Posting and commenting on Lemmy feels a lot better, like a breath of fresh air. The last few years on Reddit got progressively more combative as certain types of people found their soap box there. Literally any comment could turn into a toxic political spitting match when the topic had nothing to do with politics. Probably a good mix of trolls and bots in there to incite the toxicity among the actual people who bought it. It’s amazing how many people actively defend Reddit’s ability to milk their user base and I think that says a lot about the community too.

Also always feels easier to get in on the ground floor of a new community before things are settled. Things get clique-y and stale after a long while. I think most people who have played an MMO (or other mostly online game) from launch versus playing an MMO after it’s been established a while can relate to that feeling.

I just hope we see more of the niche communities come over. A number of smaller communities decided to go to Discord only, which is a fine chat platform but that’s not a Reddit or forum replacement.

Republicans are the ones who cut state funding for public universities leading to universities charging more money, the federal government offered loans to help offset that, and universities saw that and charged more money because the government continues to provide increasing amounts of loans. So yeah the universities are making out like bandits but Republicans definitely are not without blame. Cost of university would get reigned in if student loans were not a thing and the government was funding universities appropriately.

There are a lot of variables there. Adding interest-bearing debt to someone with no income is a great way to put them behind, they’ll still have rent and other necessities to buy in addition to the student loan payments. That debt can quickly snowball if other problems come up, especially if you’re unlucky (hospital bill in the US?). Generally when you start your career after graduating, you aren’t making the average salary for your position. You have no experience so you have to take what you can get. You also aren’t owed a job, college degree in hand or not. I say this with personal experience - a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from an accredited university, and research experience and internship experience from while I was in university.

A lot of it is the “fuck you, got mine” mentality too… which goes along with the “they’re just assholes”. Graduated with no debt because they have well off parents but down play the role that possibly could have had. Obviously people who need a loan to get through college nowadays are just lazy right?

Or “you could have just gone to a cheaper college, this one’s $10,000/year tuition” ignoring that just because you’re in college doesn’t mean you don’t also need to pay rent and buy other necessities… $10,000 is a lot of money for a young adult. That’s half their yearly post-tax income if they could work full time hours at $15/hour.

Just another way the GOP is gaslighting the American public. American public distrusts the “elite” which the GOP represent or are part of themselves so they attempt to change what “elite” actually is. All of the lower and middle class people fight each other over a few thousand dollars while millionaires and billionaires siphon millions to billions from them through government handouts or record profits/“inflation”.