Honestly, being willing to jump to a new platform is possibly the most effective way to stop platforms from fucking you over too hard.

And most importantly - there isn’t millions of dollars spent to market it to people. You have to go out of your way to learn about Mastodon or federation in general, and as you say, their reputations precede them.

That was fucking insane. I remember being dumbfounded to learn that the clearance agency had fired all of the investigators from that contractor, only for a new contractor to rehire them all and win the contract to process clearances again. Horrorshow.

In my experience, if you’re white, male, and have a semblance of your shit together, you’ll be done in 6 months or less. I’ve seen minorities stuck in the process for years, despite having the squeaky-cleanest of records. (On the flip side, I heard a rumor that someone in the building recently got their reinvestigation processed successfully despite having recently received their 3rd DUI…) The exception to that is if you’re in the military, as the government will have a record of anything you’ve ever done, and if you’re an officer then you probably already have a clearance to begin with.

Well, you could start by taking a break asking every single person on this thread how their life is terrible. That would make my life marginally better.

Many who love to talk about how great America is also have not left.

Here’s a handy list. Just keeping scrolling til you get to the US, and until you get there I’d most likely be happier living there.

Context: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hwenab

I understand you feel like that’s vindictiveness, but hear me out - given that rural, agricultural, and Rust Belt states swung wildly towards Trump, I don’t think it’s unfair to instead think of that as justice.

Ostensibly because the presidential election is the one that they really cared about this time around.