The Daily Brief - I have been subscribed to their daily email newsletters for about 2 years. It’s been a helpful way for me to stay vaguely aware of the most major global news events. I appreciate that each news story is condensed to a single factual paragraph without speculation or an imposed narrative:

TRUMP INVESTIGATIONS | Multiple media outlets reported yesterday that the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a target letter to attorneys for former President Donald Trump informing them that Trump is the subject of a criminal investigation related to the retention of classified documents at his home in Florida. Such target letters typically indicate that prosecutors feel they have substantial evidence linking someone to a crime. [more]

This is from one of their news briefs that came out yesterday Thursday, June 8, 2023. Notice that what is stated is purely factual and does not impose a narrative. The Daily Brief is a useful tool for getting a quick idea of what happened in the world yesterday, then you can read more about specific news events from other sources.

The Daily Brief - I have been subscribed to their daily email newsletters for about 2 years. It’s been a helpful way for me to stay vaguely aware of the most major global news events. I appreciate that each news story is condensed to a single factual paragraph without speculation or an imposed narrative:

TRUMP INVESTIGATIONS | Multiple media outlets reported yesterday that the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a target letter to attorneys for former President Donald Trump informing them that Trump is the subject of a criminal investigation related to the retention of classified documents at his home in Florida. Such target letters typically indicate that prosecutors feel they have substantial evidence linking someone to a crime. [more]

This is from one of their news briefs that came out yesterday Thursday, June 8, 2023. Notice that what is stated is purely factual and does not impose a narrative. It’s a useful tool for getting a quick idea of what happened in the world yesterday, before reading more about specific stories using other news sources.

Absolutely. Most non-fiction books I’ve read averaged about 9 hours for me to complete. 9 hours listening to an expert is such a trivial investment compared to a lifetime of half-baked speculation on a topic one doesn’t really understand. In 9 hours an expert can provide proper context, break down complex topics, and they have the space to fully explain their perspective and the stories that brought them to it.

The only content as informative and concise as a good book is a good lecture.

I was on Voat when it was a pleasant community like Lemmy, and I tried to nudge for civility as over time every post became hateful and angry. I would still browse Voat occasionally until it shut down because I value diversity of thought, and I was curious to encounter rhetoric which contradicted my own beliefs.

Lemmy is not so different, however, instead of having a far-right bias Lemmy has a far-left bias. For now there are no far-right Lemmy instances to balance far-left instances like Lemmygrad.ml. This creates an atmosphere where right-leaning, and centrist users might take one look around and feel unwelcome.

I think it is important that left-leaning, centrist, and right-leaning users feel welcome while leaving bigotry at the door. We need for someone who is bigoted to feel welcome here by all of their other traits, and to erode their bigoted beliefs over time because bigotry is not tolerated. I think Lemmy and the Fediverse have real potential to foster a space where diverse users can share stories and form communities with users who hold very different beliefs.

Voat showed it is not enough to create an open platform with unmoderated free speech, the platform itself must have structures in place to promote civility, and the users of the platform must work hard to maintain a culture of civility. The fact that QAnon believers are not welcome here means that Lemmy has already siloed itself, and I believe that the current policy of non-federation with disagreeable instances is too strict to be a long-term viable solution.

My vision for fostering civility on Lemmy is for sublemmies to federate with one another across instances. e.g. /c/pixelart@lemmy.ml could federate freely with /c/pixelart@far-right.com and /c/pixelart@far-left.com to promote relationships between users with very different beliefs. However, /c/politics@lemmy.ml might want to federate much more selectively with /c/politics@far-right.com or /c/politics@far-left.com. Perhaps /c/politics@far-right.com and /c/politics@far-left.com could have a weekly debate post which is the only post that federates between them.