Agreed. You are really referring to the fact that so many now belong to some kind of hive. They no longer think for themselves. And since being a member of a specific hive gives their life meaning, they defend it against anything or anyone that disagrees with it. I’d bet that I would have points of agreement with 99% of all posters and commenters if everyone just thought for themselves

I only use lemmy.world and find it more open to free speech than reddit ever was. Reddit has gotten worse over the years. I was never a big reddit user, but just a few weeks ago I was in a non political non controversial group. None of my comments violated the rules. Out of the blue I was banned. I was scratching my head. I was told that the asshole mod of the group went through my post and comment history and found “one” comment unrelated to the group in question that they didn’t like and therefore banned me. The mods and Admins over there are dedicated to the hive mind. I am never going back

Where I work HR put a big sign on the refrigerator door about not stealing food

Also read that they are imposing new taxes on cruise ships. Barcelona is a popular cruise port and they all spend some time as tourists in the city. Always a balancing act between being overwhelmed by tourists while realizing how much they help local business

One suggestion to increase participation on Lemmy of those already here is to encourage people to spend some time just looking at the “all new posts” feed. I look at it a few times per day and was surprised at the number of Lemmy groups that I never knew existed. There are far to many groups here that started out good and just faded away. If it’s an interest of yours post there and try to rejuvenate the group. Message the existing moderator if you can be added as a mod for that group.

I saw my retired parents waste away in front of the TV every day. As mentioned before … the best job is the one that you don’t need. So besides enjoying my part time “get out of the house” job there are other benefits. I save money and stay healthy by only drinking on Friday and Saturday. These of course are not my work days. I also don’t go out for meals during the week. I have retired neighbors that seem to spend 5 or 6 days a week out for lunch or dinner and boozing everyday. That would never work for me

Retirement sounds great till you try it. The expression is “even your garage can’t get any cleaner”. This refers to the boredom retirement can be for some. The solution that I found was a part time job, not for the money, but doing something I enjoyed. You no longer have the pressure of a “real” job. The best job that you will ever have is the job that you really don’t need.

A couple sitting at a table where the seats were a bench and not chairs. Even though they were trying to be discreet, it became obvious at one point that he was rubbing her crotch and she his. I don’t think they ever realized that some people in the restaurant noticed it