Ask Lemmy

(If you have anxiety about death then maybe you shouldn't read this post, just letting you know!)

Before joining Lemmy I used to be a devoted Christian since my family raised me as one and have been Christians for generations. And to add important context, I'm not talking about judge mental homophobic trump supporting Christians that judge gays and everyone else they see who don't live the way they live. I'm talking about being a real follower of Christ who loves thy neighbor and knows we have no right to judge, not what most church's are today who just exist to make a profit. My family are bible based Christians and raised me as one too, not by propaganda machines. (Or at least the propaganda that politicians or "Church's" who exploit vulnerable people for their money like to spread around. The "buy my book to change your life" or "plant your $1000 seed" type of shenanigans makes me sick.)

Anywhoo, while being on Lemmy and learning a lot about U.S. politics I just have never seen on other social media sites like X and Reddit, and talking about science, capitalism, global warming, and so on and so fourth with the incredible people on here, it has really broaden my view on certain subjects and be a lot more open to a lot more ideas, one of which is Atheism.

I haven't thought about it too much, but recently my Grandfather died and so my emotions and thoughts have wandered about him and about loosing someone I care a lot about, and then a question popped into my head; is he truly in a "better place"? Do they actually go somewhere? What will happen to my Dad?

After that random thought, my brain has kind of spiraled out of control about this topic and I haven't been able to sleep well since I've been having anxiety thinking about death. What is the point if all of life (our life) is truly just our brains, and our brain stops working? Is it really just, nothingness? What is the point of making all these amazing memories with family and friends that I cherish more than anything in the world, if all these memories are going to be forgotten? Whether its today, or 80 years from now? With this ideology, when I stop breathing, I will quite literally become nothing. There will be nothing. I am dead. It's made me into this "why should I care" mood about almost everything.

I think I've kind of made my anxiety worse during the last few nights since I also decided to look up what its like to die and what scientists have said about the topic, whoops! Turns out our brain can still think 2-15 minutes after our hearts stop beating! I know I'm joking here which I tend to do when I'm in these situations but I have been extremely anxious when it comes to the fear of death. Not in a "I'm scared to use this knife to cut a slice of tomato" kind of way, but a "when we're gone there will be nothing and I will remember nothing and become nothing" sort of way.

Not trying to get political here, but with this thought in my mind for the last couple of days and hearing about situations like Palestine has made me completely rethink everything like life itself, and now every time I hear about Palestine or Ukraine or whatever else going on in the world, I can't help but burst into tears.

Sorry for the rant or whatever this is, just asking what you guys think or how you live your life if thats alright. Take care of yourself!

I'm a complete beginner with no photography experience but excited to get into it.

Budget: ~$500

Needs: High quality macro of all kinds (my main purpose for getting a camera in the first place). Secondary: portraits (full body / upper body). Tertiary to those is versatility for everything else as it's going to be the only lens for the foreseeable future. I'd also love for the lens to have all the latest features like autofocus and the such (if there's anything else).

I've done some research around macro RF lenses for R50 (ASP-C cropped sensor) and among the 24mm, 35mm, and 85mm it seems 35mm stands out the most for the above needs but since I'm on a tight budget, I need quality advice to make sure I'm not making a mistake here.

I know Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM is better due to 1:1, but it wouldn't be as versatile as 35mm and thus annoying to use for anything other than macro due to the effective 160mm on the crop lense, right?

I could theoretically get used lenses but it's difficult where I live. The EF to RF adapter would have to be without the ring (too expensive otherwise), and I might have real trouble finding the suggested proper older EF (or third party) lens. Plus, most used lenses here aren't much cheaper, even the really old ones, and I really doubt they'd be in good condition either. But for a really good recommendation I might consider it.

Anyone that down votes is more than welcome to provide an example.

Just asking. I do not see me alive under u.s. reign, so I've already played that out; just a discussion.

What keeps you away from PeerTube? What features does PeerTube lack? If you were the developer of PeerTube, how would you improve it?

What was the journey like? How much easier is it now to run your own instance compared to the beginning?

Just curious.

Am looking for a compact paperback encyclopedia but am struggling to find one available in the UK. I used to have the Hutchison compact, but believe that was last printed in the 90s..

Old title - Tolerance - Is violence ever justified?

For reference - https://lemmings.world/post/19791264 and all comments below the post about tolerance and non-tolerance

is it too naive for me to believe any and every lives matter? I do understand if someone is coming for my life, and i stop him by retaliating back, most nation's laws would deem me innocent, maybe even most people will - but was it right?

It has not happened with me yet, and this is post is not politics related, a general discussion about tolerance, but I dont know how will I respond to such a situation, Is there a correct approach?

I know in a imaginary utopia - we can have a society where everyone thinks any violence, or for that matter, any evil deed is evil. And I know real world is far from being a utopia, but i believe most people can differentiate between good and bad. In my opinion, most people who do such acts are not really doing it because they enjoy it, some do because they have to, some think they have to, and they have been brain washed.

I also think if we ask a binary (yes/no) question to everyone - Is violence justified" - most people will vote no. I know there would be some exceptions (even in perfect utopia's like N. Korea, lords only get like 99% majority)(/s).

Now if we change question - "Is violence ever justified" - many will now vote yes, and start listing out situations where they think it is valid.

This question was also brought up in Avatar. For people who don't know - should Aang (a person with firm opinions, and more importantly a child - 12(112) years old) kill Lord Ozai (for now, consider him embodiment of evil for simplicity, but still a human). Many shows get away from asking, by basically having monsters (non human) as the opponent, so it is does not feel morally wrong. But here the question was asked. His past lives (in this world reincarnation exists, and aang is the Avatar - person who can control all elements) also suggested he should kill him, and he is tethered to this world, and this is no utopia ......... In the show they got away with basically a divine intervention.

Maybe here is my real question - Is it correct to have your morals be flexible?

Now for my answer, I have almost never felt correct labeling people good or bad, I have almost always treated people depending on what the situation expects me to (maybe how I feel I should be treating). In some sense I have a very flexible stance, and in some others, I dont. For example - I never cheat on exams or assignments - I can't justify cheating, If I am getting poor marks, then I should prepare well. But If someone else asks me to help them cheat (lets say give assignment solutions) - I dont refuse either, as I have understood, even though judging people by a few numbers is bad, world still does that - mostly to simplify things, and in that sense, a higher grade for anyone is better for them.

I dont even know what can be a answer. I dont know if it exists, or it can exist, I am not really trying to find it either, consider this just a rant at clouds.

edit - I am not asking a binary question - you are not expected to answer a yes or no, see the line just above this edit. It is not even really about violence - it is about morality

edit 2 - Changed title, old 1 is still here for full context. I dont know why I chose that title. I am not blaming anyone who answered on the basis of title, It was my bad to have some title, and ask a "not really orthogonal but generalised question" in the middle, hoping people answer that, some one did, I thank them. Many people have written (or in similar vein) - violence should be be avoided, but not when it the last thing. I understand this general sentiment - but according to me - having a excuse to ever do violence allows you to have loop hole, just blame the circumstances.

Someone gave a situation where they would do violence - someone trying to assault a kid - and I agree I would too (If I would be in such a situation).

I had a small back and forth with someone about morals - my stance is morals are frameworks to choose if a action is moral/immoral. And then the question is really how rigid should your moral framework be, and should it depend on background of people in consideration?

I am often intrigued by how widespread a lot of extended and even non-extended families are, and it's fascinating to think of family members coming from different places to visit each other and having family gatherings with a bunch of different accents. What countries do you have known family members in?

I keep seeing articles about the tech sector billionaires going mask off. I remember there being rumblings of a tech sector union. Also in the last 4 years there have been some ground gained for unions in the service sector too.

Wages are suppressed and with the looming tarrifs goods will be more expensive. Also anyone earning under 300k is going to see an increase in taxes with the proposed tax structure.

It seems around 30% of the population are really excited about Trump, 1% of that are funding efforts to support his platform. So what do the other 70% do? Do they strike?

Most recent example:

the site (or at least lemmy.world) is sooo slooow. Basic functions like loading images take me back to the dial-up era of “click the image then do something else while it loads,” which is downright ridiculous in the 2020s. Again I’ve stuck with it because I want to support the fediverse, but 99% of users won’t.

https://lemmy.world/comment/14645438

Obviously there's the most viewed of all time, which would count, but there's also thousands of absolute classics that are lesser known. I can only recall some because they made a specific impression on me. There should be a community to archive those and pseudo-rank them through upvotes.

If there isn't one, nobody steal my idea, I'll make one on sh.itjust.works.

Sneak peek

https://youtu.be/oYmqJl4MoNI

Also I would be remiss if I didn't mention lemmy.myserv.one here. I had never seen Streets 1:12 until I saw it referenced in one of the many entertaining taglines that u/Thief added to the server and I decided to check it out. What a rush!

Edit:

Ok I've finally been able to create the community. FYI if you're making a community, don't use capital letters in the URL name. You can use it in the display name though. I'll give some time for people to post their stuff.

@wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com

@theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com

@Travelator@thelemmy.club

@Embargo@lemm.ee

@JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca

@Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk

Here is the community

!youtubeclassics@sh.itjust.works

My cousin in SoCal recently got on permanent disability last year. So he signed up for MediCal with Kaiser (his last provider), but it’s rolled to 2025, he doesn’t seem to know if he needs to apply each new year.

Tried checking online, but SEO has made it impossible to find out easily. I just don’t want him missing out on enrollment if he needs to do it manually each year.

TIA to anyone who might know the logistics and how the system works. His mom seem is retired and seems 100% sure since he was put on MediCal in mid 2024, it automatically carries over and stays Kaiser. I just don’t want him missing out since he has seizures and his medication cost is high.

I’m hoping for something similar to /r/learnfrench. If not, how can I create one?

Now I want a tuna 🥪

I swear off so many products and services for no other reason than their obnoxious, repetitive commercials.

Off top of my head, I will never buy Old Spice anything because their ads are so repetitive and obnoxious. I feel disgust when I see it in the store and actively avoid it for no other reason than their spam campaigns.

Same for USAA, Native body wash, AmEx, Liberty insurance (that forced catchy theme), and more.

Anyone else feel the same way? Or have you caught yourself getting suckered in because of ads’ subconscious shenanigans?

I have a load of filters set up on my feed, notably I don't want to see Trump or Elon.

Due to recent events, so much content is coming through that it is as if I don't have filters at all.

If the text or title doesn't include the key words, it can't be filtered. All the screenshots or posts with jokes or bad titles can't be filtered.

I think the only way proper filters could be achieved is with a separate 'tags' field that could be added to or voted on by community members.

This might all seem like a lot of effort, but feed filters are such a good feature that I think it would be worth it.

I don't want unreasonable perfection for the filters, but the system seems too flawed at the moment.

I have no idea where this kind of discussion or decision would be made so I'm just throwing it out as a question here.

I know there was some schism and moving of instances, but beyond that I can’t deduce what happened/is happening.

This has probably been asked before but I wanted to add another layer/an alternative.

So, I ask, where did your username/pseudonym/nickname originate from? What's the meaning behind it?

Or alternatively, which is the most creative/interesting nickname origin you have come across?

ive been using/managing/fixing computers and servers for 40+ years. from old AS400 to full on cloud bullshit. i can remember only a single time where boot time mattered... when microsofts DNS failures caused servers to take 15 minutes to boot.. other than that there hasnt been a single time it has ever been a problem or discussed as an issue to be resolved.

so why the fuck is it constantly touted as some benefit!? it grinds my gears when i see anyone stating how fast their machine booted.

am i alone in this?

50cc