But the important thing is: my blog will survive! /s

In my opinion, the ability to riot has been seriously damaged by surveillance. You can’t just wear a mask and identical black clothing anymore. They can track your phone, your car, analyze your eyes, facial ratios, online posts, phone calls, text messages, device activity, and a whole host of other things to identify anyone who resists. It reduces the time a riot can persist because they can simply scoop people up at home the very same night. Furthermore, the squeamishness of the bourgeoisie over the appearance of public violence creates an environment of condemnation rather than praise towards any group that actually takes action in a meaningful way.

We’re out gunned, out surveilled, and out resourced. We could take action now, rather than later, and it would probably be easier on all of us, but the comfortable and privileged who sit on the top of normal society simply won’t stomach the realities of what needs to happen to create the large scale change we need, and without their support, we are too easy for the elites to pick off.

Nothing chills me more than the liberal glee over this election—as if we can vote our way out of this mess. Thomas Jefferson was right: the tree of liberty must be renewed by the blood of tyrants and patriots. The people are meant to hold a metaphorical gun to the head of power to keep them in line, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean just voting and hoping for the best.

If I recall correctly, Marx talks about the important role the children of the bourgeois must play in the revolution, as the folks in the position to both identify with the working class and also be listened to by the bourgeoisie. Our future could potentially come down to the ability of those people to radicalize their relatives, en masse.

The day there is a major protest that causes damage and the mainstream liberals cheer it on will be the day that the tides have any potential of turning.

Real question: wouldn’t this just cut us off from part of the globe, but the internet within America would continue to work? Seems like it would just make a national net instead of a global internet.

Ooh, ooh, I just went through this. You have to make sure to include the webhook in Nginx.

Both directions of an empire suck—the fall and the rise. Huge power shifts seem to bring suffering every time.

I work in healthcare. You can only trust yourself, period. You wouldn’t believe the things that doctors will say, even after completing medical school.

For instance: man lives a sober lifestyle and went to an island off the coast of South America for a party. He took two puffs off a joint while there, and has had abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea for three months since he’s been back. Sees a conservative doctor. The doctor tells him it must be cannabis hyper-emesis syndrome from the two puffs and doesn’t even test for any bacterial infection from the travel. Doctor totally ignores that you don’t get cannabis hyperemesis syndrome from two puffs off a joint one time in 20 years, and completely wastes the man’s time to guilt him about the devil’s lettuce. Man’s symptoms continue for many more months because he doesn’t see another doctor, and the one he’s seeing has already written him off as a dumb hippie.

The things I’ve seen in their notes defy even basic logic. It totally changed how I look at the patient/provider relationship. It absolutely has to be a collaborative cognitive effort to choose a care path, otherwise the patient could be putting all their trust in someone who is fundamentally unable to help them due to their own stupidity and bias.

If it’s that way for something as important as healthcare, I think it is that way for everything. You are the best advocate and caretaker for you. There’s nothing wrong with getting advice, but the decision to do something is totally yours. Trust is earned through interactions, not through fancy certifications.

Boy, I wish the modern world was easier, but if you don’t keep your guard up, there are legions of people ready to sell you some snake oil and pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

I get what you mean, things are awful and I don’t want to take away from that. You definitely have an argument that we are one of the worst things to happen in modern history, but we are also a relatively young country, and the horrors of history are vast. Just off the top of my head:

• The fall of Rome.
• When Vlad the Impaler impaled.
• The Crusades.
• The Napoleonic Wars.
• The Black Plague.
• WWII (as the deadliest conflict in human history).
• The Taiping Rebellion.
• The Spanish Flu.
• The Second Sino-Japanese War.
• The Congo Genocide.

America stands in a long line of powerful civilizations who have royally fucked things up for everybody.

I have mixed opinions on his stance towards AI.

I confess, I’m guilty. I’ve used AI to diagnose random issues with my little personal blog (please don’t hate me, I’m just a man without a degree). That said, I understood the simple code well enough to see what I was getting wrong and comprehend the AI generated suggestion, so it wasn’t all that different than looking things up on a wiki and implementing it. The primary difference, for me, was that I had already spent two weeks digging deeper and deeper for my answers, only finding outdated or incorrect information, and Claude delivered the correct answer in about 10 seconds.

In my opinion, the reason it was a good idea to implement the AI generated code was that I understood it. There was a human brain looking at that result and going “aha! I see what I was missing!” If I hadn’t understood what I was looking at, it could have been doing anything, and I wouldn’t have felt comfortable implementing it. If I hadn’t at least tried to the old fashioned way first, I wouldn’t have used it. But after weeks of hitting dead ends and with the knowledge that there was an extremely powerful tool that could give me my answer in seconds, it began to feel foolish to continue punishing myself with wasted time.

In Linus’ case, I think it is safe to say he understands enough about Linux to interpret the AI suggestions and be a safeguard against slop. I’m not too concerned about his contributions to the kernel if he’s using AI to think outside the box or diagnose a complicated problem.

But! There is a major risk factor when people start implementing code that they don’t understand, or when it is a crutch for their total lack of comprehension. Vibe coding and using a diagnostic tool are different things. I hope Linus gives some real thought to the realistic limits that need to be in place for people who aren’t knowledgeable enough to filter AI suggested code through their own brains, because it wouldn’t take long to destroy a reliable system like Linux if they incorporate AI generated code with no experienced human in the drivers seat.

Apologies to those who just fundamentally hate AI and think I’m a fool for using it, I just wanted to share my experience as an unschooled computer nerd who finally gave in and tried it out a couple of times.

Do we really want Jo Blow as the intermediary between the president and the press? Is that considered a positive?

Call me crazy, but I’d much rather see an academic or a respected journalist in that position, considering that their wording is paramount and transparency is currency. I’d like to know that Joe Blow has enough comprehension and integrity to be clearly understood.

I think George W. Bush is a great example of why “I’d have a beer with that person” is a terrible metric for political positions.

I think it depends a little on what you mean by legalization.

Decriminalization, as far as I’m aware, is all that has been seriously tried for hard drugs. That leaves the illegal industry in tact, and continues all the issues that can come with it. I am 100% behind the legalization of drugs, I just think that the real societal improvement comes with increased healthcare availability for addicts, such as needle exchanges, purity testing, and addiction recovery services.

Fully legalizing hard drugs comes with its own minefield, too. Cigarettes are powerfully addictive, and companies have exploited their legal status to make them ubiquitous. They intentionally market them to children and use product placement to ensure that smoking is seen as “cool”. I can only imagine how things would go if companies like that were in the methamphetamine business.

And to an extent, they are. I am part of the generation that was pumped full of Ritalin to “fix” attention issues in children, and many of those kids have experienced a continuation of the addictive behavior that was introduced to them in a doctors office. The intersection of capitalism and biochemical addiction is a gross industry of exploitation.

I am a recovering heroin addict (17 years clean), so I am no stranger to the problems of addiction, enforcement, and healthcare. I definitely believe that removing the prohibition on drugs is the first place to start if we want to improve the problem. I just also know how fundamentally powerful hard drugs can be, and without an accessible off ramp for addiction as well as available materials to stay safe while you’re addicted, the life problems that come with drug abuse are likely to continue in one form or another.

The P365 is my 9mm. I love shooting that little thing. It is surprisingly accurate for its small size, and it is so comfortable to carry with its thin frame.

Hi fellow Texan!

You are totally right—my example was only based on the part of Texas I live in. The reaction in Austin or Dallas would be different than it is in more rural areas.

I honestly think there are very few reasons people should open carry. I’ve done so when I’ve been mostly in the wilderness and occasionally for a short stop at a business where it’s tolerated on the way, so the context in that moment is different than it would be in the middle of the city.

Concealed can be done comfortably pretty easily, and is much safer for many reasons. If you choose to carry, safety, legality, and context are of paramount importance.