Oh what?! Oh my gosh, these are terrible news. For all not in the loop, here is an Article.

I am really disappointed by this. This is just such a bad monopolistic practice that I’m wondering how in their right mind anyone from Reddit decided this was a good deal to make. On the other hand, it is Reddit, so what did I expect :/

The joke never gets old ;)

Thank you! I really appreciate it. I think so too, especially because learning history provides one with a better understanding and contextualization of current events. I’m still wondering why exactly I picked the Roman Empire, but I also think that’s a pretty nice topic to delve into :)

Once again, thanks for your comment - it really matters to me!

I’ve delved way too deep into the fall of the Western Roman Empire. I think I know a lot about Majorian, Stilicho, Aetius and Ricimer. My gf at this point even knows who Honorius is and why he was a bad emperor. Edit: and that he had chicken :)

When I saw the meme “How often do you daily think about the Roman Empire”, I knew that it was about me, because the answer is yes :/

Thank you, is corrected :)

Fun fact: The nowadays conservative (and IMO right leaning) German CDU has originally considered capitalism to be the reason for outbreak for WW2. They wanted to form a new Christian Socialism, which would’ve united Christian ideals with a socialistic (not marxistic) economy. The so-called Kölner Erklärung was written in 1945 as a basic idea for where Germany should head from perspective of the CDU.

These ideas didn’t last for long and got replaced by a conservative fiscal policy. But it is good to keep in mind that even in the CDU there were people who recognized that capitalism ultimately has a strong tendency to fuel fascism. In Nazi Germany, the main capitalists worked closely with the NSDAP - Krupp, Bosch, Hugo Boss (who famously designed the Nazi uniforms), Volkswagen were all lead by rich capitalists who saw (and gained) profit by the actions of the Nazis. It makes me sad that even the SPD, the so-called Social Democratic Party, long forgot what it means to fight for socialism and equality, and instead embraces neoliberalism with a touch of social politics.

That’s it, I want to cancel my subscription of humanity

Wild. I would’ve thought it to be a MrBeast video, not a music song to be the highest upvoted one.

Same for me. When I go to the big subs, like AITA, I am surprised by the style of conversation the people have and just the overall tone. I’ve asked questions here on Lemmy which go into an AITA direction, and the responses are so much more helpful and kind and respectful - you really notice the difference.

Also, far less bots.

Thanks for sharing it! I didnt know it existed, but it seems to be such a cool resource :)

Thanks - I appreciate the support. And yes, I absolutely agree.

Yeah, I’ve seen comments about that as well. Thanks for calling them out - it is really important.

I think I am deeply troubled by some of the comments I’m reading. I absolutely agree that Trumps ascent to presidency is a huge threat to democracy, and it’s important to do everything we can to stop it.

But in my opinion it is extremely inappropriate to wish someone dead, even someone as harmful to American Democracy as Trump. No person deserves to die for things they’ve done - this is the main reason why the UN urges its members to outlaw the death penalty. And when I read comments that people would want the killer to just do one job, or that he shouldn’t have missed, this doesn’t work with my ideal of respect for the human life.

I am really sad about these comments.

Are you the master of rolie-polies?

Ubuntu actually. I hated Ubuntu for a long time, until there was a game which only ran on Ubuntu. And now, after installing it, I’m actually pretty impressed and like it a lot. Yaru is a very good-looking theme, and the customizations Ubuntu made to stock GNOME are actually pretty logical (like adding windows buttons). It has among the best documentation and package support in the whole Linux universe. I’m a guy who likes to tinker, but for whom it is more important that the PC runs well, and I haven’t encountered a single problem with Ubuntu yet - no kernel panic, no weird Bluetooth stuff, no apps which don’t run for some reason,…

Everything just works. And that makes me happy. So Ubuntu it is.

I think that’s a good way to watch these movies, actually. For no money of the world you won’t get me to watch them seriously, but maybe I’ll rematch them as a bad parody ;)

Thank you - I’ll try it out again. I had exactly the same feeling about KDE5 - too fractured, too inconsistent, too many weird options. GNOME just was more polished in that regard. But your post makes me hopeful that KDE 6 fixes these things :)

Overall I’m just happy that Linux has multiple competing DEs which often inspire each other and give great new design ideas. As long as we have GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, Budgie, Pantheon etc., I will be happy. I have learned lots of things in regards to my design preferences (and about quality of design in general), and I’m glad knowing that I can switch DEs anytime. RIP for Windows/Mac users who don’t have thus luxury.

Yes, exactly - it is the idea of “well, you can gain life experience and serve for the state”. However, it is (rightfully IMO) criticized as just a cheap way of gaining labor forces. I think that German culture is generally more connected with respecting authorities, rules etc., so this attitude of " you need to return something to the community who raised you up" is still prevalent.

Since 2011 the service was not enforced anymore (but not abolished - in German it’s called “ausgesetzt”), but now there is a debate again to reintroduce it in light of the war. I personally am highly skeptical of it, for the exact reasons you outlined. A year ago I have went through the process of refusing to serve in the military in a defense case. We have something here called Kriegsdienstverweigerung: you can refuse to be drafted and serve under arms if it is incompatible with your conscience. I am glad to have went through the process, but I wouldn’t have done so if I were younger; in fact, I probably would’ve been absolutely okay with serving in the military. So instead of training people to shoot, I advocate for providing opportunities for people to learn medicine and science and stuff and leave war to professional soldiers, who aren’t 18- or 19 year old enscripted boys. It is also widely known that lots of guys cheated their way out of serving (e.g. drinking a lot the evening prior, so they make a bad impression on the recruiting officer), so the system was weird anyways. So I think the current debate is between “Russia and China are a threat, we need to get ready to fight, let’s pump up our military production” and “War is no option, our infrastructure is in a state of disrepair, we need to invest into schools and hospitals instead of arms, and drafting teenagers can’t be the solution of the problem”.

I think we have a different view in Europe on it - Germany had a model of national military service until 2011 (with the option of civil service), the Nordic model includes military service etc. So it isn’t completely unimaginable - we just have a different view on the topic.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c988jdxl02vo