Tricky thing is believing in something gives you commonality. Not believing in something really doesn’t.

“I don’t believe.”

“Me either.”

“Good talk. Same time next week?”

I wouldn’t call it ignorance. My bliss is based on considerable reading and contemplation. Way more than ought to be necessary, all things considered. I wish some of the understanding I’ve developed over the years would’ve been explained when I was young. There are things which, once explained, drive the logical mind to an inevitable conclusion.

I’ve been there. Posted my story, but I didn’t talk about the lifelong anxiety that comes with a lengthy layoff. Continually pursued higher pay at shittier jobs to try to get ahead of things for when the rug gets pulled out from under me again. It’s corrosive. Losing income and insurance when everyone is counting on you to provide makes you feel like your self-worth is completely tied to your job and ability to provide.

Which time?

First time happened after I’d been with my first real job for ten years because the business was changing and there wasn’t a role for me. I was out of work for 7 shitty months trying to have my own business starting from the few customers we had left when they let me go. It was right after I bought a house and had a baby. It was fucking awful.

Second time was after COVID. First we all took a 10% pay cut to avoid layoffs. Then two months later when federal assistance expired, they cut 1/3 of the company across the board. I’m a little fucking bitter about that to be honest, but I had a new remote job lined up within a couple of weeks that paid quite a bit better.

Last time was 5 months ago. Just got hired this week. Start next month. It sucked. Wiped out my whole retirement savings, so I get to start over at 51. But we made it through and potentially I won’t have to switch companies again.

I recommend the asterism to instead be adopted as the symbol for astigmatism.

I don’t remember after my first car. But I got a really big raise at work one year and bought the new Malibu the year it was redesigned. Black with leather interior. First song played:

Radar Love by Golden Earring

It’s a great fucking song to drive too fast to.

You can’t make a person understand anything. If the very simple explanation of “draft the unwilling and send them to die” doesn’t convince them, they don’t want to be convinced. I couldn’t name a single person who thinks that’s good, just maybe some folks who would say it’s sometimes a grim necessity. And I guess I’m in the latter camp, but shit would have to be dire.

I could list a bunch of movies but it’s easier to say anything scored by John Williams. Superman, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws. I never caught Close Encounters of the Third Kind but I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s good just on faith.

He scored some other things, but that’s what I remember off the top of my head.

The scariest threat in the event you’re affected by the data breach is if someone has enough information to open credit in your name. There’s a website you can look yourself up on. I have it in my pc I think, but not my phone. They have my name and ssn, but an old address that’s not valid any more. Maybe someone can link it. I’ll see if I can find it in the morning if no one does.

2FA is good to use when available.

That’s mainly it. It could be the most likely threat is to email you scary things to try to get you to click on the wrong thing. Or calling you up with the classic threat that the sheriff is on his way to arrest you now over some outstanding debt. I know wtf I’m doing with security and I’ve still fallen for a phishing scheme (caught it before any harm was some, but still clicked the damn email). My wife fell for the sheriff thing—sucks when they do find a blemish on your credit to really sell you on they are a real debt collector.

I really don’t think it’s generally accepted at all. It may work for some people, but is the rate higher than placebo? Are there studies? It’s nothing I’ve kept up to date on, but last I knew it was largely considered to be on the level of psychic readings as far as accepted science goes.

First, comparing yourself to others is a recipe for unhappiness. I guarantee unhappiness and ennui is part of every day American life as well. I’m living it. I don’t know why I get out of bed each day other than to provide for my family, and I’ve been out of work for 5 months. Feels like waiting around to die, honestly. Maybe you think being in America would solve your problems, but it just presents a different set.

Second, accept the things you can’t change. If you can’t fix something, let go of worrying about it. Easier said than done and beware of telling yourself you can’t change something when you can, but if there is something you can’t fix, let it be. I know you said you’ve gotten that advice already. It’s easy to hear but hard to accept.

Third, set yourself some achievable goals. If it’s exercise or reading a book or painting a picture. Especially if it’s a step toward fixing one of those things that’s big, but not impossible to change. I’ve seen people build houses with their own hands over several years - one piece at a time. I have a friend who is mid-40’s and getting her 4-year degree. One class per semester. She’s on class three now. Eventually she will get there. I’ve set some goals to improve my physical health. It’s a long fucking road. I lost 60 lbs. about 8 years ago. Gained it all back. Now it’s time to tackle it again.

Fourth, make yourself look for good things. It’s a beautiful sunny evening here after days of rain. I didn’t achieve much today, but I can appreciate the warmth on my skin and the blue and white sky. My wife is out of the house taking a crafting class with a friend and I’m happy for her because that doesn’t happen often. I have some interviews this week and maybe one will be the right fit. Whatever the good things are in your life, find them and spend a little time just appreciating them.

Good luck, my friend.

I’m really skeptical about that. Either that they would do it or that such “justified” downvoting would be a clear cut or fair decision. Most people don’t vote the right way. How many people downvote content they agree with or find funny but doesn’t add to the discussion? How many people upvote content they disagree with that does add to the discussion?

And am I really going to take up a mod’s time because someone got mad at me and downvoted—the most accessible and innocuous way to express displeasure with someone? How many more complaints about downvote bullying are mods going to have to field?

I don’t know. You could be right, but I’d want to see it successful in a small scale, if possible, before deploying it everywhere. Maybe the folks suggesting it should be up to the server admin are right. That would be another differentiator and people could go to communities on servers that have their preferred visibility policy. That would serve as an A/B test and let people vote with their feet.

I’ve been thinking about this for several hours since I first became aware of the debate.

I don’t care that much in theory if anyone sees my votes. They aren’t anything I’m particularly private about. I care about conversation way more than up/down votes.

However, some people get a little upset about being downvoted. I think it will result in retaliatory downvotes. You already see that when two folks are arguing. I don’t normally waste my time downvoting a post I’m writing a rebuttal to, but when they are downvoting me I tend to do it back. I think if everyone had easy access, they would hunt down their down voters posts and retaliate regardless of the quality of the comments.

Lastly, I wonder if this will give rise to a client that lets you use one account to post/comment and a different one to vote. And if it does, will that be better all around? Then no one will be able to associate votes with a user. But it seems unnecessarily wasteful to create a whole account that does nothing but vote. It seems like it would deny mods (and everyone) a useful tool for identifying bad actors.

Technically, anyone could get access to the voters identity if they try hard enough but 99% of the users won’t put in that much effort. And technically someone could already use different accounts for different activities, but without reason to create a client to support that it’s too much of a pain to be worth the effort.

So I really think I’m on team status quo here.

I found this very interesting. Thanks for adding all that.

Thanks for sharing. It’s important to get all our big feelings out when we’re frustrated about something.

Voyager is a PWA. It works on both Android and Apple, as well as computers.

https://wefwef.app/

Edit: I guess the url changed when the name changed to Voyager, but wefwef still works.

I know it’s confusing being new to Lemmy, but just relax. The information about a board is in the sidebar area, just like on Reddit.

This?

They would all ask everyone for their pronouns regardless of how evident their gender seems to be.

I could’ve written this. Same answers, same reasoning. Word for word.

Ultimately the reviewer souls be paid for their efforts because honest reviews are their livelihood. Saying, “I liked this and if my review helped, buy through this link to support me for free,” is a fairly innocuous way.

Is it completely unproblematic? No, but earning money for your opinion is always going to be fraught.