Not voting for them sends a message, but it’s the wrong message - and that message is that the populace prefers the GOP

Hard disagree on that. That’s assuming the intentions of the people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_are_either_with_us,_or_against_us

If you’re argument is that we need to be doing what’s right and pushing for progress, then why is that cast as something ONLY the “blue” can do? I don’t know how old you are to see how many times the “blue” has absolutely failed at their job, failed the people, but for no other reason than they’re in the right party, they keep getting voted in. But I’ve seen several “blue” presidents do anywhere from fuckall to the bare minimum in terms of progress/change.

There are other options to vote for that don’t just include the GOP as you seem to suggest. The US isn’t supposed to be just a 2 party system. It’s supposed to be dynamic; these parties are supposed to die off when they no longer represent the people. If you want progress and change, but keep doing the same thing that doesn’t seem to be all that progressive… are you making any progress?

Hard disagree. If we continue the narrative that the US is a 2 party system, actively rejecting and backing other parties in fear “the bad guy will win” (a sentiment and view shared with the Dem/Rep parties), then we’ve entered a endless loop that only as we’ve seen over the decades, is a race to the bottom. We elected Biden because we didn’t want Trump and largely for no other reason. That’s not a good reason. And Biden even commented that he was perhaps too old (his words).

And it’s a fallacy, shared by the Dem/Rep, to fear-monger the “If you don’t vote for MY party, then it’s voting for the other party (the bad guys)”. This was a false narrative that was spread this election and several before it, to prevent anyone else from opposing the status quo. A vote for ‘not my party’ is not a ‘vote for the other party’. If I can’t vote how I want (speaking broadly here for everyone), then my vote doesn’t matter. And if my vote doesn’t matter, then I’m not being represented. And if you’re going to argue that, I’d like to point to the huge number of eligible voters who consistently don’t vote. If we cast non-votes as a vote of no confidence, we’d see a big change in things. But doing that means Dem/Rep would lose the seesaw swings in power they have come to enjoy.

So no, you shouldn’t just throw your vote blindly behind any side. Especially because the internet thinks you should (and again, that goes for Dem/Rep alike).

Ah, but if you said anything against the blue (but not in favor of red), you were the vile, evil… CENTRIST! (I.e. a label just applied to you to single you out for not blindly agreeing with the zeitgeist.) Seriously, the front page of Lemmy for a good while was just toxic political “VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO” and if you didn’t agree, you were just a problem.

You can use your own. But at every single point they’re going to tell you that your brand new top of the line modem, is out of date and is probably the problem of any issue that you’re having. They try so hard to gaslight customers in believing that you need to use their white labeled equipment. They want you to use their stuff and pay the fees so they can resell the Wi-Fi, and they have full control over your device.

Could they at least be an alphabetical order!

LOL, so I’m pretty sure her name really is Brenda. Years ago, we did a Pi(e) day thing. And one of the ladies, who complained to management about an optional employee lead event (myself and some other people just threw it together) where we offered food to people who didn’t participate, went to the fridge and was overheard saying how her husband and kid would like the pie and just stole a whole goddamn pie as she left.

That is made by someone who had a Geocities website, or went 1000% in on MySpace back in the day.

The news around Donald changes faster than the weather in the mid-west. He’s done more or been involved in more in a few months than most presidents could accomplish in 2 full terms.

Throwing a brick into a dryer is less chaotic.

In office, I’m a chatty bitch. I have a habit of maybe over-socializing. For sure, my productivity goes down in the office. Oh, and people listen to me just as much WFH as they did in the office when it comes to work stuff.

At home, I can just turn on some music and focus on what I need to get done. I can work on my 20+ jira points I have every god damn sprint. Meetings (ad-hoc or planned) already cause delays for me and I’m already working to much (the highest so far, has been a 16-hour day).

I don’t miss the ‘sense of community’ because there isn’t one. Plus, most of my co-workers live in different states, and many in different countries. There’s no in-person collaboration even if I’m in the office. It’s still everything done over chat/video call.

My company, like so many others, went back on everything they said about WFH. They used to say how great it was because they could find talent from anywhere instead of being arbitrarily constrained by location. Like, obviously, the best talent doesn’t just happen to live next to you. Then it moved to hybrid, for those all important in-person, face-to-face collabs and synergy and all the other bullshit LinkedIn BS you can spew. And now, they’re doing RTO full on and even shaming those who work from home or would want to. Full-on bully tactics in meetings too. Even started shaming the upper mgmt, because their excuse was “well, other companies are doing it” so I hit back with the “if other companies were committing fraud, would we?” a spin on the “well if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you” I grew up hearing all the time. I actually brought that up in a corporate meeting, they never responded, so I’m taking that as a yes… yes they would and will, so long as they figure they can get away with it (or the penalties don’t outweigh the profits).

And then I find out Tim Walz (Minnesota Governor) is also for RTO… so I emailed his office, letting him know just how utterly disappointed in him I was, and to not expect my vote ever again.

Sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox. I’m just truly passionate about this. WFH, I’m far less miserable on a day-to-day basis. Working in the office, I was in multiple car accidents going to and from work (none of which I caused). I’ve been in exactly 0 since WFH. No longer spending 1-2 hours a day just traveling, so I can work remotely, in an office. If I ever win the lotto, I’ll be rich enough I could run for president and one of my pillars would be pushing businesses to utilize WFH if the position can do that. Fewer cars on roads, means less congestion for those who have to be onsite. There should be a noticeable decrease in vehicle-related accidents and fatalities.

Oh good, we’re not up to having to provide bone marrow (yet).

Ignoring the coding side of things…

It’s relative. And also works easier to navigate the calendar. If we’re planning something for next year I pull up next year’s calendar. If it’s this years and we’re planning something for later this year, when I hear you say August, that’s the month I go to. But if you say the 27th of August, The first thing I heard was the 27th which could possibly be this month or next month if it’s say the 28th today.

This thread shows that a whole bunch of people need to start taking online education courses. Getting back your algebra skills, some science perhaps, communication, history, etc.

I don’t know where you can get a proper education for that after grade school, but I see Brilliant.org advertised a lot.

I lot of people are like this. They don’t conceive a world outside their own. When I was in grade school, so many people in my hometown thought that… we were going to be the next Columbine (not like there were any kids actively acting odd, just the feeling that we were somehow important enough to have such a tragedy). They also thought several big companies were going to open up shop (like Best Buy, Red Lobster, etc… it was the 90s). Currently, some people still live there who think they have the highest number of Somalians living there (they don’t), the largest amount of Muslims (they don’t), and they’re like the drug central for the state (they’re not). It’s a small town filled with people who don’t really travel more then a few hours any direction and so they really don’t have a concept of what’s outside their world. The town of 20,000 must represent ALL 8+ billion people. If something bad is happening somewhere, then it MUST be happening really close to them. I had someone message me about how the Chinese were basically getting ready to invade them (so many texts about that). Oh, and after 9/11, so many people legit though that small town no one knows exists, was definitely going to be targeted next by middle-eastern terrorists…

The next step is to add a treadmill under everyone.

You can trust when I say, if it wasn’t so well known that educators get the raw deal right now, there would be way more teachers. I for one, thought about being a teacher and still do. But the terrible pay, the lack of funding… really detured me and I’m sure a bunch of folks away. I know people who actively suggest people away from going into teaching, because they don’t want to see the person just struggle and watch their passion die.

It’s not a problem of finding the supply (teachers), it’s about creating the demand (way better pay and working conditions)

At this point, if someone complements me, my first thought is “Well that’s a fucking lie, they want something”.

The problem, though, is a lack of prioritization in education, especially in the US. It’s a constant: more kids, fewer teachers. Teachers also get paid very little for what they deal with. Many teachers end up having to spend their own money to buy supplies the kids need. Meanwhile, my hometown has had 2 multi-million dollar embezzlement scandals that I know of. There was a news story a few years ago where the education board was making boatloads of cash, and teachers got jack (I can’t find the article, but I think it was during the pandemic).

Most schools when I was a teenager, would gladly buy up new football gear, a new coach bus (because the one from a couple years ago is just, not flashy anymore) but other departments can’t get new books (I remember using books from the late 80s… and it wasn’t the 80s), supplies, equipment, larger school buildings, more teachers, etc.

A teacher having even 20 kids is too many. We need more teachers, we need to prioritize education funding and standards. We don’t need AI.

I’ve lost count the number of times where I try to find something in SO, and it’s just someone posting the exact same example code as the answer. Or someone suggesting you just google it. Then I ask ChatGPT… and I get an answer.

Nope.

I put myself through community college, got 2 AAS degrees. I’m doing pretty good for myself. Before college, I usually worked around minimum wage and hated every single soul sucking job I had just to barely scrape by. This was early 2000s… we had real dollar menu meals and $5 footlong subs, ya’ll who be out there surviving these days you’re built different and you have my respect.

Anywho, if I hadn’t gone to college and did something with my life, I promise you I would have ended myself. That’s not hyperbole, I had 2 failed attempts before college already.

I wish people would stop demonizing college. Especially in the US, we have more and more uneducated people because you have people on the internet (mostly on video format) telling people, “Oh yeah, college was a scam, I dropped out and I make millions, and speaking of millions, this video is brought to you by…”

It saddens me to see terrible advice like this meme, implying college was a waste. Or that hundreds of people upvoted it.

And yes, I know, college is fucking expensive in the US. It was expensive when I went and we were arguing about it then and I know it’s gotten worse. But we shouldn’t be celebrating ignorance, we should be fighting to get our education back.