papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on How to lose weight in four easy steps in ~life
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Comment on How to lose weight in four easy steps in ~life
papasquat Well I appreciate the well wishes, and I'm honestly surprised anyone remembers anything I say here! Thanks!Well I appreciate the well wishes, and I'm honestly surprised anyone remembers anything I say here! Thanks!
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Comment on How to lose weight in four easy steps in ~life
papasquat Man, it's really wild reading this for me, because I remember reading it roughly around the time it was published around 10 years ago. I was in a relationship that would turn into a marriage at...- Exemplary
Man, it's really wild reading this for me, because I remember reading it roughly around the time it was published around 10 years ago. I was in a relationship that would turn into a marriage at the time and I thought it was a great piece, but didn't really hit me too deep, because I'd honestly never had my heart broken. I'd only loved one other woman at that point, but it was a kind of juvenile, youthful love. My first love broke up with me for valid reasons, and I was sad, but I got over it in a week or two.
I got divorced from the woman I was with when I originally read this article about four years ago, and reading it again puts it in a whole new light, and it's insane how accurate it is. I can confidently say that my ex wife really did break my heart in the way the author describes. It was a really bad breakup, which began with her cheating on me for months without my knowledge while I was out of the country with the military. I'm not someone that has ever really struggled with long bouts of depression or anxiety, so dealing with those new feelings in my 30s was really difficult.
I'd always worked out to some degree, but I'd say I gave it maybe 60% of my effort. I never really pushed myself super hard. I just lifted weights, I started doing crossfit a few times a week and so on. After I got divorced, I really became a "gym guy". I worked out six days a week, sometimes twice a day. I learned about things like macros, Basal Metobolic Rates, optimal water intake, maximizing natural testosterone production. I actually spent time watching youtube videos about working out. I stopped drinking alcohol. I started bonding with other gym guys about lifting heavy pieces of metal and putting them down over and over. As a result, I got in incredible shape over the course of two or three years. I had a six pack without flexing for the first time in my life. I remember the coaches at my gym joking "From now on when any of the new members ask me the quickest way to get ripped, I'm just going to tell them to get cheated on and then go through a brutal divorce".
I think from the outside, a lot of people saw it as an unhealthy coping mechanism, and I could see how it may have seemed that way. I became obsessed with my body fat percentage, my calorie intake, my run time, my PRs. I would decline drinks out at the bars with my friends. I would insist on going to bed at a reasonable hour. I wouldn't compromise my time at the gym for anyone or anything. Even so, it was nice to just care about something for once.
A few years later, I'm in a very happy relationship with my fiance who I'm going to marry in about a year, I still go to the gym regularly, but at a more manageable 3 days a week, and I'm still in pretty good shape, although I don't have a six pack anymore (I don't recommend trying to maintain a six pack for long periods of time unless you're very genetically gifted, it's a pain in the ass).
Overall I'm very, very grateful for that time in my life. I learned a lot, I made a lot of really good friends, I had a hobby I really enjoyed that occupied my time and got me out of the house, and I got to finally learn what it felt like to be the archetype "ripped gym guy" for the first time in my life. I don't think it's a really sustainable lifestyle unless you're single or have a partner that is also really into it and you make your whole lives about being in shape, which I was never really interested in.
I can at least attest that "hit the gym" is actually pretty good advice for someone going through a horrible breakup, at least it was for me.
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Comment on Are we witnessing the takeover of a country right now? in ~society
papasquat Hitler was voted chancellor of Germany and then given emergency dictatorship powers without having to murder anyone. In fact, the beerhall puscht a decade earlier, an attempted violent overthrow...Honestly, I think it's kinda showing the 1st world problem biases of many that they think a full country takeover could occur without millions dead in the streets. I've spoken to people who've lived through government takeovers.
Hitler was voted chancellor of Germany and then given emergency dictatorship powers without having to murder anyone.
In fact, the beerhall puscht a decade earlier, an attempted violent overthrow of the government, was a massive failure (remind you of anything?).
Only after Hitler was given absolute power did he start murdering people in droves to consolidate that power and ensure no one could threaten it.
Not saying that's what happening here (I'm also not NOT saying that), but there's definitely precident for dictators to come to power with minimal or no bloodshed. There's a significant portion of people who seem to like the idea of being ruled by someone with completely unchecked power for some reason.
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Comment on CIA offers buyouts to entire workforce to align with US President Donald Trump priorities, sources say in ~society
papasquat It's crazy how different this term feels. In his first term, Trump seemed to just rage against a built up system that mostly managed to keep things in check. It felt like despite all the political...It's crazy how different this term feels. In his first term, Trump seemed to just rage against a built up system that mostly managed to keep things in check. It felt like despite all the political insanity, most of the career bureaucrats managed to continue doing their jobs and be the adults that kept the lights on.
This term the plan seems so much more systematic, and that entire apparatus is going to cease to function shortly, leaving a bunch of unqualified maniacs without any experience or idea of the implications of the policies they're implementing. I really can't see a path for the US to remain on top of geopolitics, or even a prosperous nation after this term.
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Comment on Donald Trump won’t rule out deploying US troops to support rebuilding Gaza, sees ‘long-term’ US ownership in ~society
papasquat Honestly, I'm not very empathetic. I don't buy the arguments that the US needs to bend over backwards to care for the economic issues and well being of other countries, and I find the frequent...Honestly, I'm not very empathetic. I don't buy the arguments that the US needs to bend over backwards to care for the economic issues and well being of other countries, and I find the frequent arguments that the Democratic party makes to that effect very disingenuous. On the surface, you could call me an "america first" person. I don't know if that makes me unusual for a progressive, but I still absolutely consider myself one.
The issue I have with trump and his ethos is that it's not America first. It's going out of our way to make enemies and antagonize our allies, which is not within our self interest at all. It's like a friend who continually fucks you over, so eventually when someone breaks into his house, you miraculously are busy when he needs help cleaning up.
Alliances, treaties and working relationships aren't developed by countries out of the goodness of their hearts, they're developed out of self interest, so when you trash those agreements, you're not only hurting the other party, you're hurting yourself.
If there was a real proposal that fucked over another country while helping the US long term, I'd honestly be fine with that. I'm a US citizen, so is virtually everyone I'm close to. It would be within my best interests to support that kind of proposal. Diplomacy doesn't work like that though. It's not a zero sum game. Peace, prosperity and cooperation is good for the whole world, not just the US. So even from a purely self interested perspective, these choices make no rational sense.
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Comment on I hate the new internet. I hate the new tech world. I hate it all. I want out, and I can't be the only one. in ~tech
papasquat There is definitely a "The Internet". It's just that "The Internet" is used as a metonym for a single overarching internet culture that doesn't actually exist. "The Internet" is literally an...There is no “The Internet”.
There is definitely a "The Internet". It's just that "The Internet" is used as a metonym for a single overarching internet culture that doesn't actually exist.
"The Internet" is literally an internetwork of seperate networks all communicating via the internet protocol. It's not actually the people that use the internet, which is the majority of humanity at this point, in the same way that "the white house" is a building, not the office of the president of the United States, even though we use it that way.
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Comment on US children joked about school shootings. Then the sheriff sent them to jail. in ~news
papasquat SMS (what most people mean when they say texting) shouldn't be publicly viewable. Yes, it's plaintext, but we shouldn't need to have all communication encrypted to feel safe that the government...SMS (what most people mean when they say texting) shouldn't be publicly viewable. Yes, it's plaintext, but we shouldn't need to have all communication encrypted to feel safe that the government isn't monitoring the communication of every single private citizens at all times. The premise is just absolutely absurd, but that's the world we live in I guess.
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Comment on I hate the new internet. I hate the new tech world. I hate it all. I want out, and I can't be the only one. in ~tech
papasquat It honestly depends. I would say for 99% of stuff, doing it online is easier if you're using the normal, expected workflow and not doing anything out of the ordinary. As soon as you have some...It honestly depends. I would say for 99% of stuff, doing it online is easier if you're using the normal, expected workflow and not doing anything out of the ordinary.
As soon as you have some problem, or are doing something that wasn't expected or accounted for by the developers of the site, everything falls apart and getting a hold of someone that 1. Cares, 2. Can help you, and 3. Is allowed to help you is an absolute fucking nightmare. Which I think is the point.
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Comment on Why and how I use Immich in ~tech
papasquat I like immich a lot, and have run it for years now. Unfortunately I don't have as much time as I'd like anymore, and the sheer number of breaking changes and architecture redesigns really fatigued...I like immich a lot, and have run it for years now. Unfortunately I don't have as much time as I'd like anymore, and the sheer number of breaking changes and architecture redesigns really fatigued me. It's the one app I have that's publicly exposed, so not updating it immediately isn't an option from a security standpoint, but that usually resulted me in spending an hour I don't have rewriting docker compose files. As a result, it's been down for a few months for me, probably needing a database rebuild, which I don't know if I'll ever get around to.
I'd advise that for anyone looking to migrate from a SaaS solution like Google photos, make sure you have the time and will to keep up with system maintenance tasks for as long as you plan on running it.
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Comment on Elon Musk's junta establishes him as head of US government in ~society
papasquat The entire article is over the top. I understand the sentiment, but writing long cathartic hyperbolic essays isn't helping anyone. Things are bad enough without us having to exaggerate what's...The entire article is over the top. I understand the sentiment, but writing long cathartic hyperbolic essays isn't helping anyone. Things are bad enough without us having to exaggerate what's going on.
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Comment on Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, and absolutely no sense, just a power button and a USB port in ~tech
papasquat There's no way in hell apple ever opens up the iPhones hardware to allow alternate OSes. It's the direct antithesis of their entire philosophy, and more importantly their business model. The only...There's no way in hell apple ever opens up the iPhones hardware to allow alternate OSes. It's the direct antithesis of their entire philosophy, and more importantly their business model.
The only way you can get apple software is by buying apple hardware, and the only way you can use apple hardware is with apple software. Both of those choices are very intentional.
The only reason you can install alternative operating systems on MacBooks still is because of the cultural expectation that computers let you run whatever OS you want, but they've certainly gone out of their way to make it difficult to do.
There was never any such expectation for phones, and so apple has no reason to ever change that.
Seriously though, expecting apple to ever open up their platforms is like expecting the Catholic church to stop believing in God. If any concept is truly the core of Apple's business philosophy, it's walled gardens and vertical integration. From their view, computers of any type, and the software that interacts with the hardware on those computers are something to be built, controlled, programmed, and sold by a small group of elite tech professionals, and everyone else is just a user.
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Comment on Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, and absolutely no sense, just a power button and a USB port in ~tech
papasquat Good to know. Didn't realize that. Kind of impressive they were able to squeeze out the kind of battery life and performance needed for a handheld from an x86 chip. I agree with you though, it's...Good to know. Didn't realize that. Kind of impressive they were able to squeeze out the kind of battery life and performance needed for a handheld from an x86 chip.
I agree with you though, it's not silly. It's silly in a vacuum if you've never attempted custom hardware like this before, but once you have the full context about what an absolute pain in the ass it is to keep a system running that's only powered on and updated sporadically, it makes a lot more sense to start with something fully supported by a single vendor.
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Comment on Steam Brick: No screen, no controller, and absolutely no sense, just a power button and a USB port in ~tech
papasquat The big advantage with the steam deck is that you're running well supported hardware for all intents and purposes. If you DIYed it with an ARM PC, you might be able to get it to work, but steamOS...The big advantage with the steam deck is that you're running well supported hardware for all intents and purposes.
If you DIYed it with an ARM PC, you might be able to get it to work, but steamOS isn't officially distributed, so you'd have to figure out a way to get it to run, and then hope that any update valve pushes doesn't break the thing. Every DIY computer thing I've ever built eventually just stops working because I lose interest, while ones with official vendor support usually keep chugging along since someone is paid to make sure it does.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
papasquat Yeah, honestly the rhetoric from many people on the left about guns is similar to the rhetoric from people on the right about trans issues. By that I mean that they're both completely uneducated...Yeah, honestly the rhetoric from many people on the left about guns is similar to the rhetoric from people on the right about trans issues. By that I mean that they're both completely uneducated about the topics they're proposing to regulate.
If someone is confidently saying that we should ban certain types of guns, and can't even detail the difference between a clip and a magazine, or semi automatic versus full automatic, or recognize that a .223 semi auto hunting rifle with a wooden stock is effectively the same weapon as an AR-15, they need to spend a few hours actually learning the topic before they put their foots in their mouths, because to people familiar with guns, it has the exact same impact as "Kids can just decide they're a girl when they're 13 and teachers will let them cut their dicks off".
You don't have to have any interest in guns yourself, but if you're proposing legislation of any kind, you should at least educate yourself about the topic.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
papasquat I wasn't implying the Warsaw uprising was comparable to anything, since there's nothing to compare it to. I was detailing the differences between the Warsaw uprising with the French resistance,...I wasn't implying the Warsaw uprising was comparable to anything, since there's nothing to compare it to. I was detailing the differences between the Warsaw uprising with the French resistance, two violent resistance movements that took very different forms, and one of which contributed significantly to ending the war and the Holocaust, while the other didn't.
I also didn't say that the Jews in Warsaw shouldn't have bothered. If the options are going down in a blaze of glory or being exterminated in a death camp, the former is preferable, but those are both really really bad options. It also doesn't really matter if you own a gun in that situation.
My point is that the kind of organic, open revolt where private citizens attack authorities with personally owned weapons isn't likely to be effective. The only way for a civilian to impede a modern military is through insurgency with all that entails. It wasn't a comment on the morality or an attack on the decision making of anyone during WW2, just a strategic analysis.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
papasquat Buying a gun and fighting an invading force are two different things. Going to the store and paying 400 bucks to fantasize about sticking up to tyrranny is easy. Enlisting in the military while...Buying a gun and fighting an invading force are two different things.
Going to the store and paying 400 bucks to fantasize about sticking up to tyrranny is easy. Enlisting in the military while your country is being invaded by an outside force, going through the training and devoting your life to the defense of your ideals is a lot harder. The second one is also historically a lot more effective than the first.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
papasquat Most Jewish ghettos in Nazi Germany had a resistance element. The Warsaw, Vilna, and Bialystok ghettos saw major uprisings where the SS and Wehrmacht suffered casualties. Those uprisings never...Most Jewish ghettos in Nazi Germany had a resistance element. The Warsaw, Vilna, and Bialystok ghettos saw major uprisings where the SS and Wehrmacht suffered casualties. Those uprisings never made any senior SS officials think "maybe this is too much work, the Holocaust isn't worth it".
Fascism doesn't work that way. Warsaw was razed to the ground and a significant portion of the city was outright systematically massacred. The Nazis built a concentration camp in its place.Oppressing an armed minority group versus an unarmed minority group is just the difference between a few dozen lives, something fascist leaders really don't mind spending in droves.
During the uprising, somewhere between 20 and 300 German soldiers were killed. Around 50,000 Jews and Jewish sympathizers were killed. This was all done towards the end of the war by a greatly weakened Nazi state.
The government isn't, and will never be worried about an uprising of trans people fighting back and violently forcing their rights to be preserved.
What they would be worried about would be an armed, organized insurgency made up of a large opposition coalition with outside funding. Compare the Warsaw ghetto uprising to the French resistance, which really did trip up the Nazis quite significantly.
Private ownership of guns among vulnerable groups really doesn't enter into the arithmetic for a fascist government. At worst, you lose a few cops and get an absolutely fantastic propaganda story.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
papasquat That's extremely arguable. Yes, it costs more resources to quell an armed rebellion than an unarmed one, but that starts with the supposition that most people would rebel under a tyrannical...a well armed populace makes it harder for actual government tyranny to take hold than it would otherwise.
That's extremely arguable. Yes, it costs more resources to quell an armed rebellion than an unarmed one, but that starts with the supposition that most people would rebel under a tyrannical government, and that's never been the case anywhere.
Its just as likely that police shooting deaths by radicals are exactly the pretext the government in question has been hoping for to use as justification for more power consolidation.
"We need more centralized power! The streets are in mayhem, police are being killed every day by radical elements!" is a much more compelling argument likely to have popular support if police really are being killed. Part of the reason the civil rights movement was so effective is that it's very hard to argue against protesters nonviolently staging a sit in and being violently beaten by police for it.
I think the concept of insurgency is a lot different than individuals resisting authorities. I think the former can be very effective, but is virtually always supplied from the outside. The latter is either ineffective or completely counter productive. Owning a personal weapon doesn't really benefit you in either scenario.
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Comment on Should leftists in the US be armed? in ~society
papasquat I think this statement has a lot more caveats than most people are willing to admit. I've spent a lot of time in the US Military, and I can give some perspective on this I think. First, if an...the US military are not actually going to come into your home to kill you.
I think this statement has a lot more caveats than most people are willing to admit. I've spent a lot of time in the US Military, and I can give some perspective on this I think. First, if an order came from the president to the NORTHCOM commander (who would be the person in the military that would receive an order like this) to "go door to door, and execute any Liberal/Trans Person/Person of Mexican descent/whatever", I'm fully confident that the current NORTHCOM commander, or anyone that could reasonably be appointed to that position would refuse the order, as it's blatantly illegal. I'm fully confident that all the subordinate commanders would as well, and virtually all of the US military would.
That's not really how these things go in fascism though. It's more of a boiling of a frog. Certain groups get targeted as subversive elements, then they get targeted as criminals for "refusing to comply" with morality laws or whatever. Then they get forcibly moved. That's where violence starts getting used, but it's couched in euphemism and suggestive language that makes it seem like it's their fault.
You see this today with police killings. Comments online are usually chock full of "well he shouldn't have given him such a hard time", or "obviously you shouldn't be wearing a hoodie" or "well lots of people that look like that are violent criminals.
Maybe a special military unit gets created that is only populated by true believer loyalists, and the more distasteful stuff gets enacted by them, but the rest of the military just kind of minds their own business.
By the time it gets to outright violence and killings, it's become normalized and people are not only used to it, they'll defend the system that's doing it.
The Holocaust didn't start with the Wehrmacht going door to door and killing Jews. Even with all the anti Jewish sentiment in Nazi Germany in the early 30s, most of them probably would have refused those orders and resisted. It happened gradually, with more and more problems being blamed on the outgroups, and more and more restrictions and harsh treatment being enacted by them. The SS drew on the ranks of the Wehrmacht in some cases, and political loyalists in others, but by the time they were doing all of the dirty work, most of the German military had accepted the new status quo.
There's nothing special about the US military that prevents that from happening here. We're the same species as the Germans in 1933 after all. So yeah, US army infantry isnt going to kick down your door and shoot you in the next few weeks, but it isn't inconceivable that one day, something similar may happen.
That said, as I stated in other comments in this thread, buying a gun is not a solution to this possibility.
Hah, yep. Someone finally cracked the code! The back squat is my absolute jam.