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Democrats and republicans work together to impede third parties from running in Georgia
  • Just wanted to toss in Star Voting as an alternative I was just informed about yesterday. Seems to be more RCV than RCV.

  • The JD Vance Dossier - We’re publishing the supposed Iran-hacked document. Here’s why.
  • The fact that this is being censored across much of social media is interesting. I think more interesting than what's in the document itself.

  • Large Majority of Americans Want to End Electoral College
  • First I'm hearing of this. I'll look into it.

  • Stop drinking bottled water: Experts warn of health and climate impacts
  • I still find the whole bottled water thing odd. I remember a time when there was just Poland Spring and Deer Park and you only bought a bottle of water if you were absolutely dying. From my vantage point, it seems like consumerism, across the board, has skyrocketed in the past 20 years.

    I was just having conversation with a fellow Gen Xer about how people just don't know how or don't care to do things for themselves anymore. As I look at all the subscriptions and consumer goods and delivery services that make headlines, it seems like we, as a culture, are spending a lot more money on what used to be called luxury expenses.

    Some people legitimately have bad municipal water. They need to put pressure on their civic leaders to fix their gross negligence. For most other people, I would really recommend a filter system you can install either at the source of your water, under your kitchen sink, or in a pitcher in your fridge.

    It's worth noting that even the aluminum water bottles (Stanley, etc.) come with some health concerns. If you're getting something from China, I've heard their manufacturing and raw material quality control isn't up to US standards. Regardless, most if not all aluminum water bottles have a plastic liner. Your best bet is glass. If you have an aluminum bottle, don't use it for hot liquids and try to keep it out of the sunlight for too long.

  • Large Majority of Americans Want to End Electoral College
  • Cool. Can we also get moving on Ranked Choice Voting?

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • You’re tripling down on this? This is the hill you want to die on?

    Do you think a grocer would stock 18 eggs next to 12 eggs without any clear indication until you took it off the top shelf? Or do you think they’d stack it differently, on a lower shelf, so you could easy discern the difference?

    What the fuck does this have to do with the fucking point of this story? You want to argue over a fucking dollar? That’s important to you?

  • As the open social web grows, a new nonprofit looks to expand the 'fediverse'
  • I would like to see more investment in informative media. Social media has been one of the best sources to get information about local events, news, and alerts.

    Speaking from an American’s perspective, I would like to see federated networks organized similarly to the United States. There should be one main federal instance, then a sub instance for states, eventually down to micro instances for neighborhoods or zip codes.

    My complaint about “corporate social media” has been its need to make money from advertising driven by engagement. This means I miss tons of posted information by family, friends, businesses, bands, restaurants, record shops, farmers markets, city council members, police departments, reporters, etc.

    I still want to connect with these users but getting them on board with the fediverse is an uphill battle if they’re only in it for the memes. Creating a platform that makes some tangible sense to people, I think, would drive more adoption. If you want to connect with your city, join cityname.state.US.verse. This wouldn’t exclude the creation of other networks like I dunno… nestle.corp.verse or tiktok.social.verse.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • Ok. Simple observation of the image would inform you that you’re wrong. I’m not sure how one person can say the sky is blue and the other look at the same sky and claim it’s “obviously red”.

    I wasn’t insulting you. I was speaking generally about the internet’s strange insistence to focus on pointless semantics for the sake of pride. Although, this conversation informs me that maybe there is some elementary education left to discuss among grown adults. I’m going to do us both the favor and assume you’re trolling me.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • You're twisting the reality you've already twisted to continue to fit your narrative. I will not follow you down that rabbit hole.

    If you'd like to discuss the real story, the "inflation explosion act" and even the lack of policy proposals by the Trump campaign (to my knowledge) to reduce the costs of goods, I'd be happy to do so.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • I fail to see how that is relevant at all. He could be holding a steak or a roll of paper towels standing in front of bananas or at a car dealership and speak about the cost of a dozen eggs.

    What is relevant is his claim that "Harris' inflationary policies" had an impact on the price of items at grocery stores. This is untrue.

    I think I get it. The internet wants to call out every detail in an image as if they're true crime detectives. They want to be more right than everyone else. But only based on the most simple piece of content possible. If it requires reading a few paragraphs, or finding your own source material that a news outlet fails to provide, or using a middle school degree of reading / listening comprehension that's too much work. I did that here, and hate that it needed to be done, to back up my previous comments elsewhere in this thread.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • Now a dozen eggs will cost you around $4.

    Right there.

    So, now you want to ignore the signs behind him and use statistics for the country?

    Just stop. You are not contributing to any valuable discourse.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • Strong agree. I think most people just go for the low hanging fruit because they don't actually care enough to be invested in policy. The vast majority of "news" is just trash to generate clicks and engagement and we all suck it up like calorie-free frappaccinos.

    I posted earlier in response to his full comment regarding the "inflation explosion act". This is something worth reading about - that the Inflation Reduction Act has not had any immediate impact on inflation to date (up or down). Others here have accurately commented about the disease spreading across poultry farms which has most impacted the costs of eggs in particular.

    It's also worth pointing out that bird flu is increasingly having an impact on cattle. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/bird-flu-is-spreading-rapidly-in-california-infected-herds-double-over-weekend/ So, expect dairy prices to slowly and steadily increase.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • Evidence has been presented to you which you are ignoring for the sake of your own narrative. You are so obsessed with your political agenda that you can not admit that your "opponent" might be right for once. The average price of the eggs he is standing in front of is $4.10. Vances' statement about the price of eggs is 100% accurate.

    Regardless, the story is not about the price of eggs. The story is about a political candidate making remarks about policy which may or may not have impacted the price of eggs and other consumer goods. These specific remarks are a mixed bag as the price of eggs are impacted more by disease and the price of other goods were not impacted by the Inflation Reduction Act.

    I don't understand how people are so blinded by their politics that they twist reality to turn the truth into fiction. You are disseminating "fake news" and deepening the divide between us.

    This is exactly what's wrong with us. When one side makes a claim that the other side sees very clearly to be false then we attack each other over something (a meme) that's whole irrelevant to our lives. We should be discussing inflation. Because clearly, not enough people have a clue about how it works. We should be discussing this candidates claim that an Act of Congress caused the price of consumer goods to increase. Is that true or is it not? What is it that this administration has actually done?

    This is what should guide us at the polls and in our political discourse, not if a quick glance at the price of eggs in one store in one part of one state is accurate to the dollar or not.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • Quote: "now a dozen eggs will cost you around four dollars thanks to Kamala Harris' inflationary policies".
    Checks source: Average cost $4.10.

    Edit: I’ve updated this post to reflect the point of it being posted in News.

    The problem? When footage of the visit emerged, Vance was quickly called out by viewers who spotted the price tag of a dozen eggs behind him was actually $2.99.

    – Vance is being called out for saying eggs cost around $4 while standing in front of eggs that costs $3 when in fact the average cost for eggs he is standing in front of is $4.10.

    I hate that this is the bullshit we spend our time arguing over.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • I edited my comment with an image of the source since you didn't care to look for yourself.

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • How did you get to that part while ignoring the preceding sentence?

    Here’s a link to the video I presume this trash article is referring to https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1837581418329002260 You can see, like every grocery store I’ve ever been to, a number of different prices for eggs, including at least three for $4.99 and one for $3.99.

    Every store has eggs tagged at different prices depending on what kind they are. If you look quickly and see more signs that start with $4 than $2, would you say eggs are $2.99 or "around $4"?

    I'm really amazed at the ignorance, be it willful or not, all Americans are capable of.

    I mean... all you had to do was look.

  • Search underway for suspects in Alabama mass shooting.
  • Awesome. Thank you for that!!

  • Vance mocked for saying eggs cost $4 — while standing in front of a dozen for $2.99
  • This story is absolutely trash. Here's a link to the video I presume this trash article is referring to https://x.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1837581418329002260 You can see, like every grocery store I've ever been to, a number of different prices for eggs, including at least three for $4.99 and one for $3.99.

    EDIT: Here's the photo op since some people prefer to comment on headlines rather than source material.
    The average price of visible price tags is $4.10. Though I still argue that the literal price tag on these eggs is far from the relevant point of his words. Arguing over the average value in the background of an image is wholly irrelevant to a politician making claims about policy.

    The take away from this video shouldn't be hurdur the tag says $2.99 but the discussion of his claim about "Kamala Harris' inflationary policies" and "because she cast a deciding vote on the Inflation Explosion Act". At least, that's what a reputably news organization would give a shit about discussing.

    This article from PBS quotes Alex Arnon, an economic and budget analyst for the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, “We can say with pretty strong confidence that it was mostly other factors that have brought inflation down,’’ he said. “The IRA has just not been a significant factor.’’

    This bit from Wiki says "the benefits of the Act will likely not be felt before the 2024 election, but that the Act is a great long-term strategy to decouple from volatile energy markets that drive inflation and that the Act will reduce inflation over the medium to long-term."

    The Inflation Reduction Act actually had very little to do with inflation or the price of eggs. The price of eggs has been mostly dictated by disease and the need to slaughter millions of birds.

    Moreover, I understand the (under/misinformed) complaint people have about rising egg prices as it pertains to kitchen table economics. However, from the perspective of what we're putting into our bodies and paying people a fair wage to do honest work, we should be complaining that eggs are too cheap.

    Of all things, it continues to shock me how inexpensive eggs are. I've been paying $5-$7 for a dozen eggs from local producers for about ten years. They're noticeably more delicious, it's less impactful to the environment, the chickens are far less prone to disease, I assume the chickens are healthier and have a better diet, my dollars go towards a local economy not some billion dollar corporation on the other side of the country.

  • ‘Morally indefensible’ – but George W Bush will not come out against Trump
  • Trumpism

    is different than Trump the president.

    The presidential actions taken by President Reagan are different than the choices Americans are making to endorse and follow Trump. It's the actions Reagan took as president that have in large part brainwashed the public and created the environment where people are flocking towards people like Trump.

    Trump the president is a symptom of the problems created by Reagan, Stone, Cheney, and the Heritage Foundation. Trump the brand is the epitome of Reaganomics and corporatocracy.

    Reagan set the seeds for dismantling our trust in government and putting it into corporations and celebrities. Reagan (the actor?!) is the prime modern-time example of the people ignoring politics in favor of celebrity.

    I would argue that Reagan's influence and GOP brainwashing far surpasses Trump's to the point that the vast majority of people in this country are wholly unaware of its existence. Though, yes, the extremism that Trumpism has fostered is certainly more dangerous to the public and democracy. I just don't blame Trump for all of it. America chose to elect him president for a reason. I believe that has more to do with Reagan than with Trump.

  • What's up with financial sites refusing to delete your account?

    I've been trying to delete as many online accounts as possible to reduce the threat of my personal information / duplicate passwords / my cell number getting out there. I know, it's probably not worth the effort but it does at least clean up my password manager and MFA app.

    I've tried had trouble getting my personal information scrubbed and my account deleted at Robinhood and LendingTree. Both have policies that claim they're unable to delete user accounts due to federal regulations.

    Here's the bit from Lending Tree: https://www.lendingclub.com/legal/privacy-policy >Data Retention: Due to the regulated nature of our industry, we are under legal requirements to retain data and are generally not able to delete consumer transactional data, credit or deposit account application data, or other financial information upon request. Certain regulations issued by state and/or federal government agencies may require us to maintain and report demographic information on the collective activities of our membership. We may also be required to maintain information about you for at least seven years to comply with applicable federal and state laws regarding recordkeeping, reporting, and audits. Criteria used to determine the period of time information about you is retained are primarily related to legal requirements and usefulness of the information for the purposes it was collected.

    In both of these cases, I haven't used the account in many years (RH: 2020, LT: 2018). It serves no purpose to maintain this account other than to exist as data for some malicious actor to acquire and act upon.

    With data leaks happening practically every day, I'm really not comfortable with financial agencies with varying degrees of security keeping my information forever. I would think it would be in their own best interest to comply with a deletion request to prevent anyone from scamming them.

    Also, I can't tell you how many websites I've lost access to because my phone number was tied to log in. I previously had a company-issued cell phone and not longer have access to that. Any website that requires a phone number for MFA is just horrible. I'm trying to sign into another financial site now and apparently I'm not able to do so without a phone number I had eight years ago.

    Wondering if anyone is familiar with this federal regulation that requires they hold on to this information and if there's some sort of way around this either with a lawyer or federal form or something.

    18
    Was it my imagination that most people believed in a 9/11 conspiracy?

    It's a bit shocking to me when I see people online putting 9/11 conspiracies in the same box as "MAGA" conspiracies (for lack of a better term, sorry).

    For reference, I was 24 in 2001 living in central NJ. Even without social media or fake news websites or what cable news has become today, I have vivid memories of people having the firm belief that there was something up with the attack on 9/11. Was this just my social circle?

    Jet fuel melting steel beams was one of the more fringe and unfounded (and quickly debunked) ideas but the rest of everything on that day was questionable. Tower seven falling, the missing plane debris at the pentagon and central PA, the military / president not responding to known threats, if a person with limited flight time could hit a tower, the fact that Bush attacked a country that had nothing to do with the event, and so much more are still, I thought, reasonable questions - especially when looked at together.

    This is not about rehashing each theory. Or maybe it is? Have I missed that everything has been debunked?

    I mean, I still believe 9/11 was an inside job or at least high level officials, including Bush, were aware it was going to happen and did nothing to stop it. I thought this was still a common opinion of most or many Americans over the age of forty.

    69
    Feds in Philly disrupt Russian-backed propaganda effort aimed at influencing U.S. presidential vote
    www.inquirer.com Feds in Philly announce takedown of Russian-backed propaganda effort aimed at influencing U.S. presidential vote

    The disinformation campaign involved tricking Americans with propaganda posted to websites meant to mimic legitimate news sources as well as enlisting unwitting American influencers to spread it.

    Feds in Philly announce takedown of Russian-backed propaganda effort aimed at influencing U.S. presidential vote

    https://web.archive.org/web/20240905014936/https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/russian-misinformation-social-design-agency-sergei-kiriyenko-20240904.html

    Federal authorities in Philadelphia announced on Wednesday the dismantling of a wide-ranging, Russian-backed misinformation network targeting voters in Pennsylvania and five other swing states ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

    The network — known colloquially as “Doppelganger” and which prosecutors said was run by a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin — sought to dupe Americans in key demographics into believing Kremlin-produced propaganda it spread online had been produced by legitimate American news outlets.

    The campaign also sought to enlist the aid of unwitting influencers in America and other countries to spread disinformation, sow social media discord, and advance the campaign of former President Donald Trump, whom the program’s backers viewed as more supportive of Russian interests.

    The takedown of that effort — involving the seizure of more than 30 internet domains by agents from the FBI’s Philadelphia field office — was just one of a sweeping series of steps President Joe Biden’s administration announced Wednesday to fend off attempts by Russia to meddle ahead of November’s vote.

    Taken together, they amounted to the most significant public response yet by U.S. authorities to Russia’s alleged efforts to undermine the integrity of the election.

    “Protecting our democratic processes from foreign malign influence is paramount to ensure public trust,” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said in a statement detailing the Doppelganger seizures.

    In Washington, the Treasury Department announced new sanctions against a Russian-based nonprofit tied to the Doppelganger network, and Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled an indictment against two Russian employees of state-owned broadcaster RT, who he said had paid a Tennessee company to spread nearly 2,000 English-language videos supportive of Kremlin interests.

    Prosecutors said that the defendants — Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva — used aliases and that the company involved was unaware it was being used by Russian plotters.

    Court filings in that case and the Doppelganger seizures were careful not to specifically name the Trump campaign as an intended beneficiary of the misinformation effort, and there was no allegation that anyone in the campaign was aware of or involved in the effort.

    “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts,” Garland said in a statement Wednesday.

    “The investigation,” he added, “is ongoing.”

    For months, intelligence agencies have warned that Russia remains the primary threat to the integrity of the 2024 election — despite recent headlines about efforts by other foreign governments to shape the outcome of the vote.

    Last month, federal authorities accused Iran of hacking Trump’s campaign and attempting to breach the campaigns of Biden and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

    Officials have also raised alarms about threats from China, which they have accused of maintaining a vast network of social media accounts aimed at targeting U.S. voters.

    But ever since the U.S. was caught unprepared in the 2016 presidential election by Russia’s sophisticated social media campaign to influence voters — a push that included organizing fake campaign rallies for Trump in Pennsylvania and other swing states — U.S. intelligence efforts have focused on Russia as a priority.

    An FBI affidavit unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Philadelphia outlined the Doppelganger scheme, drawing on reams of planning documents and meeting notes by Kremlin officials as they mapped out their 2024 strategy. All references in the Russian documents to specific candidates or U.S. political parties were redacted.

    “The conspirators specifically targeted the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s citizens … in order to influence the electorate in this, and other districts,” the affidavit said.

    According to the court filing, the effort had been overseen since at least 2022 by Sergei Kiriyenko, a former Russian prime minister and Putin’s first deputy chief of staff. He and several of the entities cited in the court filings have already been subjected to U.S. sanctions for their roles in spreading misinformation.

    Their primary goal, agents said, was to pass off inflammatory or fake news stories — supporting Russian interests or backing Trump — as work produced by legitimate American media outlets.

    Plotters registered domain names similar to those of well-known media brands — like washingtonpost.pm and foxnews.cx — and posted stories under the names of real journalists who worked for them.

    For instance, investigators said, one story featured on the spoofed Washington Post website — run under the headline “White House Miscalculated: Conflict with Ukraine Strengthens Russia” — sought to diminish public sentiment for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country.

    “It’s time for our leaders to recognize that continued support for Ukraine is a mistake,” that story read. “It was a waste of lives and money. … For the sake of everyone involved in the conflict, the Biden administration should just make a peace agreement and move on.”

    The Doppelganger network also focused on ensuring those stories went viral, going so far as to create fake social media accounts posing as U.S. citizens to spread them and seeding the comments on other social media posts with links back to the propaganda they had posted.

    “The aim of the campaign,” according to one Russian planning document quoted in the FBI affidavit unsealed Wednesday, “is securing Russia’s preferred outcome in the election.”

    In another planning document, Doppelganger plotters outlined a scheme they dubbed “The Good Old USA Project” aimed at targeting voters from specific demographics in the U.S. with fake news and spoofed social media posts.

    They included Hispanics, American Jews, conservatives, and the “community of American gamers, users of Reddit and image boards such as 4chan (the ‘backbone’ of right-wing trends in the U.S. segment of the internet),” according to Kremlin planning documents included in Wednesday’s filings.

    “In order for this work to be effective,” it warned, “you need to use a minimum of fake news and a maximum of realistic information. At the same time, you should continuously repeat that this is what is really happening, but the official media will never tell you about it or show it to you.”

    2
    Why egg prices are becoming expensive again - Food Dive

    >Egg prices are back on the rise as a devastating bird flu outbreak and swelling consumer demand eats into supply.

    >Wholesale egg prices surpassed about $3 per dozen in August, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from the usual $1 to $2 range. Retail egg prices were up 19% in August compared to last year, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data, while the broader grocery category increased only 1%.

    >highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, has forced egg supplies to be “less robust than normal.” At the same time, U.S. sales have jumped to levels not seen since the pandemic.

    >Despite the price fluctuations, consumers continue to buy eggs — and more of them, as of the last few months. August egg sales were up more than 5% compared to 2023, and producers sold 237 million eggs in the most recent four-week period. “We haven’t seen that number since the first year of COVID,” he said, when sales soared as consumers stocked up on staples including eggs and toilet paper.

    >As domestic demand stays strong, other countries are also buying more U.S. eggs. According to the U.S. Egg Export Council, total exports for the first four months of the year increased by 22% to 63.5 million dozen eggs, though values were down 22%.

    >Demand is expected to rise further during the fall and winter months with the holiday baking season entering full swing. That could further pressure the commercial egg supply, especially as bird flu also spreads more easily in colder climates.

    27
    What app+hardware package is most comparable to iCloud Photos in regard to speed and features?

    Is anyone self-hosting a genuinely snappy and robust media hosting service for themselves? What's your setup look like?

    The best thing about Apple's Photos on my iDevices is the speed at which everything loads. Even videos (usually) load reasonably fast over LTE. The user interface is decent enough and has a high percentage of features I'd like to have on the go. The on-device AI is awesome (recognizing / organizing faces and objects and locations).

    I'd like to get away from iCloud for numerous reasons: the subscription, the chance the UX gets worse, privacy, ease of data ownership and organization, OS independence, etc.

    I currently have a QNAP TS-253A with 8GB RAM, Celeron N3160 1.6GHz 4 core, (2) Seagate IronWolf 8TB ST8000VN0022 at about 98% capacity, Raid 1 . I mostly use it for streaming music and videos at home but I also stream music outside the house without issue. Movies don't stream at HD immediately but once they cache up they're good within a minute.

    Some people have suggested this hardware should be sufficient. I feel like it's archaic. What do you think?

    I've tried Immich but find it to be slow and very limited with features. I've even tested hosting it on Elestio but that didn't go too well. I'm not opposed to paying for offsite services but at that point it just seems like I should stick with iCloud.

    I already have Plex running on my NAS so I use that for archiving but it's way too slow to use for looking at pictures, even locally. QNAP has the photo app QuMagie with facial recognition and it seems alright but it's agonizingly slow, if it works at all.

    All of the self-hosted apps, in my experience, are well outside the scope of iCloud Photos' speed and feature set. If I could even just test one that matched its speed, I could better assess whatever features they have.

    What I'm not sure of is if I'm hitting a wall based on the apps, my hardware, or even my ISP (Speedtest reports upload: 250mpbs). The fact that apps like Plex and QuMagie suck even locally suggests to me it's not an ISP issue (yet).

    My NAS is already at capacity so it's time for an upgrade of some sort. While I'm in the mindset, I wanted to see if there's a better product I could use for hosting. My space and finances are not without limits but I'm open to ideas.

    I realize I'm not a multi billion dollar company with data centers around the world but I feel like I should be able to piece something together that's relatively comparable for less than an arm and a leg. Am I wrong?

    14
    How does one browser (Orion) know what I'm doing on another browser (Safari)?

    I'm on MacOS and typically use Safari as my main browser. I have several other browsers installed on my computer which I use for different things or just to try out from time to time. Orion is one I haven't tried in a while.

    I've launched Orion and found that when I previously used it I saved some tabs - one of them being Ebay. I am not signed into my Ebay account in Orion but when I open this tab I'm seeing "Your Recently Viewed Items" and it's very much showing me the items I viewed in Safari just moments earlier.

    Orion promotes itself as a privacy focused web browser. >Privacy by design, like no other browser. >Orion has been engineered from ground up as a truly privacy-respecting browser. We did it by embracing a simple principle - Orion is a zero telemetry browser. Your private information will never leave Orion by default. >And to protect your privacy on the web, Orion comes with industry-leading anti-tracking technology as well as a powerful built-in ad-blocker.

    How does one browser know what the other browser is doing regardless if I'm, signed into my account on a particular website?

    11
    How do you feel about shopping in stores?

    In my experience, the retail shopping environment has been on an increasing rate of decline over the past decade+. Post-covid, it seems corporations have figured out how to maximize profit, in part, by reducing labor and tailoring towards online sales.

    I grew up in a time when people would complain about salespeople pestering them by simply asking if they needed help with anything. Now, I would love to have someone help me with a purchase.

    I recently bought some sneakers in a store and it turned out I probably bought the wrong ones for my needs. A knowledgable salesperson likely would have saved me from wasting my money on the wrong purchase. Most of the supermarkets in my area are self-check out only. These stupid things never work for me so it takes me forever to simply scan a few items. At some stores, items are locked up behind glass so I'm not even able to make a purchase - pushing me to buy from an online retailer instead.

    I try to go out of my way to find stores that have humans working there. I try not to buy things online and try to support my local businesses. This is becoming increasingly more difficult and I fear the day will come soon where I'm not able to shop in a physical store.

    Especially in this post pandemic world, I crave human interaction. I crave a brief interaction with someone who's a member of my community.

    There's a small two-location food market I shop at weekly. It's a fifteen minute walk where I do at least 85% of my shopping. Most of the produce and goods are procured within a hundred miles. There are no self-checkouts. I've gotten to know the people who work there. We talk about produce and the neighborhood and the weather. I freaking love that place and legit do not know what I would do without it.

    I imagine I'm in the minority. I imagine most people, especially younger people, desire not interacting with others. Some people find it difficult to engage in real life. Some people are fraught with the impact social media addiction has struck upon them - be it the fear of judgement or bigotry or simply not knowing how to interact respectfully with others.

    I remember a time when people would say they trust online reviews more than salespeople who get paid on commission. Is this still a prevalent idea? I'll admit that I typically ignore reviews because reviews have become their own industry. However, there are times I've bought a product, found it to be trash, then saw some reviews, buried below the 'paid' ones, warning me to stay away.

    I feel strongly, I am fearful, that as we shift more and more of our shopping online - easily enabled by [Click To Buy] buttons and mobile wallets - corporate capitalism is gaining ground on mom and pop shops. Never mind the rise of the likes of Temu. Moreover, the Walmartification of everything is diluting our sense of community.

    It's because we only shop online and in warehouses, it's because we have no choice but to not engage with anyone, it's because we're increasing our reliance on 6" in-our-face screens, it's because we don't ever need to leave the comfort of our home that our neighborhoods and society are doomed to crumble.

    29
    Seeking suggestions on an external drive.

    I'm looking to replace a 6TB G-Drive for my Mac. I'm considering the OWC Express 1M2 NVMe enclosure along with a WD Black 4TB SN850X.

    The drive is mostly used as my photography drive. I work off of it with Capture One. About 20% of it is archive data.

    I'd like to upgrade to SSD for the sake of longevity and speed. And because I find the ticking and knocking my existing drive makes to be annoying. And because MacOS does this weird thing where opening random apps causes the external HDD to spin up and stalls operation. I fear everyday that this seven year old drive is suddenly going to die on me.

    Just looking for some suggestions if anyone's familiar with these OWC + WD products or if you'd recommend something else.

    3
    32 percent of Americans believe a military regime or authoritarian leader would be a good way of governing the country.
    newrepublic.com Why Some Americans Really Do Want an Authoritarian in Charge

    Donald Trump’s strongman image is a plus for many voters.

    Why Some Americans Really Do Want an Authoritarian in Charge

    Meanwhile, 44 percent backed the American tradition of competing branches of government as a model, if sometimes “frustrating,” system.

    Why would people want to live under an authoritarian’s thumb? It’s rooted, experts say, in a psychological need for security—real or perceived—and a desire for conformity, a goal that becomes even more acute as the country undergoes dramatic demographic and social changes. People also like to obey a strong leader who will protect the group—especially if it is the “right” group whose interests will be protected. Recall the Trump supporter who, during the 2019 government shutdown, complained, “He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

    224
    How many email addresses do you have?

    I've recently been working to minimize my email clutter, my dependance on certain email providers, and to consolidate services under certain accounts.

    I'm down to the following uses: Apple ID, mydomain-billing/subscriptions, mydomain-official/legal, anon, friends/family, business domain.

    I also have a handful of aliases and an account just for newsletters and my RSS app.

    I'm curious if others have several email addresses for similar uses or if you use your email client to categorize incoming messages for you. For people who only have one email address, how do you manage this?

    64
    What do you believe the role of government to be?

    Regardless of your geographic location, religion, heritage, party affiliation, or your firmness on historical texts; what is it that you believe government's role to be - or should be?

    If you'd like to elaborate, what is it you think your local or national government gets right and gets wrong?

    I pose the question because I believe this fundamental belief is through which we observe and react to politics. There are things we want or don't want government to do but often legislation or special interests or geographic or political threats get in the way. Our reactions to politics are often, but not wrongly, short-sighted and emotional without context or wisdom. I don't see much dialog around this topic and I wonder if people subscribe to political parties without really considering if the party aligns with what they genuinely believe government's responsibility is or should be.

    22
    NYT Opinion | Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead
    www.nytimes.com Opinion | Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead

    He failed the tests of leadership and betrayed America. Voters must stand up to him in November.

    Opinion | Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead
    168
    Male Fashion Advice @lemmy.world oxjox @lemmy.ml
    Does LL Bean typically run big?

    I just received an order for a few shirts from LL Bean. Right now, any brand's Large is just a tad tight on me but I'm trying to lose weight and expect to squeeze in soon. These shirts are HUGE.

    I double checked their website's fit guide. By all accounts, it's suggesting I'm a large (5'6" 43 chest). The long sleeve shirt is one size too big, the short sleeves are at least two sizes, if not three, too big. The sweat shirt is a bit large but wearable.

    My plan at this point is to take the nearly two hour drive (with traffic) to my nearest store to try the shirts on in person. Just wondering if I got a weird batch or if I'm a size small in LL Bean.

    Or, should I be expecting these to shrink a lot in the wash?

    UPDATE: So, I drove the store and confirmed my suspicions with the associate. “Traditional Fit” is two sizes bigger, “Slim Fit” is one size bigger, and “Signature” is about right, he said. I didn’t like the signature sizing at all; it was oddly a little smocky and ballooned out at the bottom. And while the small traditional fit fit my width okay, I think it’s a little short, and I’m just 5’6”.

    1
    What is the answer?

    Share some objective or subjective wisdom you’ve learned recently.

    60
    When / why / how did "I hope you are well" become a standard email intro?

    Practically every email I've received in maybe the past year has started with "I hope you are well". I even had an LLM draft a placeholder email for me and it started with the same thing. This has not always been the case and it's strange to me that everyone I interact with begins their emails with this line. Frankly, it's annoying AF.

    What gives? Who started this? Why has it become so prevalent? More importantly, how do we stop it?

    While I'm at it, if you work in tech / customer support, I urge you to speak with your supervisors to minimize the boiler plate copy paste trash you insert into your emails. People dealing with shit that's not working as intended or desired do not have the mental or emotional capacity to wade through your platitudinal nonsense. Get to the fucking point.

    71
    Chinese migrants are fastest growing group crossing into U.S. from Mexico | 60 Minutes

    Please watch the entire video before commenting.

    The take away, in my opinion, was much less about the Chinese migrants than it was the story of the specific location they were coming through and how and why the process of legal immigration is broken. It seems so, so easy to fix this problem but it’s clear “the border” is being used as a political pawn to divide us for political gain.

    20
    One thing I'm going to miss is r/photomarket

    The community around buying and selling gear and just watching awesome stuff pop up for sale regularly is one of the reasons I've stuck with the site for so long.

    Other than FredMiranda, e$ay, Craigslist, I'm not sure what other options there are (I'm not on FB).

    Is there any chance something like photomarket could pop up in the fediverse? What other sites are you trading on?

    5
    I was banned from one sub for posting a question in another.

    This is a rant.

    It stems from the recent Joe Rogan comment about Biden which turned out to be Trump. I'm an indie-leaning "progressive" who found this to be an important moment to call out for everyone.

    The video, summarized: Joe Rogan is proved wrong when claiming Biden said "one of the problems about the Revolutionary War was that we didn't have enough airports". Rogan goes on, "If you had any other job, and you were talking like that, they'd go, 'you're done'". "It's just the media narrative..." Then the actual Biden video is pulled up for him showing that Biden is quoting Trump, "This is the same stable genius who said the biggest problem we had in the Revolutionary War was that we didn't have enough airports". "Is that fake?", Rogan says. Producer, "It's not fake, here's the video..." Trump, "our army manned the airports, it ran the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do." Rogan, "Oh, he fucked up.." His guest, "that's the thing about the media today, you gotta look into it."

    My comment: >Is there a sub for instances like this where people say something about "the other side" only to be immediately shown that it was their "side" who said it? >This post is iconic should be pinned to the top of every social site.

    Soon after, I received a message from r/JusticeServed (a sub I don't actively participate in) saying, >Hello, You have been permanently banned from participating in r/JusticeServed because you broke this community's rules. You won't be able to post or comment, but you can still view and subscribe to it. >Note from the moderators: >You have been banned for participating in a subreddit that has consistently shown to provide refuge for users to promote hate, violence and misinformation (joerogan). >This fully automated ban has been performed by a bot that cannot determine context. Appeals will be provided for good-faith users upon request. You can reply to this message and ask for an appeal. Any other messages will be ignored. More information on the appeal process here: https://www.reddit.com/r/JusticeServed/wiki/botbanned

    My appeal did not include kind words. I called them out for being fascists and being part of the reason why Reddit has become a shithole. My appeal closed with asking not to be un-banned. Then I received this message,

    >We are willing to reverse the ban only if you plan to stop supporting the target subreddit. Regardless of context, contributions you provide to the target subreddit is a material form of support. >Posting, Commenting, and Voting in a subreddit or on an item is a signal to Reddit and their advertisers that the participant believes that the community or comment or post has a legitimate reason for existing and serves a purpose for them. >There is no place for hate, violence and purposeful disinformation on Reddit. Those sub's advertisers should not be rewarded for the traffic metrics you and your peers provide to them by showing up and inflating those numbers. >They don't care what you say. They are just happy to have you continue to show up and refresh the page. >If this is something you can accept, to stop participating in the target subreddit, then please reply. If the bot hits you again for the same subreddit, you will not be unbanned a second time. >If you don't want to stop helping the target sub and their advertisers, then you can just ignore this message.

    I responded, in part, with a full throated 'you can go fuck yourself'. This lead to a harassment warning from Reddit. I also noted the sub's 'motto' - "Too many times justice fails to prevail. These are not those times." For fucking real. I had also pointed out that what they're doing is analogous to DeSantis banning me from entering Florida just because I live in Philadelphia.

    Dear JusticeServed, this is called cutting off your nose to spite your face.

    I mean, this is the kind of shit that makes people more sympathetic to Musk and Rogan. I am not in support of nationalism or racism or misinformation. What I am in support of is common fucking sense.

    It's very likely that had I maintained my composure I would have had a successful appeal. I didn't want to appeal to be unbanned though, I wanted to bring attention to their hypocrisy.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/JusticeServed/comments/10jxlfk/justiceserveds_2_million_subscriber_extravaganza/ >With the overturning of Roe v Wade, we saw a couple of subreddits pinning mod endorsed celebration threads. Why anyone would want to celebrate people losing rights is beyond me.

    Rights? What rights are you supporting, JusticeServed? Certainly not Freedom of Speech. Spying on people and censoring them for actions they take in other communities sounds a lot like fascism to me.

    The take away here is that we shouldn't put so much emotional weight on stupid shit like this that ultimately doesn't matter in our real lives. And in our real lives, we should be more cautious with judging people. Your current mood and state of mind can easily cause you to misinterpret someone else's words and (re)actions. We should all be more mindful to take a breath before reacting to something emotionally triggering. And, of course, fuck Reddit.

    15
    Unable to sign in to Lemmy.ml.

    For well over a week, I've been unable to sign into Lemmy.ml with Lemmios. I'm not having an issue with other apps like Memmy.

    5
    How safe are grammar editing tools?

    Without naming names, there's a well advertised grammar editing tool that's available either as an app download or browser extension. This is something I'd value for a number of reasons (good grammar is important!) but I'm super cautious about anything I'm giving permission to watch what I'm typing.

    Ideally, I'd prefer to select text and have it analyzed on-demand using on-device intelligence. I'm on a Mac and it seems like Pages isn't cut out to check grammar. Also, there's no way in heck I'm paying $30 a month for a subscription.

    Edit: I just want to acknowledge my request for something I'd value and then saying I don't want to pay for it. I would certainly pay for something if it met my needs but this function isn't something I'd personally value at $30 a month or any monthly subscription ($30 a year sounds reasonable). Moreover, if there's any suspicion of an application using my data for their own profit, they are not getting my money. So, in this case, for the sake of data privacy, I would prefer to pay for something (preferably once - grammar shouldn't need updating).

    8
    oxjox oxjox @lemmy.ml
    Posts 26
    Comments 912