FriendOfDeSoto

@FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How feasible would it be for authoritarian regimes to add censorship directly into the hardware of modern consumer electronics? (Therefore making the use of VPNs to bypass censorship useless.)⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Like the river finds the sea, people will find a way around it. Satellite connections, just as an idea.

  Anything a chip does can be backwards engineered to fool it. People will break your proposed surveillance chip eventually.

  Most of these companies are maybe US-owned to varying degrees but they don’t produce everything in the US. Also, they would put a very high price on these government mandated chips for two reasons: 1) government has deep pockets and 2) it would keep them away from very profitable so-called AI biz opportunities.

  The pandy has shown us that with a few disruptions in the supply chain, any system that requires a cryptographic chip check to function can be sent to hell in a handbasket. I forgot if it was HP or Canon or some printer company had to teach its customers to bypass, i.e. hack their own cryptogtaphic chip checks because they couldn’t get more chips and otherwise the printers wouldn’t print. A few disruptions could also affect the censorship chip supply chain.

  The great firewall of China has also shown how creative people get to get their message across. If it’s not just human censors but also so-called AI censors it will just take creativity to a new level. Necessity is the mother of invention.

  So there are some reasons why you might be worrying too much. I think another one is much broader. The majority of Americans did not vote for the current president. If he started censoring the internet now there would be Civil War II - Now It’s Digital. The reason why Russia or North Korea can censor their people much easier is because they have never had or only on paper a brief period of liberty and rule of law. It will be much harder to control the US population. There isn’t just the one media outlet, the one ISP, the one judiciary to dominate. It’s splintered. And populated by feisty people, some of them armed. You couldn’t pull off what you suggested without much more support for 47. And he seems to be losing it more than gaining these days.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How much has the ratio of accidental vs intentional pregnancies changed over time?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course, I didn’t think far enough. Thanks for setting that straight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How much has the ratio of accidental vs intentional pregnancies changed over time?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I think there is data on it. Back in school I remember looking at the population pyramid. It’s a visualization of the number of men and women (x-axis, going both left and right) per birthyear (y-axis). In ye olden days, that formed a triangle. Many babies at the bottom, fewer olds at the top. You could tell a lot from the shape this took. You’d get dents on the male side that will correspond with armed conflicts, like the world wars. And then in the 1960s the pyramid with war chips in it massively narrows. At least in countries where the pill became readily available. It turned the pyramid into a tree with a big head at the top and a wide but thinner stem growing under it. I suspect now 80 years later we’re at a much narrower elongated triangle shape again. So you can probably count the shift in numbers there and put a number on “prevented accidents.” But you would have to account for other factors as well, improvements in medicine, vaccinations, etc.

  Were all births accidental? That’s a question you could only ask in hindsight. Humans have always looked for ways you prevent conception because we like to party but without reliable success. It’s only in the second half of the last century that we have come up with measures that the Catholic church really doesn’t approve of. Before that, children weren’t really planned in today’s sense. They just happened. They were expected to happen. And with most women being relegated to raising them and running the household, there wasn’t much else they could do. The concept that a wife could be raped by her husband is sadly fairly new. The patriarchy was strong. Abortion was a gamble and many women died from bad jobs of them. Most of the time, if she got pregnant, the decision was made, end of story. If you weren’t married yet, shotgun wedding. That’s how it went until we developed contraception that actually works. I wouldn’t call any kids before that accidental.

  Sure, you could remain abstinent. But we like to party.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  You read the story. They said he died of exhaustion. It’s the Daily Mail. It doesn’t have to be true what they say.

  I think if your mind is sufficiently obsessive you can override all the natural countermeasures your body uses to get you to r&r. You pass a point of no return and you fall asleep but that’s the end. Not allowing people to sleep is a form of torture that can kill. Much like starving someone.

  This guy allegedly also smoked and drank like an idiot. That couldn’t have been helpful under the circumstances.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's the deal the miracles jesus chose to do?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Did he really do them though? The reason why this is within the scope of belief is the fact that there’s no conclusive evidence that removes reasonable doubt by contemporary standards.

  Let’s say it’s all exactly as it says in the four different versions that are somehow considered canon and none of it is a millennia old game of telephone: did he choose to do them? Did his dad force him? Could he maybe not have had free will in this regard? Do we know about all the miracles? Maybe there were more! Would it be fair for us today to judge him based on incomplete records?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I would say that’s technically not a bad joke. It just doesn’t come across well given the context of this thread.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where on the internet would you discuss a specific case of a potential exploitation of a minor within the adult industry"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You should maybe indicate if you’re critical of this exploitation or in favor. If it’s the latter it would be easier for the mods. And if it’s the former you would lessen the inherent yuckiness people feel when reading this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨how did you and your partner change after having a baby?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  If you enter into starting a family, adding kids through whatever means, and you think this should not alter the relationship, you have another think coming. Kids are hard work. First your focus is to keep them alive and out of trouble. And over time this gradually shifts towards them not becoming a-holes. This takes energy and time, a lot of it. And that’s the most common reason why some couples have much less bedroom fun. They’re exhausted. They’re stressed. People behave differently when they’re exhausted and stressed. Raising kids is a marathon, not a sprint. Ideally, it’s a series of never ending gut wrenching crises until they move out. And truth is it doesn’t even end there. Some relationships handle this better, some don’t. None stay the same. If you think that your current childless relationship is any indication of how this would work with children, and you measure it by loving attention and how much sex you’re having you’re looking at the sky to measure the sea level. Get your head out of the clouds. You have to look at how you handle problems under pressure together. How you can support each other and not look at it as transactional. If that works, you stand a chance of a less bumpy transition into a functional family life.

  Of course, every relationship is different. There are many other factors that will play a part and make shit even more complicated. I’m fairly confident though that I’m more right than wrong here with my generalizations.

  You couldn’t survive such a radical personality change? Yours changed too. You will probably not win any argument on the assumption that your partner changed into a version is their folks while you stayed the exact same. You’re just the frog in the pot who didn’t notice it got hotter.

  I’m a still married father of two.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An alternative spelling of the alphabet that makes more sense⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It would also make more sense to divide the day into something decimal but some base twelvers showed up first. It would also make more sense to stop using measurement systems where 12 hooplas equal 1 boink. The alphabet is just another thing like that. It’s been stolen and rewritten and now we are stuck with it. You can write an alternative sound map to help new learners. But the 26 letter order is here to stay.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any fundamental difference between an instance and a formal website ?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  When you’re using lemmy or mastodon, you don’t have to use the website. You can use an app that goes from your fingers to the server without needing a browser and a website to exchange the information.

  So most if not all the instances of the fediverse are also a website if you need to use it. But not every website is an instance of the fediverse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Visited Vasquez Rocks⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The sound you’re hearing is me screaming in intense jealousy. Both of your trip and the outfit! LLAP

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m sorry about your mom’s illness.

  What I’m reading here in this thread is that you haven’t found the right therapist yet. And us jokers on the internet cannot fill that void for you.

  We all have to live with bad memories. Regardless of quality if we were to enter a pissing contest to see whose suffering is greatest. You’re not living with yours, they keep you as a pet. I would go so far as saying being an obsessive goodie has not worked for you either. So look for a different therapist. At the very least another channel for you pent up regret. You can of course still be nice to the people around you. But you gotta give yourself a break from trying to outshine your average saint.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Partner has ADD, do I have misophonia?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Without wading into the therapeutic too much, is there a way to move your PC, maybe to the bedroom. Or to set your partner up with wireless headphones.

  I would say it isn’t so important to put a label on either of you as it is to find a workable solution. So frame your approach in these terms, make a schedule for headphone time, don’t engage in the at home therapy. Other than that, look for somebody who knows both of you better than me or anybody else here. The advice is probably going to be better.

  How long have you been together? How long since you moved in together?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨(i feel really stupid asking, but what the hell!) could i be of french descent?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The movements of people since time immemorial does not adhere to the arbitrary political lines we’ve drawn between nations today. Both France and England have seen large scale immigration by the Romans, various old Germanic people, then the Vikings. All these people have killed and fucked each other. Attributing DNA to an area is partially a statistical likelihood, so there’s a margin for error. Except in geographically and/or historically isolated areas, we’re all more blended than anything else. That makes the race theory of the late 19th century seem so utterly ludicrous today but we can’t quite completely get it out of our heads either.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pedestrians Walking on Right or Left?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Because they are a rebellious bunch. But it doesn’t matter because in one belief the whole country seems united. And that is to ignore all the pleas of train operators to stand on both sides of the escalators to prevent long lines and crowding on the platforms. We’re having none of that sensible crap.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pedestrians Walking on Right or Left?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  There is a tendency to walk on the left in Japan as well. I wouldn’t call it a rule but a vibe. For a society that is rigidly built on rules and conventions, they are remarkably flexible when it comes to tolerating people who swim against the stream. Not wanting to cause a fuss overrides a New Yorker outburst of the “Hey, I’m walking here!” variety. IMO they also insist less on the right of way or other car traffic rules when behind the wheel.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If darker coloured materials get hotter in the sun faster, will a display with the screen on or off change how quickly it heats up?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m no expert. Stop reading here if that’s not good enough.

  My understanding is that in cathode ray screens, the old-style non-flat types, heat would make a difference. In LCD and LED screens, so little heat is produced by showing images, it is probably negligible. One of them, I forgot which type, does black by just turning the light off in that spot. So the type of screen used probably matters here.

  You can see massive ad screens even in hot places. Now, there may be insulation in use and/or A/C. My guess would be if they can operate a huge ass screen in 100F 40C weather to get me to buy shit, the combined energy costs cannot be exorbitant. And my guess is further that’s mostly to prevent the hardware from melting in the sun, whether the screen is on or off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If my county passes a new tax for um lets say a new jail. They staff it and build it and everything with the tax money. How come it seems the tax is there forever? Why not get rid of it when built?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Taxes are unpopular necessary tools in the governmental toolbox. They are often marketed to the people as temporary necessities. And then the weeds of time grow over these intentions, people forget, and they’re here to stay.

  Germans still pay a sparkling wine tax. It was introduced to be able to increase military funding before WW1. They have since gone from a monarchy to a republic to a murderous dictatorship to an occupied territory to two republics side by side (at least in name, the east got rid of the tax) to a unified republic. Guess what survived for more than a century?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What can US citizens do to fight/prevent their country enabling genocide?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s some cool stable genius shit!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it normal for people to ask where you are from online?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This sounds like a weird person at best or the prelude to a scam, stalking, or social engineering at worst. You stick with your standards and don’t doxx yourself to passive aggressive douchebags, however insistent they may be.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What would it mean for the world if America was confident they developed a technology that would act as a fool prove deterrent from nuclear attacks what would that mean for the rest of the world?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How does confidence factor into this? I’ve been confident in stuff before and it turned out that confidence was misplaced. Pride cometh before the fall shit. Confidence alone risks cockiness. Cockiness may lead to somebody testing your Golden Shield. Didn’t work. You now don’t have a country any more.

  If the Golden Shield really worked it’s a question of capacity. If you had enough juice in it to repel all nuclear weapons you could throw at this country in a worst-case scenario, you’d have a powerful defense against the most powerful weapon on Earth that’s ready to deploy this minute. It may not save you from conventional attacks. It may not shield you from chemical or biological weapons so gruesome they aren’t currently shelf-ready. But development of those would suddenly become a viable prospect. I fear it just turns the spiral of development of more destructive weaponry one more rotation. Extrapolating from the last 6000 years of history, we’ve gone from sticks and stones to vaporizing people into thin mist by harnessing the power of the atom. We’re already in the narrow bit of the spiral. Paradoxically, developing a Golden Shield against nuclear attacks may lead to wiping our species out for good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I know. What you have hit upon here is my obviously unsuccessful attempt at making these people look more ridiculous than the OG death cult.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think this USSR quote is a good answer:

  We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.

  (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

  In any authoritarian system where indoctrination starts young you’ll probably have a fifth of the population that’s high on the coolaid or never questioned anything due to ideology or intelligence (or both). The rest know they’re lying, etc. And keep their mouths shut because they don’t want to go to Siberia or El Salvador.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Make America Greay Again': are MAGA monarchists?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No. At least not yet. I don’t think they will be because that would entail having any of 47’s children succeed him. And I feel like they know they are a shade duller than Hegseth.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you need to be more specific with the query. If I’m the only passenger plus crew, yes. If the plane is full of people going to a place to help out, no. If this flight could be done by train without multiplying door-to-door travel time more than 2.5 times, yes. If my blood type or bone marrow was so rare I could save a life, I think I’d be okay again even if I was a lone passenger. There is plenty of gray here to consider.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it normal to be constantly scared about how your friend will react to anything about you?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Did you skip high school? You’re equating normal with socially desirable. I don’t. There are plenty of people who behave normally while not being nice. E.g. bullies, mean girls. Some of them never grow out of it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it normal to be constantly scared about how your friend will react to anything about you?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I beg to differ. If I were a c-word, this behavior would be par for the course.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it normal to be constantly scared about how your friend will react to anything about you?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is not the behavior of a friend.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨34% of the US population doesn't vote. Why do polticalitcians cling to the idea that these voters can't be reached?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t mind your suggestion. I think universal mail-ins are a good idea. At the same time, I have an inkling that you didn’t read my comment all the way to the end.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨34% of the US population doesn't vote. Why do polticalitcians cling to the idea that these voters can't be reached?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have sympathy for non-voters in the US. Not so much out of principle but because of how it is done. Voting takes place on a Tuesday. That’s because in ye olden days you had to allow people to attend church on Sunday before making the trip on horseback to participate in the election. That’s a cute tradition but clashes with the way the economy works today. People are very dependent on their low-wage jobs that they can be fired from easily. If you’re working two of those jobs to make ends meet, you may not have the “luxury” to skip work to go and vote on a normal weekday. That luxury often includes having to fill in a booklet of stuff that’s on the ballot. You’re not just voting on a president, a senator, or a congressperson. You may be asked your option on a plebiscite, a judge, a sheriff, a school board, etc. It is overinflated in my view and explains long slow moving lines at ballot stations that you don’t often see elsewhere. And that’s after a possibly Kafkaesque registration process to be eligible in the first place or to get mail-ins in some states. It is almost designed to keep people away. Maybe you’re taking these structural problems as something “politicians cling to.”

  Make election day a public holiday that forces businesses who are open anyway to allow all their employees to go and vote.