We are in the midst of a worldwide knowledge crisis...

We need to empower children with critical thinking skills, and we need to do it now.

My new piece: Teach kids about misinformation  https://macleans.ca/society/misinformation-pandemic-conspiracy-beliefs/ (https://t.co/7njjSK7HoI)

Mastodon is funded by users like you.

No, this isn't just a parody of the old PBS tagline. Your server is likely running thanks to some dedicated volunteers, not some vague venture capital nonsense, and donating a few dollars a month does a lot to keep things running.

Check your server's about page for a Patreon, Ko-Fi, or other donation links to help keep things going!

Seeing more and more autistic people being accused of being AI.

This hatred of the way AI interacts is a disability issue. It is a neurodivergence issue.

I want to be clear with this message. This always came from a place of ableism. Ableism is fucking rampant in even leftist communities. Any leftist group that allows this shit to go on not only will never achieve anything meaningfully leftist, it is straight up our enemy.

Don't be the enemy of disabled people.

(Y'all should boost this one)

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic #Neurodivergent #ableism #Anarchism #Anarchy #Anarchist #Communism

Hi newcomers. Some information:

- you can get very popular here by posting fun/informative stuff, pet pics, and art
- defaulting to Unlisted posts and posting stuff you want to share out as Public with lots of hashtags is a best practice
- which instance you're on matters because of moderation policies, and that's basically the only reason it does
- there are about 2 million people here, by middling estimates
- this network has existed since at least 2016, arguably since 2008
- there is a lot of covert white supremacy in a lot of fediverse spaces, and denying that is a fast ticket to my blocklist
- it's expected that people will add alt text to images if able and CW things when appropriate (which is a whole can of worms)
- harassing people about not CWing specific things is a very bad idea, please don't do that
- the official Mastodon app is not very good so if you don't like it I suggest trying one of the dozens of other very good apps out there, like Tusky or Feditext

Your comments on the functionality of the Fediverse, Mastodon in general, the moderation decisions of other instances, the specific software your instance runs, and your instance's moderation decisions are extremely valuable, in just about reverse order.

Welcome and have fun!

PSA: consider using a CW for emoji-heavy game posts.

The ones with big strings of emoji like #Wordle, #Quordle, #Worldle, & some #HashtagGames can be tough on screen reader users. Having to hear 40 to 200 emoji read out loud as
"colon yellow underscore large underscore square colon colon black underscore large underscore square colon colon green underscore large underscore square colon"
and on and on unless you skip to the next post isn't a pleasant experience. Even worse with many in the feed.