It’s characteristic of all forms of totalitarian leadership. The communism/UK comparison is wrong because we don’t have a ruling party that shares any of the main traits of communism.
Privacy is a personal thing. Everyone does it for their own reasons. For me, I’m just sick of wading through adverts, targeted outrage and my details being sold to every company under the sun for profit so I cut down on every opportunity for those companies to harvest that stuff.
As far as governments go, I’m not sure anything I say or do is remotely of interest to them so it matters less to me on a personal level, but I also appreciate that people like whistle-blowers, activists, abuse survivors and journalists do care about those things so I fully support any measures that help support them.
From pixel tracking, to WebRTC leaking your real ip, fonts fingreprinting, canvas fingreprinting, audio fingerprinting, android default keyboard sending samples, ssl certificate with known vulnerabilities
All those things have ways of being tackled to some degree or other. Depending on your browser, WebRTC leakage for example is either a setting or an extension away.
Get a 2nd hand multicooker off eBay. They slow cook, do rice/lentils/soups and lots of other things. I got one that was a bit bashed about but worked perfectly for £20.
Grow herbs either inside or outside. Rosemary, Thyme, Bay and garlic and a few others will grow fine. For the rest, get dry. Herbs add instant flavour to rice, lentils etc.
A small chicken (about £4) equals 4 meals. When the carcass is stripped, put it in your multicooker, just cover with cold water, add a whole carrot, a whole onion, both halved, some peppercorns, 3 or 4 bay leaves and 2 teaspoons salt. Slow cook on a very low heat for 6 hours. Get rid of all the solids and you now have chicken stock.
As you’re discovering, Leftism isn’t a universal thing, there are sub-groups ranging from (US) Democrat/ (UK) Labour all the way through to individualistic anarchism. There are a lot of stopping points on the journey, none of which are the same as the others - socialism, communism etc and even within those sub groups there are sub-sub groups.
So the the word you’re questioning ‘tankie’ is a term applied to communists who deny that communist regimes are capable of, or indeed have, committed acts of violence on individuals, groups or entire ethnic groups/populations. The word originates from the Tiananmen Square massacre, where the ruling communist party murdered protesting people using tanks. ‘Tankies’ deny that this happened, or if it did happen it wasn’t as bad as the West claim, or if it was, that it was a justified act. They say the whole thing was made up/exaggerated by Western media. They do this because they’re living in denial.
Most of the Lemmy (and Reddit) based tankies I’ve encountered seem to belong to a youngish American, probably middle-class population. Possibly they’re rebelling against some element of their upbringing or are seeking some kind of group identity or validation. Believing in something that extreme is also an easy thing for someone to do - if you support a political system that is never ever going to assume power where you live, that abdicates you from any responsibility of engaging with the political system in your country to try and make the reality you actually live in any better.
Religion is not interchangeable with theism. Many people, including me, are religious whilst also being atheists. Depending on the source, religion can be defined as a supernatural based idea (god/gods) or (the way I see it) more like Emile Durkheim saw it “a unified system of beliefs and practices […] which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them.”
So, for me, religion gives me a sense of community, support and a structure to guide me. It doesn’t rule me and I don’t have to worship or pray to a supernatural being that doesn’t exist. So in my (biased) view, I get the good bits of religion without the shitty awful bits such as telling everyone only my religion is right, telling everyone what to do based on what I think and generally being an arsehole.
Most people like some type of community because we are, at bottom, social creatures. My own religion allows me to be both individualistic and also part of a community and I think a lot of people feel that their religion gives them that sense of community. A more worrying aspect of religion is theistic religion - worship of a supernatural being/beings - because that is irrational, which is not in itself a concern, but when whole societies are controlled via theism then people suffer.
It literally isn’t. Any government, including the Israeli government, is capable of being genocidal.
That who engage with whom?
If you don’t think the opinions of government ministers up to and including the PM have any weight on current or future policy, then I admire your ability to ignore reality.
Can you provide verified, independent proof that that is true?
You’re right. Why would any country want to make/farm/produce their own food? They should just shut up and be grateful, right?
No argument there. Sadly, the IDF, on the orders of the Israeli government, seem either unable or unwilling to differentiate between Hamas and Palestinians.
I may be being overly pedantic here but that statement, whilst I don’t doubt its good intent, always reads to me like a bit of a get out of jail free card.
I’m not sure how much weight you can place on a recommendation when the full criteria isn’t know and can be changed on a whim. And yes, I’m aware I can browse the forum, ask and see for myself but I’m not sure your average user is going to feel confident enough to do that.
Disclaimer: not a security expert at all, just a working knowledge. However, what I read 18 months or so after reading that github thread was enough to reassure me.
I wouldn’t have an issue with this either - within reason. But I suspect making an instance a de facto business from which an admin draws a wage would raise so many issues about a whole raft of things it probably wouldn’t be worth it.
GoT because I’d read the first two books and got bored of a medieval soap opera where the writer substitutes misery porn for a plot.
Breaking Bad because Bryan Cranston vaguely irritates me (I don’t know why, I’m sure he’s a lovely man).
Zombie related stuff because seriously, it was non-stop shit zombie movies for almost a decade and I’m bored of it. It’s just become another lazy trope. Exception: Zombieland.
Well, call me old fashioned but as my friend is a fan of American bourbon, I thought asking American’s what American bourbon they recommended might be the best idea.