At the very least he grew up Catholic

I was very antagonistic because I grew up an atheist in a conservative ultracatholic hell. Now I live in a chill place that used to also be conservative ultracatholic hell. I got to meet religious people that didn’t sincerely believe that I deserve to be tortured forever for not believing in what they do, who aren’t bigots, who believe in abortions, who hate rapist priests. When people aren’t mad at you all the time, it’s so much more peaceful to reciprocate.

It’s easy to fall into antitheism when the only religious people around you are structurally supporting evil, it’s hard when you see that people can actually have a positive relationship with their religion and community, even if they are incorrect about some metaphysical truth.

Asperity is the word

Red Hat / IBM have contracts with the Israeli military so yes

The job description is literally to protect the powers that be and in exchange get your own authority to power-trip on too. It is fundamentally a reactionary job that should not exist, and neither should the system they protect.

A wee bit sad that people say this now when immigrants have pretty much always been legally required to have their papers. It is shit but has always been shit.

Hell even in Ireland a legal alien must always have their residence permit with them.

Very fucked if you live on an island though. Not only do you need to be rich, you need a visa.

At least the Dominican Republic will be getting a new penal code this year that allows it in cases of life-threatening complications this year. Then you can pray that the courts let your doctor do it instead.

Worm died of hunger

The article you sent does not say that anyone can do it with 15 min. of training. It speaks of different levels of activity in different parts of the brain in an MRI scan. I myself do not have an MD, but I’m pretty sure reading an MRI to look at brain activity takes a little bit more effort.

I may have misinterpreted your previous message a bit as well, but as I understood it you implied that the way your amygdala is determines your political leanings. The article says it may be the other way around, like with London cab drivers having their brains change as they study the layout of the city. I’m sorry if I misunderstood you there.

Have a good day and thanks for sending this :)

I already started adapting my old joke repertoire!

Two federal agents are patrolling Washington DC. After a period of silence, one asks the other what he thinks of the current leadership.

After pondering what to answer for a bit, the second guy answers. “Same as you,” he says.

“Well, in that case I’m afraid I must arrest you.”

Thought crimes are very often retroactive.

During Soviet times figures drifted in and out of favour. An old joke:

Three men are sitting in a jail cell. “How did you end up here?” asks one the other. “I criticized Karl Radek,” he says. “No way!” replies the first man. “I got here for supporting Karl Radek!”

They turn over to the third guy in the corner and ask him why he got there. He sighs heavily and answers: “I’m Karl Radek.”

Fair play to you

No idea if you already know these places (you probably do) but The Cobblestone, Peader Brown’s, and McDowells are all great pubs that are perfectly happy serving a drink to anyone of any orientation.

Sorry for the bother if you already know.

The family has a tendency to not have a lot of brains

One remembers the “refrigerator mothers” idea

Bizarrely, the urge to make money off scared trans people overpowered the urge to be fascist.

Real criminal organizations will know that proprietary software is less secure than open-source stuff.

A proper criminal should use Signal or another open-source e2ee messenger, and so should you.

(Signal is blocked in Russia)

In this particular case literally all I want is to be able to talk to my family members without risking the FSB arresting them for calling the “Special Military Operation” a war in a phone call. If using WhatsApp for texting isn’t banned alongside phone calls, that is halfway okay for discussions of that nature, and I’ll have to watch my tongue if I call them over the Roskomnadzor-Approved ™ apps.

The trouble with those of course is that they don’t always work well with non-Russian phone numbers (because of course fucking everything needs my number nowadays). And you have to hope they’re not megaspyware. I am NOT downloading fucking MAX.

I will assume that you are saying that people should not be using Signal based on this (e.g. the United States are sliding into fascism and may fuck over Signal).

What would you suggest then? PGP? Ngl I’m happy that GnuPG is introducing post-quantum encryption in the new releases but I’m talking about calling my grandma.

It means that making phone calls with either will likely soon become impossible for those with a Russian Internet connection.