Not this quarter it isn’t! (Until it suddenly is.)

You may just be having trouble with the idea that people can reasonably and seriously see the world from a point of view other than your own.

Or it’s all a bit!

Who can say? No matter how I answer it’s not really evidence, you can draw a 2x2 decision matrix here for both answers and both possibilities. All four outcomes are plausible. Choose the answer that makes you happiest.

People make real friends online. Who they don’t know in person. You’d be telling your child to toughen up and get new friends.

I know this is a bit of an extreme example. Leaving an abusive spouse leads to suicides. You can’t blanket assign responsibility in all cases. It needs to be reasonable.

In cases of targeted harassment, sure. I think cases like that have gone to trial.

But if seeing someone walk into a book signing by a woman with regressive views on trans related stuff tips someone over the edge to suicide I don’t feel that’s reasonably assignable blame. Seeing J.K.Rowling succeed is such a minor thing compared to the child raping cannibal cults we have running things. It just does not even register.

Calls to violence are outright crimes where I live, whether any violence occurs or not. I think you might get a lighter sentence if nothing happens, not sure. Just like you don’t get off with no charges if you shoot at someone and miss.

If I included a self destruct button beside the AC controls and claimed that it was driver error that was the problem, how credible would that be?

Speech equivalent to murder? Well calls to violence, or criminal conspiracy are crimes. But that’s kind of a cop-out because they lead to eventual killing via non-speech means.

Actual murder via speech would be… stuff like shouting fire in a crowded movie theater. (This is also already a crime.)

Thanks, stranger. I hope you live and are happy even if we someday come to disagree on some things. You are more important to me than almost any disagreement.

Bad drivers and shitty “self driving” are how the cars are unsafe.

No matter how it happens if they crash more often or have worse outcomes when they do, then they’re less safe.

I personally feel that it’s perfectly fine to boycott problematic figures. Speech has real effects and should be treated like it.

But once you accept the equivalence of speech/reading and violence you can start choosing to regulate speech/reading as violence, or free up violence as speech. I don’t think either is a great idea. Do you think that any of you have never said something hurtful to others? Should you be jailed for it?

I await all the civil and non-hurtful replies from peaceful and sympathetic people I am likely to garner for this stance.

… Why would I care if they miss me?

Why would I care about their opinions at all? I’m pretty sure we care about each other’s opinions about equally as is.

I think they’re being disingenuous, because the government has been spying on all of us via end runs around the rules like “five eyes” for decades. If they want to go all CIA on you they just ask an ally to do it, then return the favor and spy on the people of other governments for them. All legal and above board, it’s just “intelligence sharing”.

And the NSA isn’t even barred from monitoring you in the fist place.

I think it’s somewhat naive to assume anything isn’t being spied on by the NSA. They don’t have a history of being picky.

No means no, Microsoft.

If you’re looking into that, it might be worth considering some of the Android portable like the AYN Thor.

While they are usually focused on console emulation, on the more powerful units you can run older windows titles on them via emulation as well as any native android stuff you feel like running. The battery life of anything ARM beats the hell out of anything x86. There are also form factors available worlds better than the Legion or Steamdeck if you actually want something you can carry around in a pocket.

The aforementioned AYN Thor is about the size and form factor of a 3DS and retails for $250 for the cheapest model. So if you’re looking for something to tide you over until you can get a full gaming PC/Gabecube/Steamdeck 2, it might be better “half measure” than a Legion or Steamdeck.

I think trying to make a dish that’s going to please more than 75% of the population is all fine and good, but I think as long as most people like it you’re fine.

Well, it’s nuanced for one thing.

The USA has a violence issue, and legal civilian gun ownership is at most an exacerbating factor. The current regulatory climate towards guns likely causes the most harm in accidents and suicides. But it certainly causes some harm.

Criminals are using illegally sourced guns already, so bans will have no effect there.

Firearms safety courses before you get a license and access to mental health services would be far more effective than yet another weapons ban and more politically palatable to the population. But that doesn’t make for a good wedge issue to rally the faithful behind.

Or an actual social safety net and a living wage, because violence is far more strongly correlated with poverty and income inequality.

Do you care that people are dead, or that guns were used to kill them? Is it okay to do mass murder by bomb or truck?

If you care about deaths, then you make a chart about deaths. If you care about guns, you make a chart about guns.

This is a chart about guns.

Do you really think that dismissively talking down to people telling them they’re delusional is the best way or even a way to win hearts and minds?

I think it’s lying to try to get people to do a good thing.

Deception destroys credibility.

And it makes fun of people who disagree with it.

It alienates, not converts.