalization of anime, similar to what happened to gaming this decade. More people from more different backgrounds will be watching anime, and they will be less focused on self-depreciation because of it. They will watch anime in public, and will demand more and better anime from the production teams in Japan. The more diverse audience will mean that fanservice will be gradually less effective and non-tanned black characters will appear way more often (and someone will lose their shit over it).
HN finally comes up with a site redesign, mainly to make it clearer which threads are which. The new design is similar to Tilde's now and HN usage grows 3-fold.
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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was reassessing the future of his presidential bid on Wednesday after a crushing round of primary losses left him with no realistic path to the Democratic nomination and the 2020 race itself looked increasingly dormant because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Mr. Sanders’s campaign has stopped actively advertising on Facebook and its campaign manager sent an email to supporters without asking for donations — the kind of steps that other candidates have taken before ending their campaigns. Mr. Sanders’s aides said he is not suspending his campaign at this point, even as some Democrats have become increasingly vocal that he should consider leaving the race.
Even among Democrats who view Mr. Biden’s eventual triumph as inevitable, there is a belief that contested primaries are good for the party, making some of them reluctant to call for Mr. Sanders to withdraw. In Wisconsin, Democratic officials worry that if Mr. Sanders drops out before the state’s planned April 7 primary, it could dampen his supporters’ enthusiasm, depress turnout and hurt progressive candidates for state and local offices.
Mr. Sanders also views the coronavirus crisis as a moment when the progressive agenda he has championed for years is especially vital, and he is eager to leverage his influence for good at a time when issues like health care and economic inequity are so resonant, some allies say.
And top advisers see potential for him to continue to shape the narrative around how the country should be responding to the crisis and are holding out hope that they can harness existing virtual infrastructure to allow him to get his message out and keep his supporters engaged — a tacit admission that the campaign is no longer trying to win.
The above paragraphs show that yes, Sanders knows his electoral situation is done for, despite never clearly indicating if he is dropping out.
Some suggested Mr. Sanders should declare a moral victory — Democrats have moved broadly toward his progressive policy platform since he began his first presidential campaign — and throw his support to Mr. Biden.
“It’s time to throw in the towel knowing that he has won the battle of issues,” said Wilbur Colom, a D.N.C. member from Mississippi. “The Democratic Party has moved within inches of his revolution on all major issues. We all are feeling the Bern.”
From the Star
Charles Chamberlain, chairman of the progressive group Democracy for America, said Sanders can play a potentially “critical” role in unifying the party by continuing his campaign.
“Bernie has already made it clear that he will 100% support the Democratic nominee and that he’s going to campaign for Joe Biden if that’s who it is,” Chamberlain said. “The reality is, that’s not 100% true for all Bernie Sanders supporters. So there is a real value to Bernie staying in the race as long as possible to bring those people into the party deeper.“
That underscores the sensitivity of how Sanders proceeds. Justin Bamberg, a South Carolina state representative and Sanders supporter, said it’s wrong to assume that, if the senator quickly drops out, his backers would unite behind Biden.
“It’s a mistake for the party, regardless of whether the nominee is Biden or Bernie, to think that beating Donald Trump in and of itself will be enough motivation for the average person living their day-to-day life to come out and be excited about voting in November,” Bamberg said.
I agree. Biden needs to emphasize that he can be trusted to keep his promises of endorsing and then carrying out Warren's plan despite their controversies and that the bernie or bust folks won't gain nothing from a Biden presidency.
How's everyone doing?
I'm feeling quite a bit of stress and mental burnout, so I wanted to post an "off my chest" style thread. Figured I'd keep it for the comments; maybe others could use the space, too.
(Posted in ~talk as I don't think it's productive to post this to ~health.coronavirus)
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Following an off-topic conversation starting here:
I thought it would be handy to establish that life still continues even in pandemic lockdown. One participant mentions a successful video date, and another wishes for sex.
The questions below may be personal and sensitive - please use your best judgement in answering or refraining to do so. Usual Tildes rules of courtesy apply.
If you're in a relationship, what are you doing to keep it alive and healthy?
If you're not partnered, what are you doing, if anything, to date or otherwise meet your needs while everything is closed down (if this is the case where you are)?
Does your idea of love or sex require physical contact?
If physical contact is required, what, if anything, are you doing to stay safe right now?
There are some very specific kinds of interactions that are much harder to find anywhere else. At the same time, large subreddits tend to have stringent rules, which mods frequently apply in an inconsistent and subjective manner.
I get that it's hard to manage a sub with thousands of people, but at the same time, it is frustrating to make an effort to write a long post just to realize there is no place for it.
To make matters worse, the principle of charity is basically unheard of, and people will evaluate your sentences in such a way to make them the least true, sometimes adding personal hostilities.
Posting on Reddit feels like something that should require a legal department, and I would very much like to stop doing that altogether. At the same time, places like /r/emacs are essential to help me quickly solve issues, and /r/destructiveReaders/ gave me some of the best criticism of my material I have ever had (and I'm including people from outside the Internet).
So I guess it comes up to self-control to not waste my time with subs that are prone to be toxic. But it's hard, sometimes.
Do you still post on Reddit? If so, what are your strategies to avoid unnecessary frustration?
Admittedly I deleted and re-uploaded this because I was worried I had posted the original thread too soon.
A'ight, here we are. Spreadsheet time.
The debate will be recorded March 15th, 8-10 PM ET. (1-3 AM UTC)
In the CNN studio in Washington DC. Note that they moved it from Phoenix due to the Coronavirus.
Dana Bash and Jake Tapper from CNN and Ilia Calderón from Telemundo.
It will most likely be livestreamed in CNN's YouTube channel. it was livestreamed on CNN's website.
This is the first and possibly the last one-on-one debate in the primary between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden and (also due to Coronavirus concerns) It has no live audience. It will also occur before some of the largest states in the primary vote.
So what do you think should happen? What questions should be asked? What should the candidates do and what should we talk about?
I'm usually the least anxious person among all the people I know, even when shit is hitting the fan. I practically revel in hardships for the problem solving.
But, what is freaking me out right now is this mass panic. It started off as a joke but now it's real, people are literally selling toilet paper on craigslist of whatever. Maybe it's still a joke, I don't know. But mass hoarding of important goods seems to be causing disruptions already, from a lack of toilet paper to a shortage of surgical masks for medical professionals.
I would like to ask the community here what they think about this and how they expect things to go on. Are we going to have a second-order crisis in supply shortages? Are shipping route delays going to hit us on top of the local supply shortages? Because right now it's feeling apocalyptic, and I'm struggling between not acting like a selfish hoarder but also making sure I can get through this.
EDIT: Toilet paper is just a prominent example, not my primary concern (we have plenty still). I'm more concerned about e.g. pharmacy goods and produce, since where I live literally 95% of our produce is imported.
EDIT 2: This article articulates what is on my mind much better: An Infectious Diseases Specialist Reflects on COVID-19
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I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with what I generally submit to tildes that videos, history and history.military are my favorite topic tags... but some of the other slightly more obscure ones I also enjoy (all music related) are live, soul.blue_eyed, singer_songwriter, and cover_songs.
What about you all? What are your favorite topic tags on tildes?
p.s. If you provide the associated https://tildes.net/?tag=topic_tag links to the ones you mention so that we can all peruse them, that would be greatly appreciated. :)
It always bothers me that I know American politics presumably pretty well but my own nation's politics on a nearly surface level so I guess I'll ask this, but this can be for practically any country that isn't the US or maybe Britain.
Since this is specifically for your countries the sources can be limited to your country's language.
One source of Brazilian (my nation's) news I've heard of that isn't a from a large cable channel like CNN is Nexo, although the paywall makes serious consumption inviable simply because my parents wouldn't pay for me to read news of all things, but if you can, do it, the charts are great and the rest seems pretty good.
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The trick is to find something interesting enough to make chores less boring, but not interesting enough to distract you to the point of making you stop what you're doing.
I used to play Friends on repeat, but that grew old when I quite literally memorized every single episode.
And my usual interests are way too interesting for me! (I wonder why hahaha).
Does anyone have the same habit? What are your current preferences? (TV shows, podcasts, docuseries, whatever suits your boat...)
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Inspired by the @culturedleftfoot post.
Try providing links, and, if you feel that your country is too big for this exercise to make sense, feel free to limit your choices to your region, state, city or even neighborhood!
Definition of Homeland (adapted from Wikipedia):
A homeland is the concept of the place where a cultural, national, or racial identity had formed. It can also mean the country of nationality, the place in which somebody grew up or lived for a long enough period that shaped his or her cultural identity, the place in which one's ancestors live for generations, or the place that one regard it as home.
I'm curious how other people think about this.
(You could replace FPTP with STV to keep the districts that elect representatives in the house intact.)
I'll start.
The Democratic party breaks up into the neoliberal and progressive parties.
The neoliberal party is where centrist candidates like Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg go.
The progressive party is where progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren go.
The Republican party might lose a large part of their electorate to the libertarians, since many Republicans are more concerned about letting business prevail and don't really want cultural conservatism.
Andrew yang maybe also leaves the Democrats and founds his own party, the party for online reform.
The greens also become significantly more popular but they may have too much in common with the progressives.
The Senate could be changed to include as many seats as the house for proper representation.
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This is an intentionally broad question with a lot of different angles. It's also a question that's naturally hard to get solid grounding on now that nearly everything gets painted as false, misleading, or disingenuous by at least someone.
Normally in my ask threads I throw out a lot of potential talking points, but in this case I want to leave the question open, for people to take it in whichever direction they wish: What do we actually know about modern disinformation, especially related to (but not limited to) online spaces? What are some real, genuine takeaways we can hang our hats on?
Also, a point of clarity: disinformation here does NOT strictly refer to high-level government propaganda and can include something as low-level as, say, an influencer not disclosing product sponsorship to their followers. I'm interested in distributed falsehoods of any caliber.
What the title says, basically. What's the virus like in your community? Are people stocking up on supplies?