That’s a good point, but I guess it’s because I don’t see it having much to do with parenting at all. I don’t have kids, I don’t presume to know exactly how difficult it is except knowing that is far more difficult than people who say “just do this” say.

Kids are the most impressionable and susceptible to this influence to this but everyone is impacted, that’s my point. Starting by protecting them makes sense, but that’s why I lead off by saying I support a ban for everyone. It’s hyperbolic, but if it really was a binary choice between having social media as is or not having it at all I would choose not.

Parenting is being used as a scapegoat here. 30 year olds can and do fall into this trap just as easily and no parent is coming to save them.

I think the issues you describe are arguably part of the situation, but we saw a massive increase these right wing, bigoted attitudes almost overnight. That doesn’t just happen because boys and men are neglected. Men enjoy massive societal privilege and power, married with some expectations and pressure. Mostly put on them by other men who benefit from retaining that power structure or who are deathly terrified of change. It’s toxic masculinity in a nutshell.

The position you describe is frequently dismissed as misogyny because it is one many misogynists hold. Men have had to give up privilege and make space for women, are no longer the centre of the universe and all things must cater to them, and that’s why they are easily swayed to right wing talking heads who tell them actually, society has failed you because they think women and minorities are more important than you. We think you’re great as is, so you don’t have to shut up, give up anything or make space for others. We’ll put you back where you belong, right on top. I can’t sympathize with that. It’s just hateful selfishness, pure and simple.

Kids don’t find Rogan or Tate. It’s shoved in their face by social media companies because it’s engagement bait. Social media is the starting point. I can’t stop people from seeking these things out, there will always be a group. But deplatforming this content from social media will massively reduce the number of people that are exposed to it. Short of that, removing children from these spaces will do the same, at least for them.

I don’t think this is worse than doing nothing. I think we have seen where we’ve come in a couple years. This is so much worse than anyone could have imagined. If it helps, I would much prefer deplatforming of hateful content enforced by the social media companies with harsh penalties and strict regulation. Pushing these people to the corners of the internet does help, nobody gives a fuck what happens on Truth Social for example outside of Trump’s ramblings. I agree that Meta amongst other companies is trying to push toothless legislation that will only further their ability to track and sell each individual user’s data. I also agree the idea of “submit your ID to every social media company” is about the worst shit imaginable and not a solution. So I don’t think we fully disagree.

But I’m not willing to turn a blind eye to it, and I’m not waiting for idealistic solutions like “parent boys better” to magically solve everything.

Poor parenting is arguably some of the problem, but it’s not a realistic solution. The right loves solutions like “personal responsibility” because they are basically excuses to do nothing.

It’s your fault that tech bro oligarchs have hijacked your child’s brain with billions of dollars in research to create the most addictive thing possible, just like it’s your fault that your child is overweight when they are constantly exposed to food that is engineered from the ground up to manipulate the pleasure centres in their brain. Is it true? I mean, a little. Sure. But are there steps we can take as a society to make that job less than completely impossible and a constant battle? Yes.

I think it’s much easier to say to parents “just do this” than it is to do that when you have a real person in front of you pleading that your rules are way worse than their peers and will serve to alienate them from everyone they know.

Parental controls are not a solution, let’s get real. You can buy a SIM with data and a functional internet device for less than $50. Hell, you can get castoff devices for free. You can get free internet access anywhere. Parental controls are a tool that you can and should use to increase barriers, however they are not a panacea.

Regardless, the argument here still boils down to “wait for people to fix themselves and get mad when they don’t”. This is never a solution. We don’t say to people “just eat more iodine and you won’t get goiters”. We put iodine in shit that they eat and solve the problem.

I agree, this solution is painfully flawed. I don’t know what to do though, and I sincerely believe our fear of regulating online content has landed us in this current mess. I think the path we were on before Trump, deplatforming hateful content, was actually pretty good. You could see the temperature change as Nazis, misogynists and Trump himself were kicked off platform after platform and relegated to their own crappy little corners of the internet.

Then this shit came roaring back, Musk bought Twitter, Zuck went full facist and Trump came back into office and everything went to shit. In the space of a year, we now have the richest man in the world on one of the biggest social media platforms and the most followers amplifying literal Nazis, white supremacists and misogynists on the daily. You spend 10 minutes on YouTube watching gaming content and you will have videos from every right-wing influencer in your feed competing for your attention.

It’s so, so bad. Forget happiness stats, we’re letting the far-right brainwash a generation and make them actual Nazis under our nose and we’ve done fuck all about it. We will look back on this period as one of the biggest generational losses of control we’ve ever had and it will take decades to undo the damage, if we ever can.

I feel your concerns here, I really do. I have them all myself. I don’t want harm to come to marginalized groups as a result of tying online activity to a real world ID. But I’m not aware of anywhere to start that has any political support besides here, and I truly believe that letting this continue unchecked will be far worse for us in the long run.

I support a social media ban for people over 16 too. I notice the people criticizing this offer no solution except “parent better”. I’m surprised Lemmy has such a stupid and regressive take. I think if the story were about the results of this issue, such as a rise in misogyny or racism amongst youth people would rightly blame unregulated, corporate social media for landing us in the massive right-wing backslide we’re in right now.

Yet these threads are indistinguishable from the tech bro anarcho-capitalist solution to these problems of “fuck you, figure it out lol”. We’ve waited too long and the right wing has already poisoned Gen Z men and turned them into Joe Rogan loving, misogynistic, racist little monsters. The first generation in modern history to be more conservative than their parents.

I don’t love age verification either. It’s a deeply flawed solution to a massive, unchecked problem that is already unravelling decades of social progress. But I’m not hearing much in the way of alternative solutions. I would prefer massive regulation of all social media platforms, but that’s political poison and will never happen. So before you knee-jerk to “freedom and personal responsibility”, look at the world right now and acknowledge that we need to do better at a societal level. Then come with solutions, not just criticism.

Did you read the post? 1/3 Canadians incur one of these fees per year, $600M annual savings. So yes, it’s an issue.

This measure isn’t a bandaid for what you describe. Imagine a scenario where you got everything you suggest here, living wages and higher tax on the 1%.

Would that mean that this NSF fee cap would be redundant? Not at all, we absolutely should be capping NSF fees as even in that scenario it’s a predatory poverty tax.

Things like tax rebates for services instead of capping prices, or subsidies for services if your income is under a certain threshold instead of making it affordable in the first place, those are bandaid solutions. That’s not what this is.

How about this?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-sunday-editorial-venezuela-warning-for-canada/

The motivation is simple, and ancient: empire. Saturday marked the formal debut of an imperial America, led by a president who recognizes no law, save that of the jungle. Already, Mr. Trump is turning his attention elsewhere, saying in an interview Saturday that “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.”

Every country in the Western Hemisphere should be worried, particularly this country, which Mr. Trump so obviously covets as a 51st state.

The phrasing isn’t as alarming but the sentiment is the same.

What stops private corporations from jacking up rates and discontinuing service to underserved areas without pressure from Canada Post?

That’s right, fuck all. The problem with this attitude is that because YOU don’t use Canada Post you assume nobody else does. Yes, traditional mail is not a big thing anymore. But what Canada Post does is fundamentally just delivery, and they could easily restructure around that.

Without it, you just cede another piece of critical infrastructure to American private companies. Need a package sent to a northern or rural area? Be prepared to pay the one American company that bothered to set up a route there astronomical prices in the name of profit.

Sending things to each other, from small businesses and across all areas in Canada should be a thing we offer and don’t just let Americans take over and kill unprofitable routes. It’s a great use of tax dollars, and just because it doesn’t matter to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter a whole lot to the person in Iqaluit who gets their cancer drugs that way.

I think it’s because the market changed around them. When the 3DS launched they were one of the only companies providing decent BC. Now, everyone does it and people expect games to actually play better on the new devices.

Still a surprise that Nintendo got the message, but with the dozen first party games that got free patches it was clear this was a new era for them. I’m playing Pokemon Violet right now after beating Scarlet a few years ago and it’s like a whole new game on Switch 2, all the performance issues are just gone.

It’s not needed. The only alliance that could topple them is BQ+PC and the Bloc has already committed to giving the Liberals minimum 1 year to enact their agenda.

No need to align right out of the gate and give the NDP bargaining power, they’ll do it when they have to.

Yep, all the pain and no gain. Already cancelled my Walmart Delivery Pass and swapped to PC Express. Now I’m locked in for a year. That’s a year of groceries Walmart lost over this.

Personally I’ll be operating like this until the threats are gone, not just delayed, and even years into the future I’ll be much more cognizant of where my goods are coming from.

Bought a bunch of BBC Planet Earth 4K BluRays direct from them because the only other reasonably priced option was Amazon and I’m avoiding them if possible.

BluRays using technology from Japan, pressed in China, containing a documentary series from the UK, purchased in Canada in CAD direct from the UK distributor.

Should be fine, right? Shipped from the US. Such nonsense.

Imagine writing this about the civil rights movement or women’s suffrage were they unpopular and maybe you’ll see how ghoulish you sound.

Also, they are threatening those things as well they’re just calling them “DEI” so you basically are writing that right now.

I think you forgot the question.

If it’s something along the lines of “is this why he’s still in power” I think the answer is yes. For all of Doug Ford’s faults, and there are many, he stayed out of the convoy thing, handled the COVID response OK, has mostly stayed out of social and identity issues compared to the other right wing leaders in North America, and immediately distanced himself vocally and significantly from Trump when the tide turned with the Canadian right.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t me espousing support. I wouldn’t vote Con if I was paid to (and we were). But I think he’s savvy enough to know that social politics isn’t going to bolster his support with his base it will just lose him votes in the GTA. If the goal is cronyism, lowering taxes, privatization, and making sure he can drive everywhere then those other things just distract from the goal.