My Bachelor’s degree let me emigrate, so no complaints there.

But having knowledge of exactly how screwed the world is right now is pretty cursed.

Have an upvote.

Now dadjokes is over there.

Death IS the new retirement.

Or at least, it should be, given how much I’m looking forward to it.

If it’s any consolation, those places are still going to get MORE difficult to access when open PCs that run an OS you control cost $5,000.

“Old tools” does not mean obsolete or bad. It means tested, hardened, and reliable. And crucially, probably runs in a couple megabytes of memory, which you might need if the cost of RAM suddenly quintuples for no reason.

It’s my best friend, Scam Likely!

I intentionally ignore the vast majority of everything on my phone until I can get to a real computer. Phones and tablets feel like unmitigated torture and I loathe it every time I have to use one to do something

It’s not about Trix for those kids… It’s about mocking the rabbit about the privilege they have and which is forbidden to the rabbit.

The cruelty is the point.

I was already out of the country during… the last time bad event happened… and I decided to stick it out and build a new life and get a permanent residence in case things did not improve. And then they didn’t. I just managed to get my permanent residence right before… the current time bad event happened (2024).

The simplest thing I can say is, I don’t regret the decision. I gave up a lot on the journey to my new life, but what I gained is knowledge and understanding of just how much crap you don’t actually have to put up with… how much you SHOULDN’T have to put up with. Some things are worse, sure, but so much has been better for me as well… but one of the big problems I didn’t think about is, the survivor’s guilt is real. For what it’s worth, I don’t think in absolute terms there’s any shame in fleeing. A nation is a societal construct in the first place, and I don’t think you particularly owe anything to the nation you happen to be born in, especially one that shows such utter contempt for its citizens on a daily basis. But the people you know and care about… and the innocent people that don’t have the opportunity you do to do the same… leaving them there leaves a wound, even when you KNOW deep down there is very little you can do personally by virtue of suffering through it with them. I know ultimately, my being here means I no longer pay taxes to support a US government that does heinous things… I no longer work for a company that actively makes the world worse… and I still vote from here, still support those that I believe in to help see change in the system… and I use that as a salve, but the simple reality is I don’t get to be here with a clear conscience. It’s a weakness, and I feel selfish for the choice I made. I don’t know anything about you - perhaps none of this is an issue for you, and I’m not saying it should be, but if you know your own conscience to be prone to this kind of thinking, it is something you should also consider.

I mean… I would expect most happy people don’t really fully appreciate it unless they consciously work on it… our brains are wired to notice pain - we adapt to comfort. It’s why people who already have the world still want MORE.

It sure won’t be pretty. But peace without justice is not peace - it’s stagnation, and any society that accepts that is already dead.

It’s like stopping a fever… Sure, it looks fine at first… But the virus is running rampant and it WILL kill the patient. You have to let the fever go, and hope the patient outlasts the infection.

It’s also not helpful that this happens to coincide with an extreme cold snap that has shut down schools and businesses anyway. No way to tell the actual effect from the incidental effect due to the weather.

I don’t know why we’re still having this discussion. If it were really about security, they’d just legislate standards for limited data collection and connectivity options, assign fines for violations, and verify compliance. If we’re really at the point where Chinese engineers can design tech western engineers can’t reverse engineer or understand, we’re in way deeper trouble than bans will solve.

But by doing that, they’d have to put the same restrictions on manufacturers from “friendly” countries, and that’s unacceptable given lobbying.

It’s strictly protectionism and it’s disgusting.

Look, maybe just this once, we should pretend he didn’t screw up, because otherwise he’s just going to start threatening to invade Iceland next to avoid having to admit he was wrong.

/s (I hope)

Laughs in King Sejong

Where ever will we find another market for the best wine in the world?

Don’t forget demanding a Grammy, which Kanye West would then give him.

The return of the king

Feels like more of a Diogenes era to me.