It's really heartbreakingly sad that we're still so dirty.

Even worse, there are so many sites that represent themselves as "news" sites, but are little more than clickbait, ragebait, and telling people what they want to hear.

And ads, malware, pr0n, deep fake videos. I had truly hoped, back in 90's that mankind was at a positive turning point. Hackers, scammers, etc. So much for my hopes of something like the Federation Database.

Up until fairly recently, I would have said "be better at critical thinking". But AI now is so "good" it's getting more and more difficult to spot the fake. Even legit news sites are starting to read like blogs. Journalists are constantly drowned out by influencer pap, politically muzzled, or outright m*rdered. So much constant input happening that there's barely time to sort the wheat from the chaff. We're exhausted. The chaff is winning.

This is not an internet thing. This is lies vs the truth thing. For example alot of books contain propaganda and such.

Lets not forget censorship.

The number of times someone has told me some "news" that has made me respond with "Are you sure, where did you read that?/Was it a legit new site?" And it's usually followed by a long pause.

I'm quite sure misinformation has always existed. At least today, with the right and certified tools and websites, one can deepen the issue and go as near as possible to true facts

How do we know that statement is not misinformation?

It's up to you to inform yourself and figure out what's true and what isn't. Just like it was when people talked into your face.

The rise of the large language model ("AI's" such as ChatGPT) is leading to an inevitable degradation of the information on the internet. Scientists have proven that it is only a matter of time until this effect makes it literally impossible to tell the difference between genuine content and total drivel. Everything that is currently recorded online will become a total loss.

I’m baffled that people install aps at all. Corporate aps are spyware. Browsers being used to spy on me are already too intrusive. I don’t see the value of ramping that intrusion up to 11. If it needs an ap to do it, I don’t need it.

It's not so much that AirBnB was used to cut off housing and create a housing crisis so much as corporations creating an artificial housing shortage in order to raise property prices in a VERY dangerous game of economic musical chairs, and then using those properties as short-term rentals, Airbnb, etc. I feel personally it was not so much AirBnB misusing the system so much as financial institutions using AirBnB as a means to misuse the system.

I have a neuromuscular disease and have been in increasing amount of pain in the last 20 years. I also own a pretty successful large business. Since the oxcycontin debacle and the rise of synthetic fentanyl I cannot get the needed pain meds to be able function like I used too. I appreciate the above post... this is big problem for chronic pain patients who DON'T abuse their medication.

and it's completely filled up with random ai shitposts too

I feel that the misuse by ordinary people pales in comparison to the misuse by corporations, who literally pay other corporations to leave reviews. I generally look for places on the internet (won't say where, since I don't want to the corporate bots to figure it out too quickly) where ordinary people talk about their experiences with various products.

When I was a kid, Saturday morning was filled with "Give a hoot, don't pollute" and "Only you can stop forest fires" and other commercials that were famous for my generation. In the 1960s, there was this huge movement to care about the Earth, but here we are, 80 years later, and we're still doing a lot of the same stupid stuff!

If everyone voted you wouldn't have a problem...

I'm just glad that there are so many different projects now that are doing research into alternative AND solutions. I believe that if these are pursued, we might actually live in a world without plastic someday.

ESA are making life a little difficult for Service Animals. Service Animals do a job such as guide the blind, predict changes in blood sugar or pressure, assist with POTS, help those with seizures, aid the hearing impaired, assist those with autism, help with mobility problems, and aid in certain types of mental health settings and PTSD. Service animals work to keep their owners alive or in stable/good health. Most importantly service animals are legally considered trained medical equipment. A trained dog starts at $10K depending on need. An owner can only be asked 1. Is the dog a service dog? 2. What job or tasks has the dog been trained to performed? ESAs are legally considered untrained pets that provide comfort to their owner but do not actually perform a job. To qualify for an ESA a letter from a legit health care professional is needed. I know I went overboard but there is sometimes confusion between the two.

My feeling is that clickbait and ragebait are, like spam emails, deliberately designed to bypass people's logic by causing them to feel a strong emotion. They shock us with titles that cause worry, fear, anxiety, anger because these strong emotions tend to inhibit rational logical thought. Instead of reading and thinking, people just react to the headline, and then what's in the article doesn't really matter. People will only see what they want to see. And why do they do it? Not to help anyone, that's for sure. It's because they want people to like, subscribe and share because all of that gets them ad revenue. Money is the end-all, be-all of the whole shebang.

The most dangerous stupid button on Fakebook is the Share button.

The difference between corporate media and independent media.

Most antibiotics are used in agriculture.

I note some sites have a "skip to recipe" button/link now.

HOAs have become a form of collusion between developers and local jurisdictions. Instead of the City or County maintaining public infrastructure, the developers form an HOA and dump that responsibility onto it. Cities are happy because they can collect property taxes, but don’t have to supply any services in return. Developers are happy because when their shoddy shìt starts to fail a few years down the line, they’re effectively untouchable (they had the HOA sign a contract absolving them of responsibility). They people that live there are screwed.

There are some specialists in aromatherapy that use it as complimentary treatment. They are aware that oils aren't going to cure autism or cancer, but know that making patients more comfortable and peaceful will promote healing and lead to better patient outcomes.

Recently, there's been a trend to massively inflate the prices of food, and I've seen a LOT of different things being used to justify it. However, it's just a profit scam. Someone finally dropped the last of their morals and said "What do people absolutely need? Food? Water? Shelter? Health care? Education? Let's massively inflate all of these!"

This is so incredibly sad.

Let's de-monetise the lot of it, they'll lose interest in a heartbeat!

Gotta use those filters. Keep defining stuff as junk. I've learned on my email not to open the email, not to even click on it. Just "empty junkmail folder". Reduced a lot of junkmail. Apparently, they know it's been opened.

That's really sad! One solution might be to require an ID check to borrow a bike. Bikes are free, but you're responsible for loss or damage.

I agree. It's so easy for people to do that in the secure anonymity of the internet. Even on BP, there's a tendency that once a person starts to get upvoted or downvoted, the trend continues. People who see a downvote are more likely to downvote that post. While most people on BP are awesome, there are a few who do namecall and get very rude.

It's a fact that the more money you have, the easier it is to get more money.

Yes, especially drivers who have road rage.

Aussie public health is suffering too, services being slashed particularly after the budget blow-out during covid. I'd hate to work in health right now.

So far, I've had one (Just Eat app) restaurant ask me to add a tip. Cheeky sods, I haven't used that take out place since. We have a decent mandatory min wage in the UK, and we don't really have that kind of tip-pressure-culture, and if I ever want to give a tip to the driver (for being quick, for e.g.), I'll hand him cash on delivery.

OMG, YES!!!! What f*****g IDIOT lawmaker thought gas cans are used mostly for cars?

In a global sense, yeah, I guess humans have done quite a lot of individual and collective damage there.

Trades are underappreciated. So many people think they need a "college diploma" and don't realize that a trade school can sometimes give them a better career for less educational investment. Not everybody needs college.

Still is. You just have to dig deeper. And if ads bother you, get a VPN or a good adblocker.

Bike infrastructure suffers the network effect: one bike lane is worthless. A bunch is okay. If they are everywhere they work awesome. But you can't afford to change everything all at once, so change what you can when you can afford it and grow the bike network just as we grew the car network. You hardly ever see horses any more.

I see the point, but I feel the escape into the screens is not the fault of the screens, nor even the media. It's a symptom of other problems. Why are we all trying to escape? People keep trying to focus us on the problem of TV addiction, internet addiction, phone addiction, when our TVs and phones aren't the problem. We have unresolved social problems that are the cause, not the effect.