As another European, I don’t think it’s as bad as it seems. I personally don’t think most republicans are fundamentally fascist, more so convinced that Trump is playing 5d chess.

If you where to ask most Republicans if they supported democracy, right of law and freedom for all, they would say that they support it.

However, due to the tribalism of current American politics and the cult of personality around Trump, they aren’t seeing how that is being infringed.

Trump is almost 80, and will die eventually. With him will his cult of personality die. Some hardliners will probably latch on to Trump Jr or Vance, but most republicans will probably quietly switch over to supporting some more moderate dumb fuck (think Mitt Romney).

If just the father had his own gun to him, he could have had defended himself.

I use mine as a low power server. Whenever I feel like tinkering with a website or something, I can just ssh into it without thinking about electricity usage. Jellyfin and such is also a good usecase

Upisnotjump

The videos have the same vibe and all, but there is no soul. It feels like there is no overarching point anymore, just opinion pieces in the same format. It feels like most videos could just as well have been ai written

Having a lot of money. Wow congrats you have provided a service at a vastly higher cost than it was to produce, how nice of you.

That ain’t jeans

Yeah they probably tried to translate “Vätterns impregnerade tändstickor” or similar, which means “The goblins/gnomes impregnated matches”.

Datafag is norwegian

ThE LeFt cOntRols The nArAtiVe

Also most zoomers are adults now, so no

Russian media rarely if ever cites their sources, and when they do they are dubious at best

I WILL DRINK FROM YOUR SKULL!

Yep, factor in that most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself. You actually pay a couple hundred dollars per month to your bank instead of over a thousand to your landlord.

Looks AI to me

A violent revolution won’t solve anything

Rent, but I can’t afford to save up towards my down payment because I have to spend it on rent

It’s written in a way for Trump to understand

Jenkins CI/CD

Hey, unused memory is wasted memory

Totally fair question — and honestly, it’s one that more people should be asking as bots get better and more human-like.

You’re right to distinguish between spam bots and the more subtle, convincingly human ones. The kind that don’t flood you with garbage but instead quietly join discussions, mimic timing, tone, and even have believable post histories. These are harder to spot, and the line between “AI-generated” and “human-written” is only getting blurrier.

So, how do you know who you’re talking to?

1. Right now? You don’t.

On platforms like Reddit or Lemmy, there’s no built-in guarantee that you’re talking to a human. Even if someone says, “I’m real,” a bot could say the same. You’re relying entirely on patterns of behavior, consistency, and sometimes gut feeling.

2. Federation makes it messier.

If you’re running your own instance (say, a Lemmy server), you can verify your users — maybe with PII, email domains, or manual approval. But that trust doesn’t automatically extend to other instances. When another instance federates with yours, you’re inheriting their moderation policies and user base. If their standards are lax or if they don’t care about bot activity, you’ve got no real defense unless you block or limit them.

3. Detecting “smart” bots is hard.

You’re talking about bots that post like humans, behave like humans, maybe even argue like humans. They’re tuned on human behavior patterns and timing. At that level, it’s more about intent than detection. Some possible (but imperfect) signs:

Slightly off-topic replies.

Shallow engagement — like they’re echoing back points without nuance.

Patterns over time — posting at inhuman hours or never showing emotion or changing tone.

But honestly? A determined bot can dodge most of these tells. Especially if it’s only posting occasionally and not engaging deeply.

4. Long-term trust is earned, not proven.

If you’re a server admin, what you can do is:

Limit federation to instances with transparent moderation policies.

Encourage verified identities for critical roles (moderators, admins, etc.).

Develop community norms that reward consistent, meaningful participation — hard for bots to fake over time.

Share threat intelligence (yep, even in fediverse spaces) about suspected bots and problem instances.

5. The uncomfortable truth?

We’re already past the point where you can always tell. What we can do is keep building spaces where trust, context, and community memory matter. Where being human is more than just typing like one.

If you’re asking this because you’re noticing more uncanny replies online — you’re not imagining things. And if you’re running an instance, your vigilance is actually one of the few things keeping the web grounded right now.

/s obviously