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Cake day: September 14th, 2023

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  • I don’t think it’s the fact that they’re armed that makes them not feel safe. It’s the constant fear propaganda they’re fed via Fox News, Facebook, Twitter, and other right wing “news” sources. The alt right propaganda machines scare these people into thinking that everyone and everything is out to get them so they go out and buy a gun. In more civilized progressive areas, people aren’t exposed to alt right fear mongering as much and if they are, their community disproves and supports them so they don’t fall down the “I must arm myself to kill anyone who might harm me” rabbit hole.



  • Gonna defend gen z a bit here. Unlike older generations, gen z was raised in a large part only on locked down, touch screen interface devices like smartphones and tablets. These devices are designed to not be tampered with, designed and streamlined to “just work” for certain tasks without any hassle.

    If you only have a smartphone or tablet, how are you supposed to learn how to use a desktop os? How are you supposed to learn how to use a file system? How are you supposed to learn how to install programs outside of a central app store? How are you supposed to learn to type on a physical keyboard if you do not own one?

    I worked as a public school technician for a while and we used Chromebooks at my school system. Chromebooks are just as locked down if not more locked down than a smartphone due to school restrictions imposed via Google’s management interface. Sure they have a physical keyboard and “files” but many interfaces nowadays are point and click rather than typing. The filesystem (at least on the ones I worked with) were locked down to just the Downloads, Documents, Pictures, etc. directories with everything else locked down and inaccessible.

    Schools (at least the ones I went to and worked at) don’t teach typing classes anymore. They don’t teach cursive classes. They don’t teach any classes on how to use technology outside of a few Microsoft certification programs that students have to chose to be in (and are awfully dull and will put you to sleep).

    Gen Z does not have these technology skills because they largely do not have access to anything that they can use to learn these skills and they aren’t taught them by anyone. Gen Z is just expected to know these skills from being exposed to technology but that’s not how it works in the real world.

    These people aren’t dumb as rocks either like so many older people say they are. It’s a bell curve, you’ll have the people dumb as rocks, the average person, and the Albert Einsteins. Most people here on lemmy fall closer to the “Albert Einstein” end of the tech savvy curve so there’s a lot of bias here. But I’ve had so many cases where I’ve met Boomers, Gen X, and Millennial who just can’t grasp technology at all.

    Also, before someone says “they can just look it up on the internet”, they have no reason to. What’s the point of looking up these skills if they cannot practice them anywhere? Sure, you’ll have a few that are curious and interested in it but a vast majority of people have interests that lie outside of tech skills.

    Tl;dr Gen Z is just expected to know technology and thus aren’t taught how to use it or even have access to non-locked down devices.






  • ralakus@lemmy.worldtoPeople Twitter@sh.itjust.worksCoca-Cola Taxes
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    2 months ago

    I’m pretty sure it’s because the use of absurd amounts of high fructose corn syrup. There’s 39g (can’t confirm, I got it from Google) of sugar in a 12oz (340ml) can. US soda is pretty much just carbonated high fructose corn syrup water with a bit of flavoring. There’s probably other significant differences too since the US has barely the minimum food safety laws.



  • ralakus@lemmy.worldto196@lemmy.blahaj.zoneRule
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    2 months ago

    For anyone curious, I couldn’t find an exact statistics but hearing aids in the US cost between $2000 to $8000 per pair with the average costs sitting around $5000-$6000 per pair.

    Insurance coverage varies per insurance provider and per state. It looks like many people will end up paying the maximum required by law before insurance takes over which is roughly between $1000-$3000 depending on state.

    Not only is a single purchase expensive, you usually have to replace them every 3 to 5 years.


  • I’d place the blame on the Democrats pushing such an unlikable candidate, Hillary Clinton, that they couldn’t move enough people to vote to get past the electoral college bias. There’s also the fact that most people thought “How bad could Trump be. He looks honest and confident in what he says” and a lot of positive media around that time being about Trump.

    This time, we have Kamala Harris who’s actually really good at campaigning and getting support. The move the Democrats pulled managed to derail the GOP Propaganda machines (like Faux News) and put the positive focus on Harris instead of Trump.

    Regardless of what is happening in the Republican side, we still need to vote since this could be our last chance to vote.




  • Thing is, the more articles about Trump lying, no matter how normal it is, would bring it to the attention of more people. The more people the message reaches that convicted felon and rapist Trump is a pathological liar as well, the more likely the uneducated mass of swing state voters will not vote for Trump.

    Social media is not a reliable way to spread news since the algorithms tailor content for each individual person so the average swing state voter may not ever see posts about Trump being quite possibly one of the worst pieces of shit to exist.





  • In my view, it’s mostly because the Democrats are a lot more diverse than most people think. They range from traditional conservatives to (relatively in America at least) stout progressives. The Republicans have the power of religion and a very uneducated voter base. People expect more from the Democrats since the Democrats represent a wider range of overall people and higher educated people than what the Republicans represent.

    People want to be represented but the Democrats have too wide of a policy window to truly represent everyone so people complain that the Democrats aren’t doing what they want because they realistically can’t due to how wide they are on the political spectrum. The first past the post system only allows two parties to have a chance of winning. The Republicans represent the right wing extreme which are (usually, maybe not anymore after Trump) unified in what they want and will do.

    It doesn’t help that the Republicans constantly do their best to block whatever the Democrats do and then have the media pin the lack of getting shit done on the Democrats rather than the Republicans constantly fighting back everything the Democrats do. It also doesn’t help that since the education system in America is barely the bare minimum, so many people are uneducated and unwilling or unable to learn what’s really happening in the political space so they believe what their told from the people around them like their family, neighbors, or friends.

    America is very polarized and all forms of media are just pouring gasoline on the fire. It’ll be a hard issue to fix but what we need to do is get rid of the first past the post voting system and the electoral college and then the issues will slowly resolve themselves over the years.