To understand why this is happening, you have to go back in history to the end of the slave trade. When the ability to kidnap people from Africa and bring them back to enslave them was legally ended, the white enslavers realized that the only way they could keep slavery going was to force people to breed more slaves. Google that history. It is utterly abhorrent but necessary to understand where the Republican Party is coming from today.

Since the end of slavery, a certain contingent in the U.S. has never gotten over the fact that they couldn’t legally have a sub-class of citizens that they could use for free or nearly-free labor. So they kept trying to find other ways to keep people oppressed, and they expanded that oppression beyond just black people and to any of the “less desirable” groups. Think not just Black people, but also Irish, immigrants, Appalachia. They pit these groups against one another because divided people are easier to control. But the goal is the same - have large groups of people poor for generations who have no other option but to work for slave wages and keep the people at the top very, very rich.

Slavery in the U.S. was a huge economic force, one that a certain contingent (the very wealthy) never got over losing. The next best thing was to create whole groups of people who are desperate enough to work for almost nothing. That’s what we have in this country now. And it works best if those people are constantly putting out more children. That keeps them even more stuck and more desperate, and it keeps a steady supply of cheap labor coming.

It’s no coincidence that they want abortion ended but also want to ensure those same people are continually subjected to sub-standard education, that those same people are “allowed” to send their kids to work (defeating years of progress through child labor laws), that those people are also unable to access higher education, government benefits, or virtually anything that could potentially make their lives better.

The thing is, they are only uncomfortable with it because some fascist politician is telling them to be uncomfortable with it. I am a same-sex married person with children. When people are face-to-face with a regular person like myself who happens to be married to someone of the same gender and has kids, most people actually have very little problem with it. But then some politician feeds them lies, lies that are then propagated on Facebook or Twitter, and suddenly they have an issue with the concept.

What is happening in Italy terrifies me. It’s terrifying because it is the same slippery slope Russia went down and the same slippery slope we’re heading down in the USA. We’re watching it happen in real time with kids who are transgender. The GOP is not stopping there. They have already shown they are a full-on fascists. They will not stop until the USA is their authoritarian utopia.

Memmy has more customization options and I’ve found it to work a bit better than WefWef. For me, WefWef has been very sporadic in its functionality, with it sometimes just generating errors and requiring me to refresh.

I don’t recall the specifics of the one article I read about this, but yes, I think being able to declare bankruptcy gives an out for at least some of the debt. I believe there was also some way that doing so protected Tesla but can’t recall exactly how that worked.

This just doesn’t seem like a “he’s just bad at running a company” situation. A company of Twitter’s age and maturity could have run itself for quite some time if Elon just let it continue on. He’s doing this intentionally for some self-serving reason.

That’s exactly why. He didn’t want to go through with JT and I think devaluing the company might be a way for him to get out of it via bankruptcy. I remember reading that somewhere and thought it made the most sense. He’s a dude with a lot of money (at least on paper) and I’m sure he has people with a decent amount of financial acumen advising him what to do or at least trying to steer him in the right direction. I don’t think it’s any 6D chess or anything, just finance and tech bros playing finance and tech bro games.

IIRC, causing its value to plummet is the easiest way for him to get out of this whole fiasco via bankruptcy (remember, he was basically forced into buying it). He played a stupid game and won a stupid prize and now he’s desperately trying to find a way out.

This only makes sense when you understand that he’s intentionally trying to destroy Twitter.

A lot of this has more to do with the mindset people approached Twitter with than the service itself. Honestly, I always approached Twitter the way you describe Mastodon here. I just wanted to find people who had interests similar to mine and connect with them, as well as find interesting news. Maybe that’s why moving from Twitter to Mastodon has been to seamless. Just a lot less anger and hate on Mastodon from what I’ve experienced. A much nicer atmosphere.

I would love this! At least for Mastodon and Lemmy, which I consider somewhat similar. I use Mona for Mastodon and would love have a separate tab within that app for accessing Lemmy. I just really like the design and feature set of the app and having it extended to Lemmy would be so nice.

So a few things. This is a CVS minute-clinic visit, not a visit to a general provider. The minute clinics have contracts with insurance companies that look a bit different in terms of what and who they are permitted by the insurance companies to treat. There are some really odd variations in these contracts by insurance companies for reasons that are not always grounded in science.

This, as you’ve noted, is an unfortunate reality of a for-profit health care system that is dictated by private companies, insurance companies, and mind-bogglingly complex contracts that sit between providers and patients. The most annoying part IMO is that insurance companies provide zero transparency into these contracts and the justification behind decisions. It’s all “business decisions” at the end of the day, not decisions that are medically sound and in the best interest of the patient.

And for those wondering why OP maybe just didn’t go to a “regular doctor” - the U.S. has a horrible shortage of general practitioners (primary care) physicians. This shortage is worse in some areas than others. And even if you’re lucky to live in an area that has general practitioners, the waiting list to get into their practices might be long. This leaves many people relying on a “doc in the box” aka CVS Minute Clinic or some similar outfit. These doc in the box clinics often only have a nurse or nurse practitioner on site, with a supervising physician off side. They are for-profit entities and they work with the insurance companies to design their contracts to maximize profit.

If you ever find yourself in OP’s physician, one easy way to get around this is to indicate that the visit is for something more general, like abdominal pain or unexplained fever. While the staff still might refer you off to another provider, it might be a good way to at least “get in” with someone.

Another option is to visit a local urgent care clinic if one is available and covered by insurance. These are often staffed by actual physicians so they can treat a wider range of conditions. Many often even have testing facilities right on site for a number of issues.

Finally, another option is to call your insurance company and see if they have an over-the-phone nurse consultant available. They can usually help direct you to the right location for treatment based on your symptoms and insurance coverage.

But yes, OP, I agree with you that we need something better. Medicaid and Medicare have slowly been expanding and my hope is that they will eventually expand enough to cover all Americans. it has been proven that they can still operate without completely decimating the insurance industry (see Medicare and Medicaid managed care). While I don’t agree with for-profit health insurance, the reality is that they are a lobbying force that has to be worked with if we are going to get everyone universal coverage.

Source: Health policy professional by trade, extensive experience within the health care industry

That is a good point and I fully recognize it’s nearly impossible to draw the line somewhere. But this situation is just so extreme. Like it’s not just someone who went out on a boat, maybe got caught in bad weather because they weren’t paying attention to the forecast or didn’t make needed repairs on their boat and got stuck. Even if someone was out boating for leisure you could chalk it up to an honest mistake or just boneheaded decision. But there’s something about taking such a HUGE risk of intentionally paying $250k to go down to the ocean floor and then necessitating a harrowing rescue that puts so many other lives at risk that just seems incredibly different. It’s way beyond any line most reasonable people could even fathom.

Reality too is that there’s a good chance they won’t be found in time and I’m sure rescue crews know that. Just hope no one else here hurt in the process.

I think it’s a mentality that people tend to develop when they are insanely wealthy. This notion that because they have extreme wealth, nothing can touch them. I know a family who is very wealthy. The father does things all the time (extreme adventures and travel) that just seems incredibly dangerous. He seems unaware that these little adventures present danger that not even all the money in the world could save him from.

Highly doubt it. I’ve been watching coverage and it seems pretty unlikely they will be found before their oxygen runs out (assuming they are even still alive and haven’t died as a result of an implosion).

What irks me with all the coverage, however, is that no one is pointing out the potential harm to all the people involved in trying to rescue these people. The Coast Guard and other outfits undertaking the rescue attempts are put in danger the whole time they are out there. And of course there’s the cost involved as well.

I don’t care how much money I had, there’s no fucking way I would have gotten on that thing or done anything that involved going down into the ocean at that depth.

I was active on Reddit for well over a decade. Even helped mod a couple of small communities at various points. I also loved Apollo and was an early beta tester for that app. For me, Apollo was Reddit. It was the only Reddit client I used in recent years and I miss Apollo as much as I miss Reddit itself.

I don’t see myself going back to Reddit. Lemmy has been great and has quickly become very “Reddit-like” for me, but with the vibe of what the internet was back in the early 2000s. I am enjoying the communities that are forming on her.

I’m also very fond of the concept of the Fediverse as a whole. Corporate social media has failed again and again, so I want to move away from it as much as possible.

Mastodon really helped get people acquainted with the Fediverse after the whole Twitter shitshow. My sincere hope is that the Fediverse continues to take off. Corporate-owned social media is failing at every turn.

I think it’s certainly possible.

For people who were more than just the causal browser/lurker, Reddit was an amazing place to not only obtain information about very specific things, but also to connect with other people. I have type 1 diabetes and the ability to connect with other type 1 diabetics to commiserate, share information, and seek help on Reddit was like nothing else anywhere else on the internet. I have a few other niche interests that also only had communities on Reddit.

Years ago, these things (health conditions, niche interests, etc) all had their own separate forums scattered throughout the internet. One forum might have a few dozen people, one might have a hundred or so. But Reddit quickly became the central place where we could connect. Whereas forums could maybe attract a few hundred people, subreddits could connect with THOUSANDS. There’s not yet been anything else like it.

Unfortunately, we made the BIG mistake of relying on a for-profit, centrally owned company to function as a town square. Same with Twitter. We found value in sharing information and connecting through these platforms, only to get screwed over by billionaire CEOs.

Hopefully we have learned our lesson. Hopefully something comparable will take Reddit’s place. It’s not going to happen over time. I never expected Mastodon to replace Twitter overnight. But slowly, very slowly, at least some people are seeing the downfall of corporate social media and will hopefully slowly switch over to federated alternatives. I don’t think it will happen quickly, nor will it happen for everything. But I do think it’s already happening. And it will happen faster if we get some good mobile apps.

I have almost completely stopped using Reddit (and I was a huge Redditor for about 12 years). Since it was first released as a beta, I have only used Apollo. With that option soon gone, I decided it was just best to cut Reddit ties and switch over. Lemmy is not Reddit (yet), but I think once there are some decent third-party apps, it definitely has serious potential.

I think it’s the fallout of allowing private companies to monetize the internet. Way back in the early days of the internet, it was a pretty de-centralized experience. Then we started centralizing things, companies realized there was revenue to be made, and those companies (because they were corporations) valued the money over the people. Capitalism, basically. Only way to fight this is to take the internet back to what it was in about 2006.

If people don’t use Reddit or Twitter or Facebook, those companies have very little value. The value in any social media is generated by the people who use those things. If there’s no people, there’s no value.