Funniest comment I’ve read in a pretty long time, props.

He specifically withheld an order of cluster munitions over concerns the Israelis were using them improperly, well after the invasion was underway.

Not too different from Biden withholding the bomb shipments over Rafah.

Don’t underestimate the power of shitposting.

That said, the Fediverse products are still behind in features, polish and ease-of-use. The mainstream prizes these surface-level things more than any others. It will take years of development still to fully catch up in that regard. So, it’s the long-haul.

How about Venice?

I read it as scenery. Probably because the thread is about travel.

There’s a principle in alcoholics support groups called “fake it til you make it”.

Fake is a sort of meaningless word. You are the sum of your own choices, throughout your life. There is no such thing as some sort of “true” you that is inherent and unchangeable, all of your attitudes, emotions, likes/dislikes are like clothes you wear. They can be changed with a pattern of choices that fall under your overarching will.

It’s not easy, though, not by a long shot. So, one technique is to fake it til you make it. Pretend at first, fake whatever trait you are trying to establish. You’ll find over time your willpower turns that into the new “true you”. You can change various aspects of yourself, it’s all under your power.

It’s a hell of a steep hill to climb alone though, so you might want some help along the way. Addiction support groups serve this purpose for people trying to get past their addictions. You might need some pharmaceutical assistance though, if you have a chronic problem, so a doctor might be a wise move.

Ah, LinkedIn, exactly where I want to get nuanced answers to weird questions from.

I don’t know, I was too busy playing Starcraft.

edit: Wait, hold on, just remembered something. I’ll just leave this here. Not a rickroll or anything, while that’s tempting, I promise.

https://youtu.be/X2UXIaAo12w

Might consider it, if it’d actually help. We know what a “race to the bottom” is though, and that you can become the thing you hate if you aren’t careful. It sucks being loyal to responsible methods and long-term health sometimes.

They can’t. It would immediately run afoul of 1st amendment court challenges on top of appearing partisan, making them look bad on top of probably getting struck down.

We can’t escape the 1st amendment protecting the right to lie, outside of a handful of exceptions. The current SC is unlikely to side with us to acknowledge another exception in the current climate, with conservatives outnumbering us 6-3.

This one cannot be tackled by the government, we have to beat it grassroots and private sector. There are no other realistic options that I’ve heard floated anywhere.

It’s a little sad how far they have to go just to distract from the basic fact that a person can choose to deliver something however they want. A quiet person can yell or a loud person can whisper, it’s really not that hard.

They’re really desperate not to lose their Sleepy Joe attack point though. I suppose the real sad part is how some people will fall for it.

If they didn’t want them, they could just ask them to leave. If the leader disagreed, the people could vote for a different leader.

The Green Berets are the army’s spec ops that focus on training foreign fighters, specially chosen for things like foreign language proficiency. They’re not Rangers or general light infantry. Ideally they’re not really supposed to get into direct combat, as they’re rather time consuming and difficult to replace.

I would bet a whole bunch of money that we actually do have Green Berets present in Ukraine as well, though the only people that would know that for sure would be the US govt, the Ukrainians and probably Russian intelligence.

If the 101st Airborne gets deployed to Taiwan, then I’d be worried.

Going for a walk can sometimes scratch that itch. Instead of checking the news of a national or global scale, which you can’t ultimately do a lot about anyway, you’re checking “the news” of your immediate environment with your own eyeballs. It usually doesn’t change a lot, but what else is new?

I mainly see space exploration as an end itself as opposed to being “for” anything. It’s not so much a place to live and colonize, but something to further explore. No matter how bad the Earth gets, it’s going to be nicer than any of the other solar bodies, which are already pretty terrible for human habitation in pretty much every way.

Main advantage of a moonbase or orbital base would be cost and accessibility. It’s a lot easier to launch from the moon, if we did some of our construction and industry there. A lot of which could be automated eventually, you wouldn’t need a whole population there. More an outpost than a colony.

I’m sure colonies would appear eventually, but not in our lifetimes. But simply trying to put anything substantial up there would drive further advancements in the field.

Sure, if you want to spread the credit around, that’s fine. Just don’t try to exclude anyone specific just because they’re a bad person. Afaik progress has been steady with the re-useable rockets, there’s been a steady pace of launch attempts. I don’t really follow it closely though.

Creating the demand still gets you partial credit. He does not need to own a battery factory. Regarding rocketry, if it were that easy we’d have done it long ago. It’s an iterative technology, where versions come out that improve on previous models. This is something he actually is leading in, last I knew.

Credit where credit is due, he does deserve some where it is fair to give. All people deserve nuanced acknowledgement of any positives they have helped along, regardless of the balance of their actions.

I’m willing to give him credit where credit is due. I am not willing to simply give him the benefit of any doubts though.

He does deserve credit for speeding innovation in the electric vehicle arena, no question. Battery technology was also pushed forward by this. You cannot say it wasn’t inevitable simply because entrenched interests were resisting though. This implies that A: big companies cannot change, and B: no other individuals were ever going to make a play with a new company. This is giving him the benefit of doubt. This positive is also colored by the fact that electric vehicles are a good and important step, but not really a solution to anything. You have to be careful that your electricity generation is clean, otherwise you simply move emissions from the tailpipe to the power plant.

Similarly, I do give him credit for spurring advances in re-useable rocketry. A Mars base, however, is a pretty terrible idea that is still many decades away from even the planning phase. A Moonbase or an orbital base, now that’s a better idea. I would go into why, but many, many people have already done this, and it’s a long, science-filled discussion.

These things granted, they do not exist in a vacuum. I also weigh them against any negatives Musk creates for the world. His gigafactory in Shanghai, his purchasing of twitter, his support for strongmen, pushing pro-Russian narratives etc.

When this weighing is done with as much neutrality and objectivity as I can, personally I find him wanting. On top of this, having formerly been a very big fan of his, this strikes as a betrayal. He used to be a positive impact on the world, but in the final balance, is no longer. I don’t quite hate him, but I am certainly no fan any more.

If you want to see things accurately, try to avoid bias both for, and against. Nobody actually deserves benefit of doubt. Make sure you understand the arguments both sides put forward. Then you can weigh. While we can never be perfectly objective and know all the factors, this will at least get a person closer to actual fairness.

When I personally do all this, I arrive at Elon simply being a major corporation, no different from the rest of them. Mainly resting on a bed of marketing bullshit. I treat him as such.

Very weak article, giving him credit as a free speech absolutist. Is he really, or does he ban people that attack him? Alludes to us having self-driving due to his innovations. Really? Other automakers seem neck and neck with him, with Mercedes having passed a major milestone before him, quite recently.

Does he really have hyperloops to dream up and Mars colonies to plan, or is that just marketing drivel to appeal to certain types?

This is almost fanboying in disguise. If you simply read it through the lens of being pro-racism, it’s suddenly a praise piece.

edit: Oh, and it doesn’t even try to answer the question it asks in its own headline.

Not a big fan.

Frankly though I think Snowden gets way too much credit. Anyone with any sense that looked at the Patriot Act knew what was going to happen, and people were raising alarm from the beginning. He just confirmed what already should have been very obvious.