Yeah I guess you’re right. Both sides have been pretty…apocalyptic lately.

The reason I singled out leftists is that over the last couple decades, in the ideological struggle between socialists and capitalists… the capitalists pretty much won. There are are still some holdouts around the world but in general leftists are left on the outside looking in as the capitalist-led world grows more prosperous (and lots of bad things too, I’m not trying to play it off as capitalist good socialist bad). But in their position, all leftists can really do is criticize the status quo. And, again, there are plenty of valid criticisms to make, but because they are removed from power leftists can’t do very much “look at the good things socialism is doing,” it’s 99% “look at all the bad things capitalism is doing”. At least in the US/Western Europe.

The right-wing can at least say things like “the economy is doing well” and “technology is advancing due to [Company]'s breakthrough” in between fear-mongering about immigration.

Reading through all the other doomposts I felt obligated to share my view.

I read national/international news every day, and I’m still optimistic about humanity’s future.

First off, I don’t bother with local news at all. That really is just a cesspool of crime reporting. My dad summarized local news pretty well: “someone was murdered today, and heres some footage of blood on the pavement.”

As far as national and international news goes, I read it because I think it’s interesting and it’s good to stay informed, but you can’t use it as a barometer for how the world’s doing, because news is just inherently negative. It doesn’t mean the world is actually doing bad!

Which of the following do you think would get reported as a headline?

“Indonesia enjoys another year without a tsunami”

“Thousand killed as tsunami ravages Indonesian coast”

“Global poverty rate continues slow, steady decline”

“Millions at risk of starvation as African crops fail”

“Good news, no new deadly infectious diseases this year”

“Scientists raise alarm over spread of bird flu”

I think maybe it’s helpful to think of the news not as objective reporting on the state of the world but rather like a police blotter that just logs bad things that have happened. And I think it’s perfectly fine to tune it out and just live your life. If you’re interested in a particular issue, like homelessness or an election maybe look at a less sensational information source like Wikipedia or something.

Also, just a little mini-rant: the two types of people who are most negative about the state of the world are religious missionaries and leftists. Because in order to convince you that the world needs a savior they have to convince you that we aren’t on a path to do it ourselves. So, maybe steer clear of news on Lemmy as well haha

Look if companies could implement successful anticheat without kernel access they sure as hell would, regardless of cost or effort. There is a TON of money to be made in competitive fps games alone, and they’re pretty much all overrun by hackers

It’s also (probably) not true.

“McDonald’s employee who called 911 in CEO’s shooting is eligible for a reward, but it will take time”

https://apnews.com/article/luigi-mangione-unitedhealthcare-ceo-reward-money-tips-c17b08531049edb381b954e6b876cfda

https://apnews.com/article/luigi-mangione-unitedhealthcare-ceo-reward-money-tips-c17b08531049edb381b954e6b876cfda

“McDonald’s employee who called 911 in CEO’s shooting is eligible for a reward, but it will take time”

Yeah its good to be skeptical of something like this that everyone wants to be true.

Questionable if it’s really a Christmas song, but maybe “tis the damn season” by Taylor Swift

Neither of those things are true.

According to Wikipedia USA life expectancy is 79.3, Cuba is 78.1

Ranking higher education is much trickier but pretty much every list I could find puts USA right at the top. American higher education institutions are world class and remains probably America’s biggest competitive advantage (i.e. brain drain).

Also Cuba probably isn’t the best example to rebut the “why does communism always turn into a dictatorship” question.

Your user name and the OOP username arr both disturbingly on point

“Parody, satire, or fan accounts are allowed on Bluesky, but they must clearly label themselves in both the display name and bio to help others know the account isn’t official.”

Seems ok to me?

Simply pointing it out because use of white phosphorus is probably a war crime under the Geneva convention but thermite isn’t. Also people in this thread are reading an awful lot into a very low rez thumbnail that doesn’t even appear in the article and for all I know has nothing to do with the israel-lebanon comflict.

Could also just be thermite which has a similar burning metal look

Could also just be thermite

So, what makes you think he’s been taken in by fascist doctrine? Are we talking, “he thinks Dave Chapelle is funny and rolls his eyes at wokeness” or are we talking “defends hitler at the dinner table”? I ask just because I feel like some very liberal/leftist people can be pretty jumpy about things that are ultimately harmless. Additionally he might just be doing/saying things to act out and get a rise out of you. You’re not gonna fix that by making him read “white fragility” or something.

As far as gifts go I agree with many others in suggesting something that will make him interact with other worldviews in the real world. Maybe you can get him into a hobby that is shared by people across many different socioeconomic backgrounds like basketball or martial arts or travel or something.

9% of the global population is in extreme poverty not 50%

https://youtu.be/jAaxVuz0uKk

Oakley, like the sunglasses company? What happened to them?

I was wondering when my boy Fuse would make an appearance in this thread

Well, it’s gender neutral, neither party can (legally) change their name after marriage. That seems weird to me. Let people do what they want.

Hmm but what do you do if your name is already hyphenated? You can’t just keep bolting names together so that’s not a solution for more than one generation.