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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: January 19th, 2025

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  • First I’m hearing but that doesn’t surprise me; it’s probably better than most companies you could give your money to but, in any way they could, they don’t do anything truly groundbreaking such that I can justify to myself giving money rather than just keeping said money in my pocket (and, in turn, much more likely to go to mutual aid, charities, non-profits, or coöperatively-owned or union-banned businesses).

    They could have done a more traditional coöp, open-sourced their infrastructure (even if it was just the app.!), or really emphasized a particular stance or message they as a company would stand by…but they haven’t done any of those. They basically are just offering up YouTube but as a streaming service. But that doesn’t solve the myriad of issues that make a streaming service a business that (like most businesses) prey on their customers.


  • If it helps, one of main arguments of the antitrust lawsuit against Amazon that the Biden administration opened was that Amazon routinely, actually, costs you money because they use their platform to offer more expensive options in your searches first and other means: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power (I’m not sure if that link with detail or with a much clarity as wherever I first read it but I can’t recall where I originally read it 3 or so months ago, I’m afraid).

    The only major advantage that I’ll fully admit Prime has is speed of delivery; I admit I do use it when our cats run out of food and I dropped the ball on making sure we had more or I need filters for our air purifiers that just noted they need new ones.

    But, even if you can find cheaper versions on Amazon, it can become easy to fall for the setup of their site if you use it by default all the time.



  • Mmm; I guess it isn’t a direct face eat (but my brain sort of made the assumption as he’s a conservative commentator and has been pushing how Trump’s policies would be good for American citizens).

    Basically, he’s been talking about immigrants have been taking jobs (and, apparently, actually believes that the immigrants Trump have been deporting have mostly been dangerous) and, now, is suddenly surprised that citizens like himself are getting deported, as if the xenophobia and cruelty-is-the-point of the trump administration wouldn’t fall back on U. S. citizens (or, perhaps more accurately, as if the administration would care if it did).

    But, yeah, you bring up a good point that it isn’t a direct face eating.







  • which includes the Nazi strategy of Blitzkrieg

    I mean, that was a Nazi war strategy, not how they consolidated power.

    The difference is that Nazis didn’t care that the citizens might oppose them, because they were fully prepared from the beginning to ruthlessly eliminate all opposition by any means necessary.

    Sure but they absolutely understood that necessitated plausible deniability; every further reach of power had a cover. There’s a reason the suspending of civil liberties only jumped to effect under the cover of the Reichstag fire (and Hitler finally moving to remove Röhm was to appease army and business leaders, because he needed their support) or that Hitler waited until Hindenburg passed before finally assuming complete power.


  • I’ve been telling my husband, since he won, that he’s been given a near perfect opportunity for a fascist takeover (his horrendous first term whitewashed, more popularity than ever, more or less unchecked power in the current system) and he’s basically been pissing it away (though I don’t want to underpresume his capability at failing upward…).

    A smart autocrat would have slowly broken norms while justifying himself by bending current rules; he’s gone straight to crashing the economy and smashing expectations people relied on faster than than anyone can keep track. Those who are in favor are denied plausible deniability that nothing has changed and those who’re hurting so bad they may not’ve cared can’t take hope that he’s making their lives better.

    It’s incredible.



  • This is the answer.

    For whatever complaints one might have about Discord (and they are legion), it does a really good job of packing a bunch of different functionality in one place and with a UI that’s super easy to grasp and understand what does what and how that requires very little foreknowledge of what the thing is or its underlying mechanisms.

    If I am completely new and pretty blank of what it is, Discord’s pretty good at me being able to catch up quickly; it’s got a good UI and, following that, functionality for a bunch of things related to communication. And, if I need a quick solution that just gets me going…that’s gonna be pretty painless.








  • He’s just angry the attention isn’t going to him.

    story about my sister's dog that isn't related to the overall thread here but I just want to tell because it's one of my favorite memories of him (he's still alive)

    I’ll never forget the one time it was so obvious my sister’s dog was jealous. My long-distance partner was visiting so we were cuddling and whatnot; and I kind of hasn’t noticed but he’s whining and running around us in the background. So my partner gets up as we were moving over slightly and the second I sit down – but before my partner has sat down in my lap – he dives into my lap and just looks up at me with the most pleading face I’ve ever seen him have, his tail doing that little timid half wag dogs sometimes do.