I think it’d be hard not to get cynical when in such a situation. It’s why it’s so important to amplify the voices of marginalised people and bring them into the fold, they have needs as a society we need to see to them. It really shouldn’t be that hard. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t realise that being healthy and able-bodied is a temporary state, and at some point or other we’re all going to need some form of support.

We all benefit from ensuring it’s there.

Mm. You’re describing someone very dear to me, because of whom I wear an n95 mask every day.

People you describe fight an uphill battle, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. They can ask for accommodations, but a lot of people won’t meet them. Meetings can be held digitally, of course, and one can advocate for oneself digitally as well. In time they can hope to win allies, and with them also get advocates that are willing to help amplify their voice.

I’m sorry, but I don’t have any good solutions. The world is neither kind or fair, the best we can hope for is to build communities with people that empathise and see us.

I wish you the very best.

Unions would do that if more people who cared about it joined unions and pushed for it. Unions only work if you’re actively doing stuff in them. It’s democracy, it only works so long as you partake.

What is the point of Plex? I just went straight for Jellyfin and it does everything I need and then some. Is it just that people went with Plex initially and then stuck with it as it got enshittified?

Personally I don’t enjoy setting things up. I do enjoy not being tied down to evil corporations.

Aaah, okay I see! Sadly this goes for pretty much all companies. It’s an inherent problem in capitalism. Money matters more than lives, so a company will happily throw people into a meat grinder if that’s going to pad their bottom line.

There are no good corporations.

I don’t think the U.S. has properly democratic elections due to problems like the FPTP voting system and the presence of gerrymandering. It’s simply not democratic if the votes can be manipulated in such a fashion that not all voices actually count.

I think I said it elsewhere, but the bar is in hell, and settling for that is unacceptable.

I feel like putting the U.S. and “democratically chosen” in the same sentence is a little bit of a stretch.

Are you sure that’s what they’re trying to do?

I often see people waving away the incremental enshittification of social systems in my country by saying “at least it’s not like the U.S.” but to me that’s burying the bar.

China and the USA are both run by nasty regimes, they suck in different ways (albeit increasingly less so), but you couldn’t pay me to live in either place.

Apples to oranges, but since they’re both rotted what virtue is there in accepting either one?

Yeah. But this already happens, unfortunately.