I live in New York, one of the most northern and blue states around, and have my entire life. In 7th grade I decided I didn’t like saying the Pledge of Allegiance, the name alone sounded odd to me, like why are children pledging themselves to a country, when we can’t even really understand what that means? So I stopped.

The school staff lost their minds.

Luckily my parents taught me to be firm in my beliefs, if I had truely thought about them and believed them. So I stuck to my choice, and my parents backed me up on it when they arrived at the school 45 minutes after the Pledge normally ended.

On a side note, I had read ahead in my Social Studies textbook that week, and learned about Nationalism in Nazi Germany, and it had sounded strangly familiar to me. Not long after the Pledge of Allegiance incident happened.

A

I don’t live in a place without PSN, however I uninstalled because of the malware style anticheat files that a small update tried to sneak into my system. Fuck off Arrowhead and Sony both, no thanks, I don’t need to jnstall that kind of stuff to enjoy games with my friends on PC.

“Thoughts and prayers” seems to have crossed the pond. I genuinely hope they are more useful over there, because they are absolutely worthless here and usually indicate that nothing of consequence will be done about the matter.

Disassociation mostly.

Biker Mice from Mars, I loved that show as a kid, gave me a lifelong appreciation for Root Beer

I see someone else also listens to Factually! podcasts.

Sounds to me like there is a class of people that shouldn’t continue to hold position. Even Jesus said the rich where detestable. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter heaven.” Once ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ aren’t a viable distinction anymore, the problem you describe is resolved. Not that other problems wouldn’t be present, just saying some change is needed.

TURN DOWN FOR WHAT

But her religion specifically says to go forth and multiply! /s

The logic of this is nonexistent. An argument could be made very convincingly that cars are dangerous to allow in the hands of criminals. 2 tons of metal, well known for and capable of ending a life, with the ability to aid criminal enterprises and avoidance of law enforcement. So should car sales now require a criminal background check? All this would do is further disenfranchise convicted felons, regardless of the actual crime committed, and create new difficulties for a group that includes a very high percentage of people already proven to give no shits about the law who will find and exploit ways to continue activities despite any laws attempting to restrict them.

I’ve already said I don’t pay for anything in Lemmy. If by support you mean, do I contribute code, servers or bandwidth to Lemmy as a project? No, because I don’t have those things to contribute in this field. I only know enough code to announce “Hello World”, I don’t own or operate a server farm or service, and I don’t have enough bandwidth to be able to contribute a reasonable amount to a project. However, I think your argument is starting to lose focus. I have not been advocating leaving social media of all kinds, that would be hypocritical since I’m posting this here after all, I have been advocating for avoiding the use of overly monetized platforms. I also noted that I don’t have an objection to paying for a service I find desirable. I pay for a streaming service for my household, and occasionally purchase apps that I find important. However, I think the over use of ads and subscriptions have polluted the market of software and services. Of course open-source projects, like Lemmy, are going to develop slower then a corporate alternative. But we wouldn’t be here if we all wanted the corporate alternative, would we? I can’t speak for your choice, of course, but I for one use Lemmy because I left Reddit. I use Linux because I prefer it over Windows and despise Mac, and I use Raspberry Pi’s because I prefer to self-host my photo back ups rather then use Google.

Twitter has become a shit show, not unlike watching Facebook devolve back in the early 2000s. I prefer not to use it because I have better options in life for my time, not because I think I’m better then those who do use it. My original comment was a sufficient explanation of this philosophy, I think. I’m not calling for such extreme measures as cutting all social media from use, I’m reminding with my own example to be cognizant of one’s time and use of services that are not under one’s own control. That can be Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Lemmy, Mastodon, Twitch, Youtube, or any of the numerous other platforms that are available today. Don’t avoid the path if it’s really the one you want to walk, but be aware of your choice and know you have one. That’s all I’m saying.

When I said there where other options for my time, I meant if I don’t like the service’s conditions, I can choose to not use it at all and do something else with my time. As an example, I don’t like Facebook, mostly due to its privacy violations and seeking disregard for security. So, I don’t use it. I spend my time playing games, or visiting a library, or pursuing a hobby. Facebook is unnecessary to my social life or my existence.

If I had to pay to use a social media service, it would have to be something I found utterly necessary. I’m not a fan of the trend toward everything being a subscription, so if any service unexpectedly changes to a subscription based service, I’m far more likely to experiment with cutting it out of my life and routine to see if I really needed it to begin with. So far out of the hundreds of subscription service I’ve had over the last 15 years, I’ve resubscribed to only 10 or so, and out of those only 3 where because I genuinely valued the service enough to pay for it, rather then because I had gotten an offer for 3 months free, then terminated the account before I was charged for anything. Why pay a provider to use my data for profit and show me ads I have no interest in or desire to see? If I wanted commercials I would watch cable, instead of using a streaming service I explicit choose for not showing constant ads.

I would treat Lemmy the same way. If I had to pay, I wouldn’t play. There are other options for my time, simple as that.

I’ve been having a similar problem the last couple days, can’t seem to find a solution yet however.

Yeah, the Meta logo on the commercial was enough to keep me away from this forever.

Perhaps look into the symptoms of ADHD? I had this same issue for a long time, swinging between being hyperfocused and then not being able to stand the task or project for a second longer. Turns out I have ADHD and just never got diagnosed. Now, I have a name for why I swing between these two extremes.

Yeah, my mistake. I realized that afterwards, hence the edit. That’s what I get for trying to use a meme response, I need to be clearer in my reactions.

You are complaining about exactly the same people that the workers are striking against.

Yes, because as a worker of any kind, I stand in solidarity with the people who are looking for fair compensation for their time and work.

The workers get to choose what gets produced do they?

Yes. If I work at a chemical plant, then find out the plant has been poisoning the town I live in, my most effective way to stop that happening is to refuse to make more poison and convince as many of my neighbors and colleagues who work with me to do the same. The boss won’t come down from his office and make it himself, will he? As the person making it, I’m morally responsible for it’s existence.

What boot? The boot of the industrial propaganda machine that I’m refusing to be concerned about when it just might have to slow down on producing another cinematic universe for merchandising? Screw the studios, let them deflate a little while the people who do the work strike for better conditions and wages. I’m sure the next Thor movie can wait a couple more years before becoming a lunchbox.