Hello everyone. I’m brand new to lemmy and I hope that I understand it soon. LOL I’m in central Illinois, there’s a little blue in the sea of red around me. I have been lazy lately, between work and working OT, I’ve been watching TV. I knit, love to travel, enjoy cooking classes, going to flea markets among other things. I would love to figure out how to rehab some of my furniture, do some minor home repairs and garden.

Hello, I’ve been here for a few days now and getting the lay of the land. I live in Wisconsin, originally from Minnesota, so you betcha I’m a Midwesterner. I’m also a Reddit refugee (didn’t get banned because I stopped contributing a while ago, but I still couldn’t stop the doomscrolling. I definitely would have been banned. Go Luigi).

Although I live in a very liberal city, I don’t feel like I’m on the same wavelength as a lot of people. You don’t like the oligarchy taking over, but you simply cannot stop throwing your money at Amazon? Ok. Maybe the really radical ones will go stand in front of the Tesla chargers on Friday with signs, which is perfectly safe and I’m not sure accomplishes anything because everyone in this city agrees with you (although I am coming around to the idea that it builds a sense of community and a common cause, and maybe makes it ok to rebel just a little to start). I just feel like there has to be something else. I don’t even know what to call myself anymore, I’m sure as hell not a Democrat, even though that’s who I’ve always voted for, more and more while holding my nose. I know there are people out there who share my mindset and who can inspire me, and that’s what I’m hoping to find.

In the meantime, I’m focusing on limiting my capitalism as much as possible (I am far from perfect; I like my stuff and have to really curb my desire for additional stuff) and donating what I can to those who are doing something (ACLU, NRDC because right now lawsuits seem to be the first step), trying to get myself to read more actual information and not Reddit memes, and trying to figure out what I can do about what’s going on in this country, because I dont think I can live with just sitting around hoping it blows over.

Hey all, I live in Wisconsin and am exploring moving over from Mastodon because I like the Reddit-style interface better than Twitter-style. Like probably most here, I’m a tech nerd who is forever trying to get people away from the centralized internet.

Hi, I’m in Central Illinois. Reddit doesn’t let me make accounts anymore… they want email addresses and I want privacy.

Howdy folks - comrade here in Northern Chicago. New to Lemmy so if I do something wrong I’m sorry bout that.

I’m fairly involved in mutual aid, so if you feel like you need some help with getting started please feel free to message me. I can recommend groups in chi / cinci or help research groups in your area.

As Seahorse aptly mentions in the first pinned post - now is the time for organizing! As long as we don’t give into despair we got this!

Hey Ya’ll, 👋 I’m part of the adopted Midwest down here in Kentucky. My resume includes Euchre, the Boundary waters, fishing, and an old pair of boots. I work as a freight broker and I’m currently on the front lines for all the tariffs and logistics issues going on. It’s been some rough sledding. Glad to have a community outside of purview to engage with. And yup, Bluegrass rules.

Hello new friends. Name’s Kenai, hailing from Kansas City, Kansas. Lived here most of my life, so I definitely consider myself a midwesterner with midwestern concerns lol the recent sociopolitical atmosphere has led to me wanting to find like-minded folk in my general area (similar concerns etc), so here I am. Am in my mid-thirties, technically married but not registered, kind of in that nonbinary blob end of the gender spectrum (he/fae). I have two cats and two dogs (Maine Coon, Orange Himbo™, Chihuahua, black Labrador), love animals of all kinds so I’ll pet it if it’s cute. Used to keep hamsters and educate others on proper hamster care. I am on the ASD spec so I can sound a bit weird sometimes I promise I’m not trying to be rude or abrasive; if I come off that way please let me know and how, so I can try and adjust my internal programming lol

I love video games, mostly witchy games, cozy homey games, fantasy, and Da Sims. Which stole my life for like four years straight. How rude. I’m also a software … um. … I make PHP web apps. Not sure how to call that. My life dream is actually to write books, not really for the money, more because books were a huge deal for me growing up and I’d like to be the writer of the book that helps some other kid someday. I’m also an artist, play violin, and speak five languages. Space and science are my jam, and if anyone had bothered to actually teach me maths as a child, I’d probably be working for NASA.

Glad to be here!

Hello. I’m a SE Michigander. Dad, Guitarist, bicyclist, humorist, hockey playerist, gamer, outdoor enjoyer. Currently sober after 20-something years of violent un-sobriety, but not in recovery. I used to be a PE teacher, but now I work with robots kind of.

Hi everybody,

I’m a transplant from the Mountain West, moved out here for school and have been living in the Great Lakes region for just over three years now. Deleted my social media accounts at the end of last year and have been making an intentional effort to have a more engaging, thoughtful, and curated Internet presence.

I’m a bisexual, Spanish-soeaking immigrant, dating a trans man. Love learning and discussing science, history, and politics. Also into strength training (weightlifting and calisthenics) and looking for more cardio activities to rotate through. I was a chef in a past life so cooking and gardening are also big hobbies. Finally, I’m also getting into auto repair and photography in a big way, so hopefully I can meet some fellow enthusiasts in those realms! Glad to be here and thanks for having me.

Hi! Joining the Midwest group from just outside the St. Louis area. I’m a mom of 3, working in STEM. I found Lemmy on Reddit and am working on slowly transitioning over here. I like it so far (but still feel like a noob). Being a progressive in the Midwest can feel pretty isolating and I’ve come to appreciate some of the like minds I’ve encountered on Reddit. Hoping I can still find that here while moving away from centralized platforms.

From Chicago. I made the plunge to Mastodon (and here) after the Reddit shenanigans and just seeing the repeated bad-faith policies by Twitter. I have been using redirector and libredirect for the last month or two to actively decide who I give my data to just as a fun experiment into best practices.

I think it’s slowly starting to be clear that this type of setup will be the way forward for the more tech-savvy, privacy-focused users, and hopefully/eventually it hits the mainstream as well, but otherwise, it’s just self-selecting into the type of people I want to be around, which will probably be better for my mental health anyways.

I’m into cycling, trading, sci-fi and FOSS. Currently reading The Expanse and taking a sabbatical year from work

Edit: Just want to encourage people to engage w/ and create content over the next few weeks. Activity and friendly faces are probably the most determining factor in whether someone becomes an active user or just browses for a few minutes

Hi. It’s cold most of the year. The summers are dreadful. There’s a couple of days in the spring and fall that are beautiful.

I migrated from reddit a long time ago. I was on world, and realized world was really big and thought maybe I should get more out of the federation thing and go more local. So I did.

Hey, joining from the Metro East of the STL area. I browsed until I came upon this instance and took the plunge. Heard about Lemmy in a few places, including reddit.

Sup nerds. I’m Miah, I’m from Western Michigan. I’m a UNIX/Linux nerd, Right to Repair advocate, and transgender woman. I’ve been working on our cars by myself and would love to make some car nerd friends. My wife and I have 24 chickens, and a budding garden.

Hi new here from Saginaw, Michigan