SecondJon @SecondJon@social.cleverlibre.org

@freemo
I loved the idea of mastodon. There were some niche sites that were appealing but only had a few active members, but the largest instances have a lot of rules that flag the system as very very biased and communicate that any disagreement will be silenced and the person banned.

Within a few days of my joining, the wilw situation happened proving that to be the case.

I don't want to encourage what I think are bad ideas. But I'd rather engage thoughtfully and respectfully than either troll or mob the person with diversity of thought and kick them out so I never hear anything remotely challenging.

I sought out a place to engage others, the way we did as kids on the neighborhood/global BBS and I found #qoto. The rules were very different
- not about silencing others and treating them poorly, but about engaging with each other and having mutual respect. Not necessarily for the ideas or disagrees with, but respect for the person who holds those ideas.

I've appreciated the strong, often oppositional, opinions here, and the reality that we don't devolve into name calling, trolling, and mob silencing each other. We can learn from dialoguing with each other, whether that's changing one's mind or simply clarifying one's position.

My personal goals include: understanding why people think their nutty ideas (imo) are good ideas ; and trying to encourage asking the right questions - I think we're often stuck because we're not even asking the right questions.

I do think the majority of people would engage this way given the opportunity, but the constant drum beat from the media, politicians, and Hollywood pulses a constant message of opposition and anger at each other.

With an ambitious decentralized platform, the father of the web (spoiler, not AlGore) hopes it’s game on for corporate tech giants like Facebook and Google.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90243936/exclusive-tim-berners-lee-tells-us-his-radical-new-plan-to-upend-the-world-wide-web

Stories like this (and many others) are unhelpful to the narrative of Believe All Women.

House votes to make tax cuts permanent.

https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/28/house-votes-permanently-extend-individual-tax-cuts/

@pylorns
I understand that pipes were almost all clay until briar started to be used. I've heard they run far hotter than briar and are more fragile than merrshaum. Do you have experience with clay pipes?

@leadore
Of course she can feel whatever she feels.

The train metaphor may make sense... There's still anger from the left that the train of their nominee was not allowed to barrel through; this time the majority party continues to add delay after delay.

But feelings are feelings and all are of course allowed to have them.

@limits2growth
To clarify, this is based on the phrase "which is not currently technologically feasible or economically feasible."?

I guess my question is : is it currently technologically and economically feasible? Rather than saying the Trump admin is telling people The End is Nigh, so Eat and Drink for Tomorrow we Die, maybe offer a response to the actual statement, that's it is technologically and economically feasible currently.

Or we can contribute to the divisiveness by straw manning what each other's say. That's paid off really well so far.

@DrChris
Agreed. Making the accuser a millionaire does not do service to the claim that she has nothing to benefit and therefore must be genuine.

In this toot I'm not saying she is or isn't genuine, just that argument doesn't hold water.

@leadore
I find difficulty in condemning something, then seeking to become that something.

"I want us to be the train...
I want us to be the thing too urgent to be stopped"

It reminds me of the form of feminism that proclaims: men are evil, we should be just like them.

If something is bad, let's not seek to become it.

@masterofthetiger
How does that reconcile with how the New Testament speaks of the importance of the church and as James would say (1:27 I think) , "true religion" ?

@hashtaggrammar
I think it's fair to say that if you were b a job interview and someone accused you of being a rapist it would be acceptable to have some emotion in your reaction.

I think if you're for the nominee, everything looks good. If you're against him, everything is bad. If he's emotionless he's heartless and disqualified, if he shows emotion he's unhinged and disqualified.

But back to the original point I think it serves us well to remember that our politicians and judges (and teachers and pastors and CEOs and all those with power and leadership) are human, likely to make mistakes, to have emotions, etc.

I would like to say I judge people by how they do what their responsibility is...how does the president execute the laws, how do the legislatures write quality laws, how do judges make decisions about said laws, but I often get distracted by personalities and others secondary or tertiary issues.
@freemo

Don't drink underage.

Don't get drunk.

Don't wait 30 years to go to counseling about trauma.

Don't trust politicians to protect you - it may not be too their political advantage, then they won't.

And maybe : Don't hold confirmation hearings for future justices. Just set a date and vote. Wish we could get the circus back on animal cracker boxes and out of politics?

Feinstein says she was falsely accused of politicking with these allegations. If she's really falsely accused, she must demand an FBI investigation to prove it. Or she's guilty.