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[-] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago

Mail/packages sent via the United States Postal Service have more constitutional protections than those sent via commercial carrier or email.

[-] diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 9 hours ago

There are postal organizations outside of the US.

[-] grandel@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 hours ago

It's the same when you ask an American where they are from when you meet abroad and they reply with a state name like Texas instead of a country.

They're abroad so they must know that other countries exist yet still reply with their state name.

I don't think knowledge is the problem anymore, it's ignorance.

[-] magic_smoke 2 points 4 hours ago

That's insane, I never knew that!

I always assumed my ali-epxress packages where launched via cannon, and landed on my doorstep 10,000 miles or so away.

[-] elephantium@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago

I have a buddy who works for the USPS. The package delivery portion of his job sounds nuts.

[-] gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org 46 points 1 day ago

fun fact: street vehicles are still being used to transport data around. for large amounts of data, it's faster and cheaper to write it on a disk, then ship the disk, instead of transporting it over the internet.

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a Ford Taurus full of tapes screaming down the Jersey Turnpike.

[-] feannag@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Ah, classic sneakernet!

[-] chahn.chris@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago

Until the internet can move matter we will always need matter transport options of which the USPS is one of.

[-] hogmomma@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Email affected the USPS far less than people think it did.

EDIT: I should say the ADVENT of email.

[-] db2@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Email was never a threat to mailed letters or magazines. It was some nonsense thunked up by the same caliber of technophobe that called it the webbernet and thought it really was just a series of tubes.

[-] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago

Email was never a threat to mailed letters or magazines

Excuse me? You didn't put a /s in there, so I'm genuinely puzzled by your comment. If it was sarcastic, then well played.

Granted magazines have died out because of websites, but letters?

As a Dane unless you have an exemption, because you're very old or intellectually challenged, then you're required to have a special digital inbox for government and banking. When that was in introduced, letters died in less than a decade. To such a degree that the postal service stopped delivering letters last year.

A private company took over the letter carrying responsibility, so you can still send a letter. But there are no mail boxes left, you have to go to a store that does packages as well and standing in line to send a letter. The private company btw did a splendid job of making the postal service seem competent in comparison. Something no Dane would have found possible in years prior.

[-] db2@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

The post specifies USPS which means the time would be around 30 years ago in the US.

I'm sorry to heat about your postal service. It's a sad accomplishment to out-suck the US.

series of tubes

Without those tech-illiterate morons, we wouldn't have works of art like this though so it's not all bad.

[-] nieceandtows@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

I bet actual personal letters are less than 1% of what USPS delivers these days

[-] Danarchy@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 day ago

So the man said “that’s a good thing” and the zen master said “we’ll see”

[-] elephantium@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago
[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

A mail straight from my living room to your living room, delivered instantly??? That'll never work! Some kind of electronic mail??? The post office won't stand for it!

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
237 points (100.0% liked)

Showerthoughts

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