Strong candidate - it’s almost worth moving outside on freezing days for the sound alone. Also just the muffled sound of surroundings on snowy days, though I’m not sure if that counts as sound as much as the absense of it.

Yeah, “from a guy with a dead worm in his brain” would make for a better question.

Go back to the original European name - Vinland/Vineland/Wineland. Though that might have been in Canada, technically.

Better yet, find some pre-Columbian name for the land that was used by the actual locals. I’m sure there’s plenty of alternatives, and some of the most beautiful state names in the US came about that way. Maybe some Native American name for the Mississippi river could be a good starting point.

A piece of American optimism:

America has been awful since the start, in one way or another. It was never going to change because the majority population was either comfortable enough, or scared enough of the minorities that they would accept a certain discomfort as long as their fellow man had it somehow worse.

Right now nobody is having a good time over there. We’re approaching a breaking point. And that’s scary, but it’s also an opportunity to build a better world on the ashes of the old. We are on the verge of huge changes.

Change is no guarantee for improvement. Americans should not only protest the regime, but start preparing to rebuild. Get smart. Read your own history, especially the parts you’re not proud of. If you don’t know or fully understand those parts you will never manage to build wide alliances. Read postwar history, read about the French revolution and it’s messy aftermath. Read Arendt, read Rawls, read Steinbeck and Locke. Prepare yourself to grasp this historic moment. You have an opportunity unlike anything since the 18th century to change America for the better. Don’t waste it doomscrolling. Don’t think you know enough already. Prepare yourself to be the kind of person who is needed once the regime falls.

You’re not powerless—on the contrary, it’s an historic opportunity. And in power there is hope.

European optimism:

After the events of the last few weeks I think a lot more people are fed up with this fascist bullshit, and it seems even Eurosceptics now believe we need to stand together in solidarity across the continent. It’s a new European moment, and the American hegemony has been broken. I’m feeling genuinely optimistic.

The protests in Minnesota also fill me with joy.* I sincerely believe things are beginning to crack. Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu are all in extremely fragile positions, and dictators have famously poor life expectancy. Change is gradual, then sudden, and the destinies of these despots are intertwined. The darkest hour is just before the dawn.

* I wrote this before they ended in more killings. It’s hard to see joy in it now, but I see equal amounts of hope.

Or Vietnam!

A lot of it will correct itself once the bubble bursts and AI companies have to be profitable. AI needs to be regulated and all that, but also importantly it needs to not be subsidized. Make them pay for the environmental cost of computing. Subject them to the same laws you would anyone else - don’t allow crazy data centres that steal people’s water and electricity.

Then again, even when it becomes more expensive than it is now creeps will still pay to have non-consensual content produced. So regulating the fuck out of the industry is also essential, but I honestly doubt we’ll make much progress before after the crash. The EU is making some decent efforts but it’s also too afraid of missing out on the slop bubble.

1. Be informed. Read books rather than endless snippets of doom. Arendt, Orwell, Graeber, Steinbeck—there’s plenty of options. Avoid spiralling into ideological rabbit holes—reading Marxist literature is good, exclusively reading Marxist literature is deeply concerning.
2. Share quality content on the open web where fascists cannot sensor speech. Focus on building communities.
3. Encourage others by being kind and supportive, and understanding of differences. Inspite of popular opinion there’s still a big gap between centrists and fascists—welcome the centrists with open arms, take their points seriously, and debate on reasonable terms. You can both learn something from each other—just because you understand the contours of the system of oppression it doesn’t mean you’ve got it all figured out. Remain humble.
4. Take care of yourself, if it feels heavy maybe make some tea and craft something or read a pleasent book.

That would be my advice, I guess. In general I think there’s more positivity to be found in long-form content, as people have had time to think about issues beyond the initial shock and disgust of the state of affairs expressed in daily news and short form content.

I think these might be more typical traits of totalitarianism. It often goes hand in hand with authoritarianism of course.

Maybe fighting fire with fire and setting the whole board with olive oil now would help at least hide the spot. Beyond that, only time and use helps in my experience.

I guess this is where the insight that you should judge a society by how it treats its weakest comes from. That’s a problem with OP’s scenario, as you’d be thrown into a completely foreign context without access to the more family and community-based security nets that are essential in poorer parts of the world.

I have travelled to some not very wealthy regions to small communities that can only be accessed by a 4x4, horse, or motorcycle (or by foot, as I prefer), and seen severely handicapped people in such places live what at least appears from the outside to be highly dignified and decent lives as the community works together to take care of them. It’s not at all obvious that they would be happier in a western city. Once anyone needs professional medical care or expensive treatments it of course becomes more clear-cut, and if you’re an outsider (or just unlucky) you’re of course out of luck.

Taking away enforced regulations on housing, employment, and banking makes things easier for me, not harder

In the short run, maybe, but sawing off the branch one is sitting on is dangerous business. :)

Yeah, in general if you have a good starting point anywhare not affected by tyranny, war, or genocide you’ll be alright. Behind a veil of ignorance there’s a whole lot of developing countries I’d go to before I’d risk being poor in the United States.

I wonder what people in this thread think the third world is, and what they imagine living there is like.

It’s not like there’s a clear answer. I guess technically Sweden is a third world county, while North Korea and Slovenia are both second world. America is as first world as it gets, and it’s a fucking mess.

If I could choose my own third world country I’d be quite alright. If they sent me to the worst first world country they could find, well, Alabama.

Also in Europe it would be totally normal to respond with measurements. 200 ml, 0.33, and half liter are the standard ones. In the UK there’s pints and half pints.

If somebody just pointed at the container for me instead of telling me the size I would probably consider it weird. Maybe it’s normal in fast food joints.

Learning the language is not a political statement, and you’ll outlive Putin. Besides we’re not solving anything by refusing to communicate with each other. If you want to learn Russian, learn Russian. Just be careful not to fall for the propaganda.

Don’t forget to report, if you have good reason to believe you’re seeing a bot that is not properly marked as such.

The fur covered in snow is a very good sign - it means it’s keeping its heat well inside, with the heat that is escaping not even managing to melt the snow that’s stuck to it. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s actually doing alright under there.

I think instances with ideological underpinnings is fine, and maybe inevitable. The crucial thing is that they need to be honest about it, so that those not interested can go elsewhere.

The problem with lemmy.ml is that it pretends to be a catch-all instance when it’s in fact very much not, and that it doesn’t tell users up front what it’s all about. Both Hexbear and Lemmygrad are better in that respect—at least they’re honest.

The admins over there have some profoundly questionable views, which tends to push away reasonable people and attract bootlickers.

The problem is not the users as much as the site itself and its admins. I wish reasonable people (not bootlickers) would stop using lemmy.ml and go somewhere better. Lemmy.ml’s biggest function right now is to scare away good people who would have been happy elsewhere.

I think whoever wants to promote anything on the fediverse should probably just pick an instance they enjoy and promote that, without caring to explain how it’s all part of a federated network or whatnot.

To be fair, telling people it was founded by Motorhead fans is a better selling point than that it was started by Marxist leninists.