sounds skibidi

Vote count matters. It not only can get you to the front page but shows that people agree with the post. Votes attract votes too, so it might only need a few bots to get the ball rolling. Using voting bots you can manipulate what people think is popular AND get many more eyes on it at once.

For example leading up to the election there was SO MUCH politically driven stuff on the front page. To be fair there always is but well above baseline. Mind you this is just a good recent example, not meaning to take sides here.

Election results come out, and so many on reddit are shocked and furious that their preferred side lost. How could it have happened? Everywhere they looked they saw their side was clearly more popular!

Echo chambers are real on their own (an NPR interview I listened to after the election called them “information silos”) and I think bots could have been easily used to manipulate them

Imagine you want to buy a (thing), and instead of going to a bunch of “10 best (thing) 202X” sites you do the sensible thing and head to the (thing) subreddit.

You get a super helpful comment on the (thing) they like and prefer. You’ve never heard of this company before but you decide to at least check them out. Bringing traffic to their site, browsing there selection and maybe even buying the (thing) you had no idea about otherwise

What if that comment wasn’t real, but a AI LLM powered bot? No it’s not your cheap run of the mill bot, but it could be well worth the effort if a company is willing to pay for it.

I guess but it sounds…messy

Yeah it took a minute to get used to that save system and I have been burned a few times. Sometimes I would take advantage of the “save and quit” option instead of using one of the drink saves. Or take a nap on some rando’s bed for an hour!

It does get better as you go everything is a lot harder at the early levels. Once you get some armor, a horse and some practice fights in it goes a lot smoother. And running away is always an option

Sure the US may be past it’s glory days. Hell even the Rand Corporation (who write a bunch of stuff for govt leaders and other high ups) says it’s been trending downhill since some point in the early 2000s. They didn’t mention 9/11 but it seems like a good historical milestone.

Essentially the paper says the last 200 years have been an anomaly and we’re slowly sliding back to historical norms. They call it the neomedieval era and it’s not just the US.

I think being in direct contact with another known member with similar intent would do it

Being aware of local and state government is always a good thing to do and so much stuff is streamed since Covid. It makes you an informed voter and it’s where most of the stuff that impacts you will take place. Marijuana is one example of the impact of state law winning out despite federal law.

Reach out in any form you choose. Get to know them and what they stand for through their actions. Explain how things will effect you and people you know. Like anywhere else being an asshole is not the way to go. You might not change their mind but reminding them that everyday voters are paying attention has an effect even if you respectfully disagree.

It sounds a lot like what many conservative people have been doing for a while. See the YT channel Dirty Civilian. They might not align with you politically but the info they present is free

The old school Rainbow Six games were my gateway drug to the book.

The plot is essentially “what if tree huggers went batshit and weaponized a virus” so take that for what you will but the training and operations in that book were facinating to me. I saw it as world building for one of my favorite games of the time

If you want a “cheaper” option to try I’d give Minus 33 a chance. If it works for you great! If not it’s not as expensive as it could have been.

I do share other commenter’s concerns about overheating. The line I’ve heard is “be bold start cold”

Lemon and orange are the easiest scents to achieve from a chemistry standpoint. It probably complements the base smell of a product easier.

Fun fact A professor once told us that a molecule’s chirality can make a diffeence. For example Limonene can either smell like pine or oranges depending on what way the molecule is mirrored.

Or we could actually make some stuff in the US/EU for a change. I know it takes time but it’s probably for the best in the long run

lol

I wish the FCC would lighten up the amateur radio rules tho. Cool stuff like Meshtastic is happening outside of licenced bands and is taking off

I’ve never been tased but I strongly suspect it would be taser, tear gas, pepper spray from best to worst. The effects of pepper spray is intense and long lasting, even when you shower after pepper spray will leave your pores and hit your face again, and maybe even run down to your junk if you aren’t careful

This community is called YouShouldKnow not YouShouldDoSomethingAboutThis

You have the info and you can care as much or as little as you like

Yeah I’m not really trying to hide from the govt, but I would vote on limiting their power if given the chance. Anyway, what I don’t want is every corporation I deal with (car, bank, phone, apps, isp, etc) to track me so excessively.

If the govt did get curious it would take zero leg work, just ask those companies that are very willing to hand over my data to damn near anyone, or hold onto it long enough to have it stolen.

So with that in mind limiting corporate surveillance and limiting ease of govt surveillance is essentially the same thing, but the govt has the ability to put in the work and get you if they really wanted to.

Idk how the new user experience is now but back when I first downloaded it I wanted a hybrid of sat imagery when cell signal allowed, with an overlay of offline OSM data. This was for two reasons, hiking and to see if the mapping in that hike area needed any major land use edits.

Anyway I had to fiddle with the menus and settings for a while to get the overlays where I wanted it to be. Don’t get me wrong I was able to figure it out but for users who want to install and go it can be understandably frustrating

Osmand is really cool and it’s really capable but I understand that it isn’t for people who don’t want to tinker a bit to make things work just right for them.

For that Organic Maps is what I recommend.

It’s like $20 for cheap devices that talk to your phone via bluetooth. They have standalone devices too to fix that potential vulnerability.

I’m messing around with a few rn. Heltec V3s and TBeam Supremes.