Can’t disagree with anything you said. You’re a hero for watching the Joe Rogan interview, I cannot listen to Trump for more than 5 minutes at a time, it breaks my brain trying to parse what he’s actually saying instead of treating it like some sort of Rorshach test.

I will say he gets the vibes. The US economy is doing pretty well. They’ve done better on inflation than any other OECD country that I’m aware of, their economy is growing, unemployment is low. But… it feels bad. It feels bad for too many people just trying to pay the rent and put food on the table. Is it because too much of that wealth has accrued in the pockets of the wealthy? Maybe, but paying more for a place to live and more for dinner tonight have a visceral reality that talk of housing starts doesn’t.

We’re in a similar position in Canada. I would actually point to the Daycare program as one of the most significant programs that’s helped working class families in years, but I also don’t think it matters really, because I don’t know how well the LPC ahs captured the “vibes” of it.

Domestically, they made their bed, they can sleep in it. Yeah, I feel sorry for a lot of Americans, who will certainly suffer but then I also feel sorry for lots of people around the world who are suffering. In the US, they have a democracy, even if flawed and imperfect. At the end of the day, this was the will of the people. Maybe not so much that they wanted Trump (many certainly do) but rather enough people weren’t bothered enough to care.

Unfortunately, this is a central Russian propaganda aim in democracies. Why bother voting? Politicians are all crooks. Mainstream media is all lies. Just give up, don’t engage, just… surrender. Why even try? It’s found fertile ground in an increasingly disillusioned public, and you don’t need to convince everyone to sit out the election, just enough.

Not to stress you out, but have you considered a Trump dynasty? What if Trump endorsed one of his children? This could go on long past this Presidency without even amending the constitution.

The Trudeau administration weathered the first Trump presidency pretty well. This time, I don’t know. PP and the CPC seem to be ascendant, and it’s only a matter of time before a Federal election, and then what?

It’s disheartening to admit, but despite plenty of warning I’m not confident that the other liberal democracies are well prepared to handle this second Trump administration. It won’t be all bad I’m sure, and there has been moves towards resilience and autonomy, but I fear it just hasn’t been that effective.

To take one clear example, NATO and Ukraine. From a pure Realpolitik position, sending old US military equipment to Ukraine is probably the single best ROI you could get for US military expenses. It’s unclear how things will shake out under Trump, but considering what associations were uncovered around Stone, Manafort, and Bannon, I’m not real confident on Trump’s abilities here. Sure, NATO defence spending overall and as % of GDP has climbed dramatically since 2022, but despite more Euros in the Bundeswehr budget, there isn’t much more ammo in the cupboard yet. Once Russia is done with Ukraine, Georgia, perhaps the Baltics, Poland, who knows will be next. The longer Russia is bogged down in Ukraine and the more degraded Russia is by the war, the better for everyone around Russia.

Combine this a likely tariff spree and trade war with China, we are likely going to be entering a time of fragile supply chains, back to inflation, decoupling from the US as an unreliable partner, and I don’t really know what else.

The success of Trump in this last election probably means that Trumpism will be a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future, with history remembering Biden as the last gasp of “normal” political administration. The next President of the US will likely be a Trump appointee or part of a Trump dynasty (maybe the first female US President… Ivanka?)

Canada will have to not just manage Softwood Lumber, renegotiating NAFTA, and salvaging the TPP, but also trying to fill a void left by US withdrawal and diminishment. I don’t think Trudeau is strong enough domestically to be able to focus on an 8+ year plan, and I don’t trust PP to have any capacity to even have a plan. Although Maybe Pierre Poilievre will have a snappy slogan.

Maybe that is the best play for Canada here, have Poilievre bend the knee and commit to flattering Trump. A new Trump Tower in Vancouver would be a small price to pay.

I think if we had a fresh-faced Trudeau without any baggage, there is a path that Canada is suited for to navigate these coming troubled waters, and I commend him for getting the ball rolling, but I’m just not confident it will play out as well this time.

I should know how this effects me, but I really don’t…

It’s an interesting technology, a solution in search of a problem.

I remember reading the insert for this back in the day included in my Civilization box or something. Was interested in getting it, but I think I picked up Betrayal at Krondor or Ultima Underworld instead.

I guess now it’s time to revisit it.

Have a Lemmy gold: 🥇 !

This, to my mind, is the one biggest benefit of GoG. No separate launcher/front-end/DRM needed.

On the topic of launchers though, I’m a big fan of Heroic Launcher (for Linux at least). Can hook it into GoG, Epic, and Amazon.

Doesn’t pay the mortgage, my man.

Although I would pay a single cent, but I also grew up on a farm, and know hunters… so I’m not exactly PETA material. I do hate wasting meat, a creature died so that I may eat, and one day we all shall be food for others (classic worm meat). Still, the sheer scale of industrial agriculture when it comes to the meat industry is staggering.

Overall though, we are all cogs in this machine, and we need to recognize the levers and control inputs of this machine and use them. Just like “carbon footprint”, good feelings for consumers is something that can be sold at a premium. This is why I reject the premise of your question. I shouldn’t have to pay an extra cent to reduce suffering, We should structure our markets so that there is less suffering.

This concept is one of the reason why meat substitutes probably aren’t widespread, because by using it as some virtue signal it is able to be sold at a premium. Beyond Meat and Impossible burgers should be cheaper because the fundamental inputs are cheaper and we haven’t skewed the market to make them more expensive.

I don’t disagree. If there were agricultural subsidies that let me eat more delicious hamburgers for less money, and those delicious burgers just happened to be plant based, I’d be happy eating more burgers for less bucks.

The specifics are beyond me though, and there are already so many agricultural subsidies targeting so many different products.

Colloquially referred to as “Tankies”. America = Bad, therefore Not America = Good mostly sums up Tankie takes, but more properly Tankies is a pejorative for authoritarian communists, usually apologists for China and the CCP nowadays. IIRC originally it referred to communist parties in Western countries that excused Soviet actions during the Prague Spring and such, although I’d say that is an obsolete term.

Glad to hear Gog is partnering with Heroic. Heroic is pretty slick, and only getting slicker. Shame to waste effort, and much better than forking and not contributing to upstream.

Perun does do great videos. The Canada one he just did stings a bit though. All truth though.

You’re absolutely right. Next time someone says DST exists “because farmers”, point out that they don’t milk cows and hour earlier or later based on the clock on the wall.

Also, in seasonal “touristy” towns, lots of shops have seasonal hours. We don’t need to muck around with the clocks on the walls (and all the devices with internal clocks) for everyone because we want to start school or office hours earlier or later. Just have seasonal hours for businesses that care.

They also have a delicious Masala burger they introduced for a limited time.

I am not vegetarian or vegan, but will happily sub a Beyond/Impossible patty for a meat patty, I just resent it when that’s an upcharge (I have a whole rant on that).

The Masala burger is not a meat substitute patty, it’s a vegetable patty that doesn’t pretend to be anything else. I think it also has paneer and other toppings. It’s delicious, it’s a decent size, and it’s $6.

As someone who will happily eat a meat burger. The Masala burger is just a plain good burger that happens to be vegetarian (maybe Vegan).

I would happily eat an Impossible Burger or Beyond Burger, they’re pretty decent burgers! I’m also a cheapskate, and don’t like paying extra for essentially the same thing.

Considering that the inherent resources it takes to make a meat patty are in theory greater than resources it takes to make a vegetable based patty, why am I expected to pay a premium for the vegetable based patty?

There are some factors such as scaling and capital costs, but fundamentally, I think they charge more the vegetable based patties because it’s some sort of “virtue”. Be that as it may, virtue doesn’t pay my mortgage.

If vegetable based patties were even 10¢ cheaper than an equivalent meat patty, I’m thinking they’d be much much more popular. Times are tough, people got to pay rent, these Impossible Meat/Beyond Meat burgers are delicious, and less resource intensive. Let’s get this sorted! Do we really need some government interference in the market?

The connection would be secondary. In FPTP, the blue team and red team play for “all the marbles”, so more divisive language and negative campaigning are effective. In RCV/AV systems, being second choice on lots of ballots is a valid tactic, so in theory less negative campaigning.

Although this effect is likely as described, I can’t help to think that in recent years the divisive effects of social media have far outweighed it.

I’ll also point out that RCV/AV eliminated the spoiler effect. It also can lead to a “gateway voting system” to STV, which is probably my favourite.

IMO, FPTP << RCV/AV/IRV << MMP < STV.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar is considered a classic, but it’s been 20+ years since I read it. I’m curious how well it holds up.

I was trying to recall some points from C&B and I realized I was muddling much of it up with The Hacker Ethic by Pekka Himanen from the same era, so apparently that made an impression as well.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting by “Values of the Fediverse”, but I was pleasantly surprised! It focuses on what over the decades seem to be the core values of Open Source software movements, such as openness, independence, and freedom to use the software how you choose to use it. Just applied to the concept of social media. Which makes sense.

My main home account is on Lemmy.ca not Lemmy.ml ( or another Lemmy instance) because that is how I’ve chosen to associate, and I can. And I could spin up my own instance, and federate or de-federate with whomever I choose.

This isn’t a novel concept, OpenSource.com has a page on “The Open Source Way” which espouses transparency, collaboration, “Release early and often”, inclusive meritocracy, and community. I remember reading “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” back in the day, and Eric Raymond seemed to extrapolate several values or principle from the open source model.

The free software movement does implicitly have positions on “political” topics. Right to repair, DRM, and privacy come to mind immediately. These shouldn’t be seen as being “Left” or “Right”,

I’ve been complaining about printer support. It’s pretty much the last piece of the puzzle for a school focused SD.

Thanks to KDE on the SD, I’ve switched my main DE on my desktop. Still have a soft spot for XFCE, but KDE Plasma on the SD was polished and was very “coherent”.

One thing the SD is missing for being a complete “serious” computer is printing support. I’m sure I could it installed, the SD is eminently hackable, but a Flatpak solution or a Steam default solution would really justify using a SD in Desktop mode for school and work.