Ah good. Now I know what specs not to buy.

One thing about the pre-Internet times I don’t hear much about is how much more centralised our media were and how, as a result, people or ideas on the fringe of society didn’t get much attention. That includes for instance how the strange ideas about vaccines or ethnic groups now spread much easier than they did before the Internet, but also how trans* people and other marginalised groups find it much easier to find and support each other and be a united front against oppression.

In summary, I don’t thing that what has been termed “the great awokening”, nor the organised opposition against it, could have taken place before the Internet. At least not at this scale.

Sadly Microsoft didn’t specify where on the keyboard the key has to be.

In order to find out, hit the keyboard with your head; wherever your forehead touches the keyboard first is where the key is supposed to be.

Yeah, I deserve that. I’m just gonna leave my typo. Thanks for the laugh!

1024 = 2¹⁰

FYFY

The tweet wasn’t easily available on nitter (it wasn’t being highlighted).

It just so happened to be the canonical source for this piece of information. And it wasn’t being run by an antisemite at the time the linked tweet was being written.

Exactly. The good kind of failure.

Hyperloop was always a project to sabotage high-speed rail. Good thing it failed.

That sounds like uncontrolled dosages of Desoxyn.

Oh hey, how about Madagascar?

“Clearly these numbers have a ritual purpose”

Seeing as they melt the stuff, I’m not sure the grains need to be rounded.

The problem for chipmakers is not the sourcing of materials itself, but the purity of the sourced material. So don’t worry about public beaches disappearing into Intel’s hopper-feeder.

Talk to an avarage Portuguese or Dutch about colonialism… see how much they “regret” or “accept the blame” for the shit they did.

Dutch here. Yeah, nah, we don’t. Maybe some lip service is being made towards the descendants of enslaved peoples in Surinam, but otherwise not really.

When I was young the period when the Dutch VOC flowered was taught as having been a really good thing, something that we could be proud of; the fact that this was accompanied by more than one episode of mass murder was entirely glossed over. I’m pretty sure it’s still mostly like that.

what does it mean that europeans consider NGOs to be undemocratic?

An NGO has its own policies and its own governance, which may or may not align with the wishes of the wider populace (for instance, a religious NGO in a secular society, or an NGO treating particular groups preferentially). A majority disagreeing with the policies of that NGO would achieve nothing, whereas with a governmental body they could exert democratic control.

if your ancestry is from belgium/north france then you would be belgian/french with dutch nationality.

Why? Good grief, do you have any idea how complicated that would be? Secondly, I don’t identify with that ethnicity you’re foisting upon me at all!

I suppose when we refer to France we mean French before the 19th century immigration.

Why? As I said: France was always a mixture of ethnicities, the 19th century didn’t change anything other than the skin colour of some of the French citizens (or is that what you’re hinting at?).

For me personally, someone being Dutch is based more on their attitude towards the Netherlands and other Dutch people: anyone who is loath to run into other Dutch people when abroad and who loves to complain about specific stupid policies of the Dutch government counts as Dutch to me.

Speaking frankly, if you look chinese, you would be considered HKer right off the bat, if you look any other skin colour (white, other asian, etc) you will be considered a foreigner living in HK even if your family has been there for generations.

Excluding people based on how they look, irregardless of what else (intelligence, special talents) they bring to the table, is widely considered to be racism and not acceptable in European society. I’m sure there are Europeans who think like you do, however, it’s not something that wider society considers acceptable (not to mention can be illegal).

Yeah, whoever thought up the gedoog-policy was on something strong…

The “big” premium they were taking about was 600€ which is obviously outrageous. To make a cancer patient spend this much money on a life saving procedure.

European here: I agree with this being outrageous. It’s not about the money, it’s about being a civilised society.

Now hospital parking on the other hand…

People seem to rely on the govt to provide things rather than have some agencies fill niches that aren’t filled by the govt (for example I saw signs like don’t help homeless people, the govt is helping them). I’m from an Asian country, we don’t have much tax, we don’t rely on the govt for anything (we can’t), and we have many NGOs.

Most (but not all!) Europeans consider NGOs to be undemocratic, whereas the government is (theoretically at least) under democratic control.

Europeans identify more with nationality than ethnicity. For example, someone from Czech Republic moving to France is considered French. In North America I think they would be considered Czech-French. In Asia they would be considered to be a Czech expat living in France. Our ethnicity matters a lot.

But at what point would you stop doing so? I’m Dutch yet can trace back my ancestry to the 16th century in Belgium and northern France, what ethnicity do I have? And some have an even longer and more dispersed pedigree.

Also, you gave the example of French but what is now called France was made up from a large variety of ethnicities. Being French then is not defined as being a particular ethnicity but as belonging to the French Republic. It’s a cultural thing that matters a lot to them.

And here’s me hoping to be served by the bartender.