People have already written about how in the United States of America, the zone is being flooded, and I happen to live there. I am prone to doomscrolling about the negative things going on to the point of being almost paralyzed, doing nothing but scrolling headlines for the rest of the day, convincing myself it is alright because I am “staying informed” and “maybe it’ll outrage me/make me fearful enough to push me into actually doing something to help.” But I don’t ever actually help anyone as a result of all that scrolling. Or do anything to help myself. Or anything necessary for my own wellbeing. It really is paralyzing for me.

I notice when I aggressively curate that content out successfully and instead my online feed has more positivity and zero headlines about people suffering, I actually do something about others’ suffering, even if it’s just a small, manageable drop in the bucket instead of a large act of martyrdom.

I am prone to rumination and negative thinking and cynicism myself, yet I find people who mostly complain constantly unpleasant to be around, even if I agree with their complaints. In an effort to avoid hypocrisy, to avoid being the very thing I don’t like in others, I am trying to be more positive. And that means trying to find communities that act positive, and trying to contribute positivity myself. Practice towards being who I want to be.

I have the demographics of minority groups many consider oppressed, and recognize how lucky I am that I haven’t faced any of the things I’m “supposed” to have faced. I’d like to have a break from seeing headlines that remind me that my luck is very very likely to forcibly run out within the next three years. They certainly will not invigorate me to do anything about it.

I, like most people, have a brain that can be hijacked by outrage and will click on controversy. I think I’ve gotten to the point where I’d rather have measured conversations with smart people I trust about issues, who can also keep me in check if I go wrong, instead of looking to the latest online fight full of hot takes, bad faith, people acting in good faith but misinterpreting each other, and all the many problems that have happened/been exacerbated with the rise of social media. This means shutting out negativity and running towards positivity.

And yet I still think about the negative bad things often, the headlines I’ll see in public or overhear people talking about. It’s not like I’m oblivious.

I really really think it’s okay to try to stick my head in the sand for now when the air is being filled with proverbial poison gas intentionally trying to make people despair and feel hopeless and paralyzed instead of trying to resist, and I have a known tendency to be vulnerable to that.

The Unhook browser extension for Youtube lets you choose what to block. You can choose to toggle the Shorts off without toggling anything else off.

Chopping onions with my glasses on results in a smaller amount of tears and eye stinging than with my glasses off. So unironically this. Glasses acting as a tiny localized facemask/makeshift eye protection.

I think !nicememes@sopuli.xyz would like this too. Would crosspost myself but Piefed has made that hard for things that are not link posts.

I am just going to agree to disagree with you here.

The question is where do you draw the line? I’m sure that in Victorian times, something like sex with the lights on or anything not heterosexual is

the honestly disgusting and insane things that get published

and

literary depravity

I think a better question is how do we prevent people from getting hurt in real life, not what do you personally find disgusting. I personally cannot watch horror, pimple-popping, even had to look away during some action movies because I think the injury shown in these is disgusting, I actually have a pretty visceral reaction to it, but I don’t argue for these things that will live rent-free in my head in a negative way to stop existing for everyone. I just don’t consume it, and ask people to tag content appropriately if I see it untagged. But of course, if you injure a person in real life and not just on film or a book, then by all means throw the book at them.

I do get your discomfort with seeing things in public. I wouldn’t want the shot of the slasher in the middle of violently killing someone on the public ad. I think if it’s got a visual component do not show it in public, but if it’s text you are probably too close to the other person’s book/phone—I don’t try to snoop on strangers in public and still sometimes see what is on their phones, but I don’t look long enough to read.

I probably should have mentioned with this post that if it was the American Red Cross, you can call up and ask to be put on the do not call list. Haven’t gotten a call from them ever since, as a regular donor.

My naive understanding of things says this is what construction companies are for. Pay the one that does the best work the fastest. It already exists, just not in publicized easy-to-judge ways. Of course, perverse incentives and corruption as well as just “work expands to fill the time allotted” and genuine roadblocks in progress and complex stuff I do not 100% know because I do not work at a construction company but am vaguely aware exists because of adult cynicism plays a part too…

deleted by creator

very late to this post, but !shmups@lemmus.org

So fascinating there is a whole field for this called _cartography

We do at least have the advantage of editing titles.