Yet again we see students being the ones to stand against injustice. It’s a shame that in Israel, as in other countries, such protests are harshly suppressed.

Hence the quietness

I don’t disagree, but to lean into your analogy: I worry that we don’t have any viable long term solutions here, and I’m very nervous about how that will affect the fallout from a ban. My own stay in a mental health ward comes to mind, because it took years after that point before I was able to get the kind of support that helps someone build wellness long term. The hospital stay did the job, in the sense that I’m still alive, but my mental health was probably worse in the initial aftermath.

(This comment brought to you from the UK, where the Reform party (not nearly as bad as the AfD, but still racist shits) made heavy gains in recent local elections.)

“But previous attempts at banning them have failed because such an official report was missing.”

Man, this is peak modern society, and the absurdity makes me laugh. I don’t mean that in a derisive way, more in a "wow, making democracy work is haaard ". Hopefully this will lead to something positive though, even if I’m anxious that banning a party like the AfD may lead to some things worsening.

They’re a minority, to be sure, but you’re right that there are Israelis who were fighting apartheid and continue to fight against the ongoing genocide. We just don’t hear about the good people who are resisting evil from within Israel, because that’s counter to Zionist rhetoric.

Edit: made it clearer that I’m agreeing with you

I wonder if we’ll ever find out why they did it.

You’re comparing between different sample pools, which matters when we’re talking about probability adjacent stuff. We’re not asking “from this large pool of people at an airport, who is likely to receive additional scrutiny?” Because of this, your comment about how you’ve seen people of all backgrounds get scanned isn’t relevant to OP’s point.

The scope we’re looking at is the pool of experiences across one person’s trips. Imagine if it was every time that you got stopped for additional checks at an airport, even when you couldn’t see any mistakes that you had made. If you get checked because your keys triggered the sensors, then that’s a mistake that you can learn from, but consider how it would feel if you meticulously complied with everything you were meant to do, but were still consistently pulled aside for additional checks.

I know that on the internet, you never know whether someone is being hyperbolic, or straight up spinning a yarn, but try to take OP on faith here and consider how dismissive your comment comes across. I don’t know OP’s particular circumstances, but I have previously made a comment similar to yours to a friend, who called me out on being an asshole. Back then, I was oblivious to the reality of these things.

My friend explained that the first time they were pulled aside for additional checks, they opted to believe that it was just a random thing. The second time, they felt more uneasy, but actively resisted the “victim mentality” (their words). By the 20th time, they had come to expect it as inevitable, and that no change to how they packed, or what they wore would change things. They desperately wanted to believe that they weren’t being targeted for additional searches, but after a certain point, it becomes impossible to believe that these things are random.

I was telling a friend about him the other day. She said she found it odd how it seems like he became a martyr for his ideals, in that the way that he is remembered is almost like he’s a mythological figure, more ideal than man. I agreed with her that the loss of humanity due to such a high profile death is tragic, but that it wasn’t the internet who turned him into a martyr, but the FBI (and whoever else was pushing for his prosecution).

They threw the book at Aaron Schwartz because they wanted to set a precedent. They wanted to turn him into a symbol, and that led to his death. I’m proud of how the internet rallied around him and made him into a different kind of symbol, but like you, I feel sad to think about what could have been if he hadn’t been killed (I know that he died by suicide, but saying that he “died” felt too passive). It sucks that he’s just a part of history now.

A huge aspect of this also is that it disproportionately benefits academics and students in parts of the world where there is less institutional access to journal subscriptions. That is to say that SciHub has been a significant force for democratising knowledge and countering historic inequities.

A facet of Scientism, as I understand it, is a sort of hero worship of “Great” scientists. Part of this is because it’s easier for us to build a narrative of history if we focus on key figure, but that’s antithetical to how science actually works. It neglects the importance of the wider scientific “ecosystem”, which includes mechanisms of peer review, academic teaching and learning etc.

I’ve known people who were pretty prominent academics, who got some of their best ideas from random places, like hanging out in a bar with academics from outside their field. But a good idea on its own matters very little: science, in practice, works on a foundation of trust and community, and basically any research has an entire team of people behind it.

I have no doubt that the scientist mentioned in the headline is exceptional at her job, but by presenting her as the scientist who is working on this presents an inaccurate perspective of how these things actually work. I see why the headline chose to present her as more essential than she likely is, but as it seems to for the person you’re replying to, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth

I find Scientism concerning because I am a scientist who is quite concerned by the gap between actual science, and how people use science-shaped rhetoric. An example of this is how in the UK, during COVID, the government repeatedly claimed they were “following the science”, despite many of their policies being completely contrary to what the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) had recommended.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the scientific method — I wouldn’t be a scientist otherwise. But writing news headlines about the achievements of scientists exists beyond science. Being opposed to Scientism isn’t being opposed to the scientific method. Rather, it’s more like acknowledging that science isn’t a universal tool for solving all ills. Personally, being against Scientism also means being against the weird way we put science, and scientists on a pedestal. I understand the sentiment (and hell, I’m probably a scientist in part because a younger me was chasing that pedestal), but I think it’s probably harmful long term — both to society and to science

Edit: fixed grammar

If being a supportive ear is something you’re willing to do, but you’re struggling with the constancy of it, one possible way to frame your need for space might be to open up a little about the uncertainty you feel about how to support her, and how you feel bad for not knowing how to help more. I imagine that often, your delay in replying to texts is because you’re trying to respond but don’t know how. Your sister is at the age where people grapple with the fact that adults are often just as clueless and overwhelmed with the world as teenagers, which is made harder by mental health stuff. Maybe showing a bit of vulnerability here may help her to understand that you do care, and that you’re trying really hard to support her, but you have a lot to learn, and that figuring that out will be a process that involves both of you (i.e. I imagine that your sister is not especially good at understanding and communicating what emotional support she needs — she’s only 13 after all— and learning will take time). I suspect that the unreasonable demands that your sister makes (“when they don’t give her exactly what she wants 24/7”), and her responses afterwards may stem from her feeling unfulfilled when she does get what she wants, because a mentally unwell teenager isn’t necessarily going to want healthy things. Hopefully she’ll be able to work through some of this in therapy.

Sometimes if I am struggling with mental health and I message someone, I end up stewing in anxiety as I refresh my phone, hoping for them to reply. That can be pretty harmful, and lead to unpleasant dynamics in relationships. Maybe it would help to carve out time to reply properly. For example, when she messages, replying with a specific time at which you will more substantially reply. This would need to be discussed with her first, and I’d frame it like the space that you are needing is in order to better support her, because “it’s not fair on you if I’m too distracted to properly process what you’re telling me. I want to be fully present, and listening to you, but that’s not always something I can do on short notice”. The challenge that’ll be hard to communicate to her is that, whilst your love for her is infinite, your energy and ability to help is not. I’m really getting a sense of burnout from your post, and it’s tragic that your sister’s insecurity causes her to misinterpret your wish for space — she doesn’t realise that you having that space is a necessary part of being able to support her.

It might be useful to discuss a sort of “tier” system. For example, when a friend who was emotionally supporting me had to take a step back due to burnout, she emphasised that I had blanket permission to call her if I felt like I was at risk (of self harm and/or suicide). Ofc, it’s hard for someone who is in a mental health crisis to gauge how severe that crisis is, but I would hope that a mental health professional could help her to draw up a crisis plan (which would ideally involve self soothing strategies also).

My last suggestion is that maybe it would be nice and useful to carve out some regular time for you two to do something fun together. I remember when I was a mentally ill teenager, it felt like my entire life and all my relationships were consumed by the depression, and the few instances I got to do something nice and normal stick out as bright spots in my memory. Communicating this would probably link into the vulnerability I mentioned above, and being open about how you deeply love her, but you have been struggling because you feel like you’re not doing very well at supporting her. A lot of mental health treatment focuses on reducing the bad stuff (whether that be anxiety, self-injurious behaviours, compulsions etc.), and it can feel like the bad stuff is all there is. Only suggest this if spending time with your sister in a “fun” context is something you genuinely want, and try not to frame this like it’s a pity thing — the purpose of this endeavour would be to benefit both of you, and to strengthen your relationship. It might take a while to find something you’d both enjoy, and you both might have times where you struggle to engage with it, but I think that it’s a useful way to build towards a hypothetical future where your sister is still unwell, but is coping far better, due to engaging with a range of different support.

This comment has thus far largely focused on your sister’s feelings, so I’ll finish by saying that although you feel out of your depth, you’re doing really well. You’re recognising that you’re not coping with this, and that’s good, because your feelings and struggles are just as valid as your sister’s. It can be easy to dismiss one’s own needs when a loved one’s needs appear far greater, but you can only usefully help if you look after yourself too. That’s what you’ve been trying to do, and if it feels like you haven’t done too well at that, it’s because there is no easy guidebook for this. Sometimes when your sister blows up at you, it will be nothing personal, and it’s as if it’s the ill mental health speaking. Sometimes, when she blows up, it’ll be because you’ve legit messed up and it can be hard to discern whether you owe her an apology if her reaction looks identical to when she’s blowing up “irrationally”. Sometimes she’ll say awful, hurtful things that it’s strategically better to shrug off due to her mental health, and sometimes it’ll be better to hold her accountable, because ill mental health may be a reason for acting a certain way, but it’s not an excuse. It’s messy, and it’s tough, so it’s especially important that you are also supported in looking after your own wellbeing.

I can see why the French right love her so much, given that the right wing do a lot of “rules for thee, but not for me”

I find myself commenting far more often than I did on Reddit. I remember once that I lamented that Lemmy doesn’t have a “super upvote” in the way that Reddit gold used to be (which is a silly thought, given that I have never, and would never pay money to gild a comment). However, I realised that on this more discussion based platform, a short but meaningful comment can readily function as a super upvote. I think the lack of karma accrual for comments/posts also promotes this.

Just adding onto the good answer you already got, but the thing that made this click to me was understanding that if you’re not port forwarding, you’re limited in the connections you can make to other peers. Specifically, you can only connect to peers who are fully available. Whereas if you’re port forwarding, then you can connect both to people who are limited, and to people who are fully available.

I imagine you would get faster download speeds if you were port forwarding, but my impression is that this mainly is a factor for seeding, which matters more if you’re on a private tracker that requires a certain download/upload ratio; it’s way harder to keep that ratio above 1.0 if you’re limited in the peers you can connect to.

I see your point, I hadn’t thought about it this way. I think what you’re suggesting is this:

           |                        |
           |          rest of LAN <-/

Reasonably difficult, I think. I’m basing my answer off of the vibes I get from open source firmware projects for routers, which are far more common. I haven’t heard of similar for printers, which suggests that there is less of a foundation to work on. I think Brother, in particular, was a brand that has typically been decent up until now.

I also get the sense that programming firmware is different enough to programming software that a software developer trying to contribute would find it really difficult(?. Someone correct me if I’m wrong — I’m not a software developer, but a scientist who writes code, so I’m speaking outside of my main expertise). But this loops back in with the lack of existing projects making it harder to get to grips with how to do stuff — part of why I like open source programs is because I can look through a project and try to understand what the code is doing.

In many, if not all of the cases outlined, the police officers only had the opportunity to get to know their victims because they were undercover in their community (and often using the relationships as a means to bolster their cover). If this isn’t rape by deception, I don’t know what is.

2010 was also exceptional because this was the most seats that the Lib Dems had won in a long time (possibly ever?), which, at the time, people speculated could be the end to the UK’s defacto 2-party system (not counting the Scottish National Party (SNP)). Then the lib-dems squandered that good will and took 14 years to regain their footing. Fun fun fun.

What the fuuuuck

You know, I’m actually not surprised. I wish I was, but I’m not.