• 0 Posts
  • 20 Comments
Joined 3 months ago
cake
Cake day: July 5th, 2026

help-circle


  • Well I can tell you that I didn’t put any sanctions on anyone. Nor have i made any international trips (Caribbean honeymoon cruise notwithstanding) or deals in my life.

    Why are they under sanctions? Take a look at the discussions those oligarchs and despots in the US were having and please again note that I voted as much against corporate interests and corruption as my ballots would allow. If I was out-voted, am I truly to blame?

    And if all these are such big issues in your life, what have you done to fix them?

    Blaming people like me for the ills of the government I have disagreed with since the time I truly learned how it functioned is genuinely unhelpful; you are berating the only people in this sad excuse for a country who genuinely want to improve things for everyone because we do see the potential the US had and utterly squandered in the name of profits for a few.

    We were sold the lie harder than anyone else. We fought against the lies in what ways we could. I’ve faced down lines of riot police firing tear gas into crowds alongside my father. I have put myself on the line against this oppression. Now I generally keep to myself and protect my babies as best I am able, which is beginning to feel increasingly futile.

    So please, again, explain to me why I’m the bad guy for what the people I very specifically have voted and physically stood against every time I can have done and how its entirely the fault of me and people like me.

    Edit: missing words.





  • I can appreciate the skepticism, and I wouldn’t have pressed the issue if I didn’t appreciate both your approach and your position.

    Regarding the war in Vietnam, that was back when we had leaders who were bothered by things like optics and polling. Nixon was a crook, lied about it, got caught, was impeached, felt shame, resigned during that era. That precedent clearly doesn’t apply here.

    The issue with Israel/Iran is that the US is feeding on all sides of it. Trump is doing whatever the hell he’s doing and in order to (in his mind) save face, he’s gotta do something big. So the oil pipeline to the rest of the world gets shut down. Manufacturing and shipping slows by default. What shipping does occur is under assault by Houthis and the IRGC because hurting trade hurts the US.

    It’s a very ugly cascade web effect.

    And once more, thank you for hearing me out through my own verbal static.


  • Is Russia - this same Russia whose stated reasons for invading Ukraine require less scrutiny than any of my claims to be revealed as utter bullshit - really so above exaggerating a threat to justify a response that is in Putin’s best interests versus everyone’s? And what about the AfD and their nationalist tendencies?

    I saw that Sweden(?)'s Far Right party got spanked despite early polls much to my relief, but there’s still way too much Trump-style fascism out there to say that any of what this guy laid out is genuinely far-fetched. The scenario he lays out complete with maps is disturbingly feasible.

    I personally hold on to the hope that there are enough genuinely good people in the world to be able to avert the worst of things for those I know personally, but as first-worlders we have a very different perspective on just how fucked up the world actually is from, say, kids in Gaza. You know, not living in a warzone which is actively trying to genocide us with a secondary goal of bringing about the literal end of the world as they believe it because sky daddy.

    My synopsis was poor and that’s entirely on me, but the video is worth watching even if you don’t like the interviewer or the premise. Which I don’t. It is all terribly uncomfortable to examine as he has. Which is why its worth watching.


  • It heavily depends on your needs, wants, and expectations.

    In simplest terms, Ubuntu is Mac-like and Mint is Windows-like. At least, on the surface. Basically everything else is feature parity, just requires slightly different arrangements depending on which flavor you’re running.

    I didn’t much like Ubuntu as it feels too close to MacOS to me. Primarily because I don’t really like that aesthetic. Ubuntu and Mint were my first forays into Linux as well, but this was also years ago when Mint was relatively new to the scene. While I personally liked the style of Mint, at the time it just didn’t have nearly enough features for what I was into.

    These days I settled on CachyOS which is a fork of Arch. Cachy is aimed at gaming, but comes with a very straightforward installer with a huge amount of customization options to really make the OS your own. That’s ultimately what keeps me on Arch is the genuine ease of customization at this point. Rolling releases don’t bother me as i used to do CyanogenMod nightlies and this is like the big boy version of that, but I also can fully appreciate wanting shit to just work.

    That said, Ubuntu is arguably the most popular distro because of its similarities to Mac and the “It just works” vibes it tends to give off these days.

    The best part of Linux is how easy it is to check out a new flavor and see how you like it. And once you do find the flavor that suits you, the mega nerds in that particular community have probably already figured out how to do that thing you want. And if those folks didn’t for any reason, the folks at AUR* probably did.

    *AUR = Arch User Repository and is an unregulated repository of whatever anyone clever enough to develop for Arch has come up with. Peruse and download at your own risk, but there’s some genuinely awesome and useful tools out there.


  • I dunno, the past eight to ten years of western politics shifting right? The resurgence of fascism in an increasingly globalized world? The fact that despite how we feel there are clearly pluralities of people who support that evil shit and actively cheer it on while declaring anyone who sees the value in trade and cooperation a liberal cuck bitch etc etc?

    I hated his message. Especially at the end when he says “I’m okay because I believe in God.” Plainly, fuck that and fuck him. Doesn’t mean I can’t hear the logic in everything else he’s saying, however.

    Also I kinda can’t stand the CEO kid because he gives equal weight to morons like Musk and Thiel, but he does at least have decent follow-up questions.

    We don’t have to like something to appreciate what it means.



  • Societal collapse is imminent. I just watched a historian predict this only days ago. FWIW, he’s Chinese immigrant to Canada.

    Now Germany will be forced to step up.

    Then Russia claims its 1941 all over again.

    Now Europe is at war.

    Nobody is talking.

    Nobody is trading.

    First world amenities dry up.

    Everyone else starves.

    Mass migration.

    Destabilization from within as governments swing further right in response to a very real “national identity crisis” as uninhabitable parts of the world move to the habitable.

    Social systems buckle under the weight of unaccounted for millions surging in.

    Totalitarians seize what power is left to keep theirs while they can which only further isolates everyone.

    In the midst of Europe doing this, the Middle East has Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the independent militias allied with the IRGC as proxies exacerbating things throughout the region by targeting Saudi (American-aligned) petroleum facilities. Also harassing anyone in Hormuz and the Red Sea because they can. And uh, have we heard about how difficult it is to stop the rebel mountain tribes in that part of the world from operating as they please?

    Tl; Dr https://youtu.be/C5o3tgr-AgI


  • For people complaining this is internal news, I should think the leader of any “democratic” nation offering to openly bribe the populace to stay in power - amidst an illegal war - would be something to pay attention to. Just like German internal politics getting weird and making world news.

    I understand the overall anti-American sentiment and can’t say I’m upset with anyone for feeling that way given how my government has handled itself internationally. However, this one is a big deal. Change the names to a British or German or French PM and party and suddenly it’s appropriate again?

    My point being some things will have external repercussions despite being internal debates - Brexit being an example of an internal debate with global consequences. Or, y’know, Trump being elected. Again.





  • I am decidedly on the spectrum and very much prefer things to be clear-cur with precisely defined lines.

    You can be a healthy individual with solid beliefs and that is precisely why you can’t in good conscience walk away from your family who might be struggling but always means well in their heart of hearts. Not bad people, just misguided. And on top of that, they’re your only support network. You may disagree on everything except that you genuinely love one another and would never wish or bring harm upon one another.

    A healthy person would absolutely struggle with leaving that social circle. And this isn’t really that far-fetched a scenario as most people really aren’t that adamant and vitriolic in their beliefs as any given extreme would have you believe.

    So are you wrong? Not in every case, for sure. But you’re also not really correct either. Human interactions are mostly nuance, which your assessment is entirely devoid of.


  • To be perfectly clear, the only AI I am subscribed to is the one Proton gives with their family plan VPN bundle, and I didn’t choose it. I used it to edit a letter I wrote once and otherwise trust it as far as I can throw its server.

    This knee-jerk reaction to anything with the letters AI attached being bad is just so silly. Y’all are acting the way Republicans act when it comes to the word “queer.” Just because it’s in the vicinity of you doesn’t mean you’re contaminated, you’ve caught it, you’re now one of them.

    This is a highly intelligent individual - controversial hot takes notwithstanding - utilizing a tool in a way that has proven itself to be very effective when used properly. Nobody is saying you have to get ready to be a switch in the bedroom any more than they’re saying you have to use AI.

    Distro maintenance is a difficult and thankless task, and having a tool that can scan and analyze code orders of magnitude faster than you as well as make suggestions on how to fix it isn’t an inherently bad thing. Setting that tool loose with unlimited agency would be a bad thing, but where oh where is Linus saying he’s gonna give Claude full read/write access to the entire kernel and walk away forevermore?

    Hate on AI bros all you want. I’m with you there, most of them are idiots that don’t know their mouth from their anus and speak from both equally. I don’t think Linus fits that particular picture [hot takes notwithstanding!] when it comes to using the new tool on the market in a reasonable and measured way.