news News Donald Trump speech shooting: Gunshots heard at president’s rally – latest news
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 2 months ago 93%
    • Soap box
    • Ballot box
    • Jury box
    • Bullet box
    • ??? <- you are here
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  • memes memes My favourite Biden gaffe of all time
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 7 months ago 100%

    I'm not sure if you can call it a gaffe, but my favorite one was when Biden admitted to the Nordstream 2 bombings months before they happened. What a Chad this guy is. Goes out, says he'll do it, does it, and then gets the media to run cover for him anyway.

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  • politicalmemes Political Memes Live, Laugh, Lenin
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 8 months ago 100%

    I can't believe he would say that! I am literally shaking rn

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  • asklemmy Ask Lemmy What's the significance of calling it "Israel-Hamas War" vs "Israel-Gaza War"?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 11 months ago 82%

    It matters very little. It's performative, trying to justify the conflict by framing it one way or another. The reality on the ground will remain the same no matter what the media calls it. Ultimately, it will be historians that name the war.

    The combatants are Israel and Hamas. The location is Gaza. Conclude from that what you will as far the "proper" name for the conflict.

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  • memes memes Me when liberals
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 11 months ago 100%

    Ha ha yes

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  • mildlyinteresting Mildly Interesting "Do you live in the Midwest?" by self-report
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 11 months ago 100%

    Not that bad, to be honest, but those Oklahomans are kidding themselves.

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  • worldnews World News Israel calls for all 1.1 million civilians to leave Gaza City within 24 hours
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 11 months ago 87%

    This coming massacre brought to you by taxpayers like you! Thank you!

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  • politics Politics RFK Jr. announces he will run as an independent candidate
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    Dr West is already running independent, so I doubt it makes much of a difference. How many potential RFK voters would have voted for Biden over Trump or West?

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  • artificial_intel AI What is something that AI will NEVER be able to replicate?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 85%
  • asklemmy Asklemmy [Serious] The revolution was successful! The old government is gone. You get to help write the new Constitution. What do you put into it?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    The prompt just says the revolution was successful and that now it's time for a new constitution. It's not even US-specific, so there's no reason to assume that state governments even exist in the context of the prompt, much less need to approve this new constitution. There's no need for such niceties if we're in a world where a revolution has destroyed the old regime in its entirety.

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy [Serious] The revolution was successful! The old government is gone. You get to help write the new Constitution. What do you put into it?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    Frankly, that's a ridiculous scenario. States are an artificial construct. There's no reason California couldn't be split into five states so they can get more senators, and there's no reason tiny east coast states couldn't be merged together. It's just a matter of political will. States rights do nothing to benefit the individuals living in those states. Often when we talk about states rights, states are imposing some kind of oppression or restriction on their citizens, abortion being the most recent example. The Supreme Court threw it back to the states, many of which banned it immediately.

    The states don't matter! They're overgrown, glorified municipalities. If we are going to redesign the system, we need to reduce their power all together. States are a relic of a colonial system founded by the British, where each colony was individually granted a charter, and a of a constitution written at the same time the Holy Roman Empire was alive.

    What stops ridiculous, punitive laws from being passed? What stops them from being passed now? The courts, for one, and the federal government. Often it's the states that are trigger happy in committing some kind of mayhem.

    We've lived with states for so long that we've been gaslit into thinking that their existence is in our best interest. While states might be useful in some form, like in organizing regional infrastructure projects, their power should be diminished, and they are not deserving of house on par with the house of the people.

    Of course, Congress is in need of other dire reforms as well. It should be bigger, for one, and first past the post should be replaced with some kind of alternate system (perhaps California-style jungle primaries?).

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy [Serious] The revolution was successful! The old government is gone. You get to help write the new Constitution. What do you put into it?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    Should we care about the states or the people in the states? There are less people in Rhode Island than California. Are those people so much more important that they get more representation, proportionally speaking?

    People have locational representation in their local governments. Let them rule over themselves if you want, but don't give them disproportionate authority over the rest of us.

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy You're the president of a democracy and your army just deposed a dictator with a war. What's your plan to rebuild that country, and what's your exit strategy?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 93%

    Occupy and commit war crimes in the name of "nation building." Do this until political winds change at home and force us to pull out.

    What was the question, again?

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  • politics politics Matt Gaetz files motion to oust Kevin McCarthy as House speaker
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 94%

    Never let a good crisis go to waste. The Dems should seek concessions in exchange for propping up the McCarthy speakership. Unfortunately, if you can count on one thing it's that the Dems will find a way to fuck it up.

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  • fediverse Fediverse Nothing to see here, just join lemmy promoting a pedophile instance. Not a good look for the fediverse
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 98%

    Pedophile (stands for Minor Attracted Person)

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  • memes Memes How to burn thousands of calories
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    Just start your car. It's cheaper

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy How many showers do you take a day?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    A bit of both. It dries out your skin to shower every day, and I honestly don't feel like I need to shower every day with not-particularly-active lifestyle. Saves water and electric, as well, but not enough for that to be the reason why.

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy How many showers do you take a day?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    Every other day, but sometimes more often depending on what I've been up to

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  • asklemmy Ask Lemmy If you could only own 10 albums to listen to your whole life what would they be?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 12 months ago 100%

    Off the top of my head and in no particular order:

    • Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan)
    • Blood on the Tracks: New York Session (Bob Dylan
    • Willie and the Poor Boys (CCR)
    • Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum (Tally Hall)
    • 1990 (Daniel Johnston)
    • Z (My Morning Jacket)
    • I Had A Dream That You Were Mine (Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam)
    • London Calling (The Clash)
    • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles)
    • Roast Beef (Biff Rose)

    If I thought about it longer, I'd probably end up with a more varied list as far as genre.

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy So I have always gotten jokes. A friend told me his favorite and i just don't understand it. I did a web search and found variants but no explanation why it's funny or what it means. Can you help?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    I've heard this before, but more in the context of a proverb than a proper joke. As far as meaning, I think it's along the lines of "correlation doesn't equal causation," but not exactly.

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  • memes memes Guys how do i deal with White Humans?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    Mayocide

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy Which is one conspiracy theory that you think/believe may have some verity to it?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    CIA blew up the Nordstream pipeline.

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  • technology Technology How to make an MP3 player work in 2023?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    Double post, but focusing more on the real computer. Do you have access to a library? Sometimes they have computers people can use. You might be able to load a program to rip onto a USB stick and run it portably (that is, without installing it onto the computer.) Not ideal, but if it's Windows I think Windows Media Player can rip CDs natively.

    In that case, bring in the CDs and the MP3 player, rip the CDs, then load them all at the library. There might even be CDs at the library you can check out as well.

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  • technology Technology How to make an MP3 player work in 2023?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    Find the cheapest MP3 player possible, maybe one of those built like a USB stick that can plug into a computer.

    Here's one. There might be better options out there. The idea here is no wifi, no Bluetooth, etc. You could presumably load MP3s onto it just like you could a flash drive. Unlike the flash drive, it can play it back.

    As far as ripping CDs, I use EAC. It supports ripping compressed to MP3, among other things. The linked player can play FLAC as well. I imagine most can, but the larger files size of FLAC might become an issue. Other programs exist, of course. It can be done!

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  • worldnews World News Exclusive: US to send depleted-uranium munitions to Ukraine
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    I thought they went back and changed it after the fact.

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  • worldnews World News Ukraine designates PepsiCo, Mars as 'international war sponsors'
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    No, I'm not Raid. I'm my own original game, Rage. People really need to get their facts straight...

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  • worldnews World News Ukraine designates PepsiCo, Mars as 'international war sponsors'
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 95%

    This war brought to you by Rage: Shadow Legends.

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  • foss Free and Open Source Software What was your gateway product to open source?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    OpenTTD. Sure, I had used android, but it was the first thing I consciously knew was open source and enjoyed.

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  • the_dunk_tank the_dunk_tank 15 (Pretty Big) Differences Between Good Art and Bad Art
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    Put me down under whining, coping, and seething

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  • memes Memes Credit to George Alexopoulos (GPrime85 on twitter) my absolute favorite right wing cartoonist
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 66%

    This but unironically

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  • finance Finance The Absolute Insanity of Not Buying a Home When You’re Young
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    As an investment, a home is risky. For one, you're only going to have one most likely, so you're not diversified. While property values do trend up, there's a myriad of things that could potentially happen to reduce your property value as well. Not to mention, while the land underneath the home increases in value, the value of the home itself (on top of the land) decreases as the house ages.

    On top of that, you're paying maintenance, insurance, and property tax. While yes, it's better than renting, it's not necessarily a good investment compared to other investments you can make. On average, you're going to have a better return on the stock market than a home. True, that's also risky, but it's easier to diversify and there's more money to be made.

    Finally, you're usually leveraged pretty deep on a home. If you default for whatever reason, you'll be left with nothing. If the bank somehow fails to recover its investment after selling the home (say, because you owed more than it was worth), they can sue you for the difference.

    That said, it's not a bad idea to buy a home. You can always live in it, if nothing else. You might want to buy one just because you want it, which is valid. Lots of people do well on homes. You just need to realize that it's not as safe or good of an investment as it might seem.

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  • technology Technology As Teens Take to E-Bikes, Parents Ask: Is This Freedom or Danger?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    I've got a 1000w motor on mine. Is it a motor bike in disguise? Yeah, maybe, since it has a throttle control. Where I live, though, there's no regulations specific to ebikes. I obey traffic laws and stay off of sidewalks and have a drivers license, so as far as I'm concerned it's fine. It does go about 25-30 mph, but in my mind it's a commuter vehicle. I'm not riding on bike trails that share pedestrians and have low speed limits.

    If necessary, I could modify it to make it a class three e-bike. The governor, currently off, cuts it to 750w and I could change it from a throttle control to a pedal assist with parts that were part of the kit but are still sitting in the box.

    It's in a legal gray area, as my state's definition of what constitutes a "motorized bicycle" was written with gasoline engines in mind. There's lots of unlicensed, uninsured 49cc scooters running around that fall into the same gray area, so it fits right in.

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  • technology Technology As Teens Take to E-Bikes, Parents Ask: Is This Freedom or Danger?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    E-bikes are great. I've got one I built from a kit. That said, you don't want kids riding more powerful e-bikes than they can handle. If you wouldn't let your kid loose with a gas-powered dirt bike that can go 30+ mph, you shouldn't let them loose with an equivalent e-bike.

    I'm against licensing e-bikes or requiring insurance. While they can potentially be dangerous to the rider if misused, danger to other people or property is pretty minimal. The risk isn't enough to justify requiring liability insurance, like with cars. Licensing will only discourage ridership.

    That said, there should be an age requirement for certain classes. In lieu of that, parents are just going to have to exercise common sense. The kids will do what they want, rules be damned.

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  • chapotraphouse chapotraphouse One of the many reasons why I love this place is precisely because we don't have Trump Derangement Syndrome.
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    Yeah, he's a crackpot and bound to lose, but I'll toss him a primary vote over Biden. I'll probably vote West when it comes time for the general election.

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  • chapotraphouse chapotraphouse One of the many reasons why I love this place is precisely because we don't have Trump Derangement Syndrome.
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 50%

    I've taken the RFKJ pill. Is he, too, deranged? Probably, but he's also the only candidate on the ballot in the Democratic New Hampshire primary. Go get em, Kennedy!

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  • urbanism urbanism This house has a chicken coop next to a pay phone.
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    I hate it when my chickens dial me at work. They always call collect.

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  • asklemmy Asklemmy Should i take my coworker up on his job offer?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    Yeah, hard to say the exact nature of the scam. It could be some kind of ponzi, paying out the teeny "wage" from the fees coming in from new recruits.

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  • world World News 11 nations of West Africa commit to a military deployment to restore the ousted president of Niger
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    No more war? No, more war!

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  • asklemmy Ask Lemmy Do you think we will ever have affordable housing again in our lifetime?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    Ideally lower than median: closer to Q1. Still, you have to start somewhere.

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  • asklemmy Ask Lemmy What will it actually take for everyone to just quit X (Twitter)?
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  • Phantom_Engineer Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%

    It's closure

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  • "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearLE
    Lemmy Support Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 88%
    Icons, avatars, and banner requirements

    What are the requirements for community icons? I've had a little trouble on another instance getting these to work right, and I keep running into somewhat opaque errors until I ended up hitting the rate limit. Where can I find requirements concerning size, format, shape, and etc?

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    "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearCO
    Community Requests. Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 100%
    Requesting c/cia

    Cute images of animals hasn't had a post in three years, and the current mod hasn't been on two year.

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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 96%
    Done
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    "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearME
    me_irl Phantom_Engineer 1 year ago 80%
    me_irl

    ![](https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/110516f0-9ab1-40a2-b567-5658d730fe7f.jpeg)

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    "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearWE
    Web Comics Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 93%
    Albatross

    Check out the guys website: kingofblood.com

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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    Dora
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    "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearME
    me_irl Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    Me_irl
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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    Tree
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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    Civil disobedience

    One by one, we'll get all these classic memes and images moved over to the lemmy-verse

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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    Problem
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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 81%
    Like a dog
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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    nothing
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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    Risk
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    memes
    Memes Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 90%
    Knitting
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    "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearDR
    drama Phantom_Engineer 3 years ago 100%
    I think we can all agree

    If we have to restart r/drama here we ought not invite Lawz

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