sanity_is_maddening @ sanity_is_maddening @piefed.social

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You're in the awful moment after college. I'm 40 and this happened to anyone I know as well. Older people than me will tell you the same. It really sucks.

So, I'm gonna give a few suggestions where you don't have to spend any money and don't involve clubbing, which is not cheap either.

Plenty of group activities don't cost anything and are the most fulfilling...

Just one quick note. Don't concern yourself too much with age groups. People are organised by age groups in school. Everywhere else the organisation is mutual interests or common goals. And then you'll go there and find people of all ages.

So...

Find projects of your interest where you can volunteer.

If you like animals, give some of your time to local animal shelters and animal associations.

If you want to give Nature a hand, volunteer to go plant trees on the weekend, plenty of groups outthere always asking for more to come.

Check the activities at your local library, most of them are state funded and free of charge to participate in.

The same goes for Cultural Associations. Plenty of them have state funded events that are free of charge to attend.

There are also amateur groups that you can join. Just find anything of your liking. If you like to draw, almost any place has a "drink and draw" event or an Urban Sketchers group. Nobody will care if you don't consume at these events. And if you think you can't draw, nobody cares. People of all levels of skill show up. I know this because I go to them and nobody cares how well you draw. As long as you like drawing, looking at drawings or watching people drawing you're always welcomed at them.

If drawing is not of your interest but you like singing, there's for sure an amateur singing group near you. My girlfriend met a group of funny and energetic elderly ladies this way. She loves their company. And nobody young or old is there to make it to a stage. They just enjoy singing and each other's company.

If you don't like singing but you play an instrument, plenty of Jam sessions around and in some the musicians that play don't pay for their drinks. And the ones where they do, you can just not consume anything. They know you're there to play. But there's a few who even pay some musicians to be there. It's a matter of finding out.

There's dancing groups.

There's film clubs.

There's book clubs.

There's poetry gatherings. A lot of the poetry there will be awful and that's fine. It's part of the charm.

And the reason why I know of all these events I suggested so far is because I go to them and I even help organise some of them with two of my local cultural associations. The next event I'm helping out on is an Animation festival that is now in its fourth annual edition. Although not all, some of the screenings are free. But the ones that aren't are dirt cheap anyways.

These are some examples, there are so many more. And in almost if not all of them you'll find people of all ages, including yours and younger.

Don't go out looking for a romantic partner. Go look for a community. You're also more likely to find a partner in a community of people anyway.

While you were in school, you were in a secluded and rigid environment.

Welcome to the shit.

Where everyone is as clueless as you probably think you are.

I wish more people thought like you.

And I wish I gave answers as swift and succinct as yours. I wrote a reply that is too looooong. Yours is better.

Well, the DVDs and Blu-rays do not have to be of American media, but if they are, they can be of the several European special boutiques and distributors that can merely license the media you specifically care for. Although I'm sure that there are many American Filmmakers and artists we all still want to support and even increase visibility amongst the current circumstances. This allows one to have that level of targeting and to have specific and personal input, instead of just contributing to giant conglomerates that screw the artists out of fair revenue before moving to screw their costumers at every turn, which is what streaming services are and do.

With physical media, one can also borrow or lend amongst each other at leisure, check them for free from libraries or buy them second hand. This is also about cultural sovereignty and increases the resiliency in communities when it comes to culture. And in times of instability and economic hardship it becomes even more necessary.

Media is like anything else, the more people owning it the better. We don't want culture to be in the hands of just a few. That is the wrong direction for everything.

But I'm suspect because I've never stopped this habit and I prefer European cinema and World Cinema to American in the first place.

I also enjoy going to screenings in my local cineclub. There's a wonderful sense of community and great discussions to have. And it's so much cheaper and fulfilling than going to the Multiplex which is impersonal and encourages mindlesness.

If you're more into TV series, the U.S. does have the monopoly of interest. But I assume this is much more about visibility and a failure of venues to publicise TV series of other places. The absence of TV Series Festivals like Film Festivals that can obtain visibility for them is partially the answer that is missing. But I still remember the craze with the Scandinavian output, which had hits like "Forbrydelsen" (The Killing) or Bron (The Bridge), and both got American Remakes that were quite disappointing in comparison. But the biggest hit that came out of that was probably Borgen. Wonderful show.

But even in English, I much prefer to watch shows coming out of Britain than the U.S. And with BBC, you only need a VPN to access their shows and documentaries for free. It's public domain there. If you are from the U.k. than this is an unnecessary step.

Some people have suggested that we should push the E.U. to start a streaming service that would make content created by European Public owned Networks and Radiostations available to all countries in the EU for free. It's already free. It just needs distribution. It's a great idea. Although the BBC is Brittish and therefore not EU, a deal could probably still be achieved to include them.

Anyway, I will still always suggest for anyone to not get too stuck in algorithmic suggestions of Cinema, Music and Art in General. It gets stale, and doesn't force us to challenge ourselves in any form and in any new directions. Part of the problem we have in civilization right now is precisely stemming from this lack of broadening personal horizons and challenging individual perceptions that comes with the feedback loop that algorithms reinforce and cause the so called "bubbles" and "echo chambers" that so many like to point out, but so very few actually enjoy breaking out of.

I want to add that some of us went through this over here...

https://vger.app/profile/piefed.social/c/europe@feddit.org/comments/1069662

Yes! Thank you! I've been shouting this for over a decade.

And I keep saying that Gamergate should've been the moment to take notice of this. Even yesterday I included this in another comment. That was the gate that opened this flood. And that should've been the moment to shut down algorithmic incentive for engagement. People shrugged and moved on. Then came Snowden trying to warn everyone of the consolidation of power. People shrugged and moved on. Then it came the Cambridge Analytica Scandal. People shrugged and moved on.

There's that phrase... "we always have the world we deserve". I used to rebel against this statement. But I find myself agreeing with it more and more over time. I still don't like it as a blank statement though. Too many don't deserve the outcomes of it.

Thank you for the correction and the very good news in just one go.

And I apologise if I misrepresented the Australian national identity in the process. That wasn't my intention. And it's always good to know that this brand of populism is unpopular in some countries.

No, you're not wrong. Someone else has also corrected me.

Apparently Dutton even lost his sit.

So, good news on that front at least.

I missed that one. Thank you for sharing it. The fact that they have the "wellness" as a spin is the really fucked up part. So..."Wellness camps" is how they're going to sell the same thing like the "los indeseados" in Cuba. At least Fidel was honest in naming the nonsense he unleashed, I guess.

Is this a warning? I hope most of you have spotted this sooner than this article seems to have, because this has been going on for quite a while.

There's even been articles uncovering far right groups financing influencers and youtubers as a way to sever through culture.

And I keep saying that "Gamergate" was the true opening of that avenue into the mainstream almost a decade and a half ago. That was the time to spot it. By the time that "kermit the frog impersonator" and the "no chin alpha" showed up on the public radar, the problem was already unfolding wide and around for a while.

And I have a suspicion that what started Gamergate was just some good old sport trolling that then turned into... well... the opening of the gates of hell.

Obviously that I have no way to confirm this.

But I still have some fun imagining those who were indeed just trolling for some dumb fun back then, now aged with their scruffy beard and hair greying, holding their knees in a fetal position muttering to themselves "What did I do?"- and yes, it's kind of fucked that I find that funny.

But I also keep saying the same thing over and over...

This is not just an American problem. This is everywhere.

If you disagree, I suggest you take a stroll through Europe...

You can start with Portugal, and the ridiculousness with the party Chega and its circus of followers, moving next to Spain with Vox and their own clown show, then France and don't tell me you haven't even heard of Marine Le Pen. Just take a look up from there to Britain with good old Brexit and the tumour Nigel Farage with the cancer that is Reform. What about Italy? Anyone thinking that Georgia Meloni snuck up on Europe must've been in a coma during the Berlusconi years, because the orange blob as president is just a terrible American remake of that Italian classic. And Germany, did it elude anyone the fact that AFD scored the second place in the elections and is even polling in first now, apparently? I could keep going, but we should stop before we get to the Balkans, right?

"Well, that's just Europe and the U.S. then."

What about Australia, with Peter Dutton and the crazy brand of fascism they have going down under? Or Canada and what the hell is even Pierre Polievre who was all set to win? Yes, these two did lose but not by much and the type of fuel they ran on is still there to burn.

This is a problem that is everywhere. And what creates this madness is that there are grifters who are willing to say whatever it takes, that take problems that affect almost everyone except the elite class, but then single their message across to a particular subset of the public which is too uneducated to understand the rest of the conversation that everyone is trying to have. And because the indignation is something that so many others can join in on when there's so much to feel angry towards, the menace spreads wider as a result of a compromise to meet the end they desire.

But this second wave of rage that joins in has the logic that if there's things that need fixing in one's household, the best is to burn the house down, apparently.

And the really sad part is none of this is new.

Socrates thought that elections were too important to be handed to a general public which was too ignorant to understand its functioning or its true value. And who was it that believed that there was a need for a lie to "deceive" the population into doing the decent thing? I can't remember which of them said that. (If you do, please do tell) But that was what many found religion to be the method to accomplish it. As ludicrous as that might sound.

It's just the same loop of the revolt of the idiots. "My pain is truer than yours" type of nonsense.

On and on.

But if anyone knows how to make the arrogant humble and the idiot know their idiocy, please do tell.

Because you would've made the greatest discovery in human history that would break this seemingly never-ending loop.

Uh, and what is this we're on right now?

Not to mention Mastodon, Pixelfed federating with Mastodon already, Friendica, Peertube etc...

The powers that be don't like the Fediverse. It's not possible to control and averts direct monetization. They know that if it keeps growing, it keeps reverting the internet back to its initial potential that was stolen from all of us. They don't like that.

Remember when the internet was a good thing and not the gated hell that it is? I do. If you don't, they'd like to keep it that way.

They don't want the general population to know that the internet can be from everybody to everybody. Then people might ask for tax funding to go to server maintenance to be cheaper or even better free to anyone who would want to use it. Like a highway? Yes? Remember when that was one of the analogies for the internet? The building of new highways that would connect us all?

"We can tax fund highways instead of gates and tolls" - they can hear it already. And oh they don't like that. Not one bit.

They want American Social Media, but you know, European. The same but ours.

But if it mimics theirs it will be just as terrible, regardless of where it comes from. Look at how the U.S. is imploding. Does it matter the social media is "theirs"?

"But the E.U. has better regulations and will do a better job."

Do we want the folks that brought us a hit like Troika to be in charge of the entirety of the platforms in which their direct citizens can express themselves? Do we want to give them direct influence to crush dissidence? Have we learn nothing?

Yes, I prefer the E.U to the U.S. The E.U. works better, because the countries that are part of it can actually check its influence. Well, when they can. But the true reason why the E.U. really works is because we have worse things to compare it to. And that is a terrible way to build a future.

We have to imagine a better version of the world if we're to build it. And right now, we are in a sliver of the internet that shows that it is indeed possible. Regardless of odds and issues, it is possible.

I can't speak for every place on earth, but where I live in the south of Portugal, that is very much the problem. And affordable long term rent has been destroyed in all of Europe by Airbnb and similar initiatives. And no, this is not a scapegoat theory. All you have to do is access housing registrations and match against citizenship registered to addresses in the same area and then you start to see the problem. There's a lot more houses than people that have their permanent address registered to the same area. So then the problem can't be housing in itself. When one starts to look closer we start to notice a lot of titles to the same people and the same last names as we all would expect. The house to person ratio is quite disproportionate in its distribution. I can tell you that this has been exposed time and time again over time, but since 2008 that it has indeed gotten worse and more so exponentially every year since then.

The problem in just simply building more housing is that the same thing will happen to those new homes. They'll just be absorbed into this same phenomenon of asset flipping and market speculation in which even rent, not just owning property reaches prices beyond what locals can afford with long term rent even becoming entirely unavailable due to Airbnb and other initiatives alike.

That's why the governments have to intervene. Especially at a local level. But if a rewiring of the general population doesn't occur, it will just be lobbied back to the same as before. As it has happened. Because what is simply enforced is not learned. And this is what you are referring to when you speak to the public aversion to government intervention. If not understood and learned, what is then witnessed is the same rope pull of do and undo between governmental administrations, that wears off and alienates the public.

But yes, sometimes the problem in itself can be an increase of population density that exploded beyond the local availability of houses. And then new housing development is required or people will have to choose (more like forced without an option) to relocate.

That is why I said "the problem is not a lack of housing in itself necessarily". In which I meant it as not always the source of the problem. I didn't say the lack of housing in itself is NEVER the problem.

There are many contributors to this issue.

Environmental changes and war are also intertwined as they both lead to resource depletion, and become part of the same feedback loop that plays a part in the whole of the Metacrisis. In which both will cause mass migrations. And mass migrations will always cause a disparity between demand and availability in housing, which leads to more inflation and more conflicts over resources, which in turn leads to more mass migrations and on and on and on... This is "systems thinking" and the general public has not caught up to the descent we're in yet. Or is in denial and refusing to engage in the face of its enormity.

Most problems that are detected by most people are real and feeding into one another. What I said is true and what you said is true and anyone who doubts that is possible is not engaging with the complexity of the world as it is.

There is nothing wrong with weeds. Though there is something wrong with Monocultures that have no place for them and in turn produce nutrient deficient sustenance.

Permaculture and syntropic farming have for decades now integrated them without any use of pesticides. Insuring soil nutrition and nutrient dense foods in the process.

They keep trying to find better ways to do the wrong thing. Yes, this would be better than the pesticide use, but always worse than the alternatives I just mentioned.

And if anyone has the question "is it scalable?" The answer is yes. But it depends...

Because I would still say that given that more than half of the world's population lives in cities, we need to match the vertical axis of them when we grow their required sustenance. To stack up people vertically and then still spread their consumption horizontally it's how we get a problem of space ratio as we have.

But even in this form of vertical indoor farming, this should still be moved into the cities or as close to them as possible with the Permaculture philosophy incorporated in them. Vertical Indoor Farming also creates resiliency against weather events and potential pests given that the growing cultivation is isolated inside. All while able to create the appropriate conditions to grow anything all year around. This would help in releasing more surface land from the eroding practices of monocultures and their required plowing and harvesting cycle which destroys the integrity of the soil and leads to erosion. Allowing these spaces to be free from these harming practices while integrating practices of reforestation would be indeed a great development in the right direction.

Not to mention that alongside all this, Precision Fermentation is also an absolute requirement to feed a growing population into the future.

I keep saying for a while that Precision Fermentation is the future. Because if it isn't, that probably means there isn't one.

Using the lowest trophic level possible to grow our sustenance directly is the only way to ensure the least destruction possible. Which ensures the most environmental and ethical efficacy. As there should never be anything to distinguish between them in the first place.

What?? Pretty soon you're gonna be suggesting that there are better ways to transport people around than cars and that we could build better public transportation infrastructure with the tax payers money so that the same tax payers can afford mobility for a lot less while saving time in getting around and polluting a lot less the atmosphere that allows them to breath!

What's this? Do you want to make sense? We wouldn't want to start making sense now, would we?

...

Jokes aside now, when it comes to housing, the problem is not a lack of housing in itself necessarily. The crucial part of the problem resides in property hoarding by the wealthy and upper middle-class as long term investments in the form of assets to flip, all while they still obtain revenue in renting them to the highest bidder. Airbnb and similar initiatives destroyed affordable rent all around the world. This to say, that a lot of people in the unprivileged categories didn't also mind screwing their peers to get ahead. This is what the capitalist system does. It re-enforces sociopathic behaviour in people through them valuing the monetary tokens more than the lives of those around them and the very world in which they have to inhabit. This is what Elizabeth Magie tried to explain the world when she created "The Landlord's Game". It has been explained and demonstrated as a predicted model for a very long time. And we all lose in the end. Always.

Saying that the government needs to interfere and create measures to prevent the furthering of this crisis is incomplete without acknowledgement of the required rewiring of the general public to stave off the centuries old social conditioning of appealing to the worst in human condition.

The default setting of a common citizen is not to contribute to a life shared by all that live around them and in turn benefit from the same efforts from others. It is instead to try and survive them all and and not needing the slightest from them. Which is never true, never possible but nevertheless the reason why we are always in this mess. And the reason why we all lose, and even those who lose the least, they still have to inhabit a world that would be better if this wasn't true.

Individuality also explains the housing crisis in the sense that more and more people have the desire to live alone. And therefore more houses are required. Which in a world like the one we have, that desire is perfectly understandable but in itself also a reinforcement of the loop that causes it.

It's a mess.