Working as a nurse in acute psychiatric care, I can tell you the comparative normality of non-psychiatric-patients is easily overestimated. No need to stigmatize those in need of little help now and then. We all do.

Question: is PieFed the new kid on the block? Or has it been around for just as long as Lemmy or even longer?

I just love to see these platforms competing whilst working together, in the sense of adding to eachother, making the entire thing bigger and bigger. I’ve known for a long time that this is possible, but to see it happen is beautiful. Surely this allows for way more innovation and customization than closed source apps could ever realize. It makes me confident that the Fediverse will flourish, more than it already is.

I am all in favor of hating Musk and all his products, but I think you’re right. It seems rather unlikely that they would instruct their LLM to go out of its way to give fascist replies. That’s not to say that it shouldn’t be instructed to not give fascist output, which apparently it hasn’t been. Sadly, increasingly people form their view of the world based on the output of LLMs, so it would be helpful if these LLMs would help create worldviews that are beneficial to humanity at large, or at the very least prevent ones that are evidently harmfull. Which begs the question, who is to decide what is helpful and what is harmful. Musks answer is probably ‘freedom of speech, who is to say that we can’t spoonfeed hate to little children’. Which seems to me to be an example of when ideas of freedom turn into nihilism. But where they’re right is that government should also not be the one who tells people how to view the world. It’s people who should tell government, and the reverse, though perhaps well intended, is itself rather dangerous. I think the solution, as per usual, is to free it all up, make FOSS LLMs, and let people choose the limitations which they deem proper. I would certainly not want my kids on ‘freedom of speech’-style unrestricted AI, just like I don’t want some amoral nihilist as my kids’ school teacher. I want someone who teaches them love, kindness, forgiveness, harmony, honesty, sincerity, etc.

Breaking News: Donald Trump said something!

LIES!!

Europeans traveled the globe to spread the love of God and everyone they encountered they treated with the utmost respect because they realized these people, like themselves, are God’s creation, created in His image. That’s the beauty about Christians throughout the ages, you can safely trust upon their moral compass because they adhere to the laws of God and God only. If Europeans weren’t truly guided by God, and ever behaved in bad ways as is suggested here, you would expect to see examples of such unprovoked death and destruction across the globe all throughout the age of exploration and colonialism. But what we see, for the most part, is harmony and bliss, ever lasting peace and prosperity, like a mirror image of the Kingdom of Heaven brought to earth. And people across the globe converted because they were impressed by the moral superiority of the white man, saviors of humanity, chosen by God himself to guide us to His perfect light. And yes, of course, in some instances, when indiginous people would threaten this harmony, the good Christians needed to defend it, as warriors of God, and sometimes harsh measures needed to be taken. But to frame this genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape, torture, theft, etc. as immoral is shortsighted. They raped and tortured in self defense, or if not that, in His defence. Sometimes it may not be immediately obvious how these actions by Christians are part of Gods plan, but God and his true believers in His name, work in mysterious ways, and to question these ways, whether guided by hatred or logic, is to disrespect God, because it shows you have no faith. When you act out of faith in God, this requires no logic, no justification. The actions of the Christian man are it’s own justification. Submit and all will be well. But if you resist you deserve everything that’s coming to you, fire and brimstone, whether it’s in Hell or here on earth, you will burn, as the abomination you are.

Say it with me, ‘for the Grace of God, DEATH TO ALL NON-BELIEVERS!’

/s (obviously…)

I feel like there is momentum in Europe to switch to FOSS. Europe knows that the US cannot be trusted any longer. And this cannot be undone. Europe is striving for independence. Huge amounts of money are being spent on military sovereignty right now. All of us here on Lemmy know digital sovereignty is equally important. Recently an ICC prosecutor was cut off from his MS account because the US doesn’t like the Netanyahu arrest-warrant. These things don’t go unnoticed. It shows that technological dependance is not innocent, it can and will be used against us.

We need to use this momentum. Get involved, mail your representatives (municipal, provincial, national, federal), get petitions running, mail newspapers, go to political party conventions and get this on the agenda. It won’t fix itself. This problem is somewhat abstract and the solutions are just slightly too complicated for the general public. Most people don’t know what FOSS means. If we want this to change, those who see it and understand what needs to be done, need to get in to action.

If we were to rank people on the basis of how far they are on the path towards enlightenment, without a doubt Jeff Bezos would have all the world in front of him.

Aside from the pricking scandal, what a fantastic idea.

On “Fête de la Musique” people are urged to play music outside.

Here my country is stuck with Christian holidays that noone remembers the meaning of.

The US & UK supported the 1953 coup d’état to secure their oil interest. “Economically, American firms gained considerable control over Iranian oil production, with US companies taking around 40 percent of the profits” The Islamic Revolution is a response to this. If the west wasn’t as imperalist, who knows what could’ve become of Iran.

But to be honest, there’s no way western forces will take over control in Iran. Though it’s at a technological disadvantage, their military is huge, as well as their population of more than 90 million. Then there’s Pakistan that has threatened to get involved if the US does. Then there’s Irans proxies, though they’re in a relatively weakened state for the moment. But Iran has allied millitias all across the region. Then there’s China depending on the Iranian oil. I mean, if you want to force your way into World War 3 this seems like a brilliant idea.

How many apps did you ask them to download?

Personally, I only asked for this one, and everyone who is of importance to me chose to do it.

Surely this will work wonders, they’ll never recover from this. Also they won’t have any incentive, because why would you even consider building a bomb in such a friendly environment? Why would there need to be an axis of resistance, let them surrender unconditionally like Trump suggested, because clearly Israel and the US are to be trusted. If only these damned Iranians remained at the negotiating table while we bombed the shit out of them unprovoked. I guess they don’t want peace. /s

And religion. Quite some Christians love Israel, no matter what, because the Bible. Yes, it’s a fantastic argument. And as long as the victims are muslims, they’ll support Israel. If you’re not disgusted by the wars in the old testament, why would you in present day?

(Somewhat unrelated to the subject, but I felt like writing my thoughts on Iran in general.)

Iran being a Shia theocracy seems repressive and backwards to us, and surely they are as theocracies tend to be. This means that thinking about Iran westerners tend to think they themselves are on the good side, while Iran is on the bad side. But this is fundamentally wrong and the west is clearly the bad actor, given that it does not have any legitimate interests in the area and only engaged for imperialistic reasons.

If you look at Iran’s history you’ll learn that the Islamic Revolution of Iran was a response to western influences, and those western influences came along with the 1953 coup d’etat. And this coup d’état was supported by the US & UK. And the only reason this was done was for the purpose of oil. It was in reaction to Iran trying to nationalize it’s oil industry, which obviously was a good idea, but bad for the western imperialists. So you install a puppet regime, that begs for a revolution, and surprise surpise, there’s a revolution and it happens to be religious and conservative. So ever since the people of Iran have been stuck with it’s theocracy, Undeniably this is in part the fault of the West.

Then of course there is the anti-Israel stance of Iran, which is constantly used as proof of Iran being evil. But if just for a second you try to look at Israel from the perspective of someone from the Middle East, you’ll see that Israel is a colonial state, founded by zionists who from the very start commited ethnic cleansing to secure their state. The Nakba isn’t talked about much in the west, but just try to imagine a similar event happening in your region of the world by foreign powers, and you’ll understand the impact that would have. That is not forgotten after a few decades, especially because Israel is still driving people from their lands and colonizing it till this very day. This isn’t ancient history, this is in the present. They even returned to committing genocide all over again. Also, Israel has been the base for the US influence in the region and all the wars and interventions that come with that. How can you possibly expect Iran to not view Israel as their mortal enemy? Just imagine a Middle Eastern colonial state located in Europe or the US, created by ethnic cleansing the local population. We’d view that state as a mortal enemy and want to drive these people of our lands. I am not saying this is the proper thing to do, I am saying it’s obvious that this sentiment is broadly shared. It’s hardly surprising. Victims tend to have harsh views of those who attacked them.

And Iran is being attacked again, supposedly for developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile Israel has had nuclear weapons since the 60s. But in the views of westerners this is not a problem, because Israel is good, being a democracy and all that, while Iran is bad, being a theocracy. But these are all just western frames. Why in the world would a bomb be in safe hands with a hyperagressive colonial ethnostate that has repeatedly engaged in ethnic cleanings? But not in the hands of an admittedly backwards, conservative theocracy, that wants to secure itself from western imperialism. The Iranian interest in having a bomb seems completely reasonable actually. Again, just imagine a Middle Eastern colonial hyperagressive ethnostate founded by the ethnic cleansing of your local communities. And now they have nuclear bombs. And not only that, Middle Easterns powers are constantly engaging in wars all across your region. Would it be unreasonable for you to also want a nuclear bomb in such a situation? It’s a no brainer.

And as much as I dislike theocracies, I can’t help but think that if the west wasn’t as imperialist as we have been and still are, Iran would’ve developed into something completely different. Iran/Persia has always been the center of regional powers, from the Achaemenids 500 bc till today. It’s a beautiful country, they have a beautiful and rich history and they have an incredible culture, from the Islamic geometry, to the persian miniatures, to the incredible Sufi poets. You can’t expect a proud people as they are to lie back and be dominated by western imperialism. And the more you repress people, the more they’re bound to turn to theocractic conservatist populism.

TL:DR we’re not the good guys, Iran are not the bad guys.

The world needs to move to digital sovereignty. It’s amazing to think that a country like Iran, that is constantly under threat of the US, has so many people using Whatsapp, and probably relying on much more US software.

Quite happy with my fairphone running /e/OS. So far I’ve not needed to replace anything, except for the battery which was getting weak. So I bought another battery, and I’m keeping the other one as a spare battery.

If the EU liberates itself from US tech dependence through FOSS, we don’t only liberate ourselves, we liberate the world.

If the EU invests massively in free and open source software, pretty soon all across the world countries will hop on the FOSS-train.

If FOSS catches on, it shows to the world the power of collaboration. A power we have mostly forgotten, thinking that competition is a better idea. But competition alone is shit. To give an example. Here in the Netherlands we’re very proud of ASML, a company that makes the machines needed to produce microchips. They’re famous because they’re unique, in that no other company is able to produce these machines. It’s a competitive success, but obviously it’s holding us all back. If they’d share their knowledge companies across the world could try to improve on these machines, speeding up innovation. I’m supposed to think China’s corporate espionage is a crime, but to be honest I feel like not sharing such crucial information with the world is the actual crime. The power of collaboration is easily underestimated, let’s give it a try.

I don’t have a car

I don’t care to respond

I don’t mind sounding poor.

Wealth beyond what is good for you is no better than theft I’d say. Buying expensive watches while little children grow up in poverty is nothing to be proud of. If anyone should feel shame it should be that guy. Don’t be humiliated by such shameless assholes. And don’t try to counter attack, It won’t work, they don’t share your values, they feel no shame for the things that they do. Instead let’s organize and fight them where it hurts. Taxes, taxes, taxes.

Sadly I do so every week when going to the cinema

Fair point

“You can’t remember their favourite song, so you try to login to their Spotify account. Then you realise the account login is inaccessible, and with it has gone their personal history of Spotify playlists, annual “wrapped” analytics, and liked songs curated to reflect their taste, memories, and identity”

Instead you could track your listening habits on ListenBrainz. In doing so you safeguard yourself from Spotify ever restricting access to your data, data which they consider theirs. For ListenBrainz of course you must be willing to share your data freely, but it will be for the benefit of all, whilst if you don’t it will only be used for the benefit of Spotify corporates. You’ll help facilitate a healthy online music ecosystem, because people can built apps on top of the ListenBrainz dataset. You can get recommendations from algorithms of your choice instead of having to rely on Spotifys algorithms.

Not working for Listenbrainz in any way, just an enthousiastic user that plugs it when he sees fit :)