Notices by SecondJon (secondjon@qoto.org)

Americans Spent More on Taxes in 2018 Than on Food, Clothing and Health Care Combined

https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/americans-spent-more-taxes-2018-food-clothing-and-health-care-combined

@zetetic
Thanks for the info!

I'm hesitant about maintaining too many / multiple accounts and appreciate #qoto. The rules are more concise, but align pretty well with yours, I think. Don't advocate things that are illegal and treat others with excellence. There's also an emphasis on reaching out and interacting with others you don't agree with, which I think we ought all to do.

@freemo
Not an expert, did find this: "Contrary to myth, Michelangelo did not paint on his back, but on a platform of his own devising that extended over half the area of the chapel and allowed him to stand upright."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/rome/articles/Romes-Sistine-Chapel-50-fascinating-facts/

@freemo
I loved the idea of mastodon. There were some niche sites that were appealing but only had a few active members, but the largest instances have a lot of rules that flag the system as very very biased and communicate that any disagreement will be silenced and the person banned.

Within a few days of my joining, the wilw situation happened proving that to be the case.

I don't want to encourage what I think are bad ideas. But I'd rather engage thoughtfully and respectfully than either troll or mob the person with diversity of thought and kick them out so I never hear anything remotely challenging.

I sought out a place to engage others, the way we did as kids on the neighborhood/global BBS and I found #qoto. The rules were very different
- not about silencing others and treating them poorly, but about engaging with each other and having mutual respect. Not necessarily for the ideas or disagrees with, but respect for the person who holds those ideas.

I've appreciated the strong, often oppositional, opinions here, and the reality that we don't devolve into name calling, trolling, and mob silencing each other. We can learn from dialoguing with each other, whether that's changing one's mind or simply clarifying one's position.

My personal goals include: understanding why people think their nutty ideas (imo) are good ideas ; and trying to encourage asking the right questions - I think we're often stuck because we're not even asking the right questions.

I do think the majority of people would engage this way given the opportunity, but the constant drum beat from the media, politicians, and Hollywood pulses a constant message of opposition and anger at each other.

@freemo
"To help some of the newcomers make connections: name 5-7 things that interest you but aren't in your profile, as tags so they are searchable. Then boost this post or repeat its instructions so others know to do the same.""To help some of the newcomers" #introductions

#Philosophy
#conservatism
#libertarianism
#Christianity
#Programming
#ClassicalLiberal
#Anglican
#adoption
#books
#uspol

@williamlweaver There were some issues last election where Trump and Clinton agreed, and both sides were using the issue as a wedge issue. It was ludicrous.

I think this relates to something @freemo posted earlier - everyone seems themselves as doing what's right. But when the other side isn't just wrong/mistaken but EVIL, then there's no reason to engage in discussion of issues with them. If anyone who disagrees with me is a Nazi, and you don't engage in discussions with Nazis, you punch them physically or by bashing their personality.

@freemo
That's true. And that's a big benefit of how Mastodon is set up - we know we're here at the discretion of the moderator(s) of the instance. I joined because I thought the rules at #qoto are great - very straightforward and objective. Thanks!
@Surasanji @hashtaggrammar @commandelicious

If we only tolerate those we agree agree with, I'm not sure that's tolerance.

F*b*k gets even worse : deletes years of cross posts without warning.

Facebook has removed all cross-posted tweets

https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/28/facebook-has-removed-all-cross-posted-tweets/

When reading Ready Player One I realized that my first programming was as a kid editing programs on a TRS-80 (or something similar). First among our friends to have a desktop at home where we'd dial into our local #BBS to play games, chat, and message with people from around the world, back when it didn't seem so creepy when you'd be asked "a/s/l" regularly.

Later with the Internet I wondered why companies were buying up and shutting down services like WBS and Geocities, and was sad that what we had left was corporately driven social media mega sites.

I've been doing software development for decades, professionally since my first year of undergrad where I studied #linguistics; but I think my real work is problem solving to make people's lives easier/better, software is just the tool I'm skilled with to do that.

I chose the QOTO instance because the rules seem open and free and friendly, the way the web should be... and because of the idea of helping bridge the gap and bring people of supposed opposite sides together to connect rather than be polarizing.

Thanks for the welcome, #@freemo Here's my #introduction .

I'm...
• a dad of a handful of kiddos, married, living in Colorado.
• a Christian in the Anglican tradition, and suppose I'm an unaffiliated conservatarian.
• a reader, working through the great novels as well as easier/fun books and nonfiction.
• a card and board game player and am happily teaching more to my kids as they get older.
• short on free time. I enjoy a philosophical pipe as I read and/or reflect, and occasionally get my guitar or bow/arrows out to learn new skills.
• a software developer... and have been for a very long time, now in the world of APIs and cloud development (CRM/SFDC).

Exploring Mastodon, feels a bit like the pre-MySpace/Facebook/Twitter online world before the largest corporations took control and monetized us all, when we had our local #BBS or even online days with WBS chat and the like.

Liking it so far, appreciate the rules of the qoto.org instance