AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

“So we can believe the big ones?”

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

“They’re not the same at all!”

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—”

MY POINT EXACTLY.

One of my favorite scenes from Discworld. People make the mistake of treating justice and other such concepts as though they are an inherent part of existence and will spontaneously appear even when nobody chooses to uphold them. Justice is an ideal, one that does not exist in nature and cannot happen on its own. It must be upheld by those in power to exist, but what we have now is a pale shadow of the real thing held captive by the unjust and wielded with bad faith. Even those still acting in our defense are being silenced or overridden by malicious actors higher up the chain.

At some point we’ll need to act if we want that word to continue meaning anything. To use another Discworld quote, “THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE’S JUST US.”

In a few decades the Tea Party, MAGA, and various formerly fringe conspiracy groups will be used as case studies for how an externally boosted and manipulated movement inevitably outgrows its handlers and blazes out of control, burning the hand that feeds.

Or maybe not. Nobody seems to have learned anything from all the other foreign-backed revolutionary groups that ended horribly, after all.

Also don’t buy this if you have small children.

Before investing, freeze the company’s CEO in a block of ice. If you still want to invest after chipping them out of the ice, it’s probably a worthy investment.

Alexander Acosta straight-up admitted that Epstein was an intelligence asset and that he torpedoed the initial case in 2008 at the request of higher-ups.

Of course Acosta ended up as a member of Trump’s cabinet, because we clearly needed yet another direct Epstein connection alongside Barr and Trump himself.

Even the applicator is all natural!

The EU went after Apple for their proprietary chargers and the court directed them to switch to the USB standard.

The bloated ICE budget isn’t just to wage war against immigrants, it’s also because they realized the military wouldn’t side with them if they tried to seize/retain power. Now they have a massive, well-funded army of racist thugs that answers only to them, sidestepping the Constitution and chain-of-command entirely.

Hey, don’t blame us for Murdoch. He’s Australian, he only bought US citizenship in his fifties in order to spread his hate better.

… Saying that becoming American helped with that doesn’t really strengthen my case here, does it?

It also helps that the Steam Deck has introduced a bunch of people to Linux and shown that it’s not so scary or user-unfriendly these days, plus Valve’s extensive investments into WINE/Proton (software that allows you to run Windows programs and games on Linux) mean that for the first time, running Linux doesn’t mean limiting your library of usable apps.

At this point Linux actually runs many games better than Windows due to lower overhead, and most things will run without issue so long as they don’t rely on kernel-level rootkits for anti-cheat or DRM (and kernel access is being restricted in future Windows updates after that whole CloudStrike fiasco, so that will likely stop being an issue either way as programs move away from using it).

This is the top-voted answer, but it’s missing one key point: Windows 11 mandates a TPM chip, a secure cryptographic processor that (amongst other things, both good and bad) allows an OS to verify that its boot files haven’t been tampered with.

A lot of old computers don’t have this chip, making this the first Windows edition in many years where the upgrade process isn’t smooth and painless. If you don’t have this chip you straight-up can’t install Windows 11 on that machine without using hacks or workarounds, workarounds that Microsoft have been actively patching out to prevent TPM-less installs.

Rather than throw away their still perfectly fine computers to buy a new machine they don’t need - for a dubious “upgrade” they don’t even want - a lot of users are choosing to switch to Linux so they can keep their current PCs while still enjoying software and security updates.

That chin demands skritches!

The cuccos are going cuckoo!

Whatever the case, just make sure you keep your catma inside so it doesn’t get run over by your karma.

Given his post, he’s likely already using an AI for making decisions and writing emails (and LinkedIn slop). Much less work while still enjoying a bloated paycheck - what’s that saying about having your cake and eating it, too?

“Here’s the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz: I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”

• Al Franken

The problem with using salt water isn’t salt buildup, it’s that it’s corrosive and will drastically shorten the lifespan of any equipment exposed to it.

Super Nintendo:

• Megaman X. I was never a fan of classic Megaman, but the faster, more action-oriented sequel/spinoff X series rates amongst my favorites. It has tight controls, good music, varied stages, and memorable bosses and combat encounters. I must have beaten the first game dozens of times over the years.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It and Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy were so close to perfect that decades later they’re still the basis of comparison for any new 2D Zelda-like.

PC:

• Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn. it was the game that introduced Bioware’s trademark party banter and focus on interesting and likeable characters. The systems are a little rough but it still mostly holds up. Though it’s been a while since my last playthrough, and I usually stop once I hit the Underdark and the open world structure constricts for a few hours.

[…] for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

• The Ten Commandments, stating explicitly that his love is conditional (and that punishing children for their parents’ sins is A-okay).

I can only hope you’re a dab hand at this. It’s high time someone provided answers!