HarkMahlberg

HarkMahlberg , 2 months ago to Politics in Jon Stewart on Israel - Palestine | The Daily Show

The Problem With Jon Stewart had much more biting commentary, and you could see that he and his writers had much more creative control to speak their mind. The Daily Show just doesn't have the same bite, or the same wit, or the same strength of conviction.

HarkMahlberg , 3 months ago to Fediverse in The devil himself...

Easiest block of my life.

HarkMahlberg , 4 months ago to Politics in "The Myth of Frontier Individualism" from The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 1941-06: Vol 22 Iss 1

I find the wording of that a little... strange? "The man chiefly responsible for [the myth's] acceptance" sure sounds like he was warning of all of the dangers that came with it. I wouldn't say he was promoting acceptance of such a culture.

Or am I misreading that? Are they saying Turner was wrong, that such an individualistic streak in American life (then and/or now) is fictional, not actually present?

HarkMahlberg , 5 months ago to Work Reform in Gen Z is prioritizing living over working because they've seen 'the legacy of broken promises' in corporate America, a future-of-work expert says

Thanks for the informed take.

the money in your account is yours to allot and invest as you wish

While true, I'm not an investor, I'm a software engineer. I don't know good investments from bad, so if I tried to invest myself as an uninformed person, odds are good I will lose a lot of money very quickly. And becoming an informed investor is a lot of time and effort I don't have. I rely on the managed plan because I know there are professionals handling it.

based on the investment options your company chose or negotiating with them to administer your company’s plan.

My employer actually switched our 401k's from ML to John Hancock. I had no say in this, I don't know if JH is more or less competent as a firm than ML. So if I have fewer choices because I don't know how to invest and would prefer someone to manage it, I have even fewer choices because I don't even get to choose who manages it.

That said, 401ks are awful and a sham that were pushed on an uninformed public

This is where we most agree. Most people don't know how to invest, so they either let the retirement funds handle it, or they try it themselves. If they try it themselves, they either have to learn how to invest, or they have to get lucky. If the funds handle it, they can be lured in by "stable, lucrative" investments that turn out to be bad, like Mortgage-Backed Securities. Even informed investors can lose money. No matter which path we follow, it all becomes gambling in the end. It's unacceptable that retirement funds are treated as such.

HarkMahlberg , 5 months ago to Work Reform in Gen Z is prioritizing living over working because they've seen 'the legacy of broken promises' in corporate America, a future-of-work expert says

Can't speak for OP, but I don't look at the 401k as a stable retirement vehicle. It's a vehicle to pump "dumb money" (read: casino chips) into the stock market. If the stock market downturns just before you retire, if the firm managing your 401k makes bad investments, if another 2008-style real estate collapse happens, your retirement fund suddenly has less money in it than you hoped, so you're gonna have to work longer.

HarkMahlberg , 5 months ago to Learn Japanese in Order for scentences that have multiple subjects and/or objects and/or verbs and how to order indirect objects in scentences

This site seems to have a useful answer to your Indirect Object question:

https://www.japaneseprofessor.com/lessons/beginning/structure-japanese-sentence/

HarkMahlberg , 6 months ago to Fediverse in A case for preemptively defederating with Threads

To put my own skin in the game, I quite like the microblogging side of kbin. I like that I can swap between the thread and blog sides, I like that I can combine them into one view if I choose, and I like that I don't need a separate account to use either service. Using kbin's microblog was the first time I ever blogged, period. I'd hate to see that stream be overwhelmed by Threads users.

HarkMahlberg , 6 months ago to Fediverse in A case for preemptively defederating with Threads

If Threads puts out so much more content as to effectively make other federated entities irrelevant, the character of the Fediverse changes such that it is no longer what it is today.

A fun time to bring up the concept of Eternal September.

HarkMahlberg , 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to Fediverse in A case for preemptively defederating with Threads

Reposting this discussion for posterity

Big takeaways, emphasis preserved from the original:

Threads is entering a space in the fediverse which is dominated by Mastodon, so it's Mastodon and other fediverse microblogging services (including, to some extent, /kbin) which will most heavily feel the impact of Threads.

Defederating another server means your instance will stop requesting content from that server. ... Defederation is about what data comes in, not what goes out. ... Defederation doesn't make you invisible, it doesn't block anybody else from seeing you, it doesn't protect your content, it only means you never have to see their content.

Firstly, the fediverse is a drop in the ocean compared to Threads (104 million registered users). Obviously, Meta wants everybody, but their specific goals in terms of user-poaching are far more likely to center around the ~350 million active Twitter users than the ~12 million fediverse users (~3.5 million active). The threadiverse [Lemmy, Kbin, et al] is smaller again, at something like 100,000 active users.

"Threads will overwhelm the fediverse with their inferior content and culture." Like the EEE fears, this one is legitimate but once again something that will primarily be felt by microblogging providers (/kbin included). Toxic users, advertisers, etc. can push garbage into feeds all day, but they will largely not be targeting the threadiverse because there's some 100 million sets of eyes to put that crap in front of on the microblogging side and it will be difficult-to-impossible for them to push that content into Lemmy/kbin threads from their interface that was never made to interact with the threadiverse.

Is there any chance Meta has good intentions? No. But it might have intentions that are both self-serving and fediverse-neutral. The absolute best intention I can possibly ascribe to Meta is that joining the fediverse is a CYA (cover your ass) mechanism to head off regulations, especially in the EU, [e.g.] the newly-applicable Digital Markets Act ...

HarkMahlberg , 6 months ago to Politics in Liz Cheney weighs third-party US presidential run, says Trump threatens democracy

I'm not clicking on your link.

My man, it's Wikipedia. It's where he copied the text from. You could afford to put in a little effort to engage in good faith.

Liberals are anti-war. Progressives are pro-status quo, which is pro military industrial complex

Progressives absolutely support cutting military spending to divert funding to single-payer healthcare.

HarkMahlberg OP , 7 months ago to Politics in [News] House passes a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown

The vote was 336-95, with 209 Democrats and 127 Republicans voting to support it. Ninety-three Republicans voted against it, more than voted against the last government funding bill in September; two Democrats opposed it: Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Mike Quigley of Illinois.

Johnson's so-called laddered continuing resolution, or CR, would fund part of the government — including the Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs departments — through Jan. 19 and fund the Defense Department and other remaining parts of the government through Feb. 2.

Part of me wishes that Dems would squeeze him harder for more concessions. The other part can't wait to see him get tossed by the MAGA.

HarkMahlberg OP , 7 months ago to Politics in RFK Jr. pulls more votes from Trump than Biden in three-way race: Poll

It doesn't have to be not in shambles in order for their voters to continue voting for them. Trump being in prison by then - God willing - may even be considered a feature-not-bug for those zealots. I'm taking nothing for granted.

HarkMahlberg OP , 8 months ago to Politics in [News] Mike Johnson elected House speaker, ending 22 days of GOP stalemate

We can put all the other threads to bed guys, I promise. lol

Too bad Johnson's a hack in every conceivable sense.

HarkMahlberg , 8 months ago to Politics in House GOP speaker race balloons to nine candidates

At this rate, we're going to have a government shutdown in November when the temporary funding expires, but the GOP won't have anyone to blame but themselves. Now, if only their voters will see that...

HarkMahlberg , 8 months ago to Politics in The House GOP Didn’t Just Reject Jim Jordan, They Made Him Squirm

They voted against Jordan, but wouldn't vote for Jeffries. That's not Team Normal, that's Team We Still Don't Have A Functioning Government And We're Going To Keep It That Way.