The situation got so bad that actual news overtook memes in top posts on Lemmy

I haven't seen any egg pics. Something is wrong, I can feel it.

🥚

I blocked all of the news and political communities on my main account.

I keep an alt to keep track of local and national news of where I live. Improved my mental health substantially.

Edit: I live in Europe

I wish I could, but personally not knowing would be a greater mental load then having to process this run away train of fascism.
- We should really stay on top of the news to know when Trump wants us to wear identifying armbands
- If you can't, it can be enough to say that's enough for today and control how much you take in I found a YouTube channel belle of the fifth column is just enough to keep informed but it's short and she put context to the news and just keeps it to the facts no click bait.
I simply blocked Lemmy (and all my other time waster websites) from my phone.
I subscribed to a newspaper to keep track of news.
You can't pretend it isn't happening.

I'd love to be able to tune it out, but that's what they want.

Ignorance is compliance.
Initially I did as well - but we are fast approaching a point where simply ignoring this further will be unacceptable.

I feel that sometime soon we may be called to do more than be a voice of reason. Americans are being tested right now. Will you quietly look away because you fear discomfort as your freedoms are stripped away? As your neighbors are assailed?

I'm not fond of the sting of teargas and pepper spray... but it's probably about time to develop a taste for it again. Find a group, know your community, and stop hiding.

Oh, and if you see a Nazi? Punch it.

All threats. Foreign and domestic.
Blaze lives inside the sopuli.xyz server farm confirmed.
I find that keyword-based filtering seems to work better than blocking. We're at a point here that if one is blocking all communities where people post news and politics to then there's nothing left to browse because you'd need to block virtually every even slightly popular community.

My current record so far is refreshing the front page and seeing 4 posts with all the others being filtered out. That's how bad the politics and news spam has gotten. And people wonder why normies aren't coming here..
- i don't wonder that. let the normies have their Destiny 2 and PublicFreakout and fantasy sports communities elsewhere. seeing comment section after section on Reddit filled to the brim with "I'm so funny!" unserious one liners was obnoxious. people talking about GoThrones fandom and RC cars while inequality skyrockets or the rich dismantle every federal govt program that benefit 99% of the population is not a good thing to yearn for. the founders-effect dominance from a handful of narrow ideologically centrists is not something we need more of.
- I combine it with blocking users. Political communities are blocked entirely, and then users who post irrelevant political crap in non-political communities are blocked individually.
Just the one alt?

Trump is using a technique called 'The Gish Gallop.'

Obama wanted to pass the ACA and the GOP managed to block it for almost two years because Obama kept talking about that one thing.

Trump is breaking rules left and right; plus screaming about crazy ideas like buying Greenland.

There is so much stuff going on that normal minds just want to shut down to get some peace and quiet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop

I believe they call it "flooding the zone (with shit)" when it's this particular orange flavour
- I like using firehose of bullshit, but using their words is probably better.
Aka shock doctrine
- Remember, ignorance is compliance.
Obama increased mass surveillance and US undercover operations significantly. Bush ultimately started it but Obama has a opportunity to stand on the side of freedom but didn't take it. Like all recent presidents he was focused on extending the power of the executive branch. The real answer is checks and balances.
- LOL!
  
  Obama couldn't get Gitmo closed. How many of those programs did he originate, and how many were passed by the Congress and he didn't veto them?
  
  He was hamstrung by the GOP and conservative Dems.
  
  The answer is a veto proof progressive Dem majority, not more 'checks and balances.'

Feels like it's been that way since the election to be honest

Lemmy has always been a political outlet, but post election has been out of hands.

I mean, it makes sense. We're witnessing the US becoming a fascist dictatorship in realtime. It's a huge upset to the way the world has been for everyone living's lifetimes.
- Yeah, it's like not being able to look away from a train wreck, but it's a humongous fiery train wreck that has been advertised and teased in every form of online media for the past two years.

It's because political discussion (and in general most commentary) on Reddit / Meta / Xitter has become overtly censored, and there's a real concern that it's tracked - a bad thing in an authoritarian regime barreling towards facism. Those who wish to have real political discourse having been moving away, and lemmy is receiving a lot of that traffic.

As an example, referring to a list of CEO's on Reddit as "Luigi's List" will get you a ban warning for inciting violence.

This increase in sensitivity to the potential implications of real political speech, coupled with increasingly stringent rules on the parts of the mods and accelerated by the auto-mod bots and AI chat bots, has led to a very restrictive discussion environment on the big social media networks. Even Bluesky, which is left-leaning and possesses the architecture for multiple servers to avoid centralization, is following this pattern.

Lemmy / Mastodon are attractive because they're not as restrictive, when you're posting you're interacting with real people, and because the mods and admins are humans dealing with a manageable population. And if someone censors you on the server you're on, you just move to another. More and more folks are realizing this as the enshitification of the big 3 continues.

Fear not, the memes will live on, but I think that in a very real way, Lemmy's (and the Fediverse's) time is upon us, and this is the result. People are using it for real shit because the real shit is upon us, and we need a place where we can freely discuss how to get clear of the incoming shitstorm.

Read up on the Cronkite Era and the Fairness Doctrine.

Companies could only own one TV/radio [AM and FM] station in each town, plus you had a couple of newspapers in even small places. When Reagan came in he started the trend to 'deregulate' the media.
- May Ronald Reagan rest in piss
Posting a kill list seems pretty questionable to me. I get how there can be some dark humor in that but I can totally see how that's calling for violence.

Real political discourse is too heavily censored in corporate spaces

What annoys me is when people gibe attention to people who have either done questionable things or don't deserve to be publicized.

Bad press is often better than no press. When you start putting the light on a CEO you are often turning them into a celebrity. Better to not focus on specific people unless they have done serious wrong on there own.
- Bad press would work if there were consequences like forcing the CEO to step down
  
  Unfortunately in today's world corporations and their ceos can get away with almost everything

Just remember, this is the worst things have been so far. The Trump admin still has shovels in hand, it can get much, much, worse.

Yes I always think of that Simpsons line, this is the worse day so far. It doesn't help any anxiety about the geopolitical situation even backdropped by an amusing sitcom. I do hope people learn better, but maybe we'll see the way of nuking ourselves and wonder what happened while still being intolerant (as a whole, I know many individuals are cool but those are never in position of power it seems).

I limit my political stories these days after Trump's first term I can't handle the same input, not American but that doesn't matter to the world's outcome.

OP is onto something.

maybe people are getting sad out there. maybe news is coming at us fast.. because change (unprecedented bad bad change) is happening faster than ever before?

it's a sign of the times. people blaming news junkies or whining about blocking comms don't get it. we're no longer living in a time when we can afford to ignore what's happening around us.

ps, I'm not arguing against memes. in fact go check !conservative@lemmy.world it's been turned into a satire comm under new mods and it's wonderful!

Yeah that's unfortunate. I joined that community to listen to concerns of my compatriots.
- The amount of polarization right now is pretty concerning. People can't imagine how someone could possibly have a different view. Conservatives and progressives both see the other as dumb and extreme. I don't need to agree with someone to understand where there beliefs come from.
- Go create another on another instance
Can’t ignore it.

Can’t change it.

Only heartburn.
- Don't ever think you can't change it.
  
  Audrey Hepburn was a teenager when the Nazis invaded.
  
  She could only dance, but that's what she did.
  
  There's always a way to fight.
  
  https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/02/audrey-hepburn-and-the-nazis-how-wartime-tyranny-turned-a-hollywood-icon-into-a-humanitarian/
- I think we can change it. We just have to say, "Mountain, be thou removed" and get busy with our shovels to help remove it. It won't be easy, but it is doable.

....what situation? When?

If you want to do something do something. Others have shown how easy actually is if you are really willing to.

If not, saturating everyone head with bad news is not healthy for anyone.

It's not just Lemmy either. Every platform is looking like this. At least people have woken the fuck up.

i was just thinking this.. it used to be 80% memes and now its just the downfall of western society. depressing.

(But yeah, things will never quite go back to the way they were, nor would we want them to exactly.)

I actually saw some news bleed into shitpost the other day. It's that bad.

Memes is the reason why i rarely sort by top.