Our system is grossly flawed. It was built for a sprawling and relatively sparse new nation with an experimental democratic representative government. It was built by a united colony who rejected the idea of a monarch or church controlling any aspect of their lives. It was also, ironically, built in a time when slaves - humans treated as property - were commonplace.
So, fair representation wasn’t quite a reality either in intent or practice and we’ve been dealing with some of the ramifications of vague or all together missing wordings in our constitution.
The system was intentionally built to ensure provocation and infighting just as much as to ensure negotiation and compromise. This is a good way for a committee to function, not so much for a government to govern. What we’re currently seeing is a small group of political outsiders walking the thin line dividing what is and is not permitted in our government. It’s nearly impossible for a “christofascist” state to become reality because we have laws preventing it. We also have a populace who misunderstands or is unaware of the boundaries of some of these laws and how slow our government operates. Although, there is a very real fear that a government who controls the judicial system could have an enormous impact on our reality. We’ve already seen this play out.
There are a million things millions of us would like to see our government do or not do because we believe them to be just and ensure liberties for all. But much of our attention is focused on the power of the federal government while much power lies with the states themselves. As technology has connected us, we’re inclined to look collectively at the peak of power to give a top-down approach to governing a semi-sovereign collection of states - which is often wrong. So, applying the standards and ideologies practiced in other countries is a bit misplaced.
A two party system as we have it (especially with today’s real-time collaboration), in my opinion, leads to what we see today - polarization and tribalism adopting economic and social issues as tools to divide us for the sake of the wealthy and powerful. The People are not winning and not being fairly represented and our government is perpetually teetering on crumbling. We’re being used today just as much as we were used 250 years ago.
• Ranked Choice Voting would greatly calm polarization and foster cooperation between candidates and representatives.
• Financing political campaigns exclusively with tax payer money would dissuade corporate and outsider involvement and even the field for the candidates’ voices. This would also foster more third and fourth party involvement.
• Increasing funding for and rewarding independent journalism / dismantling the near-monopoly on news media outlets would hold candidates accountable and better inform the public.
… theoretically.
These three things, in my mind, would establish a new-er foundation that’s even stronger than what our founding fathers penned. It’s in the same vein as their intent while adjusting for the technological advancements that have proved to divide us.
Yeah - these people who seem so proud of “democracy and freedom” are a bunch of self-righteous jerks. These are the same people who want to take rights away from others because they’re fearful of losing the privileges they’ve had for generations. These people are supporting political leaders solely based on their fears. And, honestly, their fears are entirely justified.
There is no freedom in war and our two parties are at war. Few people care to listen to anyone who has a differing opinion than them. We are most assuredly a nation divided and our broken needs mending.
I firmly believe there’s more compromise and progress and empathy found in a system of Ranked Choice Voting, reformed political financing, and a free-er press.
All the major meat producers. And fast food chains.
There’s been so much publicized in recent years about their treatment of animals, their lobbying efforts, how they treat their employees, how they’re ruining the environment, how they fix prices and force farmers to “get on board” or else. It’s really bad but we don’t care so much because it’s hidden beyond our periphery.
I know no one wants to be told to reduce or complicate doing the things that bring you joy, but reducing your meat consumption and shopping at local producers is something we could all take small steps every year towards doing.
So, you won’t even click a link and glance at a platform unless it’s free (/ has ads that you can bypass with a blocker)?
Here’s the important bits…
How do the creators get paid?
Nebula profit is divided 50/50 between the creators and Standard. The creator pool is paid out based on watch time.
Who owns Nebula?
Nebula is owned and operated by Standard and the creators, with Curiosity Inc (CuriosityStream) holding a minority stake and a board seat. There are no plans to bring in additional investment.
I think I’ve settled on the latter. Disagreement is maybe best communicated by the absence of an upvote? And downvotes work best when they signal something that is just off base, and while not reportable, is not appreciated at a broad cultural level.
On Reddit, up/down was intended to be used as relevant or not relevant. Then Facebook came around with the Like button and changed the standard.
Coming from the perspective of Digg, Reddit was about sharing external content and giving something an upvote was used to promote that content while a downvote was used to discourage that content from being seen. It was democratic in that the users were relied on for ranking posts without the need for moderators having to establish rules and remove things.
Then Reddit employed an algorithm and most people visit Popular and All making it a shitstorm of irrelevance. People upvote stuff they like that has absolutely no reason to be posted in a sub. Never mind everything that’s gone on with Reddit in recent months, it’s users’ inability to properly use the upvote / downvote buttons that has caused the site to become absolute trash.
Here, we have the added tool of the Star to indicate that we like something while at the same time downvoting it because it’s not relevant to the sub. The problem is that the vast majority of people don’t want to think about or put any effort into anything. At this point, anything that looks like a thumbs up is getting selected because they like it.
If you disagree with someone, you shouldn’t do anything unless you have something to say. Engage with them in conversation and express your point of view - this is “social media”. If others feel your point is relevant you should get an upvote; if you’re off topic you should get a downvote.
Reading over the other comments here, I think most people are expressing a similar perspective. It’s about rankings, not feelings.
Other than your carrier give it for free or cheap, I don’t really see the reason why should you buy new phone. I’ve been using Redmi Note 9 for past 3 years and recently got my had on Poco F5. I don’t see the point of my ‘upgrade’. I sold it and come back to my Note 9. Gaming? Most of them are p2w or microtransaction...
It used to be that a new phone came with a relatively substantial new feature set. People have become accustomed to this and businesses have been built around this. At this point, it’s mostly about consumerism.
I’m still rocking an iPhone 12 Mini without the slightest hiccup as well as an original iPhone SE as my main music player. I used to be the person who got every new phone because there used to be such a jump in performance and hardware features. Now I have no reason to upgrade at all. Honestly, I’d love to get rid of my phone all together and just use an iPad, Apple Watch, and my camera and journal.
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What are some companies that deserve to be boycotted to death?
So far my list includes Comcast, EA, and Nestle. Tell me yours, and I’ll help out.
YouTube's anti-adblock rollout has finally arrived for Firefox users (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
I’m sure many of you are already aware that YouTube has been rolling out anti-adblock detection for Chrome users for a few weeks now....
Downvotes = “I disagree” or “this is bad and you should feel bad”?
I think I’ve settled on the latter. Disagreement is maybe best communicated by the absence of an upvote? And downvotes work best when they signal something that is just off base, and while not reportable, is not appreciated at a broad cultural level.
What's the point of buying new phones every years?
Other than your carrier give it for free or cheap, I don’t really see the reason why should you buy new phone. I’ve been using Redmi Note 9 for past 3 years and recently got my had on Poco F5. I don’t see the point of my ‘upgrade’. I sold it and come back to my Note 9. Gaming? Most of them are p2w or microtransaction...