Yeah but at least you can get the games. On my old MacBook (my only "modern" Mac), Steam auto-updated itself to a version that no longer runs on that machine. If that was my only computer (luckily it's not), I'd not only be completely locked out of the games I already installed, I'd also be unable to install any others -- despite the fact the games run perfectly on the machine. At least on GOG I can just go to the website and download the installers, no matter what [relatively-recent] computer I'm using.
In high school English class we had to present a "poem" of our choice, of any sort - which included music pieces (or whatever other format). The song you quoted (KMFDM - Dogma) was my choice. The assignment included handing out the poem and reading (or playing it) to the class... Uhh, needless to say this got a pretty interesting reaction, but to the credit of the teacher, she didn't stop the music (or confiscate the printed out lyrics I handed out to everyone) despite the various swear words and pretty interesting messages in the lyrics.
My general view on TikTok is: why would I even remotely want to use something that's specifically designed to exploit me and manipulate me? The tiny shred of value I might experience (in the form of an occasional interesting video) is a side-effect of the service, and if they could get their value out of me and give me literally nothing at all, they would. This same perspective applies to all the centralized "social media" services out there today. None of them exist to make society better or improve the lives of anyone in any meaningful way (outside of enriching the executives and investors running them).
To be frank, the TikTok algorithm is the best of all the algorithmic doomscroll machines you can use.
Instagram is trash, Youtube Shorts is complete AI puke trash.
TikTok actually seems to "know" what I like seeing and clearly learns faster than the others.
A quick test just now:
- Video about Amiga 500 in the 90s in Finland
- A running gag about people having a Favourite Spoon
- A recipe for Bao Buns
- A skit about Japanese Shisa Kanko pointing and calling method
- Book reviews of someone's favourite books of 2025
- Someone tried to do floor work and found a massive shaft leading down under their house
Zero ads. All were from "real" people, not content farm accounts.
Instagram reels:
- A "family account" skit, yech
- Ad
- A verified account reposting other's videos
- Another one of those
- Ad
- A meme account
- A meme account
- Ad
Not even touching Youtube Shorts, they're even worse.
That's cool, but yeah I won't use it regardless (just like I won't use any of the services you mentioned). It's all for-profit centralized extractive/exploitative stuff.
Probably stop using platforms/sites that exist to make money off you. I know it sounds ridiculous, but... the vast majority of the crappiness on the web is due to greed for money. If platforms didn't care about making money through ad revenue they woudln't be manipulative attention-harvesting outrage-bait.
You can actually engage in the trash platforms by using unofficial methods - I browse "youtube" by searching on Invidious and then either viewing on there, or when it doesn't work, download with yt-dlp. Or if someone links an "x" post I view it with xcancel (if at all). I don't care how inconvenient it is. For social media, fediverse (mastodon). Every other platform is for-profit and it shows in its respective design. I contact friends and family through texts and email. I've gone so far that I literally block all Meta-owned domains on my Pi-hole. I'm hoping to upgrade that to blocking Google domains but I'm not there yet.
I generally try to opt out of the psychologically-manipulative world that hyper-capitalistic greed tries so hard to force on me. It's kind of impossible to do completely, and social connectivity is made a LOT more frictional/tedious, but.. I try to "walk the walk".
Oh yeah, I still use IRC and XMPP. Hotline and KDX occasionally too.
That's kinda my point, this was already argued like 80 years ago.
> Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
Yeah I was wondering about that too, the far-greater exposure to radiation... I don't know anything about how well-mitigated that is these days, but I'm sure it's a huge factor they would have in mind?
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