Buying a Pixel to install GrapheneOS is not the only reasonable alternative to mainstream Android.

Each person has their own threat model. My priorities will be very different from a journalist in China, a whistleblower, or even my own mom. Some are more at risk of ransomware and a device with root is risky. For myself, I’d incur that risk as a power user and would rather my phone can be backed up so I don’t have to worry about it breaking. GrapheneOS devs/followers believe that security is the only thing you must ever want, nothing else matters, and everything else is irrelevant, as though Google or street thugs will come to your house and exploit your bootloader if you don’t give them data voluntarily. They just don’t realistically question the statements the project makes, like what threats are worth mitigating (ubiquitous tracking? Who cares, I’ve got security patches and a locked bootloader!) and what options they’re giving up by using GrapheneOS that’s about as locked-down as the average Samsung phone. The marketing game is super strong because it’s hard to argue against at scale: everyone’s situation is different and “don’t you want to be safe?”

Across many platforms, I’ve gotten the most vitriol and heated discussion about pit bulls. It’s a topic that has gotten me nastier responses than politics or other hot button issues.

It’s really frustrating. I have many years of experience in rescue, shelters, veterinary medicine, and more. I’ve worked with more of these dogs over the years than I can count. I’ve also worked alongside people with much more experience than me, and I have yet to meet a single person in animal welfare that views pit bull type dogs as broadly dangerous or difficult to work with. I’m sure those people are out there, but it’s not a common view.

You can discuss the wide variety of factors that lead to this sweeping characterization of bullies, ask people to talk with animal professionals in their lives about their experiences, and encourage them to volunteer to get actual experience with these dogs. It doesn’t matter or seem to nudge them into considering anything other than these dogs being ticking time bombs.

I’m not saying everyone should own pitties. Spreading misinformation and continuing to demonize pit bull types can influence other people who could be a perfect home for these dogs to never consider them, though. So many dogs with wonderful temperaments are euthanized and never even given a chance just because of how they look. It’s really disheartening.

The difference between socialism and social democracy and how most people actually advocate for the latter rather than the former due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what the definitions of those two things are.

Human inequality and the horrors of capitalism, also, who was better, Ren or Stimpy.

responding to people the youtube sub how they are supporting youtubes algorithim and slop by watching it and logging in, and they were complaining about youtubers that are producing slop. i was telling them how you cant complain about people like mr beast and defend him at the same time.

and saying how right wing content gets through the feed if you are not logged in, and i wasnt going to give google more data by logging in just to curate the feed.

People that believe all that ghost shit on YouTube is real. It’s basically boomers and religious tards with a 3rd grade education that don’t understand how easy it is to edit video for the average person. They all comment “May Christ protect you” and other crap like that. While these people pump out an episode every week like clock work where they’re possessed, attacked, or some other BS. Best part is when they go “we almost died” over and over, because name one person on a paranormal investigation that died that isn’t an obvious natural cause.

local AI has none of the ethical issues of big corporate AI

From people who self-identify as Leftist too

Meaningful never, I liked suggesting junk food/sugary drinks should be treated exactly like Cigarettes on reddit which is mostly American and watching the sparks fly.

AI and the meaning of the terminology around it. Usually starts when someone confidently makes the incorrect claim that LLMs are not AI.

Way too many people think trans people’s right to exist is a debate.

The reading comprehension and overall common sense on this website is piss poor.

I struggle to recall any “meaningful” debates.

Right here on Lemmy, someone argued with me for weeks that the mathematical conventions on order of operations can be proven, and that all calculators obey them. You can find calculator manuals with explicit examples that don’t obey the conventions, and as a one time mathematician, his attempts at proofs are pathetic. Anyone who persists with him no matter how polite, will be faced with rudeness and condescension.

I found the guy on Mastodon where he peddles the full suite of common mathematical wrongness (he thinks 0.999… ≠ 1) and recently he tried to do an inductive proof in an “educational” thread and got completely schooled by someone else. He was unable to understand that he was wrong.

He claims to be a maths teacher, but his ability ran out at school and he’s to arrogant to realise.

Idiots who don’t understand that vi is better then Emacs

That women should have the ability to give informed consent at a doctor’s office.

I’ve had to argue for decades that birth control shouldn’t be held hostage until women submit to a pap smear.

It’s flat out unethical to hold a prescription until a patient does an unrelated screening, no matter how good your intentions are. It’d be like doctors withholding Viagra until a guy got his prostate checked annually. Yes, it’s a good idea to do cancer screening but no one should be coerced into any medical procedure against their will, especially such an intimate and invasive one. This only happens to women.

And yet you’d think I told them they should skin their new puppy alive. The amount of vitriol and even sexual harassment I got for maintaining this was mind blowing. And it was always from other women. I was told I’m a little girl, or not a “real” woman like it’s some sort of twisted right of passage.

I wasn’t debating that the exam doesn’t save lives or that people should stop having it done, just that women should have a choice and not be coerced - that it should be treated just like colonoscopies in that it’s entirely voluntary.

It hasn’t been that big of an issue in recent years. But early 2010s holyshit you’d think women didn’t think that they should have bodily autonomy (and a lot of this was coming from fellow pro-choicers!).

This was a thing in the southern US. I know the North half of the country wasn’t as insane.

The treatment of those with disabilities or who are just down on their luck, by the mostly apethic “I’m alright jack” public. I’ve had many arguments with those who thought that just because somebody needed benefits that they were milking the system.

The most disgusting and revolting thing I can read on the subject from somebody is “if I’ve managed to get by fine without state help and support, so can/should they”… And yes many do actually think this way, sometimes even to those who need wheelchairs or other aids.

Sometimes I’ve managed to convince them to care about somebody other than themleves for a change, sometimes I’ve caused them to go away thinking about it, and other times I’ve caused them to double down on their stance.

Either way, the engagements were meaningful and eye opening and I’ll defend this position until the day I die because nobody has any business being that disgusting towards other human beings.

I would say it’s mostly topics I’m not actually arguing about.

I tend to point out false statements or false assumptions. I do it regardless of the topic or my position on an issue, but usually it’s taken as general opposition to whatever the person was saying. So they call me a shill or demand that I prove a ridiculous point of view they imagine I must hold. It’s like only The Enemy is expected to care about the accuracy of what The Right Side says.