DandomRude

DandomRude , 2 days ago

Isn't getting attention the whole point of buying a expensive car like that for most people? I mean the same goes for expensive sports cars: most people don't get these because they are particularly good drivers - hell, some are even so old they can't even get into those cars properly.

DandomRude , 6 days ago

The saddest part is that it will probably take a conviction in this trial for many US citizens to realize that Trump is not a viable presidential candidate. The state of American society is frightening.

DandomRude , 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago)

Tbh I don't even think that Trump will get convicted. The fact that he's still somehow at large makes me think that he and his henchmen built their own "Deep State" by now.

DandomRude , 6 days ago

Unfortunately I can't confirm this statement for Germany. We may have a fairly high general standard of education and are generally regarded as a high-tech nation, but change is still met with great resistance. In my opinion, this is reflected for example in the fact that administrative and business processes are still very insufficiently digitalized. In addition, conservative and even openly fascist forces are currently gaining a lot of ground in the political landscape - with very similar strategies and rhetoric to those in the USA. Although this probably has a lot to do with the dissatisfaction of many citizens with the performance of the established political parties, the conclusion that many citizens draw from this is unfortunately generally more of a backward-looking way of thinking that does not care much for actual solutions. Unfortunately, it is foreseeable that the AfD, an openly fascist party, will get a lot of votes in the next election. This party is quite comparable to the US conservatives of these days: it hides its autocratic and very much neoliberal orientation behind crude accusations against immigrants and paints itself as the savior of "Germanness" (whatever that is supposed to mean) - but it offers no concrete solutions whatsoever; only polemics and hatred. So unfortunately, I do not currently see any potential for significant changes to the existing system or even a departure from excessive capitalism in Germany.

DandomRude , 7 days ago

This has to be satire.

DandomRude , 8 days ago

The Internet's own boy. RIP - he would have hated what they did to reddit.

DandomRude , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

Fun fact: Monopoly originated from "The Landlord's Game" created in 1903 by Elizabeth Magie, an anti-monopolist who designed it to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land ownership.

DandomRude , 12 days ago

I guess this insane police budget is the reason some of those people got rich in the first place.

DandomRude OP , 15 days ago

I didn't meant the speech, but how you see your current situation as citizens of the USA.

DandomRude , 16 days ago

I wonder how this sum relates to the profits that the arms industry has made from all this destruction and human suffering.

DandomRude , 19 days ago

The fact that your supreme court is even willing to deal with the question of whether a president should have absolute immunity pretty much says it all.

DandomRude , 19 days ago (edited 19 days ago)

I'm from Germany, but I see myself more as a European, because I don't think much of national concepts, if only because of our past. Having said that, against the background of the past decades, it seems almost desirable to me that the situation in America now makes it obvious to everyone that the US system does not serve the American people. You have long been a role model for us: a successful democracy that promises its citizens prosperity and freedom. Many of my fellow citizens are only now realizing that this has never been the case, as the massive flaws in your system make it obvious that this is not a system for the people, but a system for the powerful. I sincerely hope that this realization can somewhat help humanity overcome greed and hubris to find a better way. But I have little hope, if only because even here in Germany I can see that fascism is on the rise again - although the Germans should know better; unfortunately, not even my people seem to have learned anything from our terrible past. It's enough to make you cry. So long story short: I can understand your frustration very well.

DandomRude , 23 days ago

I don't understand what there is to discuss here at all. If the US president had immunity as a matter of principle, he wouldn't be a president, he'd be some kind of god-king (even kings couldn't do whatever they wanted).

DandomRude , 23 days ago

Well, I'm not very familiar with the US Constitution. But if there really is any leeway for such advances, it doesn't seem to me to be a good constitution for a democratic country.

DandomRude , 27 days ago

I think this example illustrates very well how detached from reality the stock market is: Truth Social is not an important social media platform and will probably never make a profit. Nevertheless, one can make an absurd amount of money with such a bogus company - but unfortunately only if one has the right friends and belongs to their circles.

In this sense, one almost has to be grateful to Trump because he makes the functional logic of this rotten system so obvious.

DandomRude , 27 days ago

Some men are probably just not very religious or worship false deities.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

This outcome was by no means surprising, especially as it was not Palestine's first application for membership and the US has even vetoed resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Palestine on several occasions. The difference to your comparison, however, is that Israel itself, unlike China, has no right of veto in the UN Security Council.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

So can the rest of the GOP also hold Trump financially responsible for the damage he has done to that party's (arguably already rather dubious) reputation?

DandomRude , 1 month ago

Unfortunately, I don't have space for a bridge at the moment, but I would be interested in some snake oil.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

Sold if you throw in a pair of golden sneakers.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

I'm not sure whether there can be an ideologically neutral social media platform at all. I think there will always be a significant proportion of users who are not interested in discussion, arguments and open minded exchange, but rather in seeing their world view confirmed by others or simply being part of a perceived in-group.

What's more, the sheer mass of content makes an attention economy necessary so that one can deal with this flood of information. In my opinion, the content that is easy to consume will always prevail over content that looks at a topic in all its complexity (hardly anyone is willing/has the time to read up on it). So it's often not about who has the better arguments or actually knows something about a topic, but about who sells their posts better. In this sense, it seems to me that social media in general is not really social, but to a large extent a competition for attention.

I am not aware of any platform that could solve these problems. In my opinion, this is not really the aim, as pretty much all platforms are not really about objective information, but rather about passing the time and entertainment. Of course, that doesn't mean that you can't find good discussions and serious information. But I think that this kind of content will never be the main focus of any social media plattform. The fediverse approach seems like a good try to me tho, because there can be "special interest instances" that can make their own rules to focus on whatever they are about.

DandomRude , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Yes, that's probably true. For me, however, neutrality presupposes diversity - at least to a certain degree. As in the maxim of quality journalism: the assumption here is that a journalist can never be truly objective. This is why an attempt is made to allow opposing perspectives on a topic to have their say, so that the reader or viewer can form their own opinion.

Of course, this principle does not work in an environment in which differing opinions or perspectives are generally unwelcome. This is probably the case with Lemmy and other Fediverse applications for some topics. But I think that this doesn't just apply to the Fediverse, but to social media in general. It seems to me just as you say: if you only encounter rejection on a platform, in a community or on an instance if you disagree with the majority, you will move elsewhere - which in turn will probably lead to you eventually finding yourself in an environment where the majority of others are of the same opinion.

Of course, it would be highly desirable if people were more open-minded, but I'm afraid that's a utopia. In any case, I don't have the impression that the advent of social media has fundamentally brought open exchange forward.

On the contrary, I have the impression that political discourse in many countries, for example, is now characterized by the very strategies that make social media posts successful: the abbreviated presentation of complex contexts, the invocation of enemy stereotypes, sometimes even straight-up trolling. But perhaps this is just a perception error on my part.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

We understand that your culture just has a strange lust for genocide which even the shame of the Holocaust couldn't quell. We understand that Germans are just like that.

Thank you, dear fed up American. I always wondered why I felt this constant urge. I thought there might be something wrong with me. But now that I finally know it's just my German nature, I feel liberated and full of energy. Oh, what a wonderful time to be alive!

DandomRude , 1 month ago

Indeed. I'll get to planning then. Maybe we can work together sometime.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

I suppose that was to be expected from a country that has never recognized the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

DandomRude OP , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

The original Dickbutt comic.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

This doesn't seem like an open question to me.

DandomRude OP , 1 month ago

Glad you like it. This style is pretty much cyberpunk. A sub-genere of science fiction that is quite popular since the late 70s.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

Cities: Skylines 2 in a nutshell

DandomRude , 1 month ago

What appeals court? I thought Trump had to post $464 million in order to even appeal. How did he manage that?

DandomRude , 1 month ago

That's exactly how Nazi Germany came to be.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

Ahhh, thanks. I'm from Europe, so it's hard for me to even begin to understand the US legal system.

DandomRude , 1 month ago

Well, as a German, I can only point out the parallels between today's situation and the Nazis' seizure of power in the Weimar Republic - and urgently warn: don't do as the Germans did in 1933, be courageous and do everything you can to save what's left of your democracy. I realize, of course, that the USA has long been a de facto plutocracy in which the population often loses out, but at least there are still certain freedoms. In a fascist autocracy like Nazi Germany was, there are no freedoms whatsoever: Political dissidents, intellectuals and dissenters were systematically and mercilessly persecuted, tortured and ultimately killed - millions fell victim to this inhumane regime.

Despite everything, things are not yet that bad in the USA, but the foundations are being laid. And the political climate in the USA is also frighteningly similar to the situation before the Nazis seized power in Germany: openly fascist rhetoric, a large section of the population that wants a strong leader and turns a blind eye to what that means, many disillusioned people who have already given up in frustration with economic hardship and the failure of politics and, above all, greedy opportunists in business and politics who will literally walk over dead bodies for personal gain (...).

Unfortunately, the fascists are also on the rise again in Germany. That's why many Germans are taking to the streets to protest against the far right - if only because they want to show and feel that they are not alone in rejecting the inhuman ideology of the fascists.

So in short: please don't give up yet, but do all you can against the rise of fascism in your country. It is not yet the end of democracy in the USA, but the danger is imminent - a fascist autocracy could very well mean a terror regime that America has never known before. Don't let that happen!

DandomRude , 1 month ago

How?

DandomRude , 1 month ago

I miss the appreciation that was shown to developers and content creators not so long ago. I just get the impression that people take everything for granted these days, even when it comes to extraordinary things that are created by just a few people without the support of multi-million dollar companies. Maybe that's just a misperception on my part. But anyway: Support Lemmy, FOSS and all those awesome content creators!

DandomRude , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

Are there any examples of large companies, especially stock corporations, that have voluntarily given up short-term profits in favor of long-term calculation or sustainable management? Or examples of cooperation between competitors outside of common (short-term) profit interests? I am only aware of "sustainability campaigns" that have been staged mainly for publicity purposes, which in the vast majority of cases are nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

As far as I know, it has always been necessary to use legal regulations to force the companies to pay even the slightest attention to the common good. One example of this is the ban on CFCs to protect the ozone layer - and that took more than a decade (from 1987 until 1999).