Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

(Also the screens are only 15 EUR with shipping so that's a nice bonus)

TIL that my budget no-name rugged/waterproof smartphone (whose screen has finally given in after many drops) apparently has replacement screens widely available, *and* it does not use adhesives so it's easy to replace it!

Very pleasant surprise, this. I was not expecting it to be so repairable, and there seems to be an iFixit guide for it too.

I've seen a couple of comments now from various non-white folks saying that they get proportionally *more* racist abuse hurled at them here than on Twitter.

I'd like to better understand why that is - "equally much" makes sense to me, with the culture not being less racist here, but I don't quite understand how it can result in *more* abuse than a functionally unmoderated place like Twitter.

Does anyone have any insights for me about what is causing this to happen? What protection is missing, what misfeature is amplifying the problem, or what else about the environment *or* system here plays a role in this?

(If you're white, please only respond if your understanding is based on what non-white folks have said on the matter; I'm not looking for guesses here from people who aren't themselves on the receiving end, because you're very unlikely to have the right answer.)

If you have views on how a better society would work:

Do you also constantly pick out situations you see (in real life, stories, movies, whatever) where something went badly, and then evaluate in your head how your ideal society would have dealt with it, warts and all? Or is that just me?

And if you do, what's your goal with it? (I do this specifically to find gaps/flaws in my ideals)

#AskFedi: has any country ever done a comprehensive study on the cost of public transport ticketing (machines, materials, staff, checking, gates, fare management software, transaction fees, etc.), vs. the revenue that it actually brings in?

So, about that mutual aid vs. Harris campaigning thing, there's a couple of points that keep coming up. Let's talk about them for a bit.

"We don't know if they're scammers!"

Doesn't matter; a small chance of it going to someone who's "scamming" is still considerably better than knowing *for sure* that your donation will only be a drop in the bucket (like is the case for Harris fundraising).

And even if they *were* 'scammers', as I have previously pointed out, low-stakes scammers are disproportionately poor people, so it really doesn't matter for the purpose of supporting someone.

"Small chance? What if *most* of them are scammers?"

Do you actually believe that the world is in a good enough shape that it's more likely for someone asking for help to be a scammer, than to genuinely need help? Have you *looked* at folks' well-being lately?

"But I don't want to reward begging!"

You don't want to normalize asking for help? No, really, I mean it, this is a serious question - why, exactly, do you think this is a bad thing? Because chances are there's some internalized hate you need to work on there.

"If we just gave money, nobody would ever do anything productive again!"

Aside from this having been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked by research into motivation, you're also basically repeating conservative rhetoric. Are you progressive or are you not? Do you believe in the good of people or not? What are your politics *really*?

"But the greater good is more important!"

Okay. Have you done the math, and calculated what, exactly, that 'greater benefit' would be? How exactly your donation would concretely translate into a societal improvement? Because if you haven't, then this is a retroactive excuse, not a well-considered rationale.

If you have, you will probably pretty quickly have come to the conclusion that the amount of money we're raising here is insignificant in the bigger picture, that it will mainly be spent on a marketing campaign for an individual, and that there are zero assurances that it *will* even translate into anything good, even if Harris is elected.

Doesn't mean she isn't the better option compared to Trump, to be clear, but it's pretty hard to make a credible 'greater good' argument here; she only needs to win, *by how much* doesn't really matter.

In comparison, sending money to someone asking for mutual aid on here will likely save someone's literal life. Someone who, I might add, *then can contribute to improving politics*. You know, many hands make light work and all that. You can't fix politics when everybody is starving.

And if you believe that mutual aid recipients wouldn't make a useful contribution to the political environment, well. I invite you to ask yourself why you believe that, and sit and reflect on the answer for a while, because the problem there does not lie with the mutual aid recipients.

#MastodonForHarris #Mastodon4Harris