One thing many people have surprisingly low comprehension of is that people ≠ government.

Regular Israeli civilians did not partake in the war, did not cause the apartheid, and did not steal the land. They were born there, or went there on a promise of entering a friendly Jewish community - not of murdering people.

People defending this have a surprisingly low comprehension of the fact that Israelis, generally speaking, are literate and educated enough to be aware of the fact that most of the “Oh, we’re just a nice friendly Jewish community” is a lie and their taxes and labor will go towards supporting this stuff. Israelis are not stupid people, they are not incapable of accessing news and information from non-Israeli sources. The longer Israel continues to be such a predatory, imperial state, the less sympathy I have for the civilian population that says “Oh, I don’t actually support this, but my mom and dad live here and won’t move, so I have to stay here.” Well, fuck your mom and dad, and fuck you too if that applies to you. At this point, I only have sympathy for the small portion of the population who are either actively opposing this regime from within, or who are planning on leaving and are still in the process of finalizing their departure.

This is catastrophic when it happens to Palestinians, and not much better should it happen to Israelis.

Considering that the longer we avoid this for the Israelis, more of their neighboring countries are going to experience it, I will once again be unequivocal in saying, screw the Israelis in that case. I would much prefer that literally every resident of Israel gets told to screw off back to where they came from, rather than to see the genocide and displacement of the Palestinians be expanded to the Syrians, Lebanese and other neighboring nations, like Israel has already signaled it’s intent to do.

My sympathy for the Israeli people is directly proportional to their opposition to the actions of the Israeli government, which seems unlikely to change much, considering that this is just the continuation of decades of Israeli policy, rather than some exceptional state that only emerged because they were attacked once by Hamas. Contrary to what Israeli propaganda would have us believe, this isn’t something special that is only happening because the Israelis were shocked by one particular attack.

Ha, I used to do the same thing, but with the $3/day I got to buy lunch at school. I would skip lunch, then head to the record shop in town and raid their used racks once or twice a week for CDs. Pretty sure that was even where and how I picked up my first Iron Maiden CD.

Ont the food shortage front, North Korea kind of got hit by a perfect storm of problems that might not have been so severe, had they not all occurred in short order. In brief, over the span of several years in the 1990s, the DPRK managed to lose their greatest backer and trading partner with the collapse of the USSR, which in turn meant that flaws present in some already failing internal policies could no longer be ignored, and were, in fact, exacerbated. Then they had widespread flooding that devastated domestic agriculture, making a bad situation worse. International sanctions would have also impeded efforts to turn to international markets temporarily to purchase additional food and necessary supplies to turn the situation around. While the US did supply food aid starting in 1996, much like how the US weaponized the embargos on Cuba and sanctions on Iran in a way that worsened their situation during the Covid pandemic, George W. Bush severely cut US food aid, and in some years, it was eliminated entirely.

There’s a whole article on the subject on Wikipedia that is a good start for understanding it. While there are certainly plenty of things to criticize North Korea for, I think the general “Hurr durr, communism is bad, look at all this nice food I have,” take that has become widespread in the US is a pretty reductive bit of anti-DPRK propaganda. Also, I don’t know how much of their relative success before that point was due to the USSR propping up an allied state and how much could be attributed to Kim Il Sung’s capabilities as a statesman, but his successors don’t seem to be his equal either in finding strong parties to ally with or in their statecraft. It’s also entirely possible that they are simply the Juche version of failsons, slowly dissipating their father’s legacy for their own gratification after having grown up fairly privileged and viewing the enterprise left to them (or state, in this case) purely as part of their inheritance to plunder for personal gain.

From what I’ve seen in other articles about the same case, it’s basically nothing special. The North Korean applies under a false identity that isn’t associated with North Korea, and they have (or at least claim to have) relevant education and experience that would make them good fits for roles like programming, then they apply for remote jobs where they can continually work at one job without having to go in and interact with people face to face.

I kind of doubt the problem is being suspected of being an operative, though, so much as ex filtration of corporate secrets and potentially falling afoul of sanctions against North Korea if they continue to employ someone in their company once they have a reasonable suspicion that the person is a North Korean national working under a false identity. They would be helping the North Korean government to maintain a steady inflow of foreign currency that they need, which I’m sure could land them in trouble. Aside from that liability, I would imagine they would beore concerned about company IP and tratedsecrets this employee would have access to being available to the DPRK to do what they will with, as well as others in the government being able to use their credentials to potentially access and compromise systems on the company’s network that this employee could access.

I wouldn’t even say it’s a challenge to talk to strangers. I can do it fine, and do it all day at my job. It’s just, I don’t feel the desire to do so simply for the sake of doing it. If I’m sat in a park reading a book on a Saturday morning, I can pretty much guarantee you I do not want to talk to people, yet you’ll get people who just want to plop down next to you on the bench, let out a sigh and say “Hoo, boy what a week, eh?,” and expect you to put down what you were doing to keep the conversation going.

I think it was only “better” in the past, because it was far less likely for someone to have things like properly isolating headphones and portable devices that could replay sound. I say better in air quotes, because people who feel an incessant need to fill any silence with mindless small talk were still annoying as hell back then for those of us who just wanted to be left in peace to do whatever we were trying to do before someone decided that they urgently needed to remark “Oh, it’s really raining,” upon seeing rain out the window of the bus, or what have you.

I’ve never had an issue with actually talking to people, mind you, it’s just that I find many people in the US have an insanely extroverted approach to conversation and will try to force it no matter the context. If I’m at a concert, or a book club or something, sure, we’re there to hang out, have a good time and meet people. If you’re trying to make conversation at a bus stop just to make conversation, it’s unnecessary. I planned for this downtime, I brought a book with me that I wanted to read. That you didn’t plan anything to occupy your time and your mind with doesn’t make it my responsibility to entertain you for however long I happen to be next to you.

Mind you, I’m not opposed to any and all conversation, but to keep with the mass transit theme, I’ll give you a recent example of what I’m talking about.

Guy: “Hey, you’re reading a book.” Me: “Yes, I am.” G: “That book isn’t in English.” M: “I’m aware, thanks.” G: “But then how do you know what it says?”

On and on for twenty minutes. This sort of vapid conversation that exists only to fill dead air is annoying as hell, and makes me more inclined to just not engage with people. Mind you, I don’t hate any and all conversations. I’ve had other interactions that start from a similar, “Wow, that book you’re reading isn’t in English,” observation, but then transition into something worth sustaining, like if they ask if there are any pointers for studying language, or how they really enjoy books from one country and want to study that language, or something else beyond merely speaking every time they perceive something, to let us know they do, in fact, have functioning sensory organs.

The whole “Just speak with anyone around you and be super outgoing,” approach to social interactions with strangers that’s been normalized in the US would be considered pretty weird elsewhere. Sure, people be too lost in social media or games or whatever is a bad thing if people aren’t learning how to socialize at all, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people just preferring not to be available for interaction at any time and with anyone, and choosing not to engage with people when they don’t want to and have the means to block them out.

In short, a lot of folks just need to stfu and realize that not everyone wants to constantly talk, and they should learn to discern the time and place for it, rather than imposing their preferences on everyone around them.

“Am I interested in other DEs?” and “Will I install them?” are two different questions though. Yeah, I had fun running i3 years back, but i3 isn’t the new hotness anymore, and there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of me feeling like I have the time to learn and configure another WM. Absent my suddenly striking it rich and having entirely too much free time, I sincerely doubt there will come another time where I feel like I have that sort of time and nothing I’d rather use it for than such a mundane and endless task.

While pointing out that the public at large is just wildly ill-suited to be making policy decisions on many topics which absolutely need to be regulated, lest companies cheap out on worker safety and get people killed, you’re missing the far more pressing matter with this idea. This level on granularity is just absurd for direct democracy. The sheer number of votes such a system would entail would rapidly induce voter fatigue. Besides, even if it’s just opening an app and clicking a button, how many voters have the time to stay informed on relevant developments related to upcoming matters to be voted on to actually have an informed opinion on the topic, and of those, how many would actually turn up to vote for the thing? NY had 39.6% of eligible voters not cast a vote in the 2024 presidential election, slightly below the national average of 36.1%. Last year alone, Governor Hochul pardoned 24 people, according to her site’s press releases, 11 of which were the day before New Year’s Eve, smack in the middle of the winter holidays. You folks really think you’re going to get meaningful voter participation in 24+ elections a year (ignoring how many elections Trump would trigger with his presidential pardons, because this number is already unreasonable enough), when nearly 40% of eligible voters sat out the most heated presidential election in decades?

You can have direct democracy to an extent, but for the most part, you’d still need to leave the politicians and technocrats to do their jobs. Sure, there ought to be mechanisms for either the people or the government to trigger a popular referendum on a given matter (say, voters strongly feel that none of the politicians or governing bodies are reflecting their will on a matter, or a broadly popular policy is being blocked by obstinate opposition factions in a closely divided legislature, for example), but they really ought to remain exceptional incidents. Otherwise, you’re doomed to get bogged down by rule by committee under a different name, and nothing is ever going to get done.

I don’t hate it, I just never got into it. I watched a few episodes which didn’t really do it for me, and I just didn’t really feel any need to continue it.

Mainline SMT games are a rather different beast. They don’t have any of the social sim elements of the Persona games, and tend to be old-school first-person dungeon crawlers, with an emphasis on exploration, the acquisition and fusing of demons, and developing a balanced team of demons to face off against the enemies and bosses you encounter in the dungeons. They also frequently feature a good/neutral/evil alignments that offers different endings, including different final bosses, depending on which alignment you wind up with as a result of the choices you make throughout the game. They’re a lot of fun if you’re into those sort of things.

I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that the things that interest me aren’t often recognized as valuable in our society, but just because a mad world doesn’t recognize their worth doesn’t mean I’m not improving myself with them. Studying history, learning languages that interest me, learning how to cook or sew, none of them are likely to get me a particularly well paid job or anything, but they’re all either skills or knowledge I can take with me, even if nobody else appreciates it at the time.

Man, Microsoft doubling down on the whole “Let’s force most of our customers to purchase entirely new computers to use the next release!” strategy after it went so well for Windows 11 is just hilarious. Especially with hardware costs skyrocketing due to AI BS.

I might specify more often to clarify, like “All the female medalists/athletes,” but that’s quite different from when you hear someone say “Oh, you know how females can be.” It’s like their vocalization process includes a filter that converts “bitches” to “female” at some point between the first thought and actual speech, because they finally got the memo that not everyone is a misogynist like they are. You can hear the disdain in their voices when they say the word female.

A few months ago, the local dispensary was out of the vape I would normally buy, so I tried a new one instead. Took a hit, thought “Well, guess I’m going to bed right now, then,” and laid in bed. That thing hit me so hard, at one point I had to check the news on my phone to confirm whether there’d been another earthquake, or if I’d just ripped a massive fart and not realized.

We don’t need an autopsy, just like we don’t need another article telling the public, who has already long since realized this, that Israeli influence and Zionism in our politics is toxic and that we need to cut ties with it going forward. We really just need a few things to happen. Least likely of all, if Democratic leaders finally pulled their heads out of their asses and started paying attention to doing their jobs and winning over voters, rather than just focusing on their bank balances, it would potentially preclude the need for more if they had the fear of their constituents turning on them to keep them in line. Failing this, it would be great if more people got politically active and, along with taking action and organizing between elections, they showed up to the primaries and voted out assholes like Charles Schumer. Finally, it would be great if current electeds and progressive candidates who manage to primary zionists in the party actually began taking steps to initially isolate the remaining Zionists, with the aim of eventually expelling them from the party if they don’t renounce Zionism and stop screwing over the civilians of Palestine (along with the other nearby countries Israel is constantly trying to steal land from), this country as a whole, and the world at large. The Israeli state, as it has existed since its founding in 1948, is a force for evil in this world, and needs to be stopped entirely. In a just world, Israel would be as isolated on the world stage as North Korea is at present.

The Democrats need to clean house already, and stop the shit with “Oh, but we’re a big tent party, so we have to be open to a littlel support for colonial genocide amongst our members.” Everyone alive knows this is a losing issue for them and is only getting worse by the day. The names of leading Democrats, like Jeffries, Pelosi, Harris and Schumer, are all going to be black marks in the pages of world history in the future. Quislings for a new age, but now they can claim they’re multicultural, since they’re not just reviled in their home land, but by anyone with a conscience and sense of morality the world over who comes to learn of their existence and actions. And I’m sure they’ll still be trotting out that Schumer is hated only by antisemites, Pelosi only by misogynists, Jeffries by white supremacists, while Harris gets the distinction of being hated by racists and misogynists. It’ll be just as effective at getting them back in the good graces of their constituents as it’s proving to be now.

Because you can improve and refine your technique. For example, I no longer need to open up duckduckgo to figure out what that one command was that worked for me 6 months ago. Now, I just type away. ctrl-r, ffmpeg, and bam, right there in my shell history, all I need to do is change the inputs and outputs.

I don’t think it’s an impossible task to get students quality language instruction that gets them on track to proficiency in a given foreign language. It’s doable, and people manage to do so all the time. The issue is more that people often don’t see the benefits of it in their daily lives where English suffices for everything, and they most certainly don’t see enough of a benefit that they wouldn’t collectively lose their shit over a proposed property tax hike intended to adequately fund foreign language instruction in the local school district. They’ll gladly fork over a few million dollars in tax money to trick out the football field, but to hire enough new teachers to have kids start learning French in 3rd grade and continue until graduation? Not a chance in hell. Ditto for French-language media purchases for the school library, or any other auxiliary purchases that would facilitate a genuine attempt at teaching and learning a foreign language.

Even for a wealthier state like New York, often thought of as more progressive on stuff like this, the actual requirements are a joke. You can just take a year of a language in 8th grade, pass the local test that meets the curriculum’s criteria, and never touch it again all the way to graduation from high school. At least when I was in school, they would at least try to dissuade you from not continuing it at least one more year to get on track for some sort of special diploma, but you could just opt out if your parents gave the okay to your guidance counselor.

Firefox is just the browser, Mozilla is the organization constantly wasting money on features Firefox’s users are actively hostile to in a bid to tempt away people already using Chrome. Not the OP, but I’d be down to donate to Firefox’s development directly, but I wouldn’t want to make a donation to Mozilla hoping it would go toward Firefox, only to find out they took my money to build some new LLM integration that nobody asked for, only to sit unused for years before being quietly shuttered in favor of the new tech buzzword of the day.

No, the issue is one that has been around a long time now and has been completely ignored because most people don’t speak Spanish. Almost all mainstream Spanish media, from shows, to news, to social media has been far, far, FAR right for decades now. Like, it makes Fox News look like MSNBC.

Aside from that, they know they have a captive audience for many of their viewers, who are unable to go fact check them by consulting English-media. This is true for monolingual Spanish speakers, but also for many folks who have learned enough English to get by in their day-to-day lives, but who are not comfortable following or discussing something more complex like politics in English.

Pretty much every time I would watch the news with my mother-in-law, if they had an interview or clip from a politician dub over into Spanish, I’d catch them engaging in some fuckery with their translations. Either they would deliberately omit parts of what was said to make the translated part sound worse, or they would choose key words where they would pick a translation that is related to a more accurate word for the English word spoken, but with a much more negative connotation to it.

They’d also ignore when right-wing conspiracy theories get debunked in English, and just keep on pushing them for months after they’d been discredited with no mention of this fact, as though they were widely held, mainstream beliefs.

Then again, white Americans who don’t interact with either group very much seem to consider all Latino and Black Americans as two monolithic voting blocks, ignoring the reality of the many different cultures, national backgrounds and ethnicities that comprise either group. Lots of white people just think of them as solid, unreachable Democratic voters, for some reason. There are plenty of people in either group who the Democrats can’t reach, because despite agreeing with the rest of a Democrat or Progressive platforms, they hold deeply conservative religious or cultural beliefs on abortion and sexuality. Like, I hear people saying “¡Maricón!” on the daily more often than I heard edgy kids dropping the f-word on the middle school playground back in the day, and nobody bats an eye because rampant homophobia is still a cultural given in a lot of places, unfortunately. If you actually interact with any people of color on a regular basis, it’s probably not as surprising to see how the right can pull in greater numbers of POC by playing to the right themes for those deeply held views and prejudices.