I’ve been playing Love and Deepspace but I’ve taken a few days off because I’m finding the latest event and content extremely boring, and off putting. We had such a great start to the year too with the spicy banners and lunar new year events.

Perhaps dismantling the social media oligarchy by ensuring that companies cannot expand to sizes where they can influence policies? I’m open to ideas. Social media has become a huge psyop tool.

Before the rise of corporate social media, yes. It was easy to speak with people who had different opinions on things because of their life experience.

Now, absolutely not because everyone is in some way connected to a stream of misinformation that is social media, which dictates the news cycle and determines what the talking points are for the day. But if society weaned itself off this social media drug, there is a better chance for improvement. At the very least, rage bait would be a lot less effective.

Getting back to what the discussion is though: you don’t want censorship of certain ideologies because you believe that’s a form of control that society doesn’t need. You want a ‘free’ flow of information to allow the user to decide for themselves.

But that information isn’t free flow. It’s controlled by corporate interests. And removing fascist content and ideology on Tiktok and X from the general uninformed public? Hell yeah. If they want to look it up, they can read it in a history book and see what has actually happened under fascist regimes, then decide for themselves if they want that.

That’s was the original intent of social media but it doesn’t function that way now. It’s also filled with bots and you’ve got no idea if you’re actually talking to a human being. The only way to be sure is to touch grass so you’re actually outside the sphere of influence of misinformation and those that control the algorithm.

Let’s go back to the topic at hand, which is whether or not we should remove fascist content from social media like Tiktok and X. These platforms are not a gateway to that library you linked to and you have to go out of your way, i.e. purposely search for it, to access it. Tiktok and X are full of sound bites that do more harm than good; posts with links to your library, for example, would not get the same exposure as, say, a sound bite promoting fascism. Case in point: the article.

The generation that has grown up with 24/7 access to the Internet have no idea what it feels like to not have information streaming into your brain everywhere you look. When information is fed and available to you 24/7, you can’t learn to tell the difference between what’s bullshit and what’s not because the 24/7 stream is so overwhelming, all you have left is the will to scroll for sound bites. The only way to counter that is to step out of that stream and slow down the incoming information so you can process it and critically analyse it. Our brains can only process a maximum amount of information that is far below what an algorithm can do.

And that library link, what are you reading on there right now? Are you researching talking points against fascism? Are you looking at the history of previous fascist regimes and how they came to be?

And social media is not a library. Tiktok and X is not a library. It’s a collection of thoughts of humanity and bots controlled by an algorithm where it’s purpose is to manipulate you to consume. The Internet is not a library but it can give you access to libraries. The Internet is also now colonised for the purpose of manipulating people to consume.

Right now, we are not debating. You’re telling me your opinion and I’m telling you mine. You want to be informed? Touch grass. Engage in human communication. Go. To. A. Library.

My counterpoint to that would be that social media is a psychological drug with negative effects and if people want to be informed, they should go to a library and read.

But they’re not transitioning at that age. It’s puberty blockers used to delay permanent changes to their body. Puberty blockers have been used for decades and there’s plenty of research and evidence around to show that there’s no harm in delaying puberty.

On the contrary, there is lots of evidence to show that forcing children who identify as trans to go through puberty is traumatic and can lead to suicide. Forcing trans children to go through that is, in my opinion, sick in the head.

Wouldn’t you want to do what’s best for your child no matter who they are? Children are people too and it’s worth listening to what they say, especially if they’re voicing distress.

Passing knowledge is never wrong, in my opinion, and it’s never wrong to defer to someone more knowledgeable if you don’t know what the answer is.

I would highly suggest that you speak to your local trans community to understand what ‘teaching children about sexuality’ means to them and how it affected them, to get a better understanding.

It’s different to voting though.

Puberty blockers have been used for decades with no ill effect. It literally just delays puberty, which is irreversible once a person starts to go through it. It’s much safer to delay puberty in children who identify as trans, allow their brains to develop, and have them get treatment so that their mental health is kept healthy.

Personally, I think listening to the trans community on this and having them give advice on how to manage trans kids is better than leaving it to general society who won’t understand the emotional trauma involved. There’s a reason why suicide rates are high with trans kids.

I would associate it moreso with children trying to tell adults about the priest who keeps touching them but end up being dismissed because they’re kids. We ignore our children’s voices to our own detriment.

And it’s so annoying! Bring back forums!

Like Pol Pot. I imagine that the generational devastations will be similar in length and intensity.

My 2005 Peugeot 206. Although it’s always at risk of stalling during heavy rainfall. And my wired headphones that are reliable all the time even though they get stuck in weird places sometimes.

OG

It’s just a matter of software vs hardware. I prefer hardware because it’s easier and cheaper for me to fix. Others might find software easier and cheaper to fix. Horses for courses.

How’s the takeover going?

I think the key difference is that Xi has a very strong vision for China and is actually practicing what he preaches; enriching the nation rather than enriching himself. Like a strict father, head of the family.

While the debacle that is the US government is all about enriching themselves and their associates rather than the nation. Like goblins in a mine.

You never had to create an account to view anything in the website.

Mindless scrolling was not a thing because links were mostly nested.

It was also extremely easy to chat with perverts on mIRC, the Yahoo chat thing etc. Speaking of chats, all of your chat logs were stored locally on your PC as text files rather than on a cloud so you could delete them if you wanted.

That’s the thing though! I’m specifying well priced lighting that has good support from the supplier, warranties that last 10 years, good colour temperature and degradation rates etc. And the alternatives are nowhere near the same quality and have a dodgy warranty! I’ll put the alternatives through it they’re truly like for like, but it never is.

No, but I did pay $400 for the privilege!

Architectural lighting designer. I love it and hate it. Love the complexity and endless learning about science and tech, and how to apply it creatively. Hate the contractors who put forward alternates and mess up the entire design intent only to pocket the difference.

Currently studying to change careers to be a game dev as a generalist for indie games.

Tiger