The media had ingrained us to pursue happiness, and everything will be fine. We will all get “good ending”. But movies never tells us life goes on. Anything and everything could happen-- happy or good. The reality is that the universe is indifferent and it is what it is. From my experience, many people’s unhappiness comes from not accepting the situation as it is, and holding on to their view of what the world should be in spite of what reality presents.

It takes a long time, but learning to know when and where to use emotions is important. This is not a slight to anyone who are feeling down, but in my experience many people also place too much value on certain things that do not matter in the grand scheme of things. Be it status, others’ opinion, material wealth, rejection by a crush, etc. That’s not to say that one should not pursue more earnings and live like a pauper, or “just get over” a crush rejecting you, but you could control how you react to them, not the circumstances controlling you. There are many other potential singles out there you could ask out. It’s perfectly fine to buy an expensive item if it makes you happy, but what good is a $300 vase for showing off if you have nothing left to buy food? And if that vase breaks, why be upset over a broken vase which does not fulfill any basic necessities to survive? And if you did something embarrassing in front a stranger in a park, why mind the opinion of a person whom you will most likely never meet again? We all stress needlessly and that is a challenge we all have to overcome.

I never actually understood why the need to pursue constant happiness. It is as fleeting as sadness. The trick is to be content. Manage what is within your control and let go of what isn’t in your control.

Trump is very unpredictable on Ukraine. He said he will support Ukraine but who knows. But some say he will withdraw support from Taiwan, which is unlikely because he never had good relations with Xi and China. As for Israel-Palestine, we know where stands on that.

For me as non-American, I am more concerned with geopolitics. I wish Trump would provide support to Ukraine. But if he doesn’t, at least he will stand against China. I understand many Americans are tired of over twenty years of hawkish foreign policies with corporate and imperialist agenda, but if Trump withdraws from Europe, at least he should pivot towards China. It balances out between complete isolationism and imperialism (I believe on a case by case basis of interventionism as part of just war theory, like the US entry into World War 2 and intervention on Yougoslavia).

Why are American conservatives such a bunch of loonies? Conservatives in other developed countries allow abortion in cases of clear danger to the health of the mother and/or the fetus/baby. American conservatives is as bad the Taliban.

And yet they wonder why populism and extremism is on the rise…

For example, I definitely see the decrease in frequency, or not at all, on Reddit philosophy getting into frontpage despite having millions of subscribers. Many posts from r/philosophy often would gain thousands of up votes landing them into the front page. However, since Reddit’s crack down on bot activities, I see r/philosophy posts getting only a fraction of the number of up votes they used to get, which makes almost none of the posts go into the front page. It is clear evidence that bots manipulate the votes.

I don’t know about you, but others also noticed completely innocuous and benign comments just getting a downvote. Before I would chalk it up to people just down voting for no reason or to downvote others to propel their own content at the expense of others; but after what transpired with Reddit’s crackdown on bot activities and user participation just so happened to decreased significantly? One would have to admit or acknowledge there is deliberate manipulation on what contents get to be seen or promoted long before and even as we speak.

I know some people down vote and don’t discuss, but it’s very strange in a political discussion when you don’t get a pushback but getting so many downvotes.

My dude, there are plenty of actual automated bots on Reddit. IIRC when Reddit cracked down hard on bot accounts recently, over half of users and participation in many subreddits also decreased. That alone says that there is artificial engagement on Reddit rather than genuine human interaction (which vindicates the dead Internet theory). It explains a lot as to why a very innocent and neutral comment somehow gets a downvote: they are just bots downvoting.

Even here in Lemmy, there are downvotes on the same benign comments and no explanation as to why someone would disagree. But even if the comment is political in nature, there are downvotes but no feedback as to why one would disagree. There is a post on c/climate on European Greens calling for Jill Stein not to run for US presidential elections because she would just siphon the votes from liberals and progressives even though she will not win. And many comments on that post are getting half or a third of downvotes, but there are no accompanying disagreeing comments to explain the disagreement. It is clear that there are bots in that post who are trying to downplay the repercussions of Stein running to US elections and democracy.

I wonder what the biodiversity was like in that period.

To play the devil’s advocate, if you are an employer you would want to find out why the person has been unemployed. Was he unreliable as a person before? Was he combative with his previous employer and colleagues? Was he actually in prison all this time? What if this guy is a corporate spy?

There is plenty of anti-work circlejerk in lemmy, and they are not completely wrong, but there are employers who do act in good faith. And certainly as an employer, they do not want to hire a person who was fired for stealing from their previous workplace. Which is why a huge employment gap is certainly a red flag from an employer’s perspective. And which is why it’s always important to leave a company on good terms. Because even if you left the previous job to genuinely care for a family member, you have someone to vouch for you to the prospective new employer.

Winston Churchill’s government did not hold an election during six years of World War 2, but we didn’t see any shred of crocodile tears about it.

Of course there is more tit for tat deal, but North Korea will not send troops to combat if they think they will not gain anything from it militarily.

Right, people scoff at North Korean presence, but I doubt the North Korean soldiera would be used in human wave tactic as the Russians do. North Korea is still an independent sovereign entity, and the last thing they want is to let their troops be used by Russians in a shitty way. It obvious that North Korea will want to gain combat experience, the same way that South Korea sent troops to Vietnam fifty years before.

I see this response all the time “create your own if you want to see niche communities and Reddit communities migrate here.” Well, if I have the bloody time to moderate, or even if I do, will there be many people? And if there are many people, do I have the time to moderate? What if there are mod bickering and drama?

The question is time. Does anyone else have the time to moderate and put up with BS inevitable with most communities?

Well, I’m not American so I cannot feel the existential dilemma between picking a genocider or ride or die genocider. But if I am electing, I certainly don’t want to feel being forced to pick either two. I imagine many Americans probably feel uncomfortable with that as well.

Additionally, another factor with Trump still polling remarkably well is because a lot of people perceive the economy under Trump to be better. Take it as you will, but people under economic pressure feel forced to pick the extreme. People typically value economic security over liberty, unfortunately.

My guess is the Palestinian issue which puts people on the fence. Both parties would still support the Israeli government.

Except this time, American fascism might even win. There is no other Roosevelt to keep the fascists at bay. The Democrats have become too spineless.

Simple. In the past there is no “border”. You are someone from Frankfurt who came to Paris to set up business and there was no question asked.

Time is a flat circle.