There are a number of high profile candidates who very clearly articulated “not right vs left - top vs bottom” at every turn. Class awareness is growing. Not sure if it is widespread enough to have a big impact yet, but it is becoming part of the conversation.

And let’s be clear here - “Christian Nationalism” is not Christian at all. I’m not Christian but far as I can tell Jesus himself was a “love each other” guy not a “political power” guy. I’m all for rebelling against the church but Jesus the guy had some great teachings and was in no way seeking political power. I don’t have beef with him.

I mean I’m in my 50s and for years Reddit was awesome for me. Sure “Reddit” didn’t make all those posts themselves - but they created a space where folks like me could (and did) enjoy contributing and engaging.

Has been getting worse for a long time, but that doesn’t mean it was never good.

I don’t mind that Reddit in some ways profited from the content I contributed- because

1. I got enormous value from the site and it was 100% free for me
2. I intentionally was contributing to the site knowing that they would host my content and potentially profit from it.

AI takes without consent and charges for benefit

Agree “many obvious reasons”. That said I feel as though there may be some merit to the “we need a way to keep AI bots from just taking all our content and reselling it via AI”.

There are a million other reasons to stop using Reddit and I won’t be going back.

But for years they built up a ton of great user contributed content. Just like it’s unfair for art, music, other content to be absorbed / plagiarized and repackaged as AI… it is also unfair that web bots steal all the old/good Reddit content and don’t give credit + make money off content generated by old Reddit.

Note: reddit bad. Also AI plagiarism bad.

It’s great for us all to be the best we can be, and to always be working to improve.

“Perfect” is an abstract idea - it’s not really applicable to something as complicated as a human. Not just because it isn’t obtainable, but because we definitely would never be able to agree what the criteria are.

This is me! 🙂 I could make you a long list of things wrong with my parents / things they did wrong, but last I checked humans are going to be human (not perfect). My parents love me and they did the best they could. I had a WAY better childhood than most.

However 40 years of undiagnosed female ADHD didn’t go well. I didn’t feel like I deserved to be struggling so I pretended that I wasn’t. THAT didn’t work.

Eventually got knowledge and support - things are looking up for sure. Just - boy oh boy a lot of energy wasted and failures that could have been avoided if I knew then what I know now.

Grateful I know now, but folks who are struggling and don’t know why have my heart for sure.

Everyone makes mistakes.

If you had a reasonable childhood count yourself lucky - your mistakes will probably be reasonable. If you suffered from severe trauma/abuse or you have mental health challenges then you are likely to make different kinds of mistakes.

It is everyone’s job to work towards being better. You do something shitty then YOU did it - your childhood didn’t do that, you did. It also might be true that you don’t even recognize how shitty it is because you were taught it was “normal”.

We all are responsible for our actions, but some folks have been surrounded by kindness from birth so kindness is natural and easy. Other folks have to work really hard and make a lot of mistakes to learn that their behavior isn’t ok.

Yes, we are all responsible for our actions.

Equally true = some folks face enormous challenges because of background or brain chemistry, while others have it so easy they don’t get why anyone would struggle.

Absolutely humans are deeply affected on conscious and unconscious levels by all kinds of things that are out of their control - both experiences and brain chemistry. Absolutely it is a privilege afforded to only a few to have access to the support and resources needed to become aware of their situation and create deep change for themselves.

It’s also true that if you do a bad thing you did a bad thing. That does NOT mean you are a bad person, it does NOT mean all the things you can’t or couldn’t control are your responsibility, it does NOT mean that you even were fully aware of what you did.

But if you do a bad thing you are responsible for what you did. YOU did it. It is your responsibility to get on a path that will allow you to recognize and change that behavior.

It is nobody’s job to be perfect or beat themselves up for mistakes. It is everyone’s job to work towards being better - to themselves and to the people around them.

Part of that is understanding that you are responsible for your actions. You may genuinely not have been capable of making a better choice at the time - but if you did it = it’s on you to own the mistake.

I mean Disney’s lawyer game is top notch. I would love to see the mouse vs AI battle.

Non profit gamblers would be awesome - like all gambling proceeds go to addiction recovery services… emphasis on gambling addiction.

I do think if gambling was outlawed completely it would still happen - fewer people involved but likely more associated violence. I would 1000% support gambling only being available via not for profit companies.

Is there any justification in folks selling crap unhealthy junk food? It has any number of ingredients that are harmful to humans short and long term. It is addicting and habit forming. The health consequences on a macro level hurt society.

There are any number of sometimes pleasurable but undeniably harmful things sold for a profit. I’m not saying I think gambling should be legal, but I am pointing out that it’s a slippery slope re: what crosses the line?

I don’t spend money on gambling but I do sometimes spend money on other things I know are bad for me. Is the answer to outlaw unhealthy things?

It’s not just the capitalists that want to make money - there are people who WANT to gamble. Make it illegal it will still happen - just without regulation. Prohibition didn’t work.

They for sure create targeted advertising towards likely repeat-spend customers. Big box liquor stores I’m sure use algorithms to encourage repeat purchases.

Again - not defending predatory gambling sites at all - just aware that almost every business model is about targeting big spenders and getting them to spend more. Example: micro transactions in gaming.

“Everyone does it” doesn’t make it ok, but if we don’t like that gambling sites care more about profit than the wellbeing of users? Certainly they are not alone in that.

I mean gambling is shitty but we don’t hold folks that make alcohol responsible for folks getting addicted to alcohol.

I’m not familiar with legal gambling, but theoretically there is a percentage of users that partake casually for fun - yes? And others who get addicted. Same with booze.

Obviously the overall experience of gambling is more predatory/distasteful, but I’m not sure that means they should be legally responsible for the folks who get addicted. If the booze makers and sellers are not responsible for providing a potentially addictive product, why are they?

Agree completely- I adore people who are excited about anything and tell me about it with enthusiasm!

That said - it needs to be mutual. Awesome for you to lecture me on your passions - but it’s not a fun relationship for me if you aren’t also eager to hear about the things I want to share.

Right. They MEANT “if you mention Claude I don’t trust anything else you said”.

They just didn’t SAY that.

I’m not a fan of AI and don’t use it - however I can’t say I have found humans to be particularly clear, accurate or reliable either. Myself included… we all make mistakes. 🙂

So what you meant to say was “if you claim that you legitimately researched but you mention Claude - I will assume you did not”.

Which is valid. But is not what you said.

I use dashes constantly (way more than I should I’m sure) and always have - and I am in my mid 50s. Low key worried that folks will think I’m using AI so now I’m self conscious about them.

Judging or dismissing a PERSON for using tools you don’t respect = valid.

Saying you “invalidate” content that is “properly researched and legitimately correct” = what?

I mean most people have no idea how to “properly research” - this has been true for centuries - sloppy research is not a new phenomenon. If something was “properly researched” why would you reject it?

I am in my 50s and have never had a facebook account. I never will - but honestly I have been tempted to recently because apparently Craigslist is all scammers now and Facebook Marketplace is the go-to for local used buy/sell.

If I could make a “marketplace only” account I would because I like to buy/sell used. But I can’t so oh well.