Not just America - all Western countries did.

We made it expensive to manufacture goods due to labour costs and well-meaning but crippling environmental protections and couldn’t compete on price.

bleddy 'ell

(very) Late diagnosed autistic guy here.

Thank you for writing that.

One of the revealing things about realising this is what I am is looking back at a long life and realising a lot of people thought of me as rude, or that I was being deliberately awkward. I’ve certainly lost one job because of it, lived a life that’s largely friendless (IRL anyway) and doubtless missed a thousand opportunities through not being aware of them. There’s also an element of cause and effect - sometimes you know pretty quickly that someone’s not going to warm to you, so you just shut them out mentally. It’s expensive for me to make the effort to be normal and as I’ve got older I’m less willing to waste this time and energy.

I see it as very positive that so many people are aware of neurodiversity now, especially younger generations, and their first thought when someone behaves differently isn’t always that they’re deliberately being an assehole. Sometimes they are, of course, especially those with particularly bigoted views, but not always.

My point is that you don’t know the actual truth. Nor do I. We can’t.

Bots and paid agents are not a new technique - in ancient times, countries would send spies undercover into enemy territory to sow discord. To rabble rouse and change public opinion. It’s the same now, just the tools have changed. No news source is entirely unbiased, even word of mouth is influenced. The only way you can determine the truth is by seeing it with your own, naked eyes. And even then, your own personal bias can change the context.

Reddit is a platform where its’ easy to get the ears of a lot of people, so it’s a big target. It’s not Reddit’s fault, and Lemmy would suffer exactly the same if we had the numbers they do.

What is different now on the world stage, mostly thanks to Trump, is that there’s no longer even any pretence to truth. The most powerful person in the world lies constantly, and his example proves that works. No shame, no integrity, no honesty - just lies and crude manipulation.

“Truth is the first casualty of war”

Throw a dead cat on the table.

It is a democracy, yes.

The government is elected to represent its people. Annoying to us as it is, a tiny percentage of people [1] signing an online petition does not represent the people. There are an awful lot who think this new law is a good thing. [2]

[1] Yes. Fight me on this. 404k signatures out of 70million population = 0.58% opposed this enough to sign it.

[2] Mostly parents imo, and people who don’t understand the significant fraud risk involved. Those who haven’t been impacted yet, and those who enjoy other people being upset. Yes, I think this is a stupid law and the methods used even worse, but that doesn’t stop a democracy being a democracy

You can’t, or at least, you can’t not support evil in some way and exist in anything approaching normal society.

Everyone has their own tolerance for ethical things, which changes with their daily circumstances. Some people literally can’t afford to pay the extra that some such choices cost, or don’t have the time to search them out, or just don’t have the desire or will. And there’s several levels of this too - at least their core inner belief, and what they tell the world they do.

If you know, you know.

Known 35 years next month. Married 35 years in November.

after our kid was born she said I smelled differently and she was repulsed by me.

Oh, man, that’s brutal.

Thanks, but from context, it almost certainly is what they meant.

It’s not /just/ about colour. Plenty of white people are being detained illegally. The only way to be certain not to be illegally detained in the US is not to visit the US. Sadly, not an option for many people who are already there.

Debian for about two decades: It would take something pretty major to shift me - probably a hostile takeover, major policy shift or commercialisation, none of which is likely.

At worked we shifted from Centos to Rocky for the obvious reason, and are happy with the choice so far.

It’s dangerous. People are a 35 times more likely to be killed by guns than my country.

Some people are just shittier than others. What they look like on the outside has no bearing on their inner beauty.

They’re often having to juggle with very low budgets, old equipment, low skill and zero support. And that’s before you add children…

I don’t doubt they jumped at the chance of someone helping out.

You’re talking as if “The linux community” was one single bunch of people.

Reddit isn’t Linux HQ and nor is Lemmy, nor is Facebook. #linux still active on IRC too, but not there either.

Kind of - a personal website that I post articles on for various things. I like to share what I’ve learned, but it never gets much interest and less now. It’s something I’ve been doing in various forms for over two decades.

“Good” or “trust my life with”? The two can be mutually exclusive. If I was in the wrong, would a good person defend me?

I’ve met a few people with genuinely good morals in my life. They do exist and are almost incorruptible. Most people are flexible in that we can make justifications for almost anything.