[–] 59 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Volunteer work is an amazing way to break cycles of isolation and loneliness. You have a shared common goal with other volunteers and you are making a collective effort to improve the lives of those less fortunate than you. Even if you walk away without having met the love of your life or whatever, at least you can feel good knowing that you helped make the world a better place and got to meet some cool, likeminded people.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    How is it punching down to make fun of someone for eating bland food?

    Many people who eat like this are closed minded to trying foods from other cultures because they use flavors and spices that add richness to the food that they perceive as “unsafe”. This often extrapolates out to a weird form of xenophobia.

    It’s not punching down to make fun of xenophobes….

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  • [–] 28 points 1 month ago

    Gotten top surgery. I knew my quality of life was going to improve by virtue of not having boobs that gave me dysphoria, but I thought I would have to wait until I was fully healed to feel it. My mood and outlook changed pretty much day after my surgery. It feels great :)

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    I noticed that many people on Lemmy appear to both lean leftist/anti-fascsist and live in the US. However, I also noticed that a lot of these “leftist” Americans only comment about: (1) how bad things in the US; (2) how they “don’t know what to do” about fascism; (3) how they “can’t do anything” about fascism; and/or (4) don’t bring up anything about the world of possibility that exists with respect to building communities against fascism.

    This makes me wonder… are these Americans even trying to live their self-proclaimed leftist values? I am not saying everyone needs to take up arms as an immediate first step to fight fascism, but there are SO many other things than can be done in your local community as a start. From planning mutual aid fundraisers, to volunteering with grassroots orgs, to forming neighborhood ICE watches to document kidnappings, to showing up to your municipal government meetings to try to stop the rise of state surveillance… Hell, even planning potlucks to share food and get to know like-minded people can be incredibly effective at offering opportunities for education and skill sharing.

    Like… are any of these people at least trying to fight fascism, or are they mostly just sitting scared at their computers?

     

    I tried to post this to Reddit but for some reason it keeps getting removed by filters. I normally just lurk on Lemmy but I decided to make an account because I’m so over that stupid platform.

    ANYWAY

    Last night on my flight home I noticed that the person in front of me was using ChatGPT. I got nosy so I looked closer and found out that they were actually using ChatGPT to write the content for a program of a sustainability and climate conference. They specifically included a section about “dirty” energy sources and the harm that results from energy producers supplying data centers. I was floored.

    I am not sure if this was the final product or just a draft, but I find it pretty gross and ironic that the AI that is fueling the climate crisis and responsible for the rapid development of data centers that are doing irreparable damage to local communities and ecosystems is being employed to create the materials for a sustainability conference. Maybe start with looking in the mirror first?

    I looked up the company, and turns out this program might be part of a Keynote Livestream that is featuring the Mayor of San Fransisco lol.

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