Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
you should probably feel some amount of discomfort with your own views and be willing to adjust them as your exposure to better reasoning and evidence supports a different view
but I also don't think we should have obligatory "both-sides" on everything either, sometimes it's OK to have a consensus, like the Holocaust was wrong - I'm OK that most people on Lemmy agree with that view
On Reddit, I sometimes pop over to the r/conservative subreddit to see their take on issues. Mostly to get a temperature read on how they are feeling about news events. No equivalent to that on Lemmy.
there are absolutely conservative lemmy instances, but again I'm not sure what the value is of this - conservative ideology is broadly reality denying (even by their own admission), and it's just poor reasoning that different opinions are always valuable to be acquainted with and take seriously.
For example, I do not think that medical students should be taking classes in astrology, alchemy, homeopathy, and chiropractic as well as their classes on biology, chemistry, anatomy & physiology, etc.
We can evaluate different viewpoints on the merits of how well they are based on reason or evidence, and dismiss poorly reasoned or poorly evidenced views (or better, views that are proven wrong through reasoning or evidence).
The value is learning about how they view the world.
If I understand them, I understand the world better not because they have a deeper understanding, but because they have reality denying viewpoints that 23-45% of my fellow countrymen share.
Why is that valuable? These people hold onto their viewpoints not from reason or logic, but emotional media manipulation.
Us being aware of whatever topic they are frothing at the mouth over this week does not help in any meaningful way. It’s not like we can debate them into coming sround.
yes, that's admittedly valuable, this is why I've spent so much time studying Christianity and talking to Christians about their beliefs; but the OP put me in the mindset of thinking about diversity of viewpoints to ensure an accurate or correct viewpoint, which is a separate goal or concern - so I thought it was being implied that reading /r/conservative views is a valuable exercise because it helps us develop more accurate or better views (which I don't think is likely)
That's what psychology classes are for. Psychology of Learning and Abnormal Psychology are good places to start.
But its not abnormal. Last election, it was basically half the country.
Also it is dynamic. Right now their worldview is completely in flux because they shape their opinions around whatever Trump is doing that week. But its getting legitimately hard for them keep up and Trump is loosing support online and in polls (55 to 23-33%) because of that.
No, it was a third of the country. Regardless, we're not talking normality in the sense of what's average or prevalent, but rather deviation from the normal, healthy operation of the human mind. That whole third of the US population seems to be suffering the psychological symptoms of lead poisoning, for instance, and that's abnormal.
Wrong again. They shape their opinions around whatever helps them maintain control, impose rationality, and avoid consequences. They follow Trump because they see in him a fast track to a society that caters to this mindset.
Because he is seeming less and less to them like the guy who will be their fast track to a society that caters to their mindset. The personal cost to them for pursuing this course is growing beyond the point where their perceived reward is worthwhile.
Most people IRL agree with that view.
Now try "Linux is the most mainstream OS you should consider" or "only terrible people would vote Republican". Agreement on Lemmy will be 90-some percent. Agreement IRL will be a distinct minority.
People on lemmy will say that Linux should be mainstream, but I don't think most people are so delusional that they think it is.
I meant most mainstream, as in they might be okay with OpenBSD as well.
People have to be aware Linux is itself a weird nerd thing, although like in this thread there seems to be a reluctance to admit we're not a representative sample of the population.
If you take away the polemics, the reality of majority opinions here is:
At the current moment in time only terrible or completely uninformed people vote republican, and everyone should consider linux, but i can understand if someone wants to use windows for ease of use.
and those are well reflected, humanistic viewpoints. There are other viewpoints too, but i would say they are not well reflected or accusatory out of their own failings. Reality HAS a left wing bias after all.
Lemmy probably disagrees with that. I mean, I could argue with it.
Even if they're right they're highly unusual, echo-chambery things. America is 1/3 solid Democrats and even some of those people are going to try to coexist. Most people have a very vague idea of what Linux even is. Some might not have heard of it at all.
And Lemmy contains a lot of polemics.
I'll be the one to argue with this then, since no one else has. Windows is not easier to use. People are just used to it. I'll agree there are some cases where it's easier, where you need certain software that doesn't work on Linux, but usually it isn't anymore. If you don't want to put in a little effort into learning something new then fine, though you'll have to when changing Windows versions too. If you want the easiest OS to use, Linux is the best choice. It doesn't behave identically to Windows does though, so you have to be willing to accept change.
I must argue back, sadly. For someone like me who knows how to search the web for exactly the wording that is relevant for my issue, because i know how PCs in general work, how to scour through log files and how to formulate my search terms, Linux is fine, even if it has (still) some rough edges. (why the hell is there no graphical service manager installed on fedora per default for example? I know how to use the command line for this, others might not.)
If someone just want to use their PC for gaming with no issues at all, don't want to research workarounds if you run into hitches or want to play current multiplayer titles, windows still has an edge (even if it's a bit of an artificial one regarding anticheats). If you leave the safe environment of Steam, Epic, GoG and Amazon (with Heroic), and want to just install a game with an downloaded installer, the learning curve gets steep pretty fast for someone who doesn't know shit about computers. Under Windows it's a doubleclick (or a singleclick in your browsers download manager) and clicking next/finish. Flatpak has helped here in some circumstances, but comes with it's own limitations if you don't know why your downloaded program can't access anything outside your home directory for example.
For someone who has used only windows in the last 20 years and is used to a specific workflow for whatever they wanna do (like people who digitize VHS tapes or similar "legacy" tasks), it will most likely be hard to switch over too - and why should they? (We both know why they SHOULD, but it will not be obvious or easy for those people)
Then there is another aspect: if you can't speak english most good sources for troubleshooting are out of your reach. I'm in a german language country - if i had to limit myself to only german language sources everytime i run into some issue, i would have given up pretty soon. Baby boomers in this country have atrocious english language skills in general.
So you see: Everyone should consider Linux, but if you are old, don't have technical knowledge, don't speak english, do some task you have done the same way the last decade ,... the difficulty of switching might be too much without someone who helps them and is available when something breaks.
Most of your "people who should think about staying on Windows" are not typical users, outside of AAA multiplayer specifically (currently, though it looks like EA at least is maybe changing). Yeah, it's harder to play games from sources other than Steam, Epic, GoG, but how many are? If you are, then you're also probably technically knowledgeable and you'll be fine. No one who "doesn't know shit" about computers is getting things from sources besides these.
This is the point I made. It's easier on Linux often (OK, maybe not that niche thing, but who's doing that?). It requires relearning though. They probably dealt with a lot of shit setting the work flow up in Windows. I'm not saying they should change. However, I am saying comparing switching to Linux from Windows is not the same as comparing Linux and Windows. In a vacuum, for the average user, I'm almost certain Linux is easier at this point. Just compare the install process for most common distros to that of Windows. It's crazy how much simpler and easier it is. Is that easier than just doing nothing? Obviously not, and that's not what I claimed.