Do you use this for physical machines too?

Calories are expensive, and I’m not made of money.

For me, it’s a matter of restoring the convenience and UX that you’ve given up by leaving the big providers.

Truth teller: “He’ll point you towards the door that leads to certain death”

I don’t bother with the quality of the lock because I recognize the door itself as the weak point.

I made about 60k when I started working as a dev. At the rate I saved back then, I’d be well in millionaire territory within about 10 years had I not left it for grad school.

On this particular issue, yes. But I think they’re talking about other things that the Democratic party supports but that are bad for their constituents.

no legal way

Unicode standards don’t say anything about the font.

I should have added “Scientific consensus”

I don’t think that changes anything. For example, I’m not a nutrition expert, but it’s an area I’m very interested in and I consider myself reasonably well read on the subject. I still have no idea what the scientific consensus is on anything in the field, especially when so many papers end with “we know jack shit about this, but at least this study moves us forward a little bit”.

If you don’t have knowledge, and don’t know where to start, then it’s not your place to convince someone else

I’m talking about areas in which I do have the knowledge. It’s not a reasonable expectation for someone else to go through the same process that I did to gain all that knowledge. I can scream “CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL BECAUSE LOOK AT THESE EXPERTS” as much as I want, but the other party will still have no way to verify my claims, or that these experts are actual experts and not some cherry-picked scientists.

go where the consensus is

I’m pretty sure that’s what most people are doing already. If everyone around you says climate change is a hoax, then that sure sounds like a consensus.

This is one of those questions that keeps nagging at me. I have the resources to actually go and learn about things and build a sufficiently large world model to filter out a lot of BS. But in areas that I’m less well versed in and that aren’t covered by my world model, I realize that I have no idea who the experts are or how to find the consensus without doing tons of reading. If I’ve read enough to determine the consensus position, then I’ll have absorbed enough of the material that I can be considered somewhat of an expert myself. So how can I possibly convince someone else without making them go through that whole process themselves? You probably don’t have an answer to this, but any ideas are welcome too if you happen to have any to share.

Then listen to the experts

You say that like it’s trivial. How does one determine who the experts are without sufficient knowledge in the area to begin with?

Due process would be nice, but it doesn’t seem to be a thing in the US anymore for anyone leaning right.

how much of a chance

A non-zero chance. If you have a better idea, I’m all ears. The only alternative I’m hearing is to give up, and that guarantees your chances to be zero.

You know it’s more difficult to go to two different protest events on the few days, you just don’t support the things that are necessary to enact change because you are a good serf.

Protesting is just one of many ways of building the movement. A protest tells you that there are others ready to take action. It creates conversation and an opening to talk to the people around you about it. Being at the protests is always good, but it’s not the only way to help a movement.

I’m not sure if I understood what you were saying. Regardless, I think my response makes sense for at least two possible interpretations of it.

So we can organize under the Neoliberals or get fucked…

It’s not one or the other. You can organize independently of the neoliberals.

As individuals, I think the best course of action is to build a movement behind a common goal. Talk to the people around you. Talk to people online. Break up infighting and bring people together on their common grounds. When the movement becomes big enough, then everyone rebels simultaneously. One person rebelling is one life thrown away for no gains and one less person in the movement. Everyone rebelling together is what leads to real change.

Are there any organizations taking direct action?

That’s you. Organize and talk to others. You will eventually find others also organizing towards the same goal. Merge your efforts and you have a larger organization. Rinse and repeat.

Doesn’t sound too different from the parliamentary system we have in Canada, except we divide things much more finely than into 4 quadrants.

Basically, we’re divided into “ridings” that can be a small section of a city if you’re in a dense city or multiple towns where population is sparse. Each riding votes in someone as a member of Parliament (MP). The MPs then select someone to be the figurehead that represents us (i.e. the prime minister).

The issue is mainly coordination. One person acting is going to accomplish nothing while guaranteeing that this one person loses everything. Everyone needs to act at the same time. We need a leader to start a movement that everyone can get behind.

“The best programmers are lazy” does not imply that the lazy are the best programmers. I think it’s still true with the existence of vibe coding.