PonyOfWar

I find myself becoming less and less interested in staying in the industry I’m currently working in for the rest of my life. Problem is, I don’t have any other qualifications. So I guess it could start working on acquiring new ones while I’m still young enough to do so, but I’d need both a clear idea on what other career I want to pursue and the motivation to leave my currently pretty comfortable position in life. I have neither.

There isn’t a single site I’d consider an alternative. These days I mostly order from specialized online shops for different product categories, so for example electronics from Alternate, video games from netgames etc. Price comparison sites are often a good place to find these shops. When available I buy directly from manufacturers as well, especially clothing. Occasionally I also order stuff from AliExpress.

I also found that I buy less things in general since ditching Amazon. I guess the additional hassle of buying through other shops makes it easier to realize I don’t actually need many of the things I might have otherwise purchased.

That strategy sounds way too advanced for Trump’s mind, so I really don’t think so.

So you think with Harris in power in 2025, there would also be unidentified policemen roaming the streets, disappearing non-white people into unmarked vans? There would still be military deployed to cities across the US due to a fictional crime wave? Universities would still be denied funding for refusing to discriminate based on race or gender? I don’t think so.

If you really can’t see any difference in the methods employed and the scale of repression between the recent (!) democrat and republican governments, I don’t know what to tell you. Bringing up events from 50+ years ago like the red scare seems quite irrelevant.

You’re probably right that fundamental change is needed. But you should still think about under which president those changes are easier to achieve. Hint: It’s probably not the one who’s perfectly willing to send the military after his political enemies. Also remember that if you don’t elect another president, everybody else still will. The system won’t improve by you not participating in it.

This guy, but you probably wouldn’t want to honor him.

Yes, quite a lot. I’ve never actually been to America though.

How would we handle cases of tyranny where the government controls all militia?

How are you handling the case of tyranny right now? Haven’t seen the guns make a ton of difference so far. I don’t see how they would either, as it would be going against the largest military in the world.

The Hyperion Cantos, as it’s my favorite sci-fi series that I think would work well as a TV series (not so much as a movie, which is actually rumored to happen).

I couldn’t tell you for these people specifically, but this sort of thing is definitely an easy opportunity for scamming people. I’d only consider donating to people where there’s solid evidence that they are who they claim they are.

In general: Trying to live and survive is a basic function of life.

Personally: Why wouldn’t I? Got more than enough time to be dead later. Besides there are many things worth living for.

It’s on all pictures I send. Placement varies depending on image format.

That’s what it is. The same rectangle exists on pictures of the ocean I recently sent to someone on Whatsapp. Just a weird UI bug I guess.

It’s impossible to simultaneously agree with “any and all left leaning talking points” and the current political leanings of the Democratic party.

It’s a thing in the UK.

I wear a helmet when riding my bicycle.

I’m child-free by choice and I think there are a lot of good reasons not to have kids that I would probably share with antinatalists. I think there should be less population growth. But radical “no-one should be born ever” antinatalism goes to far I think. IMO the whole “being born without their consent” argument doesn’t work, as the whole concept of consent doesn’t exist for a nonexistant being. In order to make any kind of choice on whether you want to exist, you need to exist first. If you make the argument that not having kids is sparing them from suffering, then you can just as easily make the argument that you’re depriving them from ever feeling love or happiness, which they “didn’t consent” to either.

As long as it’s not an insane NK-level dictatorship, yes I personally would. I’ve been to China before and talked to a few people there who were more critical about their regime than you might think and didn’t hesitate to talk about it. Of course you need to read the room and maybe not go shouting “Free Tibet” on Tiananmen square. And I wouldn’t pick any fights with nationalists either. In many countries, democratic or otherwise, there are certain topics that you probably shouldn’t bring up with strangers. But I think that it’s ultimately a beneficial thing for people from democratic countries to visit countries like China and vice versa. It contributes to mutual understanding. I personally wouldn’t hesitate to visit China again.

I totally get why the situation would be more difficult for you as a Taiwanese though. If you can’t smile and walk away if someone tries to provoke you, maybe it’s not a good idea to go.

It’s probably 80-90% of what AI image generation is used for TBH. Reddit, Deviantart and any art platform that hasn’t explicitely banned it are filled with it. Even Lemmy has quite a lot.