This isn't a knock on the fediverse - I have tremendous respect for the community here, or I wouldn't even post this - but the cratering of social media by oligarchs in the last year or five just makes me so unbelievably sad sometimes. These incredible communities have been destroyed by greed and it makes it so hard to invest emotionally in anything any more. This is particularly hard when you're an introvert & those spaces were a huge support. I wonder how many, like me, just haven't recovered.
I used to want to participate and be a part of online communities and now I just post a photo here and there and dip out because every place I've ever felt a part of burned to the ground. That's not something I like or feel good about, btw, but I also have a really hard time "being myself" anywhere and seeing rich douches torch my home again and again makes it so hard to invest energy in rebuilding. Especially when energy is so hard to come by. The internet is a goddamn mess right now.
You fediverse people are the one bastion of the internet not owned and manipulated by corporate interests at the moment and I am grateful for that. I am glad that you folks are out there. I do feel like too many bloody chunks of my spirit were torn out by the Musks of the world, to the degree that I barely exist online any more, but it warms my cold soul a bit to know that the community here still rocks. Thanks for that.

@AbandonedAmerica

The thing about freedom nobody talks about enough is that it gives wings to both good and arseholes. Still worthy!

@mcepl @AbandonedAmerica As an arsehole I am in this message
@ljs @mcepl fly free, little arsehole ❤️
@AbandonedAmerica @mcepl wow an image of an eagle just flashed before me!

God bless the lost 13 colonies which we gave up willingly because we couldn't be arsed to keep them!

God bless you all!

But like lads, can you please not waste any more tea yeah? Thanks
@ljs @mcepl but if you throw a bunch of tea into a harbor doesn't it just make one really big tea

@AbandonedAmerica @ljs

Or one horribly weak tea …

(As a person who got from Dunkin’ Donuts their “regular” coffee expecting a regular cup of coffee, I still haven’t forgiven the drinks they are serving in those colonies).

@mcepl @AbandonedAmerica @ljs

When I was a teen, I worked at a truck stop. A driver ordered a cup of coffee, regular. When I brought him a fresh cup of black coffee (unadulterated, or to my midwestern POV, “regular”) he said kindly, “Darlin’, a regular coffee is ‘cream, two sugar.’”

I was a broadcast journalism college student at the time; my job at the truck stop was a boon. I learned oodles of regionalisms, pronunciation of names…all sorts of stuff that paid off in post-grad careers.

@mckra1g @mcepl @AbandonedAmerica yeah I think the lesson here is that america is huge and customs and habits differ depending where you are... even in the UK, which is a tiny country, if you were to judge us by something in one part of the country you'd find it differed rather somewhere else...

Except you never, ever put tea in a microwave. This is an abomination.

@ljs @mcepl @AbandonedAmerica

Oh absolutely. I’m a Yank, and even I know that! 😉

A coworker used to microwave her tea water and also reheat tea using the microwave in the break room. It almost gave me hives to witness it. *shudder*

@mckra1g @mcepl @AbandonedAmerica all of Britain stands with you. My God.