Yeah, I was looking around at different posts, and that’s the conclusion I came to as well 😔 The closest thing to a functioning equivalent doesn’t appear to work much like Pinterest at all, at least not the way I’ve used it. I just want to add pretty/interesting images to boards for inspiration

Slightly off topic, but is there a Fediverse equivalent of Pinterest? I’m feeling the urge to make some boards. I want all the aesthetics please

OK, so Lemmy (or at least this corner of it) skews pretty hard toward atheism. That doesn’t match a typical IRL sample of people. OP, I think you should try to find some online spaces dedicated to different religions and see what people there have to say.

As for me, I was also non-religious at 25. A close friend, on the other hand, decided to join a church singles group, mostly for the community. I think a lot of people get into a religion for the community aspect. Some religious institutions have special groups for new/questioning people or young adults, and virtually all of them have volunteering groups of some sort.

You can also read books about different religions and see if anything resonates with you. I’ve done a little of this. It didn’t really lead my anywhere, but I’ve met people who got started that way.

You could also explore a particular religion for the heritage aspect. If your grandma was Catholic or your family came from a historically Buddhist part of the world, you could explore that. You might not end up believing in any of it, but at least you’ll know a little more about your heritage.

edit: also, make sure you get perspectives from people who are actually part of the religion when you’re exploring. I was raised Catholic, and it was ridiculous how many silly things the Protestants thought about us. A lot of the criticisms were outdated or straight up inaccurate, which was funny because there were plenty of current things to criticize (hello, scandals in the news?) I’m not trying to scare you away from Catholicism, most priests are normal non-abusers and it works for some people.

I’m puzzled that you think this is a uniquely American phenomenon. But to answer the rest of the question:

Most of these people are probably spending time on their causes that they’d otherwise spend working. Their need/desire for money didn’t suddenly go away.

1. Politicians need campaign money

2. Important figures in tech pretty much always want as much money as possible, whatever else they claim; that’s part of why they do what they do

3. A lot of feminists and social advocates probably need the money for their living expenses

Also, this plays into the norms of book publishing. People sometimes value things they pay for more. I tend to assume free books that aren’t classics are worse books, because in my experience, they often are. Traditional publishers usually won’t allow the book to be free (because they’re not charities, even if the book is about a cause), and self-published works have extremely variable quality.

When you want to be friends with new people

Dang, I was fully expecting all the answers to be like “how would anyone know,” but there actually is a way to research this. Thanks for sharing!

External deadlines really help with motivation. See if you can find a hobby group or writing-related Discord or something like that, something where people create goals for everyone to work toward and keep each other accountable. Like, we’re all sharing a short story by August 17th, or we’re all going to bring something new we’ve written to our next meeting.

As for starting, I feel like I had a ton of different starts as a kid. There were school projects, things I tried with friends, and lots of instances of me trying to make my own versions of things I liked, some of which were written artifacts. I guess I always started with whatever I wanted to write, whether that was a small project or a small part of a large one.

I think you shouldn’t worry about whether your writing project is the right thing to start with. Someone might tell you to start with flash fiction instead of a novel, but that’s no good if you don’t enjoy flash fiction, and flash fiction has its own challenges that might pose more difficulty than writing a scene of a novel. It’s OK if your writing is crap (it probably will be for a long time). It’s OK if it takes forever to get words out. It’s OK if you get stuck. Just write something.

I’ll add Côte d’Noir and Old Zealand

Dang, we really should have learned about him in school. Talk about impact, and he even had a memorable name.

political opinions that differ from what?

I used to think I was a pragmatic person. Decades later, not so much.

I’m kind of skeptical of pragmatism. Pragmatism too often leads people and businesses to do things that contribute to enshittification, marginalization of various social groups, and other social ills. Every time something gets worse, it’s probably because of someone’s “pragmatic” decision. There’s some value in being pragmatic in a lot of situations, but I think other values have to take precedence. If you put pragmatism first every time, you’re going to end up hurting people and adding to all the BS people live with.

I don’t quite agree. What you say won’t instantly change someone’s mind, but it plants a seed, sometimes even if the person seems to be doubling down hard.

When I’ve changed my mind about important things, it usually wasn’t because of one conversation. It was more like 100 conversations and articles that slowly built up doubt until one more point tipped me over. None of those individual conversations would have seemed to make a difference to the other person, but they ultimately contributed to me changing my mind.

Social norms, basically. I have unusual ideals about some important but very personal aspects of a relationship. Talking about those aspects early on is seen as a red flag in my community, but not talking about them means we’re probably wasting each other’s time.

You could probably get around this with the right dating apps, but those are data privacy nightmares.

I don’t quite believe in that stuff, but it’s a fun way to think about all the positive coincidences in your life and maybe let go of anger about negative situations you can’t change.

Sir, this is Lemmy.

But seriously, we’re on a social media platform that is all about decentralization. Of course a lot of people here dislike the idea of a single world government, for all the reasons already mentioned and more. Everything we dislike about centralized social media platforms would be present at a much greater level in a single world government.

I found out that the $130 name brand of a particular item lasted about 10x longer than the $35 no-name equivalent. Someone who’s pretty thrifty helped point me toward the brand. If part of what you’re paying for is sturdier materials and build, it might be well worth the extra cost.

For most things though, it’s not worth the price as far as I can tell. Nobody really cares if you wear no-name clothing, or if they do, they’re an asshole you want to avoid anyway.

Are you saying that some people’s lived experience doesn’t support their own existence mattering? If so, (1) talking to loved ones or a therapist might change that perspective, and (2) if that doesn’t work or isn’t an option, you can find a purpose for yourself. If you find something you believe in, or something that you’re glad exists, that you can contribute to even if only in a small way, you’ll probably find yourself seeing that your existence can and does matter after all. Even just answering people’s questions on Lemmy makes a little bit of a difference. People commenting here have helped me; even if I stopped believing all humans inherently matter, I’d say all the anonymous people who have helped me and others with our questions matter.

another thing: I think most people answering here aren’t thinking about how it would feel to have the statistic they’re choosing over their own heads.

here’s a better question to ask: why should anyone need to justify their own existence?

Who really benefits from that mindset? Who benefits from systems that force people to justify their existence in some way? I’m thinking about economics, and politicians making welfare recipients jump through hoops that cost money more than they save to “earn” basic necessities, and the implications for people with less-understood disabilities and older adults with dementia and people who are marginalized in other ways, and how all of this fits into a world where tech companies want to replace everyone’s jobs and hobbies and relationships with AI. (Granted, I doubt LLMs will ever be reliable enough to fully replace humans in some things, and some people will always want relationships with real humans, but there’s plenty of other tech being developed out there too.) Everyone on Earth might have an “unjustified” existence as far as society is concerned someday, if we continue with this mindset.

To answer the second part of your question, though, about why should we care: because we are all fellow humans. I think others here have answered that part in more depth.

Listen to another catchy song and hope it will replace the one that’s currently stuck in my head.

Unfortunately, this only occasionally works.