Yeah, this is what I’m here to protect. “BestOfLemmy” isn’t a political channel. But it is a manual curation and manual sharing community.

The idea that you like a post and feel like that’s enough to share is what I’d like to encourage. It gets weird with politics because now others are less inclined to post here because of this post however. But if the priority is to encourage posts and sharing here, I cannot delete a topic like this that was posted in good faith.

Its not like I’ll accept all topics of political nature either, but given how close we are to the election it makes sense why you’d be thinking about this right now.

I’m deleting the worst of posts that have degenerated into just two members insulting each other over and over again.

You can see the topic is mostly open for your discussion. Just don’t make your posts devolve into useless bullshit and I’ll keep the posts up.

I know it’s careful balance and it’s basically impossible to get it correct on political topics. But I’ll do my best.

I’m simply being honest here. I’m not going to let 5+ posts of insults just stay around here. But this is also a topic with literally hundreds of comments so I’ll be making mistakes as a moderator.

I’m not passing out bans here, yet anyway. I’m just deleting posts that have gone off the rails (as well as the threads / earlier posts that led to overheated discussion).

There are two rules currently written for “BestOfLemmy”, and they are:

1. Manual Curation – If someone thinks its best-of material, it is allowed here.

2. Newbie to Lemmy perspective – Posts should be beneficial to new Lemmy users. I’ll ban topics on a case-by-case basis that violate this (ex: deep server vs server feuds or other “community vs community drama” topics).

From #1: The poster clearly thinks its worth sharing, so it deserves a topic. That’s sufficient. For #2: it is a very political season (with only days remaining before the USA’s voting days), so I think most people looking into Lemmy here would forgive us for a politically charged topic like this.

I evaluate that this topic was posted in good faith, and that newbies would accept such a topic here. So that’s why it stays.

From a “BestOf” perspective: my main problem with the post is that it links to a picture of the post, rather than the original topic and the original discussion that created this particular post. I might make a rule against image-posts (ie: do not make unnecessary screenshots. Prefer to link to various topics and other discussions on Lemmy. Screenshots are counterproductive to the greater Lemmy community).

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After discussing that event before, the rule I settled up on is ‘Valid for a newbie to Lemmy’.

Newbies shouldn’t be exposed to the nuances to server vs server infighting IMO. But this post while there’s an element of it here… Has enough other benefits that I think it can stay.

This isn’t a post I’d put up here, but it doesn’t seem to be so server-vs-server focused to trigger my worries for a newbie reader. A newbie probably would see hexbear and not really know the full context (as the post really doesn’t focus on Hexbear aside from in passing).

The other post was so egregious it crossed the line for me. But this one is fine and can stay up.

It’s not the server vs server part that I’m against. What I am against is the anti-newbie kind of drama that’d turn people away from Lemmy. If newbies are coming here feeling like Lemmy is full of people yelling at each other or making fun of each other’s communities, that’s a bad thing that I’m worried about.

But this post: I can see where your concerns are. But from the ‘Is a newbie going to be disgusted by this’ ruling I made before? I don’t think so. So that’s why this post can stay.

Yes thank you for posting about this. I’ll read though this discussion and make a decision soon.

https://taxheaven3000.com/

I thought Patrick Boyle was a rap specialist music major?

Perhaps the rule is that I’d like this place to be a good “Frontpage” for Lemmy posts. A “Beginner-to-Lemmy” kind of curation / discussion hub. By the time we’re on community-on-community or server-vs-server discussion, we’ve left the realm of beginner topics / introduction to Lemmy kind of things.

Its not the “drama” I’m necessarily against. Its more like, “my vision for this community means that discussions about the peculiars of servers or community comments is unhelpful here”.

I recognize the need to discuss different servers and communities. But “BestOfLemmy” should be beginner-to-lemmy focused. I don’t think new posters would necessarily have much benefit from that kind of comment.

1. Anti-federalism – Deep rooted distrust of the Federal Government has been around since the dawn of the USA, though its often been part of the minority.

2. Know Nothing / Native American Party – 1850s era movement. Protectionist, isolationist, nativist. Originally they popped up as anti-Irish and anti-Catholic, but overall the concept is that immigrants suck. The modern concept is: “I know nothing”, about the movement. The overall idea is that even in the 1800s, it was bad to look like a racist bigot, so you’d keep your support for these causes secret. Everyone in the party knows that “the Know Nothings are larger than everyone expects”, but no one really knows how big the movement is. And that’s the point.

3. America First – 1930s saw the rise of Fascism vs Communism in Europe with the dawn of the Spanish civil war. The “America First” movement focused on isolationism and even pro-German / Nazi slant mixed with religious fervor. This was pushed by tech-gurus of the time: Charles Lindberg (airplane entrepreneur, first Trans-atlantic flight, etc. etc.), and the Christian Front. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Nazi_rally_at_Madison_Square_Garden).

4. NAFTA – 1990s free-trade by Bill Clinton opened up Mexico and Canada as incredible trading partners. However, local industry / local steel lost out as companies started to shop in Mexico for material. As Bill Clinton was a huge pusher of NAFTA, the anti-NAFTA political group consolidated under Republicans. This is likely where the bulk of blue-collar workers is coming from, especially because Trump started adding Tariffs / anti-globalism concepts back to the forefront of American Politics.

Some more recent context:

1. Trump has been building his brand for decades as a very rich, very macho straight-talker. Even in the 80s and earlier, there’s a large number of Hotels, Casinos, Resorts, Golf Courses (etc. etc.) that have relatively high reputation among Americans in general with Trump’s name.

2. Trump reads from the teleprompter in “another voice”, openly showing his disdain for public speaking and the political system. Anyone who has lost faith in the political system loves this. Trump pretends that the teleprompter is forcing him to talk and its all just a “through the motions” thing. Then Trump obviously goes off teleprompter and talks about different concepts, the “real stuff”. (Or so goes his branding). This simple trick is enough to get the gist to his followers: don’t listen to what I say (because I’m being forced to say this politically correct crap). This means that Trump’s true actions are only limited to the imagination of the listener.

3. Trump is playing and leaning into the borne again Christian role. From a religious perspective, the “former enemy / former outsider” coming into religion is a common story and religious love it. Trump was openly a Democrat in the 90s / 00s before switching into Republicanism.

The “bulk” of Trump’s political style is Know Nothing + Macho + anti-political correctness.

First hit on Google was this list made by some Redditor: https://www.reddit.com/r/Betamax/comments/z8cun4/films_that_only_exist_on_betamax_or_alt_editions/

In any case: the big advantage of Betamax (and VHS) was how easy it was to get home-recordings done. An entire generation of family photos / family events (birthday parties, etc. etc.) are on Betamax and likely lost.

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Flash still got it good.

Consider the entire generation of 1970s and 1980s Betamax footage that is basically lost today.

When format wars snap to one side: VHS vs Betamax, HD-DVD vs BluRay, Flash vs HTML5, QuickTime vs DivX… The losing side basically loses a ton of footage.

For the most part, we know how to play Flash right now and mostly how to upconvert it or otherwise archive it. That’s not true of all formats.

I mean, when people point out that Joe Biden is a Neocon who supports Israel and USAs rightful dominant place in the world… Erm I agree with that and want to vote for him.

I’m a Neocon. And proud of it and can defend a lot of my positions.

What pisses me off about the new wave of conservatives is that it’s all reactionary. There is no guiding philosophy.

With regards to neoconservatives: I know we get a bad rap since Bush. But events like Ukraine show the importance of us being the stalwart defenders and stepping up to challenges around the world.

But thats the thing. I’ll tell you that while proudly wearing my colors as a Neocon. This ‘Libs of TikTok’ bullshit is just fucking awful politics. We can’t actually work or talk around our issues when people are pretending to be on the wrong sides of debates

Politics shouldn’t be about ‘owning’ the other side. Politics should be about effectively communicating our beliefs to each other, especially our disagreements. And finding compromises where possible.

Anyway, it’s Joever to some extent so I guess all in on Kamala. She’s still acceptable to my philosophy if only because Trump + JD Vance is such a bad choice. So y’all got my vote this year, at least temporarily.

Unlike you and your ilk, I’m willing to go outside the safe zone (fkn lol) and interact with people who have different opinions. Only cowards stay in their little bubbles chit talking day in and day out. And that’s a knock at both leftists and rightists.

I’m a Republican. This area is outside my safe zone. But outrage politics affects us all and I judge people who engage in it harshly.

But sure. Judge me harder daddy. I haven’t stated my opinion yet, I’m simply pointing out that you’re engaging in outrage politics and you probably shouldn’t be flexing on that.

No.

You, like other conservatives, are hooked on the ravenous red meat of outrage. And instead of trying to move away from outrage politics, you defend it. And more importantly, you do so while claiming to be of a different ideology because you’ve noticed that the word “conservative” is no longer looked well upon in some social circles.