Absolutely. If the value of art were just "experiencing" it without processing it, there's an argument to be made that soulless blockbuster movies are as significant a piece of art as something with actual substance because so many people like the "experience."
People who do more than just "consume" the art in front of them are not just self righteous nerds (though many are, sure)... it's also a prerequisite to, you know, actually creating something of artistic value.
Wow. How predictable. Nothing you posted has anything to do with the Chinese government "literally directly controlling" TikTok, despite those being the exact words you chose and used.
Instead, you posted one story about TikTok in Europe running ads by the CCP, and two about the CCP using accounts on TikTok.
It's a well known fact that the CCP runs accounts on Reddit and other socials. TikTok accepting and running ads from the CCP in Europe is a European problem. Could be addressed by updated regulations around ads, idk, I'm not European. Meta could run ads from the CCP or Russia in Europe, perhaps? Or maybe TikTok broke European advertising regulations. Still, has nothing to do with the USA.
So again, you people are repeating US intelligence propaganda about the Chinese government "owning and controlling" TikTok and then posting "proof" that proves nothing.
Try again?
A lot of the users here are just butthurt anti social media people, not actually principled free speech or rule of law advocates. This ban is arguably unconstitutional and TikTok is being targeted for purely political reasons, not because of any credible threat to "national security." This is some Patriot Act level overreach bullshit, but the clueless mainstream just clamors for it because CNN/Fox spends hours of airtime decrying the dangers of TikTok, and a fraction doing the same for Meta/X/Reddit.
Chvrches is just so f***ing good, and their live shows are way better than you might expect. Their track on Death Stranding was also great. Hoping we get another for DS2.
For fucking real. If I ever come across a niche question about some obscure router setting and the only answer on the internet was some comment in a ten year old Reddit post and the comment says "DELETED BY SUCH AND SUCH APP - fuck u/spez" I'm gonna cry.
Exactly, and that's what's so stupid about all the comments referencing "gullibles on the fediverse" or the downvoting of the commenter above.
I would love to be able to follow my favorite musical artists or my city's account from Mastadon. That will never happen until Twitter finally dies completely and those accounts move to Threads. And yeah, who knows, maybe they'll come to Mastadon instead, but like you said, that won't happen unless Mastadon has legitimacy and reach amongst normies and that won't happen without federation with a major corporate player.
I'm sorry to all the dramatic Fediverse zealots, but that's just the truth.
Nest with Matter. Depends on the functionality you're looking for, but I'm super happy with the newer Nest Thermostat in HomeKit using the Matter support that was added earlier this year.
It doesn't support eco mode or learning functions, but it does everything a traditional thermostat can do from the wall, but from HomeKit. Plus I can script temp changes and min/maxes using Automations.
Nest has also had some huge discounts, I got two through my energy provider for $40ea. Sure beats a $200 ecobee.
Why are you so combative? You responded to a post rebutting a desire to censor speech from a legal perspective. Being opposed to defining any speech as illegal and being a nazi sympathizer are two very different things. You do not, in fact, have to choose one.
Actually, yes. In the UK people (including Jewish people) are being arrested and jailed for speaking out against Israeli naziism and genocide as inciting "hate."
That example is literally EXACTLY why people, myself included, believe that the censoring of certain types of speech needs to remain exclusively a private enterprise.
Are you unfamiliar with capitalism as a theory? Or Ayn Rand? Yes, capitalist utopia. That's the entire libertarian ethos. Libertarianism is a political framework for governance, pure capitalism is its economic policy.