I think the vast majority of unions out there are good, but there are definitely a select few that give the rest a bad reputation.

At one of my previous jobs, our union was one of those that gives others a bad reputation.

It was a seasonal job, we had to pay the union whether we wanted to be in it or not. If we had an out of season work meeting for training, all of the money that we earned would go straight to the union and we might end up with a $2 check (if that).

We tried working with the union reps, but they just seemed so out of touch with our group. They would give themselves a big pat on the back for getting everyone a 2% raise and then raise the monthly dues… We barely made minimum wage so a percentage increase like that meant nothing to us.

10 years later and most employees working there are still just earning minimum wage while similar jobs in other cities nearby are earning twice that (at least).

While this is definitely something people should be doing, doesn’t the attorney general only act out if they get enough complaints, or if the complaint stands out in some way?

Will they actually work with someone to resolve their specific complaint every time?

From what I’ve seen, at least the BBB will try to specifically address your issue with the company and is probably a much easier process to carry out before trying to take things further.

Or is there something about using the BBB that would prevent you from filing a complaint with the attorney general, or prevent you from going further with something like a lawsuit?

if not the BBB, then who?

Definitely not a movie night, you don’t get much of a chance to really know the other person from that, and if either one of you decides that the other is crazy it makes it a little harder to dip out.

Ideally something simple that’s good for getting to know the other person while being able to leave at any time. Coffee, shaved ice, frozen yogurt, etc. Then a walk through a park or along a beach, or just sit down/people watch, and discuss your interests to see if either of you are interested in a second date.

I suppose if you’re not trying to let people know that their views are not acceptable then you’re part of the problem.

Yes, but how are you approaching this discussion?

I think there are different ways to handle this. On one hand you can be hostile and “give them what they deserve”. On the other hand you can engage in friendly arguments.

This is a story about how someone from the Westboro Baptist Church left because of the way that people engaged with her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVV2Zk88beY

What’s worth noting from this story, people that were hostile in their interactions with her only served to entrench her further in her ideals.

What caused her to change her mind were the people that had “friendly arguments” and made an effort to learn where she was coming from.

She listed out 4 key points when engaging in difficult conversations. I extracted/paraphrased some of what she said below:

1. Don’t assume bad intent (assume good or neutral intent instead) - Assuming ill motive almost instantly cuts you off from truly understanding why someone does and believes as they do. We forget that they’re a human being with a lifetime of experience that shaped their mind and we get stuck on that first wave of anger and the conversation has a very hard time ever moving beyond it.

2. Ask Questions - Asking questions helps us map the disconnect. We can’t present effective arguments if we don’t understand where the other side is coming from.

3. Stay calm - She though that “[her] rightness justified [her] rudeness”. When things get too hostile during a conversation, tell a joke, recommend a book, change the subject, or excuse yourself from the conversation. The discussion isn’t over, but pause it for a time to let tensions dissapate.

4. Make the argument - One side effect of having strong beliefs is that we sometimes assume that the value of our position is, or should be, obvious and self-evident. That we shouldn’t have to defend our positions because they’re so clearly right and good. If it were that simple, we would all see things the same way.

You can’t expect others to spontaneously change their minds. If we want change, we have to make the case for it.

Ok, but there’s no context for us here and with the premise of your post, you’re expecting us to judge an entire community based off of a single comment that has received practically no engagement in comparison to the community at large.

You might as well be asking for us to explain to you why you are being downvoted.

People can downvote you for any number of reasons, my assumption here is that your comment didn’t carry the discussion forward in any meaningful way.

A comment got 7 downvotes and there’s something wrong with the whole community???

They are. It’s not shown on Lemmy itself, but anyone who federates with another instance gets to know who voted on what, and sometimes that information is made public to their entire instance (this is the case with kbin).

So, for instance you can look at this particular post through kbin’s eyes: https://kbin.social/m/reddit@lemmy.world/t/1031138/Is-Lemmy-a-good-alternative/votes/up

Go to any post/comment, then click on “more” -> “activity”.
“Favorites” are upvotes, and “Reduces” are downvotes.

Edit: And if you want to view your own votes I would suggest an app like Voyager, since that is one of the features.

Welcome to Lemmy.

One important thing to point out, your upvotes and downvotes are mostly public here, so if you want to maintain anonymity with your votes you’ll want to setup a separate account for voting only and no commenting.

I tried a few apps for interacting with Lemmy and Voyager has been my favorite by far.

I still go back to Reddit for very niche communities that can’t be found here, or just don’t have the userbase to churn out content like they can. I use an app like “Stealth” to browse any of the subreddits I still frequent, but I’ve been able to replace a lot of the generic ones with Lemmy communities.

You will find a lot more users here that will take any chance they can get to blame capitalism for all of the worlds problems.

Some opinions are still heavily downvoted here, but you can always join up with an instance that ignores/doesn’t display any downvotes.

You will need to be a lot more active in your own communities if you want to turn it into the kind of place you want to keep coming back to.

As far as moderation goes, there are some Lemmy instances that have stricter mods than others. Just do a little research and pick a main one where you won’t get banned if you decide to voice your opinion about a dictator one way or another.

Just note, if you pick one that’s too small there’s a greater risk of them shutting down for one reason or another.