avirse's recent activity

  1. Comment on Duty to Warn's John Gartner breaks down Donald Trump's cognitive decline in ~health.mental

    avirse
    Link Parent
    I imagine it's missing from that quoted passage because the Macron/Mitterand mistake is explicitly mentioned earlier in the article:

    I imagine it's missing from that quoted passage because the Macron/Mitterand mistake is explicitly mentioned earlier in the article:

    Joe Biden’s calling the current president of France by the old president of France’s name is like me calling my youngest daughter by my oldest daughter’s name
    […]
    Forgetting the name of the president of France isn’t the same as thinking Obama is president or that Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi are one person.

    21 votes

  2. Comment on Grand jury in the US state of Georgia returns indictments in Donald Trump 2020 election case in ~news

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Ignoring for a moment that people don't always get their rights back after serving the sentence for their crime (and the existence of wrongful convictions). People who commit particularly bad...

    Ignoring for a moment that people don't always get their rights back after serving the sentence for their crime (and the existence of wrongful convictions).

    People who commit particularly bad crimes are sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment, people who violate their federal oath are effectively sentenced to a lifetime of not being able to take another. Sometimes that is the solution for public good.

    27 votes

  3. Comment on Squabblr is now a free speech platform in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Wow, ok, I was just expanding on what I'd said above about how it's easy to use words of equivalent meaning, i.e. I was also agreeing with you.

    Wow, ok, I was just expanding on what I'd said above about how it's easy to use words of equivalent meaning, i.e. I was also agreeing with you.

    6 votes

  4. Comment on Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office. in ~life

    avirse
    Link Parent
    This can really cut both ways - I've found that going into the office most mornings makes me far more productive and generally happier because I'm escaping the endless chore list of being at home....

    it doesn't change the fact that someone not having to commute and constantly being in their personal environment is such a huge moral/productivity factor.

    This can really cut both ways - I've found that going into the office most mornings makes me far more productive and generally happier because I'm escaping the endless chore list of being at home. It's great to be able to do housework in moments of downtime during the day, but it's also a huge, draining distraction to have thoughts like "I could be putting the laundry away right now" or "I could be prepping for dinner" or "I could just quickly run the hoover 'round" constantly running through your head.

    Much like it's common to solve problems or have great ideas in the shower because of the lack of distraction, it can be much easier to focus on work when in a purely work-oriented environment.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Squabblr is now a free speech platform in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    That's why I used "stupid" as my example, because its etymological roots have nothing to do with mental illness or developmental delay, and nor does its casual usage. An equivalent meaning also...

    That's why I used "stupid" as my example, because its etymological roots have nothing to do with mental illness or developmental delay, and nor does its casual usage.

    An equivalent meaning also doesn't have to mean a synonym for the entire word, just the nuance you're getting at. E.g. the r-word strictly meant intellectual disability, but it has nuances of being literally slow, archaic, and backwards, etc. which would also work with a "fucking" prefix.

    It's amusing that you're familiar with "gay" as the insult but not "queer", given gay originally meant happy before being adopted by the community, while queer means "strange in a negative way" and was the insult when I was at school.

    8 votes

  6. Comment on Transgender and nonbinary patients have no regrets about top surgery, small study finds in ~lgbt

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Not even just appearance. I sleep best on my stomach. While I'm perfectly satisfied with the appearance of my boobs, it would be nice to have a nap that didn't make my lower ribs ache.

    Not even just appearance. I sleep best on my stomach. While I'm perfectly satisfied with the appearance of my boobs, it would be nice to have a nap that didn't make my lower ribs ache.

    4 votes

  7. Comment on Squabblr is now a free speech platform in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    And leaving one social platform and joining another isn't literal reincarnation. There's a certain irony that you're making this point on the site that many people joined because they were sick of...

    And leaving one social platform and joining another isn't literal reincarnation. There's a certain irony that you're making this point on the site that many people joined because they were sick of Reddit.

    7 votes

  8. Comment on Squabblr is now a free speech platform in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    I think it's a bit disingenuous to say people used the r-word with no intent of hurting the feelings of handicapped people. It's technically a true statement, but only because the feelings of the...

    I think it's a bit disingenuous to say people used the r-word with no intent of hurting the feelings of handicapped people. It's technically a true statement, but only because the feelings of the people being insulted were never a consideration, either through sheer thoughtlessness (which is and should be discouraged these days) or precisely because of the contempt that the r-word carries.

    I agree with you that there's no emotional alternative with the same meaning, but that doesn't prevent people from stacking emotional equivalents alongside words of equivalent meaning, e.g. "fucking stupid".

    18 votes

  9. Comment on Squabblr is now a free speech platform in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    The idea is to find a home, but when your home gets destroyed what can you do but wander to another?

    The idea is to find a home, but when your home gets destroyed what can you do but wander to another?

    11 votes

  10. Comment on Squabblr is now a free speech platform in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    A significant number have migrated to discuit.net, the front page there has been almost entirely taken over by talk of it.

    A significant number have migrated to discuit.net, the front page there has been almost entirely taken over by talk of it.

    15 votes

  11. Comment on Want employees to return to the office? Then give each one an office. in ~life

    avirse
    Link Parent
    The misanthropes and other WFH-lovers are very loud whenever the topic comes up! I'm with stu2b50, though. I hate when I go into the office and see no one at all, it's the worst of both worlds...

    The misanthropes and other WFH-lovers are very loud whenever the topic comes up!

    I'm with stu2b50, though. I hate when I go into the office and see no one at all, it's the worst of both worlds (social isolation of WFH with commute expenses - both money and time - of in-office). We're all theoretically hybrid but only required in for 2 days across 2 weeks and no one actually tracks it. I go in for half-days and more often than not it's a ghost-town.

    9 votes

  12. Comment on Transgender and nonbinary patients have no regrets about top surgery, small study finds in ~lgbt

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Anecdotally, I was speaking to a couple of older women the other day and one said she'd take another hip replacement, but she'd not do another knee replacement because the recovery was just too...

    Anecdotally, I was speaking to a couple of older women the other day and one said she'd take another hip replacement, but she'd not do another knee replacement because the recovery was just too painful. If her experience is typical I'm not surprised the rates of regret are high.

    Though the barrier to entry for gender-affirming surgery is so high, it's not surprising that regrets are low when it takes such dedication to get. If it were more freely available that percentage would probably creep up (but still nowhere near the levels that anti-trans propaganda claims).

    22 votes

  13. Comment on Any offline bookmark managers (or similar software) you'd recommend? (simple and open source preferred!) in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Oh I want tags, that's the problem. In Joplin they're attached to the note but not in the body, in Obsidian they're in with the note text. Which makes them less portable in Joplin but as you say...

    Oh I want tags, that's the problem. In Joplin they're attached to the note but not in the body, in Obsidian they're in with the note text. Which makes them less portable in Joplin but as you say isn't a problem if you plan to stay with it.

  14. Comment on Any offline bookmark managers (or similar software) you'd recommend? (simple and open source preferred!) in ~tech

    avirse
    Link Parent
    For Joplin vs Obsidian, if all you need and want are the simple features, Joplin does it in a much more user-friendly way in my opinion. I made the switch to Obsidian despite having no interest in...

    For Joplin vs Obsidian, if all you need and want are the simple features, Joplin does it in a much more user-friendly way in my opinion. I made the switch to Obsidian despite having no interest in the extras and it still annoys me having tags as part of the note and "embedded" media being manually linked from another folder.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Rethinking the ‘gay best friend’ in ~lgbt

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Actually, to follow on from that second paragraph, it seems to come down to what role people expect others to fulfil in their life. To illustrate, between my mother, my sister and myself we all...

    Actually, to follow on from that second paragraph, it seems to come down to what role people expect others to fulfil in their life.

    To illustrate, between my mother, my sister and myself we all have a different idea of who our primary emotional relationship should be. For me it's a romantic partner, for my sister it's a platonic female friend, for my mother it's a female relative (formerly her mother, now it flips between her sister or either of us daughters depending on who's not upset her recently). We're all married to men, and those men fulfil very different roles for each of us.

    So for the author of this article, her primary emotional relationship is with her gay male friend.

    As for what the "gay BFF" means in media, he's just the straight woman's equivalent of a manic pixie dreamgirl. He has no needs or demands of his own, he exists to fulfil the character arc of his female friend. Straight men gain status from sexual conquest so the manic pixie dream girl wants to sleep with them, but straight women lose status from sexual conquest so their manic pixie dreamboy is sexually unthreatening yet totally devoted.

    10 votes

  16. Comment on Rethinking the ‘gay best friend’ in ~lgbt

    avirse
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    I swear there's nothing about this "gay BFF" friendship that can't be found in any close female-male friendship, regardless of orientation. It does feel special being the only girl a boy can...

    I swear there's nothing about this "gay BFF" friendship that can't be found in any close female-male friendship, regardless of orientation. It does feel special being the only girl a boy can confide in, because unlike potential romantic partners they don't have to impress you, but they don't have to be gay to have that relationship, just no mutual sexual attraction/tension.

    It does feel like the focus on sexuality and assumption that the author can't have the same closeness with another woman says more about the author than about general gay-man-straight-woman relationships. The way she describes their friendship sounds exactly like the dynamic my sister and her best friend have, and they're both women.

    7 votes

  17. Comment on PayPal launches US dollar stablecoin in ~finance

    avirse
    Link Parent
    So a crypto owned and operated by Paypal doesn't solve anything, then.

    So a crypto owned and operated by Paypal doesn't solve anything, then.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on PayPal launches US dollar stablecoin in ~finance

    avirse
    Link Parent
    I see, so it's solving US-specific problems rather than general currency problems.

    I see, so it's solving US-specific problems rather than general currency problems.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on PayPal launches US dollar stablecoin in ~finance

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Considering it's Paypal's crypto currency that began this thread, that seems like a Paypal-problem rather than a currency-problem.

    Considering it's Paypal's crypto currency that began this thread, that seems like a Paypal-problem rather than a currency-problem.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on PayPal launches US dollar stablecoin in ~finance

    avirse
    Link Parent
    Right, but how does "keeping a ledger up to date" meaningfully differ from what banks do? No bank has as much physical cash as they do digital currency on the books, and they function by tracking...

    Right, but how does "keeping a ledger up to date" meaningfully differ from what banks do? No bank has as much physical cash as they do digital currency on the books, and they function by tracking deposits/payments and withdrawals/loans of their customers.

    4 votes