I do see plenty of disagreements, especially in the political sphere. While people seem to generally lean left, there is a decent amount of variation in opinions within that space. Although since they all still generally align with the same goals, the disagreements only get so heated.

For things like media (games, movies, etc) I see less, but for me I just don’t really feel the need to rain on anyone’s parade. If they like something I don’t like, whatever. I wouldn’t be shocked if a lot of people felt the same way.

For tech stuff… we’re on a decentralized open source platform and a lot of the users came over from corporate social media. Of course most of us are skeptical of big tech developments. Occasionally some nuance gets lost, but I even see some of that show up. There are plenty of threads where the OP posts something based on a misunderstanding and the top comment is someone who (probably) knows more about the topic and can clarify things.

Also like some others have said, a non-trivial amount of the arguing that happens on other sites is likely egged on by astroturfing and prioritized by algorithms designed to keep attention rather than promote healthy discussion.

Also, there are some topics where the disagreements I have at least just don’t feel relevant enough to post. For example, with the AI thing. I generally agree with the sentiment of opposing the current AI implementations being pushed by big tech. The environmental impact makes it a non-starter even if the rest of it was good, but then there are issues with privacy, companies using AIs that aren’t good enough to accomplish the task to replace workers just to save some money regardless of the consequences, and the involvement these companies have with the MIC, etc.

However, I do have some optimism for uses of AI in the future. I think it’s cool tech that has potential to do good things, it’s just that a) It’s not actually ready yet and b) Some of those things would only work if we lived in a fairer society. But… honestly what’s the point of interjecting this into a discussion about what’s CURRENTLY going on with AI? What does my hypothetical sci-fi automated luxury gay space communism have have to do with a thread about companies spying on us or switching workers for AI and hurting both the workers and the consumers? Nothing really. It’s only really relevant for a discussion about academic research on AI. So I don’t bring it up. Not because I feel I need to silence my dissent, but because I recognize that it doesn’t really serve any purpose in this context beyond potentially derailing the discussion.

So overall, I’m not worried. While it would be nice to have some more people on the fediverse, I’m fine with the disagreements we do see and I don’t need to argue both sides with a Nazi or a bot. As long as mods don’t get too heavy handed about unreasonable stuff, it’s fine.

Do you think they’d actually bring back the draft? I feel like after Vietnam they realized that it’s too hard to send the general population to do terrible shit without getting a lot of pushback. A professional military that’s already filtered out anyone with a conscience is half of why they can just do shit like this while most of the country doesn’t want it. Plus technology has improved a lot, allowing a smaller force to do the same thing.

As for me. I’m already out of that age range, but I’ve already been wanting to move for a while. Maybe that would be the last kick in the pants necessary to get me to actually do it. But with the depression it’s still kind of a coin flip so….

The thing that bothers me about the whole discussion around the Epstein files is why do people think THIS will be any different? The rich and powerful have been getting away with heinous and illegal things in public for a long time. Wars which aren’t just immoral, but illegal by both international law and the laws of our own country. Gross violations of civil liberties and human rights. Police just straight up kill people and get away with it. Illegal torture facilities. Companies have killed tons of people through either negligence or outright malicious greed. Etc.

We KNOW about all of these thing already. Some were just straight up done in public, some done in private but eventually got leaked or declassified, but either way, we’ve had plenty of evidence of these people doing things that should have put them away for the rest of their lives and the worst consequences they’ve ever suffered were slap on the wrist fines if they even got those.

To me, the Epstein files are a perfect crystallization of the broader reality that the rich and powerful can use their money and influence to commit crimes with impunity. The idea that they are distracting from these crimes by committing even bigger crimes is just sheer absurdity. Not in the sense that it may be wrong, but rather how it shows how fucking insanely broken our system is. If you can get out of one crime by going out and murdering a bunch of people… what the hell are we even doing? Why do we think any of these people will ever pay for their crimes? The very system that would do that has been corrupted by those same criminals. They’re not going to put themselves, their buddies, or their benefactors in jail.

Something needs to change. Something needs to be done. But the idea that all that we need is for people to see the complete evidence of this particular set of crimes and the legal system will finally work properly is beyond delusional.

Idk… I’ve had a few pretty shitty pencils.