I’m pasting an old comment of mine from the official lemmy.world post discussing potential future federation with threads/meta:

I would like to start by expressing my sincere gratitude and appreciation for the hard work you’ve done with lemmy.world. But I am strongly opposed to federating with Threads. Please read this comment in full, as I believe it outlines the sentiment and reservations held by many within our community.

I think it might be helpful to use an analogy that I think will help express the feelings of many of those within our community regarding the problem with the “wait and see” approach.

What’s to say Threads won’t follow in their very well-established footprints under Meta as a company?

If I go to a friend’s house and their child spits in my face every time, I don’t want to go to my friend’s house. I tell them this. The friend again says, “Well this time just might be different, let’s just wait and see!” Meanwhile, this kid spits in my face without fail, every chance they get. There is a very consistent and pervasive pattern of this.

Why should I believe this kid won’t spit in my face all of a sudden, when they’ve taken every single chance they could repeatedly, knowing that it was wrong and not caring what repercussions would befall them? Do you really think this kid is going to refrain from spitting in my face this time?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein -someone.

Meta/FB have continually demonstrated their core business practices are unethical and that they will continue carrying them out without regard for laws or their users’ well-being. There’s no reason to wait and see. It’s not logical to believe this time will be different.

Threads would bring such a large influx of hateful, racist, violent, bigoted political extremists to the fediverse. They will also do whatever they can to exploit users on this site for their own gain. Their modus operandi has been to exploit their users.

Instead of just conjecture and analogies, I will now provide factual information regarding Meta’s practices as a company.

This really should be obvious by now… but Meta mines and sells their user’s information. Just look at the permissions you have to grant them for Threads… That alone should tell you there’s no reason to “wait and see.” Just look right now. They haven’t changed…

FB users have to agree to all sorts of unethical things in the TOS, including giving Meta permission to run unethical experiments on their users without informed consent. Their first published research was where they manipulated users’ feeds with positive or negative information, in order to see if it affected their mood. It did, and they successfully induced depression in many of their users!

Meta has played a very key role in spreading misinformation, perpetuating dangerous conspiracy theories, and radicalizing the alt right. This is present across nations, but it certainly contributed heavily to the climate of political extremism that led to a mass of insurrectionists to attempt to overthrow my duly elected government…

I will now turn to an article that surmises well the core practices of Meta as a company:

• Elevates disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories from the extremist fringes into the mainstream, fostering, among other effects, the resurgent anti-vaccination movement, broad-based questioning of basic public health measures in response to COVID-19, and the proliferation of the Big Lie of 2020—that the presidential election was stolen through voter fraud [16];

• Empowers bullies of every size, from cyber-bullying in schools, to dictators who use the platform to spread disinformation, censor their critics, perpetuate violence, and instigate genocide;

• Defrauds both advertisers and newsrooms, systematically and globally, with falsified video engagement and user activity statistics;

• Reflects an apparent political agenda espoused by a small core of corporate leaders, who actively impede or overrule the adoption of good governance;

• Brandishes its monopolistic power to preserve a social media landscape absent meaningful regulatory oversight, privacy protections, safety measures, or corporate citizenship; and

• Disrupts intellectual and civil discourse, at scale and by design.

I ask you now if you truly believe this is the sort of player you want on the Fediverse? Do you really want to federate lemmy.world with such a blatantly immoral and detrimental corporation?

I have really enjoyed my time here on Lemmy.world and have so greatly appreciated the hard work of you and your team. I have been donating to you to help with the costs of running this instance.

However, federating with Threads contradicts my philosophy and ethical principles, and I will be sadly canceling my donations and finding a new home should we federate with Threads in the future. I firmly believe that most users on lemmy.world share this sentiment. I hope this comment helped express the resistance and fears of our community.

Once again, I appreciate all the work you guys have done. But I respectfully and severely dissent on this issue.

Man I swear I remember this on reddit… or a post similar to it.

I remember many of my fellow Americans couldn’t understand the date format.

Edit: And it looks like the same thing happened here…

How to pass/invalidate a lie-detector test.

They are not considered admissible evidence in court (but the criminal justice system still use them to a degree…), and they can be interpreted with intentional bias, so I think it’s fine to share.

One of my psychology professors told me that if you hide something like a sewing needle in your shoe’s insole, you can ever so slightly apply pressure so that the poke causes a physiological spike. They monitor for movement, so it has to be very minute. The goal is to do this on every control question so that they cannot establish a baseline and have to give up.

Probably still safer than gutter oil…

Worthless trolls. They’re not hacktivists if they’re leaking innocent government employees’ personal information for the most cringeworthy demands possible. I’ve had to deal with data breach shit like this in the health industry.

Are these dipshits so self-deluded that they really believe they’re some sort of activists? I thought Anonymous was cringeworthy enough… At least they aren’t such pricks.

I love my Razor Wolverine Ultimate (Gen 1) wired controller with the original Xbox style breakaway cord.

I realized how useless wireless controllers are when you are playing in one room, not far from the TV. Why the hell would I want to juggle with recharging and my controller dying on me?

Wired makes way more practical sense to me, and I believe wireless controllers are not actually any more convenient. It really just depends on what you’re looking for. The only way wireless is actually more convenient is if you’re playing super far from your TV or have a child or pet that messes with cords.

I’d rather not deal with batteries, crappy charger packs that lose their charge too quickly, or my controller dying during a game.

I think in a general sense, wireless electronics are more reasonable and convenient. But absolutely not wireless controllers if you’re going to be sitting on your ass in one place, not far from the TV. Then they are just more hassle with the only benefit rendered irrelevant (if you’re playing in one spot near your TV).

I believe most gamers fall into this category, and just don’t really consider what is more convenient and practical.

This is entertaining, but I seriously don’t understand how it’s appropriate for the World News community.

I used to think (intelligent/hyper-advanced) extraterrestrial life was far-fetched, but despite being very skeptical by nature, I’ve recently changed my tune after deep diving into the subject of UAP.

I recommend giving my write-up a read.

My article is very throughly cited from valid sources. I’m not saying aliens are responsible for the UAP we’ve witnessed in our atmosphere, but I am inclined to admit it seems like a feasible explanation for the crafts that were confirmed by our government being witnessed all over the world, beginning in 1947.

I know from past experience that many users will not follow that link, so I figured I’d share some important highlights to demonstrate that I’m not a crazy conspiracy theorist.

Here is Maj. Gen. John Samford’s nationally televised 1952 address on the mass witnessed UFO/UAP events, which began in 1947.

Here are snippets from the Twining Memo which specified that: "The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious.”

Here’s the 1948 “See Something, Say Something” memo of Bavaria, Germany regarding “flying discs.”

In May 1948 the Office of Military Government for Bavaria, Germany, issued instructions for reporting sightings of “flying discs.” These instructions were issued as a result of requirements from higher headquarters in Germany and in the United States. They were the result of the flying saucer phenomena that began in 1947. [32]

It’s been confirmed since 2017 that the U.S. government had a secret program devoted to the surveillance and study of UAP, called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). [1]

The existence of UAP as real objects in our atmosphere has been confirmed by the U.S. government. The Pentagon’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) was mandated to produce a report on UAP, and stated in their report that:

"Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects given that a majority of UAP were registered across multiple sensors, to include radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon seekers, and visual observation.… UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security.

Safety concerns primarily center on aviators contending with an increasingly cluttered air domain. UAP would also represent a national security challenge if they are foreign adversary collection platforms or provide evidence a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology. [11]"

Of the 510 total UAP reports studied by ODNI, 171 remained “uncharacterized and unattributed,” and “some of these uncharacterized UAP appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis." [11] Not only has the US government confirmed that UAP exist, they have admitted that they pose a serious safety risk to our pilots; both commercial and military.

Furthermore, these crafts which appear to be exhibiting disruptive/breakthrough technology in comparison to our currently most advanced (publicly disclosed) conventional aircraft, were demonstrating these same feats over 65 years ago. I find it harder to believe we had such a significant breakthrough back in 1947, rather than tech originating from some non-human intelligence.

In my article, I have linked previously classified correspondence in which the Air Force and other government agencies all confirmed with each other that the crafts in our atmosphere, starting in 1947, were not the product of any secret U.S. programs. The recommendation was to attempt to recreate these crafts, which is where USAF Project 1794 comes into play.

Here is a link to the full Project 1794 PDF file in a downloadable format.

It is important to note that the craft attempting to be designed here was not capable of achieving the feats of the “flying saucers” that were being witnessed all around the world at that time.

Project 1794 also offers proof of the U.S. government’s ability to maintain classified information. I have seen the idiotic talking point parroted around that “The U.S. government couldn’t keep something like UFOs from the public all those years.” Why not?? USAF Project 1794 unequivocally refutes that argument. It was kept secret until it was declassified and sent to the National Archives. [31]

TL;DR: Don’t be so quick to discount the possible existence of non-human intelligence…

Edit: I always wonder if the people blanket downvoting assume these are fake documents, or if it’s just blatant confirmation bias, avoidance, and denial? They are easily verifiable. If you’re here just jumping to conclusions that this is false because it’s easier to believe that, consider that you are failing to maintain intellectual integrity. That’s not skepticism; it’s bias and being too ignorant to even consider a possibility that is outside of your internalized beliefs. It’s a demonstration of closed-mindedness. You’re like the people from the movie Don’t Look Up.

If you’re so confident, read my blog post and challenge your preconceived beliefs.

While I’m not ethically opposed pirating, I understand and would probably do the same for a server I was hosting. Anybody remember Kim Dotcom’s mansion raid?

What I do not understand is blocking a community surrounding magic mushrooms… No one is going to prosecute the L.W admins for people discussing shrooms/their use…

Substances are legal/illegal depending on where one lives, just like weed which is apparently perfectly fine to post here, even tho possession is a death sentence in some countries.

It simply doesn’t logically follow that weed, or even alcohol communities are permissible while a shroom community is not.

Banning any content deemed illegal in any country in the world establishes a very dangerous precedence (if that’s the justification here). Free speech/dissenting from the government is illegal in many places in the world.

One thing the community must remember tho, is that you have to operate your server in accordance with the law in which country you’re hosting it (in this case Germany).

I’ll gladly admit I’m not too familiar with German law, but it seems unreasonable to expect government persecution for hosting servers which hosts a shroom discussion community.

Oh brother…

Nothing like someone peaking over your shoulder and seeing you’re browsing r/AnimalPorn…

I totally agree with you. Hopefully lemmy can be a little more mature with community names. (Yeah, yeah… I know the hypocrisy of my username… It’s my gamertag)

Hands down the most/best customization. If anyone complains about the UI, it just means they didn’t tweak it enough!

Wow no way… Slide has always been my favorite 3rd party app, and I always felt like the only one using it when I’d mention it on reddit. What an awesome surprise!

I made !vans@lemmy.world and I’ve been thinking about posting once a day so that I don’t exhaust my content to post, but is that enough? Should I try to make a couple posts a day?

r/vans is in the top 5% of subreddit size. I’ve got one subscriber other than myself! Haha