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[–] 110 points 2 years ago* (20 children)

-Looks out window. Lawn's engulfed in flames. Closes window shades.-

"All better."

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  • [–] 45 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (7 children)

    I mean, if there's not anything I can do beyond dumping a thimble of water on the fire six months from now I'd rather just die happy.

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Two things

    1. Politics is for Power provides a pretty good model for thinking about this https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Politics-Is-for-Power/Eitan-Hersh/9781982116798

    There's a lot of political hobbyism on social media in general and Lemmy is really bad for it. Take for example the constant Elon Musk rage bait. No one is doing anything productive with that information. They're just getting mad

    1. Social media, in general, isn't a good way to get informed. It makes you feel really in touch but when a lot of the time you're getting biased and polarizing that is often as enraging as it is unproductive

    We treat politics like entertainment and it's making our politics worse. Personally I try to limit my exposure to politics that I don't think will be productive. It might feel like the most important thing in the moment but it's often a huge waste of time

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    You make some great points. I've seen this in action locally - it's a tiny minority who actually make the effort to change things and they have an amazing success rate, in part because they are often unopposed. The barrier to entry is deceptively low. I think I'm going to read that book.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, "Hang the sense of it," and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day.

    • Douglas Adams
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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    Great quote, but missing a rather crucial bit at the end:

    "And are you?" "No. That's where it all falls down, of course." "Pity", said Arthur. "It sounded like rather a good lifestyle otherwise."

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Better post about how doomed you are, that’ll fix it.

    But for real, some of the communities I’m in have a rule about not posting about negative stories without adding a way to take action, a way to contribute, etc so that it’s not just doom scrolling negativity. Bad news is everywhere and it’s easy to find, anyone can do that.

    Taking those bad feelings and channeling them towards something other than wallowing in how bad things are is the important part, not posting and reading. Someone who reads one bad news story a week and calls their representative about it is doing infinitely more than someone who reads every negative story out there to stay “informed”.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)
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    [–] 87 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    I post to Lemmy a lot and generally try my best to not contribute to the doom and gloom for this reason. I think there's a difference between wanting to stay informed and getting addicted to the outrage/doom posts.

    I'm mostly here to joke around with people and nerd out in a handful of niche interest communities.

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    [–] 56 points 2 years ago (24 children)

    Yeah, the doomposting is intense on Lemmy. I've taken up a policy of just downvoting any negative posts I see, even if I like the post otherwise, just to tamp down the negativity a bit around here.

    The best and worst thing about Lemmy is how niche we are. It keeps out the "mainstream", but unfortunately we're easily inundated by perpetually-online doomers.

    Also, I would recommend blocking users moreso than communities. Once you start looking for it, you realize that like 90% of these posts are made by just a few people/bots.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    ....trying to determine if your post is positive or negative, up or down....

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    You respond to negativity by downvoting everything negative?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yes.

    Downvoting isn't "negativity", it's a method for users to define what does and does not contribute to the content of the platform. By downvoting this content, I'm voicing my opinion that negativity is overrepresented on Lemmy, and encouraging (however slightly) more positive content to be posted.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Also, I would recommend blocking users moreso than communities. Once you start looking for it, you realize that like 90% of these posts are made by just a few people/bots.

    I wish there was an easy way to block everyone from an instance, like *@shittylemmyinstance.poop or something. Yeah, I do have one instance blocked to avoid the content, but the posters seem fine, but there are a few where blocking users one at a time is like whack-a-mole.

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    [–] 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You won't escape US politics, it's just not possible

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago

    I hide posts when I’m done with them and I swear to god these political and news communities are posting the same things over and over again. I’ve seen the same post more than once.

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  • [+] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [–] 10 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    With all these posts that require voting i have only one question, "how can i vote if i am not USA citizen?"

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    [–] 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    lemmy is more US-centric than reddit and twitter combined.

    If you came to lemmy to escape the anarchy and chaos that is Trump, you best be turning around.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    The worst part is that the articles they post aren't even good. They're bias almost to the point of being bullshit.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I live in an even shittier country with even worse future prospects, so for me they are still positive messages, and i'm in ave that they are on a totally different level on the maslow pyramid

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    [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    You're gonna end up with an empty feed real quick 😭

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    The Political Propaganda machine in the US is now at full steam given how near their Presidential Election is, so we get innundated with "vote X" and "X is great" posts along with "Y is bad" ones.

    Advertising has become so abusive that you can't browse anymore without and AdBlocker, and Political Propaganda is just a more manipulative form of advertising, often pushed by people deeply emotional bound to "their club" (funnilly enough, I also avoid Sports stuff, as it suffers from exactly the same problem) hence far more insiduous and aggressive.

    Then to make it even worse, this electoral cycle in the US is all about doom-mongering with not a single message of hope or a bright vision for the Future: in other words, everybody is selling Fear, which at least in traditional Advertising is uncommon.

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    [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    It's gotten bad lately -- both the posts and the news itself. I feel like I need to take a break myself. Irony of this comment also acknowledged.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    I’m glad that users can enjoy the platform in whichever way each user feels is best.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    For some reason lemmy shitpost suddenly became politics focused

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I have a hard time handling all the bad shit in the world. I noticed lately I open Lemmy much less because of all the doom posts. I already deleted reddit and disabled YouTube. Lemmy is all I have left as social media, but it's getting less attractive by the day.

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    [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    All with the blaring self-righteousness of - "I lifted a finger once. Nothing happened overnight. Never again."
    Cheered on by those actively participating in concern trolling divide-and-conquer political campaign tactics, both from within the country and from halfway across the world in China and goddamned russia.

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