Welcome. I too disagreed with the wrong people on Reddit and can no longer participate there.

Yeah presently Lemmy is not Reddit-scale. But, it also is not Reddit-moderated, or Reddit-algorithmed. I find I can sign into Lemmy, do a bit of scrolling and commentary to scratch my itch, and get on with my day. No dynamic selection designed to retain my engagement through emotional manipulation, a far lower population of malicious bots and actors, and generally more thoughtful discussion.

Quality beats quantity. Federated social breaks the toxic monoculture. Distributed media like this is able to support a broader diversity of people. In the end, this is the future.

“I cared most about the characters, and the fact that the characters were all together at the end of the series was the thing that mattered most to me,” he told PEOPLE. “And so I found that really satisfying because, as actors, we could say goodbye to each other in those final scenes.”

Right, because its all about actors’ experience. Meanwhile the production was making the conscious decision to fuck the audience and throw out some dumb-ass half-baked hand-wavey pablum so they could run out the clock and get paid. They landed the plane with the last drop of gas in the tank.

Lost could have been a grand unification of science fiction and fantasy with a solid character drama as a foundation. Instead they turned it into a soap-opera that insulted the intelligence of a dedicated audience. I’m still holding a grudge about it.

In the states, though, solar is woke and gay, and thus doesn’t get any financial help(currently). Farmers that live hand-to-mouth in the old model, getting drip-fed agri-subsidies, don’t have a way to soften the blow of the capex needed to push through the expense barrier, even though the other side is cleaner and more profitable.

At least you got the tender version.

Crichton had his day. His estate doesn’t own the genre of medical drama. Not even ones with Noah Wilie in them.

Kids are little disease vectors that drain your life-force and murder your dreams.

If you enjoy being broke, fat, tired, and boring, you should totally have kids. Come on, do it! Your friends and family just assume you’ll squeeze out one or two, you don’t want to disappoint them , do you?

As if Fallout wasn’t enough of a big fat fuckin’ bummer already. Mister Pathos himself will make me feel even MORE guilty for enjoying it.

I’m only aware of a lot of what I find distressing because of my superpowers. I can know what’s happening everywhere in the world within minutes of it happening. Somebody I will never, ever meet in person can say something mean about me and put a shadow on my mood, if I choose to pay attention to it.

My day-to-day is idyllic. Modest, urban, a bit ecclectic… but comfy, by American standards. Food, shelter, medicine, recreation, community, art, adventure, mobility, and friendship are all in adequate supply. I’m employed and paid fairly. Accepted by friends and family, valued by my colleagues. If my sphere of awareness and sphere of routine travel were the same, I would think myself a prince.

But my sphere of awareness is vast. So, I know my comfort is a byproduct of privilege, which is withheld from millions of other deserving people because… reasons. I know there are other parts of the world where logic and justice and tolerance are in widespread, societally upheld ascendance, and that those places are far, far away from where I live.

Immediately outside the personal bubble I labor to maintain, there’s pain, violence, fear, hunger, and hatred. One misstep on my part and I could find myself there as well. I know that fear is wielded as a tool by people who live in fortresses made of money, by people who claim to represent the ideals of my nation, but only care that they are the winner and everybody else is the loser.

So yes, there are many nagging feelings. I wish my comfort was more than the byproduct of somebody powerful wanting something from me. Much angst, as I sit in my comfortable chair with my expensive technology, in my lovely house on a gorgeous spring day. I wish I was stupider, less aware, less experienced in the motivations of horrible people.

Narrow down your inputs. Isolate until you feel calm. Yes, this by itself is very difficult and could take a while.

but, if you manage it, begin reintroducing stimuli one at a time and monitor your inner state. Sit with it for a while and see if that experience contributes to a level of unease. Record your impressions. Repeat.

Mmmmm, more warmed-over pablum. Let’s do another remake of the Baywatch movie while we’re at it.

They had me after I saw the one where they make Scorsese cry.

Watched this episode last night, for some reason.

Like most episodes of The Bear it was both excellent and psychologically damaging at the same time. Moments of grace, followed by acts of self-sabotage and idiocy that completely erase any progress or personal growth that might have been revealed. Overall, one final kick in the dick from a group of talented and dedicated artists.

100% ^^ this right here.

Valve is one of the very few big companies I am totally fine spending money with. The value proposition is entirely focused on the products and how the customer, me, gets the most from them. No artificial scarcity, no protectionist bullshit, no outrageously exploitative EULA or obvious shafting of vendors. They focused on creating something useful and functional, and they profit from it. Bravo.

And they have been doing this for decades. The first PC I installed Steam on was a Celeron with a Voodoo2 GPU in it.

I have to do business with other companies because they have driven other competitors out of business. I get to do business with Valve.

Embrace the Suck. Own it, master it, overcome it.

You’d think a religion invented by a science fiction writer would have anticipated this vulnerability.