this was my thought, too.

Thanks for this, it’s nice to see a correct answer. I’m tired of people who claim to love Star Trek but don’t even know the lore.

solid

Sort through the emotional issues. I know this is probably typical advice, but seriously. Even though it takes a while, and looks impossible, process those feelings. It’s not impossible, because it’s a learned skill. . When you start off, making progress is dreadfully slow. but as you learn how, doing it becomes easier.

You don’t have to sacrifice who you were to become someone you’d want to be. Who you were will always be a part of you, anyways. But as you grow, it ceases to be the dominant voice - just, something to consider.

sorry, I just don’t relate.

The universality or lack thereof don’t really matter to me as much as the accuracy and viability of an opinion.

…but to the point…

The OS has access to everything on the OS, and that means whoever made the OS does (technically) as well. That is true. But it does not make it pointless to use encryption. It means that you have a vulnerability, and anyone who is in the position to exercise that vulnerability can do so. …but:

• anyone who is not in the position to exercise that vulnerability obviously can’t, but they could read plaintext by sniffing your connection - unless you use e2ee.
• The ones who are in a position to exercise that vulnerability must either know you are a target of interest or create a massive monitoring program, monitor everyone, and find you via that method. Both of those circumstances have constraints, and while you are in a safe space due to those constraints, it’s still worthwhile to use e2ee, as that may keep you out of the areas where a bad actor’s affect on you is not constrained.

Security is cat and mouse. If you’re actually caught up in that you the point where you are a real target or task potential target, get Graphene, and be mindful how you use it, or avoid smart phones altogether.

If not - assume that you’re not on their radar until there’s a realistic indicator that you are. …and use best practices, like e2ee, wherever you can.

KDE connect and/or Synching/Syncthing-fork.

I don’t think you’re ready for self-hosting, but getting these installed and sorted out will help you move along that path, plus it will meet your needs in the mean time.

Bit, as others have suggested, get familiar with networking a bit.

You might want to get a raspberry pi or cheap SBC with a good amount of memory and disk space, and fuck around for a bit, trying some things.

This is just bad advice.

I think people naturally extend their unresolved issues and the concomitant behaviors into the macro scale, and that it is precisely by resolving the personal issues on a smaller scale that you gain greater power over your own life. As you do, your methods and behaviors spread, because people learn well by example, particularly when that example “wins” and comes from a natural place of acceptance.

As people resolve their piece of the pie, they run into others who have, likewise, resolved their piece of the pie. …and, together, they do greater things, because they are capable of it, not tangled an a huge ball of personal issues, and why not too something or contribute to something you want to see done in the world?

The massive issues we have a a society are precisely because we have too much emotionally charged information, and haven’t processed that information - and because the blind spots you have in your own personal life and with your own personal issues become your cultures, your nation’s, and the world’s problems as you gain power.

Sorting through your issues, and resolving your blind spots means your power increases. And, as you do, then the scope of what you, personally can change grows - in part, because you are also more effective at working with others and rejecting (or similarly handling) problematic authority as you do.

The basic question is: Where does the motivation of your reaction (or action) come from?

If you have an emotional goal to prevent the thing from having existed, you are doomed from the start.

If you have accepted fully that it is the way it is, and that what you need to do is add a valid response to the situation, rather than preventing the existence of the situation, you’re probably on the right track.

That is, you can’t block a punch, or respond in kind, if you haven’t accepted that you’re in a fight. Instead, you’ll just have your ass handed to you.

When people say “how could this happen?!” they aren’t usually asking questions at all, even if it’s a situation they would benefit well from asking questions in. They usually mean “this shouldn’t have happened.” …and, they are wrong.

It’s not that it should happen, or shouldn’t happen. Those are irrelevant. It’s that it’s happening (or happened), and the probability of naturally generating a valid response increases massively once you accept that.

Once you accept the situation fully, you’ll be able to look at it clearly, and have a greater chance of recognizing it, and recognizing it before others even realize that it’s happening - or, before others realize they are telegraphing their actions before they strike. As such, you have a better capacity to respond appropriately.

The largest problem humans have, in my opinion, is fighting ghosts and impossible battles - which leaves them open to being taken advantage of or repeating painful cycles. Radical acceptance addresses some of that, if treated as a means to think clearly, rather than as a religion to adhere to.

communism depends on everyone involved choosing communal benefit over individual benefit, and poorly handles individuals who chose individual benefit over communal benefit - particularly if they just talk the talk of the reverse.

The foundation of a solid community is individual rights. Collectivist sovereignty is my preference. I have sovereignty, and recognize the benefit of getting others to recognize their peril sovereignty. …but I still gain the benefits of sovereignty whether or not others learn how to do the same.

You think that preventing exposure to problematic concept prevents infection. you’re right, in the short term. But in the long term, you destroy collective immunity to the concept.

Let it live, fight it when you have to, but don’t think you can eradicate it. It’s to be learned from, not simply destroyed. Otherwise, the experience is wasted, only to be repeated by the next generation.

No, it won’t solve the problems you think it will. You are misidentifying the problem as being religion. …but the problem is human, and psychological in nature - and, because you can’t see that, you’re just as susceptible to it as any other sot out there, drunk on the idea that you’ve got this one weird trick that solves the issue, and doesn’t involve you sorting your own shit out.

yep. But nuance isn’t visceral enough to grab their attention, so they get owned by those who are nuanced enough to wield the generalized binary concepts.

Literally, a mind virus they can’t recognize - likely crafted intentionally by someone at some point. But even if not, the irony is that this kind of wholesale buy-in to binary concepts is exactly what causes the behaviors they despise in religion.

you’re just voicing another ideology that wants to exterminate others. Religion is your whipping boy, and you’re lying to yourself if you think that getting rid of religion fixes the problem.

no, they in no way implied that bad people shouldn’t be stopped.

i also hit 4 a few times to give more columns to the cpu usage meters.

was gonna suggest similar.

exactly.

but everybody got their rocks off catharsis and the feeling was expressed - even though the reason for the feeling was never addressed.

doubt

I mean sure you can use the chaos to try and get cover for something specific. But generally, people rioting are on-tilt and looking for easy targets that look like their oppressors. Then, everybody gets catharsis and the riot disappears.

It’s just lazy. but, better than nothing, i guess.