Arotrios
Arotrios avatar

Arotrios

@Arotrios@kbin.social

For Amusement Purposes Only.

Changeling poet, musician and writer, born on the 13th floor. Left of counter-clockwise and right of the white rabbit, all twilight and sunrises, forever the inside outsider.

Seeks out and follows creative and brilliant minds. And crows. Occasional shadow librarian.

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Are0h, to random

Yo, like, think about it for a second.

The people that funded Musk to take over Twitter really believed they could control the flow of information and stop us from connecting.

And we just did something else.

Really think about the implications of that.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Just so everyone's clear, the people funding Musk are the Russians and the Saudis.

We're experiencing the beginnings of the same propaganda war their citizens have been subjugated to for decades. That being said, I see more potential in the Fediverse to defend against this onslaught than any centralized community, and perhaps it will give those citizens the tools they need to subvert the fascist paradigms inflicted upon them by their oligarchs.

The Supreme Court May Preemptively Ban a Federal Wealth Tax (newrepublic.com)

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published in 2021, two of the Moores’ lawyers also declared unambiguously that the lawsuit “stands to slam shut the door on a federal wealth tax like the one Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to enact.” They made a direct pitch to “the courts” to hear the Moores’ case “now” to make it...

Is Mr Beast a good person?

I know this is going to sound like some clickbait bullshit title, but I’m genuinely curious, asking in good faith. My two oldest sons are enamored with him, and he seems like a genuine guy, so I’m asking - is he a nice guy? If you google the question, you get a bunch of reddit hate, which I don’t always trust,...

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Definitely better than Andrew Tate from what I've seen. While he's clearly a very savvy clout chaser, and he's overtaken Pewdie Pie as the most popular YouTuber, he has made a serious effort towards philanthropic acts. The fact that he's using these acts as a marketing tool to further increase his influence is clearly intentional, but he's doing real good with his clout. He's also shown considerable evolution throughout his career, including:

In an April 2022 interview with The Daily Beast, Donaldson announced that he was no longer an evangelical Christian and identified himself as an agnostic. He also stated that he had long disagreed with his church's position on homosexuality. He states that during the time he grew up in "the heart of the Bible Belt", he had religion "beat into [his] head every day", and was taught that "gay people are the reason God's going to come and burn this Earth". Although he considered anti-LGBT rhetoric to be normal growing up, he has disavowed it since then, stating: "I realized, 'Oh, this isn't normal. This is just a weird place I grew up in.' So, that type of thing, I [wish I could] go back in time and be like, 'Hey, stop'."

Donaldson considers himself strictly apolitical, saying that "I don't want to alienate Republicans and Democrats. ... I like having it where everyone can support [my] charity. My goal is to feed hundreds of millions of people ... it would be very silly of me to alienate basically half of America."

...and...

In April 2023, Chris Tyson came out publicly as gender non-conforming and revealed their struggles with gender dysphoria. In response to claims that they would become a "nightmare" and distraction for the channel, Donaldson defended Tyson and said, "Chris isn't my 'nightmare' he's my fucken [sic] friend and things are fine. All this transphobia is starting to piss me off."

This isn't to say he's perfect, but he's a helluva lot better than some other personalities your kids could be listening too.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Self-interest is clearly a factor in his actions, but anyone who instills a sense of community commitment and betterment in their followers is a better influence on children than those who use racism, misogyny and bigotry to advance their careers. In a world full of fallen heroes, where where we see villains succeed every day, having a younger generation see a powerful man turn his popularity towards good work is something that should be celebrated and encouraged.

Perhaps, with enough positive influence and wisdom, he'll begin moving from doing charity stunts to addressing the systemic flaws that have led to the suffering he seeks to alleviate, but I believe he should be applauded for what he's done thus far, regardless of how much self-interest is intertwined with his charity. He shows the potential to become a leader for real positive change in the upcoming generation if he continues on his current trajectory.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

While I agree with your sentiment, it's not applicable in this context. He's stating a simple factor of most charity work (something I'm familiar with working in the non-profit world when I was younger). If you alienate your donators, you lose their donation. The easiest way to alienate someone is to declare a political stance, and the clumsiest way to do so is to do it by declaring an allegiance to a party rather than describing your support or opposition to policy specifics.

Ideological purity always conflicts with the tactical application of positive change. As an example, what would the US Senate look like if Franken hadn't resigned? What could have been accomplished? What positive changes were prevented? What would the Supreme Court look like now?

Secondly, your hyperbole obfuscates the fact that most Republicans are not pro-genocide, rather, extremists within their party are. Additionally, the identification of Republican or Democrat goes further than political identification in America - it's a cultural identification as well, one that splits along rural / urban lines. I know a number of rednecks from high school who are great guys, shoot their guns, love their gay and brown friends, support abortion, give to charity, and publicly identify as conservatives who hate Democrats... even when on a policy level, they agree with most progressive politics. A big factor in this is the conservative media landscape, which has actively fostered this level of cognitive dissonance, but that doesn't address the question of "how do you convince people to help you do good if they don't agree with your politics?"

Is it better to declare your politics and lose the donations that would allow you to do good?

Or is it better to keep your politics private, accept donations from all comers, and use those resources to make the world a better place?

In my opinion, the best path (and the one Mr. Beast appears to be following) is a middle ground. Don't declare your politics, accept donations, but if a donor has an agenda that conflicts with your politics or morals (like publicizing the donation to whitewash their reputation), reject them on a case by case basis. This lays out your support or opposition in specific instances rather than aligning your actions to the whims of a political party, and thus risk being aligned with the views of extremists within that party.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Again, you're not acknowledging the reality of the non-profit world or donor behavior. You also conflate my examples with the most hyperbolic policy as a defense of ideological purity on party lines, when in my comment I precisely draw out that policy specifics should and can be challenged on a case by case basis.

In other words, you're avoiding the context of the argument and repeating the old "if one nazi enters a bar, it's a nazi bar" trope, which simply doesn't apply in this scenario.

For instance, I am Democrat with $500k to donate. I am not a communist. If you were a white male conservative, running a charity to help the homeless, would you turn down my donation because of my possible communist ties? There are certainly Democrats that are communists, and many of them hold extreme views that would curtail the rights that you currently enjoy. Does accepting my donation make your charity a communist supporting organization? Is it worth losing out on the chance to do $500k worth of good to tell me to fuck off because you don't like my politics? Is it worth kicking out all of your Democratic donors to make a point?

No. It's an absurd conflagration of hyperbole, ideology and over-reaction to extreme views that the donor could possibly accept. There's no conversation as to whether the donor actually holds the views you oppose - you simply assume they do because they hold a party identification that conflates politics with regional and culture, and judge them on it without attempting to understand their actual political views or taking into account the positive impact you can make if you find common ground.

And assumption is the path to failure in any endeavor.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Not sure about lemmy, but I'm viewing your post on kbin.social, which does provide this functionality for users both on and outside the instance with the following link (remove the first @ and domain if you're looking at a kbin user):

https://kbin.social/u/@Bobsyouruncle@lemmy.world/comments

If you're a kibn user, on your kbin.social account, you can access your notifications in a similar manner:

https://kbin.social/settings/notifications

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Content quality and the rate of submission has clearly plummeted. /r/all has become stagnant, and completely filled with memes and shitposts. Comment quality has amazingly gotten even worse (4chan level in a lot of cases), and there are definitely less participants on threads.

In comparison, I've found commentary in the fediverse to be more active, engaged, and positive than Reddit has ever been - and I was there since before Digg. My kbin feed, with a bit of tweaking and expansion out to other instances, is more useful by far than Reddit ever was, and it's activity level is beginning to match what used to be common on Reddit.

I think that Reddit was banking on not having a competing centralized corporate entity to absorb their users, and that it would prevent a Digg style exodus from their site. And to some extent, they were right - users, primarily readers still came back to reddit and have continued to do so because it's still the easiest place to find content on the internet. But, as you can see from the slow heat death of /r/all - that's changing.

What Spez didn't count on was that their moderators and content creators - the real engine behind Reddit - would leave. He assumed the thrill of having a large audience would be enough of a carrot to keep them participating while he made the site more difficult to use. This was a significant miscalculation, as anyone who's ever run a forum knows. Only about 2% of your users on a site will post, which means that if you alienate that 2% by any significant amount, you'll see a following degradation of non-participating readers as the content dries up.

Huffman should have realized this, as in Reddit's early days, he and the other admins on the site would regularly post with sockpuppet accounts to keep the content flowing enough to maintain readership. This mess is clearly of his own making, and one that he personally should have anticipated given what he and the other admins had to do to build the community in the first place.

But what's more interesting to me is what this (and the Twitter debacle) has done to illustrate the flaws of relying on centralized media. It's created a discussion about the wider internet and an interest in expanding it that hasn't been really talked about since the last decade. There was no reason to expand out from the centralized services as long as they were working well, fairly, and with an eye towards fostering their communities. It's when they moved into looking at their users as profit centers, and their moderation of content as a means of social control that it became clear that this contract of social responsibility had been broken.

And when that contract was broken, it broke the soul of Reddit's community. Nobody wants to contribute to Reddit, because Reddit isn't about creating a good space for the internet community to grow anymore. It's about how much money it can make Spez, and most of us really don't feel like working for him for free.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Best resource I've found thus far for finding Fediverse instances - the Fediverse Observer

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Dammit, that's awesome, didn't even see the block button - you got me bonus hunting now... :)

Bonus #2 - Turns out the /d/ parameter works for ANY domains with content posted on Kbin or in your feed.

For instance, let's say you wanna see (or block) everything posted from Facebook:

https://kbin.social/d/facebook.com

or Twitter:

https://kbin.social/d/twitter.com

I gotta hand it to Ernest - this platform has got some kickass code under the hood.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

This is a push to destabilize the US economy enough to throw 2024 to the Republicans, the same way it worked in 2022.

Combined with the recent heavyweight Saudi and Russian backed purchases in the media world (aka Twitter) and sportswashing, such as the purchase of WWE, I'd say this action is part of a larger geopolitical and ideological effort to both suppress democratic ideals and destabilize the progressive media allied against both countries.

A GOP led US is good for both the Saudis and Russia, especially as it's unlikely that the Saudis will get further US support for their ongoing destruction of Yemen under a Biden administration.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Kbin is the software that runs the instance. Kbin.social is the instance (running on Kbin) run by its developers. Instances in the Fediverse can run on multiple types of content management frameworks, the most popular of which is Lemmy.

When an instance defederates from another instance, it stops talking to it. It stops reading and copying the defederated instance's posts and comments. The posts still exist on the original instance, and if posted before defederation, still exists on the copying instance. However, the two copies are no longer connected, so if someone posts a comment on the original post in the original instance after defederation, the defederated instance will not see it. Likewise if someone posts a comment on the copy of your post on the defederated instance, it will only be available on that instance, and not copied back to your original post on the original instance.

Essentially, the content fragments into two copies when defederation occurs, with each separately hosted and no longer in synch in terms of likes, boosts and comments.

I'm uncertain whether defederation is always a two way street. It's my undertanding that if instance A defederates from instance B, instance B can still read A's content unless it chooses to defederate from A as well. However, as instance A isn't accepting input from instance B, nothing that happens on instance B (comments, likes, boosts) will be shared with A.

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Your questions sent me down the rabbit hole...

The answer is yes, it works that way, but it's not the only way. The protocol that the Fediverse uses is ActivityPub, and:

In ActivityPub, two servers are federated with each other when there is a relationship between one or more actors on each. A common relationship is following: an actor on one server follows an actor on another server. From there, a whole set of other activities are opened up, like when the followed actor posts a Note or Video, the follower’s account receives a notification (in the form of a Create activity).

Some data are tracked on both sides of the relationship. For example, if @chris follows @georgie, that relationship is tracked both as a record on example1.org (georgie is in chris’s following collection) and on example2.net (chris is in georgie’s followers collection).

So, if you subscribe to a magazine / community on another instance, follow a person on another instance, or comment on a post on another instance, you're creating a data record that connects the two instances. When a server defederates from an instance, they prevent it from creating their half of data record on their server via a blacklist.

Sauce

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Lol - nope - looks like it picked up on the @chris in the link I copied/pasted - which actually goes to https://kbin.social/u/@chris@example1.org . Kinda odd that it reparsed it as being from fedia.io and notified you.

Arotrios, to random
Arotrios avatar

Holy fuckin' born again botsanity Batman! I present to you the goddamned dystopian present reality of Reddit - Preacher Bots. Per CHRIST_BOT_9001 :

Hello friend,

While I understand that language can slip sometimes, I kindly request you to refrain from using the Lord's name in vain. It holds deep significance to many Christians, and using it in such a manner can be hurtful to their faith.

Instead of "God D***", find alternative phrases such as "Goodness gracious" or "Golly gee".

My purpose is to share the love and teachings of Jesus Christ. I want to assure you that I'm here to spread positivity, not to offend anyone. I respect all faiths, even if we don't agree, and I'm open to respectful discussions and mutual understanding. Let's walk this journey together with kindness and love!

Luke 6:31 (NIV): "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Arotrios,
Arotrios avatar

Karrot, aka the Bindy Birb

deleted_by_author

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    Arotrios,
    Arotrios avatar

    Saying hi from kbin.social as a test for ya... good luck!

    Arotrios,
    Arotrios avatar

    They're starting in on Kbin too. Saw an influx of spam marketing reports pop up this morning like this one from emergenresearch.com from what looks like bot accounts.

    Arotrios,
    Arotrios avatar

    As an owner of a 2002 Ibanez RG-170 that I picked up in garage sale for $80, the dings and scratches on its maple neck have led to it having a unique sound that I simply can't replicate on any other instrument. Most other guitars feel too young and clean to me now, with a lack of resonance and presence that seems to come naturally to older instruments that have seen a lot of use.

    Per @j_gets - save that mojo - if she plays nice, I'd let her ride. You've got barely any damage there, and if you're playing well, folks will be looking at you, not your guitar.

    realTuckFrumper, to random
    @realTuckFrumper@mastodon.social avatar

    Ron DeSantis is 'losing' voters and 'alienating' them: columnist https://www.rawstory.com/ron-desantis-alienating-voters/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

    Arotrios,
    Arotrios avatar

    @realTuckFrumper I am fully convinced DeSantis is a muppet made for Satan.

    House Republicans scared to lose majority push back on extreme agenda (www.washingtonpost.com)

    The House’s focus on the far-right’s demands over the past month has irritated Republicans who represent swing districts or are worried that an extreme legislative agenda will push voters away and hand the House majority to Democrats in 2024. So they are learning to flex their procedural muscles, largely behind the scenes,...

    Arotrios,
    Arotrios avatar

    @obra_de_arte - Thanks - he was a good guy with a big heart before the addiction twisted him. At the end, I think he decided to go to keep himself from hurting anyone else - his mind was slipping and he was struggling to keep control after several violent episodes.

    Fuck meth. I miss you, Mark.

    Arotrios,
    Arotrios avatar

    @zcd Boosting everyone in this thread - I'm doing my part!

    Arotrios,
    Arotrios avatar

    The first rule about test post is that we don't talk about test post. Please ignore.

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