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smoothjazz

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A person ought to believe they can do great things.

I think there's pressure on us to think this, but I find that the older I get the happier I am moving away from this idea. I've accomplished a lot in my life and at the end of the day it doesn't bring me satisfaction. What brings me satisfaction is being able to sit quietly with peace of mind and be content with just being.

The desire to do "great things" is paired with an existential anxiety that I don't think is healthy. And not to be political, but often "great things" mean accomplishments that don't correctly model externalities like environmental damage and human exploitation.

Whatever they're doing is super benign compared to the propaganda I'm exposed to day in and day out as a US citizen with nearly every media outlet working to influence me either commercially or jingoistically. A single media platform with a different point of view is healthy, especially when it will host content the other platforms censor.

Social networking hasn't influenced my point of view, but it has allowed me to access voices that I've always wanted to hear from, there was just no way to get to them before.

I'm talking about a larger timescale than an individual product or company. Bronze age -> iron age -> industrial revolution -> information age...

There's going to be some noise when you zoom in but I firmly believe that human technology marches forward over time.

Whatever the platform's intent, the end result is that I get to see content that is censored on other platforms. If China's foreign policy goal is to help the Palestinians, then they're aligned with my views.

This rings true because as someone without a religious background, I definitely feel the opposite: that progress is inevitable and the people who are "in charge" while it progresses are a commodity. I also find the "deification" of leaders (like say Steve Jobs) to be damaging to culture, leading to arrogance, political fighting and empire building.

Trying to have a good life and be good to those around you, while riding on the one-way track of technological progress seems like a better strategy.

Doesn't this go against the comic in the post that claims that it's easy to block what you don't want to see? Also that it's an open network? Why not just let everyone in if the moderation tools are good?

I definitely would never give my phone number to a social network.

You're saying you'd be willing to pay reparations for this and that, but those are empty words. If someone asked you to let go of your national identity, home and security you'd probably rethink the whole thing. If you are positive you're a 'settler colonist' you should voluntarily give up your possessions for the dispossessed. You have no real skin in the game.

This is pretty rude and making a lot of assumptions. Why do you think I'm not indigenous myself? I'd much rather my taxes go to reparations than to Israel and I think that's the crux of your issue. Even people on the complete opposite end of the political spectrum from me would rather see their tax dollars go to something else (like say the US border -- again opposite of me) than to Israel.

This matches what I've seen from Israelis, but the issue is that the rest of the world does think this is the best way forward. Support in the west is very generational and supporting Zionism will be politically lethal within 20 years. I don't see how Israel could keep an ethno-state intact without support from western allies. There's great pressure on Israel now to stop the war without having achieved any strategic victories. Repeated Oct 7th like events seem inevitable until Israelis face the reality of the situation and secularize.

Also for the record, I fully support reparations to indigenous and Black Americans, so yes, my view is consistent.

The former since that would be the definition of a secular democracy. The same immigration and citizenship laws regardless of religion or ethnicity. There's definitely need of some reparations as well, so I think right of return would play a role in re-establishing the Palestinian population from where they were displaced.

This isn't accurate. Israel doesn't control Gaza and in fact has lost control areas that it once had under control. Hamas continues to launch rockets from northern Gaza and multiple battalions have had to be withdrawn, including the elite Golani brigade. Israel is also under major pressure in the north with over 100k settlers evacuated and constant losses from Hezbollah. That's not even counting the political battles Israel has lost and will continue to lose.

They have no definition for victory that they can achieve in Gaza or with Hezbollah and this is causing a lot of stress on the Israel government and Israeli society (especially because both still want to punish Palestinians). It seems like Israel is headed toward civil war at the least. I don't know how anyone could be bullish in the long run.