Plenty of answers here but I don’t think anyone has answered this part:

Surely they would have a much easier time pushing their rhetoric and establishing their agenda by keeping a purposeful distance from that sort of indefensible imagery and symbolism.

So here’s my take …

Musk did the sig heil as a fuck you to everyone that doesn’t like him. That’s it.

They just won the election by basically lying, ignoring, and playing for time. They can literally do whatever the fuck they like for the next n years with impunity.

Imagine if Harris had won and in her victory speech said something like “Don’t worry Don, I’ll make sure they give you diapers in jail.” It would’ve been a low blow but we would’ve loved her for it because it’s poking fun at the conservatives for no other reason than to stir them up.

I think there’s another, longer conversation to be had about why racism (and by extension nazism) resonates with voters in 2025, but I’m too weary for that I think.

Old mate didn’t provide any fascinating insights into the manufacturing practices of soviet era communism, they just trotted out some meme-level anti-capitalist vibe-based hyperbole.

I’m not going to engage in a silly argument about the merits of communism as opposed to capitalism.

I think most places keep a brush in the toilet in a fancy caddy. That’s because the expectation is that everyone scrubs any skid marks before leaving.

I suspect that the plunger is to do with standard sewage pipe guage rather than just “shoddy” workmanship or whatever. That’s why bidet spray is more or less mandatory in South East Asia, the sewage pipes just aren’t wide enough to handle toilet paper.

Water bottles for bikes suffer from this.

You gotta get them really dried out really regularly.

Like if you only have one that you use every day it’s just going to get gross no matter what.

It needs to be bone dry for a few days to kill everything.

If you have 2 and switch once a week, the one that’s out of rotation will dry out and any funk will just die off.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plunger of any kind kept in someone’s toilet.

Is this an American thing?

Weird take on counter tops.

Things designed for many people to use need to be the best height for most people. I feel confident that most countertops are the best height for most people.

I acknowledge that they are too low for a tall person, and that they’re too high for a short person.

You’re pretty much just saying you want things to be designed for you and that everyone else should adapt to you, rather than you having to make concessions for others like everybody does.

I agree with you, but I’m not sure how great it would actually be.

I don’t know much about it and I suspect others will be along to correct me in a moment, but wasn’t this a feature of soviet era communism?

As in, capitalists all compete in a free market to produce the best chair for the lowest price. Communism is more efficient because we just direct a factory to make 2 types of chair, standard and deluxe.

I’ve had these dual wall glass mugs at home for a few years. So civilised.

https://www.house.com.au/products/baccarat-barista-cafe-double-wall-thermal-glass-mug-2-pack

1. Spray bum
2. Pat dry with TP

The tricky part with phase 1 is managing water pressure. Too little is ineffective. Too much blasts shit everywhere.

Do a test squirt into the bowl so you know what you’ve got to work with. Start with low pressure to get most of it, adjust angle of necessary, then hit it with everything.

Yeah it’s just bonkers.

A criminal tried to seize power in a violent coup.

Not only was nothing done but voters elected him to be fucking president because they were confused about Palestinians and concerned about the price of eggs.

It’s not real, but it’s concerning that it sounds like something he might say.

Office 365 too

That’s not what I meant at all.

There’s plenty of examples of .ml mods banning users for reasonable criticism.

It’s a good point and deeply concerning.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if Trump decided to invade somewhere just because he can.

Especially if his economic measures start making him look bad.

My global political history isn’t great, and maybe others can correct me here, but it doesn’t feel like the US has had much of a stabilising effect in the last 30 years.

There’s plenty of conflicts that just don’t make the news that the US just isn’t interested in. Poor places with no oil or other resources. Presently Burma comes to mind. There always seems to be somewhere in Africa, last decade there was genocide in Congo IIRC.

Also it’s not really clear whether their involvement in the middle east over the last few decades was positive or negative.

It’s nice to have them hovering around South China Sea to keep China in check I guess.

Yeah that’s not really how lemmy or any anonymous platform works really.

If you espouse a position that others disagree with they will tell you.

If your position is ridiculous then you will be ridiculed.

Personally, I find Lemmy to be a lot less respectful in this way than other platforms. As I said in my earlier comment any opinion that is less than absolutely supportive of the common opinions is heavily ostracized.

A good example would be the situation with Luigi Mangioni. The vast majority of users want mangioni to walk free, and as a result there’s blind support for “jury nullification”. This is obviously a complex issue with legal, social, and historic ramifications, but any opinions other than breathless support for jury nullification in his case will be heavily ostracized.

Yeah so you’ll generally find lemmy users to be quite hostile to your political position. I’m grown up enough not to be “hostile” but to be frank I think your voting choices are very poorly considered.

To your broader question. Lemmy is just like any other platform. If you say silly things people will rebut you. There is no respect for contrary opinions.

I’ve found that lemmy communities tend to be very homogeneous and in many threads if you offer any insights which are not breathless support you’ll be heavily downvoted and get vitriolic responses, or banned.

For example, saying anything critical of China in a .ml thread will result in a ban.

I don’t think it’s surprising at all that you’ve never heard of a Dyson sphere. It’s not a very popular idea even in science fiction.

You can describe someone like this as a socially conservative democrat.