All is forgiven. Jury nullification if necessary.

Isn’t that the same kind of manipulation they’re accusing Musk of currently? He literally wants to buy the elections.

They died from the shock. 😔

Switzerland has an average turnout of 35% while Germany’s last big election was almost 90% iirc. Apathy is strong and it’s another threat to democracy.

Throw in mandatory voting and we might get somewhere. Make it no longer be a battle for turnout by emotional manipulation but a battle for votes by actual policy content. Australia made their transition a formal study.

But yes, more involvement of the populace in politics might be a good step.

You have state media which is mostly balanced, possibly a little left, and then private conglomerates that love discord, so mostly right leaning and inflammatory. Anything Springer Verlag is garbage, for example. Not as bad as the US with Fox.

Me, too, most recently a coworker from Gera.

I believe the money is part of the issue, and you expecting thanks is telling. Also, “the hand that feeds you” is the exact “lesser human” rhetoric I meant.

If the populace never felt the effect of the money, it might as well never have existed. The West is angry for sending it and the East is angry for not receiving it. Whoever pockets it gladly stands by and watches the East and West fight each other.

I don’t think the Soli is the right tool for the job. The money is just part of the regular budget and not bound to East Germany. Build universities or invest in faculties, infrastructure, etc. and make the region worth investing in from an economic standpoint and the rest will follow, none of which we’re doing.

That’s the exact mindset that got us here. Dismissing and invalidating their feelings. The West struggling doesn’t invalidate their struggle. Russia completely gutted anything industrial, literally taking apart all machinery and moving it to Russia. There was nothing to build on and companies didn’t move there, either. So despite the common struggle, the East wasn’t really able to build any lasting base industry-wise.

Banquet my ass. More like shitty high school cafeteria lunch.

I’ve come to realize most of our justice system is toothless. ICJ? Useless. EU? Lol. Verfassungsschutz? Nope. The police will enforce copyright law for movies because of corporate interests, but anything larger than isolated cases is too big to address. Law and order are mass hallucinations in the western world, easily exploited by anyone ruthless enough to try. And it feels like we’ve reached a point of saturation where the ruthless are no longer satisfied with what they were previously able to achieve within the confines of this hallucination, so they’re just tearing it down.

What can we do about it? The overlap with anarchism is large: use cash, don’t buy from Amazon (or similar), use Linux, don’t pay for subscriptions. Don’t use AI. They want your money; don’t give it to them. Sadly, 90% of the population have no impulse control, or I’m asking them to abstain from the only pleasure they have left in their lives - everything else has already been torn down.

I’m gonna go be depressed by myself for a while.

East Germany is a complex subject. A lot of money has gone into projects to help it catch up after the reunification since Russia completely gutted it, but not much of that money made it anywhere. The population feels left behind and unheard. They’re being treated as lesser through little fault of their own. Pretty easy breeding ground for scape goating.

Plus it’s the exact same playbook as the US when it comes to “iMmIgRaNtS!!!”. Logic and reason has long left and there’s really no way to reel in conspiracy nuts once they’ve gone off the rails. Germany is only a few years behind the US.

How would you even prevent this? The ideas spread by messenger and social media and infect people without critical thinking skills - which is most. Chat control is obviously the wrong approach, but what is the right one? How do you convince clanma who doesn’t trust anything anymore that the WhatsApp stats are made up and government statistics are actually trustworthy and backed by data?

Have you ever looked at code and thought “oh this is beautiful”? Or - even better - have had someone else look at your code and say it? Pure bliss.

oh cool, i didn’t know about those!

I’ve actively started doing tickets manually again. Just reviewing is exhausting, and yes, in part because I’m overwhelmed by what I don’t understand. I’m somewhat new in our codebase and letting AI do all the work means I’ll never get to know it in depth. That means I’m not meeting the productivity goals managers have already adopted, though. :/

And it’ll even sometimes show relevant results!

Seriously though, noai.ddg is my default, but I still have to switch to google way too often.

estoy pooping

The bondage? Sensory deprivation, loss of control, loss of facial features, loss of speech - any combination of those and more. I find the concept very hot. Each padlock is +10 heart rate.

A high pitched scream of terror.

That’s exactly why total annihilation of a populace is always a bad idea. Putin sucks, but the world must be ready to integrate the Russian population after everything’s done or we’ll be back where we started in a few years. Germany taught that lesson, but look at all the historians crying in the corner.

Your MOM is marginally optimal, nerd!

Hah, gottem.

Some time in '27 probably. Don’t have to show my face during teams calls in the meantime. 🎉