A little more appreciation for nuance, empathy, and chill when it comes to "hot" topics would be appreciated.

Like just about every day I check Lemmy, and I find some really awful, yet highly-voted take (usually on politics, sometimes on tech or something) that sends my eyes rolling so hard I could probably hook them up to a generator and get carbon-free power.

I can deal with downtimes, community drama, and needing to grow conversations. But the hostility I see almost daily turns visiting Lemmy into a stressful, not welcoming experience.

This. "Overstressed" doesn't begin to cover it. It's an unimaginably stressful job even when things are going right.

Yawns are when your perfectly little cuddly ball of soft opens its mouth and reveals a dozen chisels of death.

(And then goes right back to being cute.)

I like this answer because, like... a lot of the others are "clever" misinterpretations of how powers classically work, trying to force real-life physics into superhero logic and stuff.

But no. Not this one. Your mind-reading powers can function exactly like how comic books say it should, and you can still be scarred by what you found rummaging through that one guy's head.

Gaming "journalism" can't afford outright say "company deliberately tries to hide enshittification of their game" aloud. Might lose that access to selective early copies for review!

In a steam locomotive, but a scale model one that was ridden on instead of in. It was actually pretty cool; they still hand-stoked the firebox and everything, just... really small.

I've been here since that time, and I'm pretty sure your guide to the Fediverse was a huge help in understanding how the Fediverse works. Thank you very much for it.

Politics-wise, I still frankly see some frankly rather alarming takes on here, but that just makes me more committed to building this up to be a better place. I'm certainly glad to see another friend here as well!

I don't know if it's something about the genetic or just the coloring, but voids always look like they're super fit.

Frankly, it sounds like you were incredibly unlucky and stumbled into one of the few groups populated by vocal crazies. My alliance has a pretty firm 'no politics' stance, and definitely would not tolerate people being discriminatory or demeaning. We might lightly joke with each other, but people know not to soapbox. Our major blues have similar approaches, and I've very rarely encountered anything problematic coming from them either.

Especially the politics on here. I've seen some wild takes going completely unquestioned.

That is a good firm look of "Man, I want attention, but I am far too lazy to ask for it. So I'm just going to flop, because I know you're a big sucker for it, aren't you?"

Stuff from locally-owned stores. Tools, supplies, car parts, food... if the markup isn't egregious, I'll always try and get from them before a big box or online. Not only does it help the owners, but they're frequently knowledgeable and can sometimes work stuff out for you.