this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
908 points (95.5% liked)

Comic Strips

18522 readers
1521 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] eskimofry@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

This post and several comments agreeing with this I feel are made with some level of ignorance on "Civil Disobedience".

Minimizing participation in the orphan-crushing machine but also debating politics on available platforms are not antithetical. Debating online is as important as doing the rest of the things that are perceived as "real" worthwhile pursuits. For instance: How can we pursue a cure for cancer if the political climate ensures scientists are scorned and distrusted? If evangelising about the "real" problems you care about is labelled as politics then can you really make progress without "political" action such as boycotting, protests and civil disobedience?

In the same vein, doing the small things in protest is the stepping stones to doing bigger things. It works the same way for any pursuit. Why shouldn't I practice discipline with my disdain for all the evil in small ways while also pushing for more?

Jeff Bezos makes billions of dollars, But He didn't get the $100 from me this year. Sure that sounds like a waste of time and energy for not much impact. But It didn't cause me any hardship. But believe me that $100 had either a compounding effect on my own wealth this year or to some people i gifted essential food to. That impact was felt a lot more by me or one of the people i gifted food or essentials to.

[–] lemonySplit@lemmy.ca 4 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Too bad they crushed all the old cars

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 1 points 19 hours ago

I mean, they were worthless.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (14 children)

Cutting out the middle man does not involve technologically regressing.

Cutting out the middle man means stepping up and learning how the tech you use in your daily lives actually works. The only reason some tech bro can step in and ruin your life is if you let them keep you ignorant through convenience.

You want to cut out the middle man? Use, and support, open source. Fight to make everything that requires a server, be a server that you own in your own home (or is federated and in your local community). Use, and support, repairable technology... And actually repair your technology!

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Cutting out the middle man does not involve technologically regressing.

But then how can you performatively sit in Starbucks with a mechanical typewriter and then post it on social media so everyone knows how progressive and anti-establishment you are???

load more comments (13 replies)
[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (4 children)

No. The capitalists are the problem. Not the tech grunts.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 23 hours ago

Basically how i try to live my life! Buy physical media, setup a nas, unplug from the internet on most weekends (or limit it).

[–] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is this supposed to be satire? How is print media owned by massive conglomerates, flip phones with no OSS firmware, handwritten letters delivered by a literal middleman, avoiding the middlemen??

[–] Octavio@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They’re not defining “middleman” in the traditional sense of an intermediary in an economic exchange. The first panel introduces a new definition of the term as a tech bro attempting to insinuate himself into the process of communicating with others. The remedies offered would indeed seem to preclude this type of middleman from interfering with the process.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Jaded99@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Please use windows XP and connect it to the internet and see what happens LOL

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

I connected win 98 to the internet yesterday. It was fine, and probably safer than win 11 is now. No built in Spyware either ha!

(Don't use win 98 as your main os. I am partially joking and I only use it for running old programs and games.)

[–] Jaded99@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

I've been hacked before #notfun

[–] Jaded99@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

There are programs Searching for online old windows OS. You will be hacked sooner or later better to run linux and vm old windows instead. Putting old windows on the internet is like sticking your pp into Bonnie Blue without a condom and being the last man in line too.

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I do use it within a vm on linux ha

[–] Jaded99@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah im not raw dogging it ha, unless I had my old hardware then I would

[–] Jaded99@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Don't risk it they infiltrate your router too, happened to me.

[–] LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Try to exist in any kind of life above "hippy with hemp clothes living in a yurt on their parent's property and a trust fund" without things like a smartphone, a car and a computer.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

When ceiling fans and AC units requires an account, yeah, something's wrong.

[–] infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago

The morality of a technology is determined by those in control of it, and look who's in control today.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

How about struggling but still extant written internet journalists? “Dumb” or simplified smart phones or e-ink devices? Modern iPod clones? The upcoming Slate car? A local LLM/voice assistant?

There are tons of neat alternatives to tech bros, the problem is attention. People just don’t know about them, so they don’t hit critical mass.

…I don’t have a good solution to this, but the attention economy is broke and following the herd is not working anymore. And there are solutions better than going backwards, but no mental energy to find them.

[–] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

Who needs an iPod clone when you can literally buy an iPod, drop 1Tb of storage in it, and sync it to your library like you always could.

It's stupidly easy to do, and those things are still rock solid. And you can put Rockbox on too, if you don't want iTunes anywhere near your computer. Or you use Linux and can't have iTunes.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The junk products are not the problem, they will be phased out in a few years anyway, like all the ones before them.

The problem is the political system that is completely subservient to corporations that allows them to create accepted social standards like "you have to have the newest phone and a computer to even dream of getting a job interview" or the manufactured consent that much of America adheres to that things like social programs, welfare and universal basic income are tools of the devil.

Or the epidemic of planned-obsolescence that every last democrat and republican representative profits from as much as the tech-barons they work for. Other countries have laws about making products that last so citizens don't have to spend their every last dime to just to keep having basic appliances and connection to the world.

If we made a unified push to install representatives that also want a better world and aren't blithering morons who want to get rich, it would go a long ways to healing the system, but I don't know how that's going to happen since we all allowed our population to also become blithering morons.

With the recent destruction of PBS and their associated programs, this is going to get even worse. But don't worry, kids will be able to ask Grok for history facts.

[–] AusatKeyboardPremi@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I see a few comments about self hosting stuff to escape the clutches of big tech, and while all that is effective to a high degree, it is beyond the abilities of the general populace.

Besides, I am also of the opinion that not everything has to be digital or smart.

I relish writing and receiving letters, it is tangible and indicates commitment. Fortunately, postal system isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I like reading newspapers and it was sad to see all shops in my neighbourhood stop selling them during or after COVID. It was equally sad to see a lot of magazines not survive that period.

I miss my old TV that was simpler to use and started quicker than my newer smart TV. It does not matter if I disconnect the latter from the internet, it takes its time to load up. Besides, I don’t see any perceivable difference in picture quality from the distance I watch from.

Older laptops, though heavier, were more repairable. In certain aspects, they are better than modern ones: more tactile keyboard, nicer screen ratio (4:3). Of course, the newer laptops decimate the old ones when it comes to performance and screen quality but that is just technology progressing.

I could keep going on with a plethora of product categories. But across all my points, I wish some companies could continue offering such products, at least to a customer base that is willing to pay more just to support the existence of those products.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] qaz@lemmy.world 81 points 2 days ago (18 children)

We don't need to go back to handwritten mail, FOSS is the way to go.

load more comments (18 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›