hraegsvelmir

joined 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I wouldn't rule that out, but I also wouldn't jump straight to that conclusion. Spanish news media in this country is beyond screwed, it skews even more right-wing as a rule than English mainstream media, in my opinion. During the 2020 election, I would watch the news on Univision with my mother-in-law sometimes, and would see them just not translate something a democrat said in English that didn't fit their agenda, misrepresent what they said in the translation, or selectively omit things they said to make their remarks sound much more sinister and authoritarian than what they actually said. They were also constantly pushing right-wing conspiracies that had been debunked weeks or months prior, with no mention of their having been disproven.

I would constantly have my mother-in-law coming to me asking about these old ass conspiracies, because with her only knowing Spanish, that would be the first time she heard of them, and she was shocked we weren't freaking out about it.

More leaning to the morons side, despite how Fox likes to portray immigrants as a monolithic group of rabid socialist and commies backing the Dems so they can destroy the constitution and get gulags up and running, a lot of immigrants from Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean have been fairly conservative, in my experience. A lot of them grew up heavily propagandized by right wing regimes in their home countries, many are much more religious than your average American by birth, and others have had negative experiences with nominally left-wing regimes in their home country that they can't get over. The last one can be kind of understandable, but the other two drive me crazy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's also another category, "I can leave, but I don't want to leave behind people important to me that would be at significantly more risk than I am." I've got the work experience to head off to any of several fairly comfortable and stable countries on a skilled work visa, and hope that, if push comes to shove, none of my debts I currently have in the US would become obstacles to my permanently settling there. I can more or less fluently speak Spanish and Portuguese, and I can get by fine in French. Within a couple more years, I'll have a degree from a European university completed, and I continue to study other languages, with varying degrees of success.

I'm still hanging around, waiting for my sister-in-law to finish up her degree in another two years so that the three of us could all get out at once, as, despite being a naturalized citizen for more than 20 years, I wouldn't put it past ICE and the current administration to target her just for having darker skin and a slight accent to her English. I'd rather be here where I can watch out for her and raise hell ASAP if something were to happen, than be posted up in a new flat in France or something, and suddenly realize I can't get in contact with her at all.

There's also the simple fact that, for those who don't have the means to legally obtain a visa, I'm unaware of any nation that has started accepting asylum cases from the US on the grounds of the current administration's actions and policies. Yeah, I could walk to the border with Canada, or overstay on a tourist trip in Europe, but then you face the very real possibility of being caught and sent back, straight into the hands of the very people you are trying to escape, clearly marking yourself out as a dissident of some form. This is leaving aside all the issues you would face as an undocumented immigrant in a foreign nation. I sure don't have the funds to just show up in Ireland or Portugal and be able to get myself somewhere to stay indefinitely, clothe and feed myself, even assuming I find work within the first few months. I don't know anyone there that could help me land on my feet.

Getting out, and more importantly, being able to assure you can stay out, is not as simple a task as people who haven't seriously looked into it might think.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

Lots of people in Brazil and many Spanish a speaking companies would disagree with you unfortunately. It's incredibly embedded in those countries, to the point where WhatsApp will often be the primary, and sometimes only, point of contact for a business. At least it's not that bad here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I had a similar situation at my previous two jobs, but I just told people I wasn't installing WhatsApp, if they asked, and nothing ever came of it. If it's that important, they could text me or use my work email.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

Hey, if they want to put themselves through looking at me in the nude, they can inflict that pain on themselves. I'd be more worried about them tracking everything else someone does day to day, and who could get their hands on that data.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Mostly just sports communities. They tend to post a lot, and I just don't really care about sports outside of Motorsport. If Arsenal has some insane game, or gets a great player signed, I'll hear about it at work sooner or later, either from coworkers or a customer. I would say the only big sport that doesn't apply to between those played in North America and Europe is probably cricket, cause nobody has time for it. Then again, haven't seen a single cricket post, either.

I can stay current on what's going on with the NFL, NBA, MLB, Premier League, rugby and even hurling, just by showing up to work, so there's no real benefit to seeing it here, too.

Also, AI communities get blocked pretty much as soon as they pop up in my feed. The novelty of "Hah, that's crazy that a computer made this image" has long since worn off, and I have no interest in seeing the umpteenth iteration of some AI take on art or photography.

I don't have the option ticked to show nsfw content, and people have generally been good about tagging such content, so I haven't had to block anything there.