I get it, the problem solving can be really frustrating when you just want to relax and play some games in your limited free time. Personally I just installed Linux on a secondary drive and switch to Windows during startup for the games that don’t work well with Linux (usually multiplayer games with anti-cheat). I still use Linux as my main OS since gaming is not what I spend the majority of my time doing.

It’s how people commonly type “does not equal” when they don’t have quick access to the not equal symbol. Your top level comment seemed to be contesting the meme, which claimed we still have 20 years to change before we all die. I was saying that 20 years before we all die is not the same as 20 years before a climate catastrophe.

The dictionary definition doesn’t imply we all die either.

• Why are more Latinos voting Republican?
• Polling on Harris as vice president
• Harris vs Trump polling (filter by “all key state polls”)

It is true that the polling of Harris, both as vice president and versus Trump, is likely to be at least somewhat influenced by the unpopularity of Biden. It’s possible that her popularity could rise now as a presidential candidate facing Trump. However, as I noted she only has around 100 days to change an unfavourable perception of her that has existed for years at this point. I doubt that is enough time for a significant shift in her public image, particularly since she is still the current vice president and continues to be directly associated with Biden’s presidency.

I’m also curious to see examples of the American left refusing to acknowledge the potential of a second Trump term.

I can’t really answer this in the same way I have answered your other questions. It’s my personal opinion, based on the narratives and discourse I see in the American media and among left-leaning Americans on social media. After the shock of the 2016 election, people seem to be retreating further into their left-leaning bubbles and refusing to accept that this can and likely will happen a second time, rather than engaging with the other side and trying to make sense of the country they live in. The 2024 campaign has been an absolute disaster for the left so far, yet now that Biden has removed himself from the race there seems to be another wave of delusional celebration from people who think Harris will beat Trump by virtue of being younger and not Biden.

this meme is about records broken, not “wins.”

Read the title.

why wouldn’t Americans vote for a black woman?

I said Americans will not elect a Black woman as president, not that they will not vote for a Black woman as president. Many Americans will vote for Harris but it’s not going to be enough to win the election. The US is conservative country with a predominately White national identity where non-Black minorities like latinos are moving further to the right and increasingly see themselves as part of the White national construct. Harris was very unpopular as vice president and is polling well behind Trump in every key state. She has just over 100 days to turn all of this around.

why would the thought of Americans electing a black women be “cult like?”

The American left suffers from Trump-induced cognitive dissonance. It is so fixated on defeating Trump that it cannot acknowledge that there is a reality in which Trump can and will win. This steadfast denial of reality resembles the behaviour one would find in a cult.

“Cult like” would be thinking Americans are going to elect a Black woman as their next president.

You can add a second term to his list of wins.

Catastrophic =/= “we all die”.

The US has a lower voter turnout than New Zealand (significantly so until recent elections) and holds its elections on a Tuesday as opposed to a Saturday. Despite both countries having non-compulsory voting, there is a greater amount of friction for a potential voter in the US so if the choice is between a bad candidate and a less bad candidate then for many the inconvenience of voting will outweigh any desire to see the less bad candidate win.

There is no such thing as “universally bad at being funny”, as I explained. Humour is subjective.

Focusing on the people and communities, since takes like “Lemmy has no ads” or “reddit has more content” are so obvious that there is zero point in sharing them, I would say Lemmy is better. I think the quality of discourse is a lot higher and people are more likely to type longer, thought out and educated (or well intentioned) comments. If I were to put it really simply, I’d say Lemmy’s community is more centred around discussion, whereas reddit is centred around reaction.

However, one issue with Lemmy is that fringe groups and views are overrepresented (particularly left-leaning ones), which can result in an echo-chamber effect in many discussions. I find pile-on attempts, or accusations of fascism, Nazism and right-wing trolling, are a lot more common here towards users who don’t immediately join in with a far left circlejerk or attempt to bring a little more nuance or critical thinking to a discussion. Dylan Marron, host of the podcast ‘Conversations With People Who Hate Me’, once said in an interview that social media pile-ons from people who are actually on your own side hurt a lot more than pile-ons from people who fundamentally disagree with you and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. It frustrates me that some Lemmy users shutdown and try to “other” people the moment they have a minor or semantic disagreement with them, instead of taking the time to hash it out or just politely agreeing to disagree. It’s kind of ironic that federation allows communities to isolate themselves, yet instead these people remain federated with everyone and then get really offended and outraged when they’re confronted with world views that even slightly differ from their own.

But anyway, that type of person is still a minority and Lemmy is, for the most part, a significantly better environment than reddit for polite and intelligent discussion.

If you’re explaining every single joke in the same sentence as the joke (which is what /s is), it’s not funny. Humour is not, nor has it ever been, about inclusion. It is about being funny. Not universally funny; just funny to people who understand and appreciate the joke.

I think the disabling of downvotes on Beehaw and similar instances really helps. It reduces the pile-on effect, which in turn makes people less defensive and more open to proper, good faith discussion. In general I think the solution is to not find “uplifting” communities, but rather to replace whatever communities you’re currently visiting with better equivalents. The world is not as depressing and scary when the people you’re talking to about these big issues are genuine and/or educated (and by educated I just mean “took the time to read the article before commenting”).

I agree with you. Military conscription is shit, but mandatory community service for young people on the cusp of adulthood could be very beneficial for a society. Particularly if it involves regular interactions with older members of the community (something Western countries lack due to households typically being limited to immediate family). Young people in developed Western nations are more disillusioned, detached and depressed than ever while some older people are really struggling to keep up with the pace at which life and technology is changing. Getting both groups together in their local communities could potentially build some important life skills and confidence for younger people while helping older people to feel included and relevant. I’m not saying a Tory government would be able to implement this effectively, but I can get onboard with the general idea.

lol

Generative AI will be forced on you, regardless of whether you want it in your life. The entire world is moving in that direction very rapidly. We are not just talking micro scale like which web browser you use - every institution you rely on in your daily life will have AI implementation at some level.

That all sounds pretty reasonable to me. You AI holdouts are going to have accept it in some form sooner or later.

Your kids aren’t going to Disney Land lol

There aren’t many explicitly racist or anti-racist people in the world. I think that’s a pretty big misconception people have about racism; that it is predominately an individual quality as opposed to a much broader systemic problem. Even then, my personal experiences suggest these views do not have to define a relationship if you take the time to unpack and better understand them. Most racism we see in the world is generally not born out of evil or hatred but rather fear or ignorance, which are universally relatable human conditions.

Nah I definitely disagree with that statement. It is absolutely possible to maintain a healthy relationship with someone whose perspective on ethical issues differs to your own.