Generally, I'm a believer in evidence over allegations, and the timing is very suspicious, but if there are actual documented conversations alluding to this behavior from years then it's a bad look. I think Politico ought to come forward with more of the evidence so that voters can get a full picture of what was said about him and the timeline of events and statements.
But great news for Susan Collins and Donald Trump either way.
Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
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Fuck that. No bailout of AI fraudsters.
Right now! And no, I don't mean corporate software and services or generative AI bullshit...
The hardware market sucks right now for sure, and it's the AI bubble's fault. The rate of advancement of hardware is also slowing down. But at the same time $2000 still gets you a significantly better PC today than what you had 10 years ago. Hardware isn't as affordable as it was just a couple years ago, but it's still good.
On the software side, you really just have to embrace FOSS. The Linux ecosystem is going wild, and it feels like the entire thing is snowballing, growing at an accelerating rate. I now run Linux as my main OS on all of my PCs, including gaming PCs. I have a Linux home server with self-hosted services that are accessible to me whever I go thanks to tailscale. I feel pretty much immune to service and software enshittification, because I have almost no subscriptions and mostly to use free and open source software.
I really feel like I'm getting more out of my technology than I ever have before, and it's a lot less corporate.
Prerequisite: Groom reasonably well. Nobody wants to be friends with someone who stinks or looks filthy. Shower, deodorant, brush your teeth, wear clean clothes that fit you, have some dignity in general.
Then I think the key is to have hobbies and engage in those hobbies in some kind of group. Go out and take a class or join an event of some kind. Make an effort to listen and talk to people (don't talk without listening, and don't overwhelm people with infodumps). Give people a complement. Wear your hobbies on your sleeve, and make it clear what you're into so that other people (if you're into video games, wear gaming merch or culture stuff. If you're into metal music, wear metal band merch.)
There's a fine balance between playing it cool and fading into the background because you're hiding who you are. You've gotta be a little bit cringe to be yourself in public, but if you lay it on too thick it can be a turnoff.
The same thing that happened before I was born.
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What's nonsense is moral cultural relativism. I don't have to accept the things that other people do just because they claim it's a part of their culture.
Also, I don't think that eating dog meat is a large part of Chinese culture, nor do I think it's a thing that all Chinese people do or approve of.
If this was happening in my country and city I would be just as against it, because I do view dogs as pets and companions moreso than cows and pigs (animals which also deserve to be treated humanely).
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A Hindu person would probably say that they think it's wrong that Americans kill cows for food, and they are entitled to believe that it's a practice that should be stopped.
I like dogs and cats, and I don't think that they should be caged, butchered and sold as meat. I would be against it if it was happening in my city too.
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What's nonsensical and borderline racist? What are you agreeing with?
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I mean, Lemmy is obviously a smaller, more tight-knit community than Reddit, but I wouldn't say that it's "insular" or rejecting of many viewpoints.
I was perma-banned on Reddit for criticizing Trump and the AI industry, as well as making a jab at the horrible and inhumane Yulin Dog Meat Festival in Guangxi, China (which by the way is a 100% real thing, should be stopped, and just happens to be running right now...). So I feel that Reddit is largely in the pocket of certain groups and are willing to stretch their moderation rules to stifle certain kinds of speech that challenges their shareholders.
On top of all that, I think that the Fediverse in general is a little bit friendlier and much more real than Reddit these days, which I like. Whenever I find myself browsing Reddit (without an account) recently, it's only a matter of minutes before I come across some post or comment that is obvious bullshit, be it something clearly AI generated or just a good old fashioned lie. Reddit has really become full of nonsense and slop these days, and I think even people who continue to use Reddit are able to see that it isn't what it used to be.
I read all your comments in my previous post and one thing I realized I'm not qualified for this at all. This is too dangerous and puts my life and many of my friends at risk.
I think that protest, organization and resistance are inherently risky, especially in the context of an authoritarian regime where you don't have adequate constitutional rights or legal protections for speech. The man and women protesting the government and morality laws in Iran are putting themselves at considerable risk, as are the people protesting against Putin in Russia, and people who make small acts of rebellion in places like North Korea. There's probably no way around that, I'm afraid.
With that said, deepening your understanding of privacy and security technology puts you in a position to allow you do the kinds of things you want to do while limiting the personal risks to yourself. This means learning about things like Linux, encryption, containerization, VPNs, VPSs, TOR, cryptocurrency, etc., and understanding that tools exist to allow people to communicate anonymously. If you haven't already, I would start first by improving your knowledge of cybersecurity.
Do you have an encrypted email provider like ProtonMail? Do you use encrypted messaging tools like Signal? Those are a good starting point.
Discord have all this but that's not my preference at all. I know Reddit has private subs but I don't like reddit like many of you guys.
Discord and Reddit are corporate, specifically American corporate. As such, neither of them are truly "private" or anonymous, and to some extent they are beholden to American corporate interests, and thus, American government interests. Much like TikTok's relationship with the Chinese government, I think that platforms like Discord and Reddit can only be trusted to the degree that you trust America in general, if that makes sense...
With that said, Discord and Reddit are popular platforms, and it can be easy to create a reasonably protected space there if you can vouch for the people that you are allowing in the room. (Remember that every person who is allowed in the space is a potential vector for leaking of data out. And so, for example, if one of the members of the room was to be captured or coerced in some way, they could provide access to the room to people who you may not want to give access to.) "Security through obscurity" is not a great strategy on its own, but there is something to be said about getting lost in a crowd...
So, as much as I prefer the Fediverse as a key tool against corporate social media, I can see how Discord and Reddit could be useful tools. (Discord was absolutely instrumental in organizing very effective protests in Nepal just a few years ago!)
The best approach is probably something broad, where you use some combination of the fediverse and legacy social media together, but only after you've gained the appropriate knowledge and privacy/security tools needed to protect yourself.
Sadly, 1/3 of the country continues to actually support the current administration and at least another 1/3 seems to be completely uncaring and ambivalent about the fact that we are allowing a literal detained lunatic to sleepwalk us into fasism, corporate oligarchy, economic uncertainty, war and global chaos.
There are people out there protesting and doing the right thing, but there are still far too many people who don't seem to give a damn and nobody in any position of even remote power seems willing to do anything meaningful to correct course.
So we wait for the next election in November to see what, if anything, happens next. But we're still being ruled by the unchecked whims of a madman.
Start the pan on medium high heat, add generous amount of butter and melt it as quickly as you can by moving it around the pan.
Crack an egg onto the pan and immediately turn down to medium low heat. I want the pan hot enough at the start to begin forming a crispy edge.
Season with salt, pepper and maybe some cayenne powder.
Don't flip the egg! Instead, grab a spoon, tilt the pan so the butter collects on one side, and begin basting the top of the egg with hot liquid butter. You'll see small bubbles form on top of the egg as you drop the hot butter on top.
Serve when you don't see any slimy looking exterior parts.
If done correctly, this will give you a nice sunny side up egg with a crispy edge and a runny yolk! Serve on toasted and buttered bread. (You may have enough butter left in the pan to butter the bread using it. Alternatively, you can use a nice bagel or English muffin instead of bread.)
The fact that the "We the People" of the United States just sit back and shrug as this idiot fucks one thing after another up is fucking nuts.
I've tried to embrace existentialism in most parts of my life, but when it comes to American politics, the very best I can do is absurdism. The whole system of capitalist republican oligarchy has proven to be joke.
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I immerse myself in hobbies and entertainment. Art and music are constant companions and the way they make you feel is meaningful, while the escapism of my favorite games and shows are helpful to keep your mind off of negative feelings. Hobbies and entertainment also help you find ways to relate to other people, opening doors for new relationships to form or grow.
I also try to reach out to people. Family, friends, online communities, random people at the store, or whatever. Connecting with someone is the only real way to get over loneliness in the end. It takes effort.
Basically the same thing happened to me...
Reddit user for 10 years, 10,000+ karma, active in a lot of niche communities and even started a couple myself. All the sudden got banned multiple times in the span of a few months in 2025 for talking shit about Trump, ICE, China, and generative AI companies... And then I was perma-banned across all accounts and devices with any new account banned within a couple of hours of creation. Their loss.
I'm ashamed to admit that I was a too addicted to browsing and commenting Reddit multiple times a day. Like most social media, that's by design, as the algorithm is tailor-made to draw you in and keep you engaged.
It's much better for me, and for the internet at large, to just spend more time on the fediverse where I can be part of an actual community instead of a cog in some corporate data harvesting machine. I'm actually glad that Reddit requires an app these days to browse on mobile, because sometimes i find myself browsing reddit for a few minutes before the pop-up blocks me from continuing and then I remember to check the fediverse instead.
Seinfeld is great.
We simply need to tax billionaires at 99% and codify copyright law to require that AI training data is explicitly licensed by the rights holders.
What we are seeing right now is a turducken of exploitation of the working and creative class by techno-oligarchs, and we must reject it.
But here's the big problem: stripping all of the terrible shit out of Windows doesn't make it better than Linux, it just makes it less bad than Windows is today.