This meme makes me think of a fabulous but unwritten scene from American Gods… like that orgy party in The Boys, but Denny’s.

Dark.

Let’s hope the system holds well enough to oust.

Had I been truly bold, I would have included in the assignment guidelines that they use the platforms themselves to execute their “creative projects” with the Fediverse — this way you’d be able to see what was done “live.” As it is, I used a digital format for their work they are all familiar with… they’ll be presenting live presentations with google slides…

My guidelines are general enough that the hideous things some folks have run into cannot come back to bite me, but as you predicted, some have run into genuinely nauseating material. I’ve just smiled and said, “I hope you clicked away.”

I believe the best response I’ve received after some adventuring in the Fediverse one student came back hooting about how much she has dreamed of “Internet one point oh.” This is what she calls the Fediverse — and she’s not wrong. Zero corporate Shenanigans.

Best news ever says dude still rocking the X-box 360 and happy about that.

Sorry for the two month delay in reply to your exceptional wisdom. I kept this message “unread” believing that I might own another such thorough reply. Then the term started and it’s all a blur.

I will share that I DID create an assignment on the FEDIVERSE. Very very general with major caveats about their free will and content they will encounter if they are not careful.

Best best response when I dropped the guidelines was a student who clapped her hands in glee and said, “OMG! We can go back to Internet 1.0!” — this is a 19 year old and she was being sincere. I asked her to clarify he thinking for the class and she said, “There was a time before corporations owned the internet when it was just people.” Oh… it was lovely!!

I won’t hear about this experiment for a few more weeks.

But I am hopeful.

There is NOTHING he can break the we cannot fix! NOTHING!

I know that preserving my health can be seen as complacency.

I faced down federal troops that were sent to our city after George Floyd — and I felt like a patriot for doing it.

When another George Floyd happens, I will hear about it. And I will be there in the fires.

Great reminder. Always tracking state and local.

I just can’t allow myself to fall into paralysis over “who” our country actually is. THIS. This is who our country actually is.

LPT: I’m not opening this shit. I’m holding my family close. I’m gonna work my job. I’m gonna exercise and get sleep. I’m gonna stay healthy. I’m gonna vote in 4 years for a better president.

But I’m not going to turn my guts into knots over shit I cannot change. I’m not going to let the noise bury me.

I’m not watching

I popped off of mobile to reply to this but I do not believe that even on a keyboard I will be able to express my gratitude for your thoroughness, reason, and wisdom here.

Yes – turns out I have a pretty sweet gig and I want to keep it.

Your points reminded me that before Reddit imploded, I had an assignment that I agonized over for many of your excellent points here. The previous president of our school applauded me for teaching A Clockwork Orange. Academic Freedom and all that. But we have a new president and I just don’t want to risk it. In fact, my reddit assignment was tied specifically to: r/TIL. That was it. I had huge warnings about traveling beyond that sub.

As I read your contribution here, I was stunned that I had just “gone native.” I personally just avoid the ugly on Lemmy and do not even notice it or react to it.

The short version here is this: thanks for your kind and erudite wake up call. WTF was I thinking? I did one term use Lemmy in an assignment where I created kind of a private group called: our class or something like that. Ostensibly this was just where we could reach out to one another to discuss class topics… but the shadow agenda was moving people off corporations and onto the Fediverse. It’s so frustrating that they do not care about privacy or anonymity. Oh – when I had them all try to create accounts in class, we ran into an IP blocker likely created to stop briganding or something.

Anyway – I’ll keep thinking about this – maybe find a more gradual way to introduce elements of the fediverse… like TIL videos or something to begin.