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gerryflap

@ gerryflap @feddit.nl

Posts
2
Comments
214
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy

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  • Yeah I agree with this as well. It's not a binary view: either for or against capitalism. You can disapprove of everything happening in the US right now and still be for some form of capitalism.

    Most people I know think that the US has gone way too far with their strand of capitalism, and yet they almost range from the complete left-to-right in terms of Dutch politics. Only the very right wing people here think that the US is doing something good right now. The rest, from center-right (or even proper neoliberal) all the way to the commies see a system that is failing in some way.

    Yet on Lemmy this nuance seems completely lost sometimes. You're either a part of the capitalists/liberals and therefore approve of the oligarchy and dystopian capitalism in the US, or you join the radical "destroy capitalism" views. It's gotten better after the insane people from Hexbear left tho

  • Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy

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  • I don't have much time and energy for long discussions, but I just wanna share my feelings.

    I feel like people here see capitalism as a very black and white thing. Either it's there and corrupting everything or it's gone and everything is awesome. Personally I don't think that's the case. In my opinion there are some cases where the market can solve things more efficiently than a government institution, granted that this market is regulated and controlled by the government. I'm against unbounded capitalism like we see way too often nowadays.

    But here in western Europe, while certainly not perfect, the situation is way better than in the US. The government controls companies, gives them a slap on the wrist if they get too greedy. And while it still poisons a lot that it touches, the competitive aspect of it also makes sure that many inefficiencies are cut. In my opinion even we are not regulating it enough, and I do consider myself left-wing. But completely abolishing capitalism doesn't make sense to me either.

    I think some things are better left to the government, stuff like healthcare, public transport, utilities like water or maybe even energy. Other things are better left private (but regulated): restaurants, barbers, supermarkets, most product development like phones, cameras, cars, computers, etc. There's a huge grey area there that I don't really have an opinion on.

    But I don't see how a society without capitalism can provide stuff like decent smartphones, game consoles, restaurants, festivals, etc. These more "luxury" goods rely on competition to innovate and provide decent experiences, and here capitalism works better in my view.

  • Dream technology is weird

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  • Recently I had a dream that involved my (smart) watch and phone. Only for knowing the time though. I thought that I had overslept for work, but every time I looked at my watch, my phone, or the clock on the wall, the time was different (but always way too late). At some point I think I woke up, because I remember looking at my watch, concluding that everything was fine and that I could still sleep and hour, and fell asleep again. But then the dream started again by pulling a "you dreamt that you overslept but now you have actually overslept".

  • Removed

    Lol🥴

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  • I'm getting rid of said hairy veer belly to make it fit better :3

  • Removed

    Lol🥴

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  • I hate to break it to you, but most men don't have a body shape like that. Not hating or anything, but skirts and croptops generally don't match too well with a hairy beer belly in the eyes of many ppl.

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  • Honestly not really. Most of my online accounts are already known by friends and are used by me with that knowledge in mind. The ones that aren't are a bit more personal but not wild enough to actually mess anything up.

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  • Had a beer with friends, played some boardgames, went outside for looking at fireworks, played more boardgames

  • What car do you drive and why?

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  • None. I have a license but driving stresses me the fuck out. I have an old bike.

  • Gotta get me some popcorn.js

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  • Are people really this dramatic? There are plenty of conventions at work that we don't like but just accept. We'll moan about it every now and then (looking at you "only one return statement per method"), but in the end we'll just accept that any standard is better than total mayhem and anarchy. Usually I write the code in a way that makes sense to me and then just tidy it up to satisfy the angry rule machine. Having moet of the code in the same format makes it easier to follow, and the code that was written before these rules has me convinced that this whole thing is am improvement.

  • What is your special interest?

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  • I'm currently in this cycle as well. Ever since getting a job I don't have the time and energy to consistently do something every day, but I do have a lot more money. Given this lack of energy and consistent time, I just go until the period of rapid learning stops and then I become overambitious and lose interest. I think I mostly understand what causes it, but I'm unable to fix it. Once I see what "the pro's" do I become way to ambitious and ruin the fun.

    At least I've been able to keep up running as a hobby, which beats sitting still all day.

  • What's the deal with hexbear.net users

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  • Because they turn everything into a debate. I don't want to constantly be called a "lib" just because I don't think communism is the solution. These people would turn everything comment section into a warzone, even after I left all political communities. Even meme communities and communities about random unrelated topics became a minefield. I come here to destress and read some interesting stuff about topics I enjoy, not to be piled onto by 5 commies and be called a filthy lib for daring to say anything that doesn't fit their view. I'm left-wing myself, but to them everything to their right is evil. I'm happy I don't see their poison anymore

  • also, yall are on bikes

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  • I was born in the mid-90's and I was also more or less raised that way (until a certain age). I remember being able to get home in time for dinner after a whole day of playing outside just because it "felt" like it was almost dinner time. We would go to the nearby "forest" where we built huts, climbed into trees, made wooden swords out of sticks, and sometimes had "battles" with rivaling groups about certain areas in the forest. We'd be there for hours even in the pouring rain. There was a whole economy around these wooden swords and other services like building a hut. It was better than any video game ever could be

  • What devices or equipment you own or had that doesn't have much use in the modern world anymore?

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  • Analog photography is also on a bit of a resurgence. As long as it takes 35mm film there shouldn't be any issues getting film or having it developed somewhere (apart from the high prices).

    It's become a bit of a hobby for me lately. Analog photography requires more commitment when taking pictures and the images also have this lovely analog aesthetic. In a weird way it's also fun to have to wait until you see your images. Once you're finally through a roll and have it developed, you're taken back to all the memories you've photographed in the past weeks/months.

  • What would 10 year old you be the most surprised about you now?

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  • I guess how much I'm still the same person. Sure, I have a house, a job, I'm an adult. But I also still play video games, including stuff like RCT which I lived back in the day. My brain still switches from interest to interest, and my brain is still completely obsessed whatever interests me at the moment. Ultimately I'm still that slightly weird nerdy kid, just grown up.

    12 y/o me would probably be amazed that his fancy new Nintendo DS is still alive and kicking almost 20 years down the line. In hindsight it's not too surprising though, because I always treated it with the utmost respect and care.

  • And guess what, that works.

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  • Honestly, however much I want to pretend to be better than that, I think it does work on me. Obviously not on a conscious level, I know how numbers work, but some part of my monkey brain sees the 1 instead of the 2 and therefore concludes that it must be way cheaper. It's a feeling that no amount of facts is going to disable. And in the end many purchasing decisions aren't based on a full analysis but on feelings.

  • It's just a phase

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  • Me, trying to sound cool as an aromantic asexual atheist:

    Actually I'm alingual as well

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  • Unfortunately yes. Unfortunately Lemmy is too small for many of the things I did on Reddit. I mainly enjoyed lurking around in discussions on Reddit, only posting comments when I really cared (just like I do now here on Lemmy). Whenever I played a game, watched a show, etc I'd go to Reddit to read about other people's opinions and discussions. But Lemmy is too small to have any meaningful discussion about a specific game or some other content.

    Often I see here the "if you miss it why not create it" sentiment, but that's just not how I used Reddit. I often don't want to have a meaningful discussion with s small group of people but rather read the opinions and memes of a large group of people.

    So far, I've been able to limit it to browser usage though. The web experience of Reddit is abysmal, but at least I can block the ads etc. And I'm still here for all the content that is on Lemmy.

  • Best mobile games with 0 microtransactions?

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  • Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic, if you feel like playing rollercoaster tycoon 1/2 on your phone. They slightly altered the UI to make it more touch friendly.

  • TIL that the “S” in “Harry S. Truman” isn’t an abbreviation. His middle name was just “S”.

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  • Wait does everyone there have a middle name? I'm Dutch and I don't have a middle name. I figured that was quite common also in the English speaking world

  • What's something you did once but won't do again?

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  • In the moment It was mostly concerned with the task at hand, which was usually drawing, listening to music and adoring the funky visual effects (no halicunations tho). But the most specific thing that came out of it was changed relationship with some of my friends.

    One of them was, for instance, quite annoying. I seem to be quite sensitive to the stuff, meaning that I was the first one "in" and the last one "out". He was the kind of guy to tease people a s a joke. It annoyed me before, but during the trips I finally realized how immature and annoying that stuff became. He was joking about me while I was in a vulnerable state and expected maturity from the people around me. The changed perspective meant that I finally got to look from the outside in and determine that I maybe should disengage from the relationship a bit.

    It's not that I wouldn't recommend others to do it. I just won't do it again because I now realize how much this kind of stuff kan really affect you. As long as you're in the right headspace it can be a very cool experience. I still remember, after hours of chill music, how we all suddenly fell silent after an intense build-up followed by a heavy DnB drop. It felt physical, like I was suddenly pushed into the couch by the bass and couldn't get out. Not sure if I'll ever experience music in that way again.