Candelestine

@Candelestine@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you ever think that maybe all VPN services are actually secretly owned/funded by governments and that they are only giving you a false illusion of privacy?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Very little in its current form, I think mainly just IP address.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you ever think that maybe all VPN services are actually secretly owned/funded by governments and that they are only giving you a false illusion of privacy?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  All I know is that if you’re very worried about being surveilled by governments, the Fediverse is the absolute last place you should want to be.

  This is one of the most transparent platforms we have come up with yet. Instead of all your data only being viewable by a host company, it’s viewable and able to be analyzed by basically anyone who puts some effort in. This makes it economically worthless, can’t really sell something that everyone can already just get for themselves.

  We’re all out in the open here. So, wave to all the national security agencies everyone. Hiiiii! Hope you’re all enjoying the memes!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Only somewhat populated one I can think of off the top of my head would be using Lemmy from a dedicated Instance like mander or maybe that solarpunk one, and sticking to the local feed.

  But memes are tough to escape. The internet almost runs on memes, they’re a horrendously efficient form of communication.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hi so i am trying some shit for fun like summoning any kind of entities.⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The reason you are being downvoted is because you’re reminding people that the internet has a lot of very young folks on it. People don’t really want to be reminded of that, they want to feel like all the hijinks that internet people get up to are with adults. But if your age cohort is here on a niche service like Lemmy, then there must be more of you elsewhere, on other services too. This is genuinely unhealthy, in many different ways, so it disturbs people.

  So, they downvote you for reminding them of something they’d rather not think about. Afaik though, there is nothing wrong with this question being posted here.

  Regarding the question itself, we do tend to call them urban myths for a reason. People have not yet outgrown silly, superstitious thinking from centuries ago. It’s not necessarily an age thing either, plenty of older superstitious folks too. lol

  Oh, and welcome to Lemmy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When somebody tells you something, sometimes it's something they personally experienced and sometimes it's something they heard from somebody else. How do you tell the difference?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So, thinking they are automatically lying is even worse than thinking they must be telling the truth. The position you need to hold is between the two.

  The reason to hold it consistently is to take advantage of habit building and using how your brain works to your own advantage. You can try to calculate an independent “likelihood” for every claim if you want, but you’ll frequently be wrong, just because you can’t take everything into account. And it’s a massive waste of energy.

  As to why, it varies. Humans are very different from each other, so the reasons will be many and varied. But the important thing to remember is just how easy the lie is, and how there’s really no consequences if someone does.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When somebody tells you something, sometimes it's something they personally experienced and sometimes it's something they heard from somebody else. How do you tell the difference?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You should not believe firsthand accounts you find on the internet anyway. People are here for recreation, for starters, which does not set a high bar for accuracy.

  For instance, if I said I tried a dragonfruit the other day and it tasted amazing, you would be somewhat foolish to assume that I actually did try a dragonfruit the other day.

  If you follow the general rule of holding reasonable doubt about all firsthand accounts you read online, you will not fall into this trap. Note that the doubt does not need to be complete, just partial. This is sometimes described as taking things with “a grain of salt”, and honestly, is a good idea irl as well.

  You absolutely do not want to be one of those people that just believes everyone. That is extremely unhealthy, and will result in you being misled and/or scammed.

  A good example would be user reviews, which are highly corruptible. If you go onto amazon, you will find a number of low quality, garbage products that are full of glowing reviews that have likely been solicited by the seller, in one way or another.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you refer to the lgbtq+ "community" least excludingly?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I personally use “queer folks” as a general catch-all. It used to be a pejorative, but has largely been reclaimed with the whole “we’re here, we’re queer” type messages.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Playing Video Games Lead To Social Disconnection. It is True?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Depends on the game. Deep Rock Galactic is a good example of a more pro-social game, in the fps genre no less.

  Assuming you have not reached the level of actual addiction anyway. Anything enjoyable, even things like sweets or gambling, can potentially become addictive. That’s a whole different consideration.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How is Russia not Financially Crippled?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Because even if they actually had an income of zero, they had saved up enough money over the years to be able to survive off it for some time. Commonly referred to as a “war chest”. They don’t actually have an income of zero though, their income is actually quite significant since they still have major trading partners like Iran, India and China to sell their fossil fuels and other resources to. They don’t buy fossil fuels, incidentally, they sell them. Like Saudi Arabia.

  Also, you can buy things with more than just money. People figure that Kim Jong Un probably isn’t trading his stuff to them for money, but instead is getting technological assistance from them. Just one of their modern fighter-bomber tech, for instance, would be immeasurably valuable to N Korea, where their own tech has lagged behind a good bit over the years.

  Lastly, people in the west have been doing sanctions evasion. I recall some German financial/tech company has its CEO now wanted by Interpol for being a Russian agent. So, when your own people are playing fast and loose with the law, that’s going to make things like sanctions more difficult.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How will I find financial stability if I live in a third world country with a toxic sociopathic/narcissistic mother, I have no skills (at least I think so), no time and therefore no money?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  … yikes. That must be hell.

  You speak fluent English, any markets for that kind of skill in that area? Could teach maybe?

  Unfortunately, the time-honored tradition for people in your situation is to keep your head down, keep quiet and be careful. I imagine you probably already knew that though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plan Bee⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s evolved. His understanding of anti-science attacks seems to be of those leveled by the older GOP, the ones that only wanted their businesses to be free to make the max amount of money.

  However, that same tool of generalized chaos, confusion and eventually, disgust and hatred from that sustained confusion, are exactly how you increase the chances of a fascist strongman rising to power in a place that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. Because it helps make people afraid.

  This is a case where the genie has been let out of the bottle by a bunch of fools, and now its out, and we all might pay dearly. With a lot more than cutting of funding and support, we’re sliding towards mass violence, as seen in previous centuries.

  I think, when possible, we need to present our evidence for our positions to the public in ways that are as hard to refute as possible. One way is numerically, particularly with nice visualizations included.

  Because honestly, they just don’t believe us. The problem has continued to worsen, and now people have not just opponents, but enemies. The preferred approach for actual, honest-to-god enemies is usually destruction, because emotions start running things. We can still appeal to rationality, but we need things that are as hard to distrust as possible. Using narrative was a great idea 10 years ago, but has been losing effectiveness.

  Can we quantify potential benefits for the things we do, in ways someone with only a HS level of education can understand?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it okay to wash hands with body soap?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a really fun neuroscience question, it’s kinda diving into the different functions of the prefrontal cortex (conscious decision-making) and the cerebellum. (has a major role in muscle memory)

  The cerebellum is one of the most interesting body structures. It’s actually like one super long ribbon cable that’s been folded up to take up minimal space.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Awesome Games Done Quick starts tomorrow!⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hey, cool. I’ve never actually watched one live, thank you. I think I know what my around-the-house background video is gonna be for a few days.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a list of all the stuff implemented by far right governments in the "West" ?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s going to vary too much based on local circumstances and the norms and expectations of that populace.

  A better way to approach it would be to study fascism, and look for that pattern. There is a large body of highly scrutinized work exploring the history of fascism, so that’s going to be a more reliable, efficient approach imo.

  Mussolini, Hitler and Franco, between the three of them, more or less laid out the basics. And in that chronological order.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If Trump and Biden both died today, what would happen?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The plotline of the show Designated Survivor. Follows Kiefer Southerland as a Sec of HUD that has to take over following a terrorist attack. He basically carries the show, it’s pretty good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why did lemmy.world defederate from fosstodon.org ?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We probably should keep a record of this stuff somewhere publicly available so people can just look up these questions.

  Most likely it was due to vulnerabilities, people setting up spambots, or posting csm, or something else of that nature. We’ll need an admin to say for sure though, as I don’t recall any announcement. Generally LW only defeds due to really, really noxious or illegal stuff though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Outdoor plants are a different breed⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Tbf, there’s also philodendrons. That’s basically potted kudzu. I think if you took a potted one and threw it out during the winter, it’d just grow right back in. Probably need goats or sheep or napalm to actually kill one. Or maybe be colorblind so you don’t see it turning yellow when it needs water.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How Can I Make this Legless Bed Rise 2-inches?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Personally, I would rest it on some sawed-off pieces of a 2x4, but that’s just me. It’d probably be a little ugly.

  Something like a few red bricks would probably look a little nicer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Assuming the earth is flat, how many people are part of the conspiracy⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And the “few people in control” are members of which out-group…? All aboard to Q-land, everyone. Final stop, domestic terrorism.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If so-called AI is basically just Large Language Models, how come predictive text on my phone is bollock-useless?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah, thank you. I’ll edit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If so-called AI is basically just Large Language Models, how come predictive text on my phone is bollock-useless?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why can’t my riding lawnmower keep up with a Ferrari? They’re both vehicles.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Recommend a game for me to play with my partner⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Secret of Mana (SNES)

  As one of the consoles most famous titles, there’s a number of ways to play it.

  It’ll help develop some of her hand-eye, but in a slower, calmer way she will probably be more than equal to. There’s also a lot of character development and plot, it is a jrpg-influenced game after all.

  2 player co-op kicks in about an hour-ish into the game, if memory serves, once the second character enters the story.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dollar Stores: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Nah, that doesn’t sound like them. They like the word “traitor” okay, but the word “class” is to be avoided at all costs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dollar Stores: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You forgot the something something unions causing trouble something.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can bots upvote?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ohhh yeah. Downvote bomb too. Always take the votes with a grain of salt. I mean, this is the internet. Standard rules apply.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Excuse my ignorance, but could someone explain why that tween Elon agreed with recently is considered antisemetic?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  He tweets a lot of things. Gonna have to link to the specific one you are curious about.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨State Department Official Resigns, Says Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Dems believe that people should not be oppressed. Since Israel has been doing a large amount of oppression for the past 20 years, and they have a lot of power, dems tend to think we should stop giving them weapons.

  Diversity has nothing to do with it. If it were actually a diversity issue, we would need to protect the weak, the ones at risk of being wiped out. That would actually be the poorer and more impoverished ones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GTA 6’s Publisher Says Video Games Should Theoretically Be Priced At Dollars Per Hour⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  He’s certainly correct, at the purely analytical, quantitative level. But if humans were purely analytical and quantitative, then laissez-faire capitalism would function perfectly.

  The problem arises from games having more costs than just monetary though. The cost of a film, asides the ticket price, is a couple hours of sitting on your ass. The cost of a video game, willingly paid by every gamer, is actually hours of practice with hand eye coordination, various video game systems and conventions, time spent learning that specific game, etc etc. You can see, objectively, this is a lot of “investment” required. Which is one of the big reasons not everyone is much of a gamer.

  The executives should be factoring this cost in too though, because your subconscious does when it decides how much “fun” you’re having at whatever you’re doing right now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨State Department Official Resigns, Says Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I too wish Bernie had won. But, being a Zionist just means you think Jews need a homeland. Any supporter of a two state solution is supporting Zionism.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨State Department Official Resigns, Says Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Unfortunately, it’s just more complicated than that. The Presidency isn’t a movie where you can just follow your heart.

  We cannot actually halt the Israeli offensive. So we retain more ability to influence Israel by staying on their side, even if it’s distasteful and unethical. It’s a strategy though, and one that might have better chances of long term peace.

  After all, it’s not like Israel would stop attacking if we halted our weapon shipments. They have domestic industry. They could just switch to less precise tools once they run out of JDAMs.