What a great use of my tax dollars.

I could be full of it… but I think that’s because those rounds are intended to travel below the sonic boom threshold resulting in less noise when using a suppressor.

Ha I don’t even know what that is so I will never say it.

I code but I found it to have quite a learning curve.

Maybe the first step is to develop a “how to use git for improving documentation on a FOSS project” lol

So by letting a company keep their monopoly due to federally subsidized patent thus harming citizens but helping the company is… less neolib?

Whatever it is, it seems shittier than making a move to fuck a company – if it results in reduced drug prices anyway.

ACAB

“why do you hate me?”

This sounds familiar. It was the first thing I got treatment for along with depression.

I was always on edge for things I forgot or bad things that might happen. Even small day to day things. Along with the anxiousness / fear I felt all the time. Started leaning towards turning into the paranoid prepper type at one point.

Cybersecurity was a natural fit as a career lol.

Once I got on medication, the feeling of fear or anxiety basically vanished. And the depression was more under control. I’m still good at cybersec though. I have had a lot of practice thinking about what can go wrong. I just don’t freak out over it anymore.

Later I was diagnosed with ADHD. I don’t know if or how that played in. My unscientific pet theory is that constantly screwing up may have heightened my fear of screwing up. But idk how it explains fearing numerous potential adverse scenarios.

Anyway I am more calm and level headed than ever most of the time. I do still anticipate various reasonable outcomes. But I don’t freak or go overboard or focus on the scariest thing.

Law and order is usually a dog whistle for “oppress the other”

Not the best one by any means, but probably to some degree.

Of course. The comment was probably directed to the bots telling us we are genocidal if we don’t vote third party (thereby allowing Trump to take over and oh by the way nuke Gaza or whatever)

We don’t need a Fox “news” equivalent for Democrats that pumps out propaganda (your term used above) and traps Democrats into an echo chamber.

I mean we already have some fairly biased left leaning news outlets. Nothing like Fox or OANN or Breitbart.

Still, I would like to get rid of heavily biased propaganda outlets because – yes – they basically brainwash their listers with various techniques.

So their argument is that they can’t make enough money on their government subsidized drug development. Yeah ok, corpos, get fucked.

I guess you missed a lot of the “conversations” I’ve seen then lol. That’s good. Frequent stress isn’t good for the blood pressure.

I’m not sure brainwashing is the right way to go here idk 🤔

It’s also possible they are not legally allowed to vote in the US for one or another reason…

No disagreements here. I am kind of shocked by this very non neolib behavior—the above as well as well as being the first sitting president to join the UAW picket line. I was a bit miffed about the train strike, though. But his administration lobbied the companies and got them their sick days they’ve been fighting for, for ages. Really didn’t expect any of that.

Omg Lisp. I’m dying. Our object oriented programming class in college involved programming in Scheme. This was… a while ago.

Saving this forever.

I appreciate that you are willing to engage on the topic respectfully. And you ask good questions.

I have spent some time pondering the choice of veganism vs meat eating vs vegetarianism in the past.

I agree it is important to examine one’s emotional reactions. That is how, ultimately, I left behind religion. And that experience is what colors my view and provides the answer to my reaction.

To wit, one of the (many) things that I chafed against was people dictating to me what my morality must be as if they are the final arbiters of absolute morality. It is one thing to disagree, to share your own morality, to state your beliefs. To state what the other person must believe, that is what I find annoying.

It’s an interesting topic because one then has to ask, what is the difference between this and me arguing with a bigot? I believe very strongly that people are all on equal footing and of equal regardless of skin color, ethnicity, gender identity / expression, etc.

So how do I engage with racists…and why? E.g., Is it to change their minds? I mean that would be nice. But really it is to make certain their viewpoint never goes unchallenged.

And if I am morally reprehensible to a vegan, does that give them the right to challenge me? Yes. Does it give them the right to tell me what my morality must be? Hmm. If yes then I have the right to tell bigots what their morality must be too and I haven’t grounds for complaint if someone does this to me. If no, then I may need to engage differently with bigots.

Now I could argue “but I am right about bigotry” and “being omnivorous isn’t actually wrong” … But that’s from my perspective. I’m trying to step out of my belief system to look at this.

It isn’t the scientific facts that are an issue; I am aware of them and don’t dispute them. I have no qualms about reducing or eliminating most of the meat industry based on its environmental impacts. And I do wish to reduce my meat consumption on those grounds, not on moral grounds.

I think our ancestors also hunted large game which is why we evolved to be endurance hunters. Not that we are bound so tightly to our evolutionary as all that. But still.

I support vegans and respect their decisions, I just have little interest in being one myself.

Although when I buy leather products (belts shoes) I tend to buy ones that last decades. So there’s that. And yeah I try to reduce meat consumption and I strive to do better.