I did not mean to imply any moral equivalence between Iran and the USA.

Iran is a genocidal apocalyptic religious autocracy. It is dangerous to modern civilization. The USA is (at present though less so recently) a liberal pluralistic Democracy, where the excesses of one person or group tend to get moderated.

They are not the same.

Yes, that is exactly what this is.

It is simultaneously true that:

• The USA has been the global hegemon for almost a century. During this time it has committed serious crimes and needlessly caused many civilian deaths in pursuit of its political goals. To make matters worse, the current US President is overtly antidemocratic and credibly threatening allies and enemies alike.

AND

• The regime in Iran is overtly theocratic – and therefore fundamentally disconnected from reality. Its leaders, their media, and as such some of society at large has a Blame-Everyone-Else mentality that MAGA would find extreme. They honestly, truly, deeply believe that God will relieve their suffering only if they can kill all the evil Jews in the Holy Land, and restore the Just rule of Islam (which they happen to speak for). And nukes is the only realistic way they can do that.

Trump says that the UK is “very well protected”. You know why? Because I like them," Trump said, and Starmer laughed.

Ah… the Whoever The King Likes doctrine of international relations

The murder-to-save-babies community is entirely faith-based

Despite having nuclear weapons and not being a party to the NPT, Israel has never threatened to use them.

Unlike Iran and most of its neighbors which threaten to destroy Israel every chance they get.

Illegal, maybe. But… Unjustified? Maybe the author is unaware of Isreal’s recent divulgence of Iran’s plan to sprint for a nuke while its militant religious zealots in Hamas and Hizbullah are hobbled? Or how openly the mullahs state that they will use it?

matrix

IMO getting Matrix’s UI to work like apps people are familiar with is an order of magnitude less effort than any other option, and possibly an order of magnitude better than other options in terms of meeting the design goal of private messaging.

OTOH I don’t make UI’s 🤪

I’ve been in Signal chats with Tulsi Gabbard’s staff.

And no ofc it’s not that impressive. They used the app during the Dem Primary campaign trail so all the campaign volunteers used it to coordinate.

Back then I thought she would be a charismatic Dem that could win against Trump – when none of the Dems (esp. not Biden IMO) seemed to have a chance.

Back then she was inclusive with her political rhetoric. She was the only candidate on either side whose primary message was:

Respect the other side as people, and try to understand their point of view

OMFG I wish I’d hear that from politicians more often. Or ever.

Please forgive me. I was like 9 years younger back then and Tulsi hadn’t gone MAGA.

Spectating can be fun but the real enjoyment comes from being an active player

The only crypto worthy of the name

An easy peertube + Ghost spin for content providers could probably be a viable business model

“Atheists” who make themselves, or the State, a swap-in replacement for God(s) are not much different from purely religious authorities who abuse their positions. It is apparently a common kind of power-seeking Dark Trait.

The Leviathan theory of the state – the Motherland who is greater than us, who we would die for as cells die to preserve the body, and whose Exegeses come from the Great Leader/Supreme Council/President for Life.

It’s exactly the same play on faith and credulity and servility that religions use.

Bingo.

I have way more respect for ravers at Burning Man who OD on Ecstasy while dancing naked and copulating for 14 hours straight.

At least they enjoyed their completely unproductive dalliance

Atheists don’t need to disprove theists any more than they need to disprove Leprechauns. The burden of proof is on the one making the positive assertion.

Geez Donald wouldn’t it be awesome to have kickass fighters like that on our side?!?

May I introduce your barbaric uncivilized ass to the ideas of “voting” and “education”

However it divides up, I want to be on the side that has scientists and vaccines

I’d echo this. Syncthing is widely used because it Just Works in so many weird situations. So if it is Not Working, swapping out Syncthing might actually make the problem harder to solve.

People who care about privacy use Monero specifically

It plays to his anti-intellectual base: “See? We are finally pw0ning those effete libs and putting the money into the trades.”

(You know you could put a lot of people through trade school for the cost of one big military parade, and not have to give up f’ing cancer research)