Yeah, everything I’ve been hearing in the last couple of years has talked about how traditional fact checking methods do not sway beliefs. The few things I’ve heard work are innoculation and ridicule.

Inoculation (telling someone about conspiracies before they’re encountered) seems like it could be used in favor of whatever ideology, not just the truth.

And ridicule (couch sex memes and “weird”), seems to work because it specifically targets the “follow the strong man” approach that many fools take to belief building. Like that can’t be applicable generally, can it?

I am yet to learn of a solid framework + practical methods which work to guide people toward belief based in reality.

Perhaps it’s multi-faceted. First make them feel like part of a community, which grounds them in experience and removes the most insane conspiracies/fear, then they’ll be grounded enough to accept some media & scientific literacy education?

• gmail you can forward all mail to another account.
• Youtube, you could try following your subscriptions via RSS/ATOM feed reader. It's honestly just like regular YT but without the recommendation engine.

If you’re liking and sharing you could just think the stuff is cool. I don’t think you’d be flagged for that. There are however specific products that when purchased, that info is related to feds. If you recall, Amazon, eBay, PayPal send a list of everyone who has purchased a 3d printer to the FBI every two months. https://www.ammoland.com/2024/05/dhs-admits-to-monitoring-3d-printer-purchases-with-the-help-of-amazon-ebay-and-paypal/

Accelerationism is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard of.

I bet it’s this exactly. Cars get more efficient metrics on highway vs city start and stop. If the vehicle ONLY starts and stops it must be terrible, even if these have regen brakes.

Always get the version of the gadget with replaceable batteries unless you want a brick in 3-10 years. Additionally, prefer 18650, AA, AAA batteries, and keep some rechargeable ones around.

My favorite was the password set screen allowing up to 64 characters, but login fails if the password is over 32 chars.

It is not propaganda if it is true.

Something can be true and propaganda. If reporting is misrepresenting a situation using purely true information and events, then it's propaganda. It's misrepresentation that makes something propaganda, not truthfulness.

Note: This is not a comment on whether I think Lemmy/Al Jazeera is doing propaganda.

It’s not a net loss. Renter’s pay can be used for maintenance or equity or anything else. Since houses don’t depreciate in this market and maintenance costs are not even close to rent, the landlord only gains.

I second Matrix, though I've been waiting for e2ee direct p2p (the Dendrite project) do be worked on for a while. Having something like that, that's truly decentralized while secure and hiding metadata where possible, would be a dream.

To help with this in the future, you can also create several fake results sharing your real name. Stuff like a blogger with one post not in your writing style, etc.. This will dilute searches with disinformation. Removal of real data is important, but you can also confuse anyone looking.

I think that being informed can help dilute the worry. Here’s what I’ve learned:

Most microplastics found inside humans come from synthetic clothing followed by car tires. Theres a great Veritasium video on this. Plastic cookware is also a consideration.

Food & Cookware

Don’t buy dishwasher pods, they're worse for the environment (plastic waste) and worse for your wallet than just a regular fluid container. Both fluid container and pod container are plastic so theres not much improvement to be had there.

My friend with a Chemical Engineering degree tells me that the plastics are stable chemically, and insufficient evidence exists to deem them harmful when left alone in cool temperatures. HOWEVER, unreacted precursor chemicals and thermosets are highly reactive, and new plastics come still coated with this. New car smell? Thats unreacted precursor, and it’s very harmful. Additionally, plastic cookware also gets hot, breaking it down slowly, and potentially making it harmful.

Avoid plastics and “non-stick” coatings in cookware.

Clothing

First thought is to avoid synthetic clothing, but theres a catch… Synthetic clothing is significantly better at blocking harmful UV light from the sun. For example, polyester & Nylon UPF is about 30-50+, whereas cotton is around 5. UPF = SPF generally. For this, I prefer wool (UPF ~40) or denim (UPF 1000+ off the chart). However, thats hot, so using some tight knit polyester shirts is a must in warm climates. Many shirts from retailers like REI have this stuff. So far, the ones I own have never shed noticeably, though that may change.

Why am I talking about sun protection? Remember, the goal is your health, not fearful avoidance of one harm that subjects you to another.

For all fabrics that aren't expected to protect from the sun, natural fibers are preferred. Included is bedding, towels, bathrobe, pajamas, casual clothing, socks, etc.

Other thoughts

For all of this, my friend says that I probably don't need to worry, and I have never seen convincing evidence that microplastics are harmful inside the body. Yet, I operate as if it were proven, because I don't want to risk reading that I’ve been poisoning myself ten years from now.