Lemmy was released as an open-source fediverse alternative to Reddit.

Just over a year after launch, r/ChapoTrapHouse, moved across after being banned from Reddit. This is likely what you’re referring to. It had well over 100,000 active users on Reddit, so represented a sudden sizable influx of users.

I’d wager the biggest influx of people by far, though, occurred when Spez upset a majority of mods and many users by banning third party apps.

People looked for an alternative, and Lemmy was it.

But why are so many people who lean left politically? Because the Venn Diagram for “people who like the idea of a decentralised platform that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires”, and “people who would like society that supports everybody and is free from the machinations of millionaires” is nearly a circle.

You might be underestimating the timescales involved.

For example, grass - super simple organism, right? Should have appeared early on? No, dinosaurs appeared before grass did. But when the first grasses did evolve, wow, they were successful on a scale that is hard to overstate.

The beauty of sexual reproduction, from an evolutionary point of view, is that by its very nature, it allows many experiments to take place at once. The success criteria of each experiment is how many babies can the subject make.

Little wings evolve on seed pods for the same reason they evolved on anything else. For whatever reason, each step along the way made them a tiny bit more successful at having babies than those without.

Maybe a little spike makes them slightly less likely to be eaten, a bigger spike less likely still. A flatter spike helped them catch the wind and scatter further afield, and broader ones further still.

There’s no feedback needed for individuals in this system - it’s literally a numbers game based on who/what can make the most babies. They’re the ones who, millions of years down the line, end up winning.

It’s not the boiling that’s the important factor - it’s the temperature.

You could make a cup of tea with it, but it wouldn’t be much different than just plopping a teabag in room-temperature water for the same amount of time.

I think you might have misread my comment. I don’t think George Lucas was trying to make a comment on any of the above.

I’m not sure - just think…

Within less than thirty years there has been:

A sudden massive increase in the number of people who believe the MMR vaccine causes autism.

A global pandemic that large numbers of people: Swear didn’t happen, or Was artificially created, or Was a hoax to encourage people to have vaccines that contain something sinister.

Widespread demonisation of an entire religion.

A sharp increase in people who don’t believe the holocaust happened.

A baffling increase in people who believe the Earth is flat.

In short, people are stupid and surprisingly willing to believe nonsense, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Were the Jedi actually magical? Nah it was just propaganda by a corrupt council. It was all special effects - seriously, a sword against blasters? Wake up, sheeple.

Absolutely - if anything, there’s a reluctance to use formal titles in the UK in general.

I used to teach at university - students and staff alike just use first names when addressing each other. When signing emails, we just use our first name, no letters, job title, anything.

It’s even something specifically touched on in our orientation guide for foreign students.

As for newspapers and Prime Ministers specifically, one of the biggest newspapers, The Guardian, has a cartoonist who has always drawn David Cameron with a condom covering his head. There’s absolutely no deference shown to Prime Ministers here.

Welcome to your doom!

Primary sources? No, but there are independent secondary sources by people with no skin in the game.

Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus (circa 93–94 CE).

Annals by Tacitus (circa 116 CE)

The earliest Christian writings are also more about the teachings of a disruptive Jewish preacher who was then crucified, than they are about magic.

Let’s not do the ‘every Christian’ thing. It’s worth remembering the US has a very ‘unique’ type of Christian.

This. There is evidence that a preacher called Jesus existed, was crucified, and was well-regarded enough to start a following that persisted even after his death.

There isn’t, however, strong historical evidence for any of the magical parts of it.

Just for balance, I can see how you could think shipping slaves from Africa to America via the Pacific and then the North Sea (of all places?) was unlikely. Maybe this person just isn’t aware of the Atlantic Ocean.

Is this pipe?

I cannot overstate how much I love this artwork. It reminds me of visiting Games Workshop as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s and letting my mind run wild with all the incredible box art.