Personally, I prefer social communities to not be so heavily monetized. On the other hand, it would be nice if Frendica ran a bit better, but I can hardly complain if I’m not giving any time/money to that project to make it so.

All the more reason to make every community better. If quality of life is improved across the board, then everyone gets access to the benefits and you get rid of the risks of gentrification.

There is a significant overlap between people who believe in food stamps/free school lunch/etc. and people who are vegan or vegetarian.

Have you considered helping out with or starting a “food not bombs” in your area? From their site:

Our food is vegan or vegetarian and free to anyone without restriction, rich or poor, stoned or sober. First, the potential for problems with food spoilage are greatly reduced when dealing strictly with plant based foods. Second, we want our food to reflect our dedication to nonviolence and that included violence against all beings including animals. We only prepare food which is strictly from plant sources so people will always know and trust Food Not Bombs that our food is safe and nonviolent. At times, we do get donations of dairy and meat products which might and redirect it to soup kitchens that aren’t vegetarian because we believe eating is more important than being politically pure; however, we NEVER cook with animal products ourselves and only share breads that might have dairy when it is not possible to know for sure.

Is there a lemmydrama like subredditdrama? Maybe a fedidrama community would work. I don’t know if one exists yet

Yep - I’ve already been bugging my grandma to get a passport so that she will be able to vote if SAVE act passes (she changed her name when she married, but doesn’t have a passport since she’s never left the country). Gotta avoid doomerism and make the fascists fight for every inch we can.

I’m torn on this - Christianity (particularly evangelical christianity) has had an extremely negative effect on democracy in our country and has caused physical harm to others.

However, I think most people with a conscience subscribe to some form of philosophy or religion (even if atheists aren’t “loyal” to any particular perspective and may not even use titles/categories to describe their value system) and I think it’s fine for your morals/conscience to influence decision making. Even a purely scientific decision making process could be considered a form of philosophy.

That being said, most organized religion is about obedience to the tenets of said religion, not a method of asking questions about the world to try to find the most just way to proceed.

I’m not going to fault someone for driving to work in a car, but I certainly wouldn’t call them the winner of a marathon even if they only drove for a few minutes of that marathon.

There’s a difference between something that runs the race for you (LLM AI) and something that simply helps you do what you are already doing (I suppose photoshop is the equivalent of drinking gatorade).