Meh, if it drops it drops. I'll never have the relationship to social media I used to, because I don't want it anymore. If Lemmy can give me a few posts a day of things I might not normally see, that's enough for me. It doesn't need to be the next Reddit or whatever. After quitting Reddit I'm getting back into things I haven't done in years. I don't need that again.

Musk openly stated that he spoke directly with Putin after the Ukraine invasion had started. The super wealthy have no loyalties and will sell anyone and anything to the highest bidder. I've said it before, every penny after $1 billion needs to be taxed at 100%. Time to reign in the oligarchs.

I agree, but also a tragic day. This does nothing to reduce the polarization or convince his misguided followers of anything. Trump might go away but his voters won't. We have decades of this to look forward to. It's a step in the right direction at least...

Success is mainly about sucking up to the right people. No matter how good you are at your job, you have to know how to play work politics. Most bosses don't know how to evaluate actual ability, and they're much less objective than they think. Usually they favor more likeable employees over capable ones if forced to choose. Human life is a popularity contest, always has been, always will be. That's the side effect of being a highly social species...

Ah, classism, the one thing that should truly unite Americans.

I would feel so owned if other conspirators did this too.

Republicans increasingly rely on the most extreme voting base for energy. It works mostly because we only have two viable parties and even the less extreme Republicans think the extreme right is the lesser of two evils. How many Republicans do you suppose will wring their hands in 2024 but vote for MAGA candidates and Trump anyway? Almost all, even if they say otherwise. We know preference falsification is a thing now. People will just lie if they're too embarrassed to admit what they're doing.

Nope. Once upon a time long ago I thought I wanted a Tesla. Now? I'd rather drive a Ford Focus.

Very soon there won't be a generation that can remember video games not existing.

I mean, setting aside the lack of actual evidence so far, what effect will it have on most of us? Is the world suddenly going to become a utopia because aliens have been here? At best we get some cool technology that governments and the rich will hoard; at worst we get conscripted to go kill them and take their shit, or are forced to defend ourselves from them trying to take our shit. I've never really understood why aliens imply anything other than that. The truth is, if they do have something truly transcendent to teach us, we ain't ready for it. If we want to find the secrets of the universe we need to put our own house in order and do it ourselves. Aliens aren't our space saviors.

I'm just going to go out on a limb and say, maybe it shouldn't be possible for one person to have enough wealth to singlehandedly buy and destroy important social institutions.

Also, maybe smart people shouldn't be putting all their eggs into one privately owned basket.

I definitely think there's a strain of dogmatism in science. We need to be careful. Science is not the Truth, it's a method for producing accurate predictions. We accumulate evidence until the predictions seem overwhelmingly likely, or not. At no point have we proven that things might not be completely different from what we imagine them to be, or that they won't change. Science isn't Truth, it's just a method of finding the best answer up to that point.

He's trying to look defiant and outraged. Guy knows how to work his marks. I guarantee you every Republican looking at that photo is getting a massive boner over it.

Could anything be more symbolic of America's political situation right now?

Who makes someone get rid of a gaming console?

In my experience, someone who claims to be in the middle is actually on the right but has miraculously realized that makes them an asshole in today's political climate so they pretend to be "in the middle".

Turns out unregulated capitalism might be slightly at odds with democracy.

I just read a really good article about why Tokyo, one of the biggest cities in the world, is also one of the most affordable for housing and pretty much everything else. Spoiler, they don't allow boomer nimbyism and they absolutely do allow a shitload of apartment building pretty much everywhere.

Also, realizing that I actually don't really have any idea what I'm talking about...

https://en.wikipedia.org/...

Another commenter called it eerie, but I would say more tragic. It depicts the moment after Ivan has struck his son a deadly blow in a fit of rage.