Skip Navigation

Posts
4
Comments
225
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • I don't even think the talking heads have to do much editorializing before printing this one, much like they didn't do anything but post the word-for-word DSA platform in that viral photo of their anchor pointing at it incredulously.

    Their target audience already see this is as a clearly bad decision in that it benefits many poor(er) people at the expense of some rich(er) people; that's political suicide for the American Right in 2026.

  • Yeah that was the exact point I decided that they were accidental or intentional CCP propagandists and pulled the eject handle on my presence in the thread by announcing I was blocking them both for it. My ban from the community followed minutes later. Surely, a complete coincidence.

  • As previously mentioned, they simply bottle it up. It's not hard to "I've never had any suicidal ideations" your way out of any mandatory screening as currently implemented. Some are better at rooting out deception like that, but apparently that's not in the budget. I received an MMPI-style questionnaire and subsequent interview, but so did all three of those peers I mentioned who passed just the same as I did. Hell, one of my academy classmates told the psychologist he thought he was Batman. When pressed for why, he relented and said it was an outburst because he was distraught due to his goldfish dying. He obviously made it through with a Pass and I think is still on the force many years later? His social media is intentionally obscure so it's hard to say.

    Truth be told, reforming law enforcement in this and other ways is simply not politically motivating for most Americans; they're generally either focused on other single issues, "The police are perfect and criticizing them is immoral," or "The police are all bastards and need to be abolished."

    I'm not dumb enough to tell everyone I meet I was a cop so all of my discussions about the matter are generally relegated to the internet, but of the people I bump elbows with on the topic on Reddit, 90% of the time it turns into name-calling and other bad faith tactics. The other evidence I use is... -gestures broadly at the state of US politics-. Remember when people were marching in the streets to fix the police? Remember how it generally didn't?

  • True. It's a mess.

    Pedantically that doesn't take away from your point but asserting just for clarity because I see people bring it up a lot:

    The infamous Killology lecture isn't taught to the vast majority of law enforcement in the US as I understand it. We certainly didn't receive it (or similar) at my academy.

    I've heard it isn't quite as bad as cherry-picked-and-taken-out-of-context-to-malign, but I've personally never watched it, much like I haven't read Mein Kampf; "That seems like a soup sandwich of nasty, so I'm not going to waste my time."

  • Some corners of Lemmy that I haven't seen maybe, but over my decade+ of Reddit I've never seen anyone present that as an issue.

    I acknowledge it's a bit lame that only a specific part of North America calls themselves "American," but I doubt inaccurate and exclusionary endonyms are a phenomenon unique to the US.

  • Very similar in law enforcement as well.

    I personally worked alongside three people who committed suicide for years in our tiny district of maybe 50 patrol deputies over the span of about three years. Kirk Keithley was my zone partner for a long time, then it was Terry Strawn, and then finally Daniel Leyden.

    Of course, they also murdered their S/Os and other family members as well, so I'm not exactly pouring one out for them, but it's an undeniable trend more broadly - that spaces that theoretically require the utmost in mental health often paradoxically result in mental health crises because of the stigma and practicality of undermining your paycheck; when the problem is still solvable, it's "not big enough of a deal to risk my job over it."

  • Yeah, the trick then becomes, "At what percentage, with how many anecdotes, do I consider a community/instance Bad Faith Central?"

    Like I said, getting 20+ downvotes and 0 upvotes followed by a ban for my "Huh, I never realized the potential racism connection between Winnie The Pooh -> yellow -> Asian before this conversation, but I still disagree that anyone who criticizes Xi Jinping or the CCP is racist" comments was a large red (heh) flag in my face that made me instantly block the community, but the other one (+6/-6 comment removed for "Electoralism" for saying attacking Kamala Harris for supporting the DSA is silly party purity cannibalism) is a tougher call.

    There's also the issue of insulating myself from differing viewpoints essentially creating my own echo chamber. As you indicated, for me Lemmy isn't just Fun, it's also a way for me to interact with and learn from different people around the world. I hadn't met someone IRL who had anything positive to say about the CCP until I was well into being a grown man, for example. I do value hearing from those people because there is bound to be some truth to what they say, and it helps me grow as a person and think about my own government more critically.

    But you're right in that critical thinking is not necessarily Fun, and can be exhausting or even a waste of time in scenarios like I mentioned where by the 5th reply it was no longer about realizing that some people might be using Xinnie the Pooh to further racism but suddenly a tankie circle-jerk where I'm being dogpiled and accused of being a racist because I didn't realize that previously, with a bit of Uighur Genocide denial as a cherry on top. I'd link the thread for the curious who want to read what was actually said, but given your own comments are deleted on Lemmy when a moderator deletes them, I can't find it any more.

  • I suspect that's true for quite a few of them.

  • Ah okay. Barely related but I read recently that Vietnam is one of the countries that thinks highest about the US. Super strange, considering.

  • I don't think that's part of why I can't read anyone's mind, but okay.

  • Huh, never considered that.

    It's hard to get into the minds of a sea of semi-anonymous voters to determine their motivations. I'm sure they all had their own reasons, and yours may be one of them.

  • A lot of people include "I don't give a shit about anyone else" in their "I don't give a shit [about myself]" suicidal thoughts.

    - Ex-cop, dealt with lots of suicide-by-cop attempts and investigated a lot of suicides

  • I don't know what that is, but it looks like Vietnamese script so I'm inclined to agree that's probably relevant.

  • I just don't know where to draw the line.

    Like I hear rumors that lemmy.ml is infested with tankies but I generally do not see that anecdotally as I've lurked over the years. Their posts tend to be a lot more moderate, but as I found out, at least one of the moderators in one of their communities is pretty tankie. I also got dogpiled with votes in the "Is Xinnie the Pooh always racist?" discussion, so it could be the silent majority are tankies or otherwise rabidly pro-socialism/anti-racism. So you're saying I should just block the entire instance off of one bad experience and some rumors? I ended up just blocking the community a few days ago.

    Then there's lemmy.dbzer0.com which is an anarchist instance as I understand them, so the instance itself is not tankie but lets tankies do their thing. So if I block the instance I'd just be throwing the baby out with the tankie bathwater?

    Tough choices. I feel like blocking instances for things like this would very rapidly make my fediverse very small, especially given the entire foundation and growth of the platform arguably arises from decentralization in protest of auth-right social media platforms. I would rather rub elbows with tankies discussing non-tankie topics than proactively cut myself off from all suspected tankies and thus a huge swathe of the fediverse.

    Edit to add after I saw the last line of your comment (did you add it late? does Lemmy support ninja-edits like Reddit?):

    I'm pretty sure that my announcing that I blocked the two users who were arguing with me and asserting that I was racist for not realizing Xinnie the Pooh could have racist connotations as well as saying the Uighur genocide is western propaganda is what actually got me banned and all of my comments nuked. Obviously they're too far gone, but they wanted to make a spectacle of me and as soon as I noped out they realized I could no longer be fit for purpose.

  • Looks like I misread it because I remember a completely different sentiment from the comment I replied to.

    Ah well, the folly of multi-tasking.

  • O hi

    Jump
  • Yeah, one thing I've learned about human genetics is that the markers for skin color are wonky and unpredictable.

    I just feel like it'd be safer to assume she was a lot darker given the recency of African diaspora, but again I am far from an expert so I could be totally off.

  • O hi

    Jump
  • I'm no anthropologist but wouldn't her skin be a lot darker? This feels like people making depictions of Jesus look like a modern European person.

  • O hi

    Jump
  • I'm a sidelined former passionate Ally, can you explain to me how an enby can be "gay" and not "pan?"

  • Most Americans do not support the Republican party, no.

  • Lemmy.world Support @lemmy.world

    Is there any way to set my default submission language to English?

  • Lemmy.world Support @lemmy.world

    How do I contact the admin(s) of an instance?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world

    When did lemmy.world start clamping down on VPNs?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world

    Is there a way to "self-post" on Lemmy like there is on Reddit?