Smartphones (and the Internet more generally) have led to a major decline in reading books among the American public. I think this plays such a huge role in the absolutely batshit crazy cultural shift we've seen.

I think populism is more accurately defined in its rhetoric against a "group of elites" that must be fought. Sometimes that's based in reality, sometimes it isn't. Trump's brand of populism, for example, pushes this idea of a group of out of touch pedophilic liberal elites who want open borders and who want to redefine traditional gender and sexual roles. The Bernie Sanders style leftist populism defines the group of elites as the billionaire business class controlling the economic system of America such that they avoid taxes and write laws through legalized bribery. I would argue that Bernie's populism is based in reality and Trump's is based in exaggeration and fear mongering. But that's my take as someone who leans left.

In both cases the populism itself is appealing to the masses, yes, but it's specifically appealing to them by drawing clear lines around an enemy that needs to be fought. Trump's exaggeration of this enemy is where populism becomes dangerous. As someone who has recently been studying the French revolution, I can also point to that as a great example of populism that started with an accurately defined enemy (monarchy) and over time morphed into something that was really just vague calls of "treason" aimed at anyone and everyone who could be made the subject of ill defined conspiracy theories. Populism can be a powerful force for good when the enemy is real and the ideology is clear, but it can be just as powerful a force for evil when the lines are obscured or invented whole cloth.

So the question in this case is who the enemy is. Who would a populist replacement for Trudeau be fighting and how would they define their ideology?

Step 1) Find a list of every US citizen

Step 2) Copy

Step 3) Paste

I'd love it if we could vote better people into government, but the billionaires have been putting their fingers on the scale. If anyone is responsible for the resentment aimed at them, it's them.

Most of the world actually has legal marriage between first cousins. In many places it's not even taboo. And on top of that, the chances of genetic issues with it are actually pretty small. It's multiple generations of first cousins having kids where it becomes a problem.

It's wild how close the Amazon river basin comes to the west coast of the continent without draining into the ocean on that side.

Say tray deefee seal.

2023 has been the hardest and worst year of my life, followed by 2022. 2020 and 2021 were some of my best years ever. It's hard to handle that whiplash and I really regret not seeing the hard times ahead back then with the inevitable economic crisis on the horizon.

I always thought it was funny while studying for my Cisco certification that their operating system was also called IOS. I had no idea there was actual drama behind it!

Well, it's starting to look that way. They've reached the point of trying to overthrow our democratic institutions. The only thing left for them to do is openly advocate for the execution of political rivals.

Everything is all right with this Supreme Court.

The most effective ads I've seen in my lifetime have been podcast ads. I don't remember shit I see in mobile apps or on most corners of the internet. I could personally sell Blue Apron or Harry's Razors for all I've heard about them on podcasts though. The smartest companies allow the podcasters to joke around in their ads too. My Brother, My Brother, and Me will say some borderline offensive but hilarious stuff in their ads and I'll be damned if it doesn't keep me listening to their ads and hearing about the products being advertised.

I think it's easier to understand net neutrality as something ISP's can't do rather than something they must do, since we've never seen them really act on it before. It just means they can't speed up or slow down your internet based on what websites you're visiting. Under net neutrality, there can never be a deal with Google to give people faster speeds using Google searches than Bing or DuckDuckGo searches.

If the contractual details of malt distribution were going to affect the quality of beers you were getting then you absolutely would care. Unity's pay scheme will lead to studios shutting down if there isn't pushback. Studios switching to a different engine like Godot will make their games feel different for better or for worse and efforts to help fund these alternate engines will help tip the scale towards that being "for better".

But most importantly of all, this is a company using toxic and predatory practices. Regardless of the industry (yes, malt distributors too), if we don't push back against toxic business practices, then companies in many different industries will see avenues they can take advantage of to make extra money. These ideas don't hang in isolation. If Unity's scheme works, other businesses will learn from it. This is the reality of capitalism. Whatever methods can turn a profit without generating negative attention will be employed. It's in the hands of consumers, competing businesses, and the government to keep those toxic practices in check. I mean, why the fuck are we on Lemmy? Ultimately Reddit's actions are not going to affect the majority of users on their platform. Most of us came here to protest shitty business practices.

These dumbasses are handed such an easy path to getting a majority and they're going to squander it on these stupid conservative culture war takes. I really hope Canadians see soon that if they feel let down by the liberals, the conservatives are only going to be a shittier version of the worst aspects of the liberals. We should be looking to the NDP or green parties for real change.

I know City-Data Forums is still pretty active. I've used it a lot when deciding on places to move. I'm also a bit of an urban design nerd and there's a lot of fascinating discussion I come across there.

Fuck Intuit and H&R Block, all my homies use FreeTaxUSA.

US history proves otherwise. Real change has been made in the labor sector without "revolution". And on that front I will even concede that it took more than just voting to change labor laws. It took a concerted effort against the capitalist class itself with strikes and other resistance efforts. But it worked and things changed and it didn't require overthrowing the government and destabilizing everything.

But voting would absolutely work too. At the end of the day, the people in charge are where they are because they were voted into their positions. Wealthy elites do not make up the majority of America. An angry populace would have the power to capsize their machine. "Voting doesn't matter" as a position will only lose you ground. The "revolution" you speak of is pointless if you don't have the majority of politically involved people behind you. At that point it's not a "revolution". It's an "unpopular coup". We see in the way people vote that the problem is that the voting populace has not been convinced by the stances of the left. Before any revolution would be an ethically sound idea, we should be seeing numbers that suggest that the majority of people are on board with radical change. And by the time that happens, those people would have the power to effect that change through voting. If the wealthy elites used underhanded tactics to suppress voting when the majority is clearly in favor of a certain change, then and only then does revolution become the ethical imperative.

In summary, don't bother suggesting revolution if the majority of people aren't behind you on it. Instead focus that energy on convincing people that radical change is necessary. Use the system to your advantage. Only when that fails through corrupt means does revolution become necessary.

The right wing understood this so much 3-4 decades ago and they have reaped the benefits of that understanding so thoroughly that people on the left have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off, calling for things like revolution. No, the playbook is simple. Use every advantage you can within the system. Fight for the SCOTUS and don't be afraid to politicize it in opposition to the right wing fascists. Find wedge issues that you can call the other side on. Take control of the narrative. Be aware of your demographics and create a unifying message that brings the disparate groups together.

What you just said though contradicts itself. At the end of the day voting en masse for reform is "a mass movement". Things won't change when these politicians feel comfortable. Voting against them and being vocal about this as an issue will scare them. Voting absolutely works and all this rhetoric around "voting can't fix this" is exactly how we end up with this bullshit. Boomers learned decades ago how effective voting can be at changing everything and they have consistently turned out and shaped society around their needs as a result. If young people could get this through their heads then shit would actually change. Especially since millennials and gen z now make up the majority of the voting age population in the US.

A lot of people here mentioning scientology's history of litigation and taking down the IRS and while that's true, I also think it's worth mentioning Waco. After the Waco seige the government lost a LOT of interest in going anywhere near cults. It's just a giant mess that nobody wants to put their ass on the line to deal with. When you're dealing with fanatics you never know what crazy shit is going to go down. As long as they aren't hurting people outside of their cult itself, many politicians would sooner keep away from them and avoid having something backfire. That's not to say that they're right to think that way. It's just the truth. Everything changed after Waco. Before Waco, the government was actually trying to do more about cults. The Jonestown massacre involved a sitting congressman getting gunned down. All the IRS shit with the scientologists went down before Waco too. IMO, Waco is the most important turning point to look at to understand why the government won't touch cults anymore.