Yep https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2007701/uk-gold-shortage-london-donald-trump

It’s clear now why the metric system hasn’t caught on even after the US officially adopted it. This country I live in is full of pathetic fragile losers who have to demand everything is America first.

I didn’t think it would be possible to keep using the Plex server and user other apps. If so, that would be nice so as to maintain the meta data I’ve worked so hard on.

You haven’t addressed the issue I’ve raised.

I am and will continue to be concerned with businesses because I’m a human being who needs to eat and has a life outside my home.
I am telling you that most businesses only use Instagram in place of any other means of notifications.
It’s currently not possible to keep up with events without having an Instagram account. I already miss out on most events because the instagram algorithm usually shows me posts that are days past the event and I’m not on there for more than an hour in a whole month.

Your solution, to abstain from life, is not feasible. Maybe it is for you but for most people it’s not.

You are also missing the point of the matter where these businesses are going to continue to use a platform that is now explicitly censoring information and seemingly pushing fascist agendas. If you were a business and wanted to maintain a relationship with your customers, what option do you have? As I’ve said, the tools to use social media to run a business have been refined for years. There’s nothing close to comparable either in the fediverse, with websites, newsletters, rss feeds, calendars, etc.

I completely understand the theory and moral argument; but in practice, how does this take effect?

If I delete my account, I’m not longer able to see events and sales, etc at local businesses.

My favorite local grocery store has 32,000 Instagram followers. How many of them have to leave to convince that business owner to start using a federated platform? A local bar I go to maybe six times a year doesn’t even have a website - only an IG account with 5k followers. It’s only because of their IG account that I know they have a chili cookout coming up that I want to enter.

So logistically, how do we, those who want to jump ship, make these businesses jump with us?

The best I’ve got is some avatar change to bring awareness but I don’t post enough that anyone would see it anyway. Or maybe actually post something on IG and leave it pinned there. I don’t have any posts on my account so maybe leaving an inspiring post would help. This would require not deleting my account.

Moreover, for small businesses, I know a lot of them are spending a few hundred or thousand dollars here and there to promote events and sales. This is one of the weaknesses of the fediverse. I don’t think it’s unfair that a business or person has the ability to spend money to ensure their announcement is noticed. Another fed weakness / powerful feature of corporate-social media is the lack of tools for businesses to conduct business. It’s just a lot easier to use these platforms that have ten years of updates to make things work best for the most people.

Holy Shit. It’s real and it’s nuts.

I only use the website instead of the app but searching for #Democrat results in démoratie and démocratieparticipative while searching for #Republican results in republican, republican party, republicanmemes, republicanwomen, republicans.

It’s shocking to experience this sort of censorship in real time.

I wish I had more influence to get people to more to a federated platform. Me quitting IG isn’t going to do anything other than cut myself off from information I occasionally want to access (local business events).

assess what type of DEI programs are still discriminating against Americans

The official said it was “very fitting” that the order was announced on Martin Luther King Jr. Day because “this is order is meant to return to the promise and the hope, captured by civil rights champions, that one day all Americans can be treated on the basis of their character, not by the color of their skin.”

I don’t think I can handle four more years of this brain bending insanity. I’ve tried to understand where people are coming from. I’ve been of the belief that most of us are good people and want the same things. But trying to unpack the thoughts and whims of POTUS on a daily basis is just going to break my brain. I work at a computer all day so I’m not sure how I’m going to prevent myself from encountering this circus. I’m weighing the choice of living in blissful ignorance or in utter despair.

For over eight yers, my heart has hurt because of the sheer stupidity and ignorance taking control of this country. I am not seeing any signs of improvement. On the contrary, it seems very apparent that it’s getting worse.