This is like saying there are no racially discriminatory hiring practices, employers are just hiring the most qualified people (which ignores that it’s harder for disenfranchised people to gain those qualifications). That is to say: people aren’t arguing that this situation doesn’t make sense, they’re arguing that it’s wrong. And it doesn’t stop being wrong just because the people involved had no bad intentions.

Expect to butt heads with more and more people in the coming years if you argue by appealing to the status quo, because an increasing number of people are starting to take issue with the entire system as it stands.

This is more of a meta thing, but relevant to a lot of comments I’m seeing here. Having an opinion about pineapple on pizza is the most uninteresting cultural phenomenon. I’ve spent the last 4 years on dating apps, and at least 1 in 3 people write in their bio about this “issue”. It’s not something that people truly have strong feelings about, it’s like straight men saying Ryan Reynolds is attractive, or people arguing over the definition of a sandwich. It’s an opinion that people hold as a proxy for being somebody with strong opinions.

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

I think a scientists reply to that would be: the phenomenon of ‘conciousness’ is a result of the complex chemical reactions between clusters of highly organized matter. Science’s ability to answer questions about consciousness is limited only by the precision of our tools and the sophistication of our methods, both of which will only continue to improve. The fact that we are currently limited, in our tools and our methods, is the only reason that other less quantatative methods of understanding consciousness (like philosophy) are more effective.

Right? I came here to find new communities and regrow my online presence, not to stare back and laugh at the burning pile of rubble we left behind. I’d love to see more people piling into the communities here but instead my feed is inundated with posts about Reddit. (Although I suppose maybe I should stop scrolling through “All”, it’s not like I ever did that on Reddit)

It was bound to happen. On a related note, I feel like the word “fediverse” is too gimmicky and might invite more cryptobro/NFT noise. What’s wrong with just calling it federated social media?

Could you elaborate on why it doesn’t matter which instance you join? Because I’ve tried accessing communities from other instances using my Beehaw account, and I’m unable to comment without registering under that instance first