We all are the only and best witness to our individual experiences. I don’t think that’s taught enough. I’m not saying that all truth is relative all the time, but I think it’s very reasonable to be in a nation with a de facto two-party duopoly on the entire political system and come to a conclusion as an individual that there are many things and experiences, including your own, that aren’t accurately represented or advocated for by either party’s narratives. IMO, that’s common sense. Just like America has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates in the world, it’s also unique in that it (and all of the five eyes nations except for NZ and kind of Australia) is a western democracy that only has two parties with the vast control of natl. govt. instead of a coalition of many more. Competition almost always yields better results for customers in a market and in politics.

We’re in a system in which voters feel locked into a system of only two choices and then will turn around and berate other voters for not being 1000% committed to ‘the revolution’ after toppling the n*zis. Instead of providing a inclusive environment for old republicans turning away from and standing against obvious fascism, some of the left does a whole old timey Christian preacher “scare the hell out of you,” narcissism-of-small-differences routine with zero prompting to try and push for a huge cultural and political upheaval before removing the awfulness that’s currently in power. It’s the Aesop’s Fables lion giving up the rabbit (small win) to chase the antelope (ambitious win) and losing both. It’s Anakin telling Obi Wan to join him with the Sith or die, his head so far up his own butt with his own issues that he thinks that’s an actual choice for Obi Wan but it’s not. It’s shortsighted and self-centered and it’s stupid. And for the sake of just getting through elections in the next 4 years I wish it would stop.

Anyway. “Nothing is ever as good or bad as people say it is. It’s always better or worse and you have to figure out how.” Some of that is adjusting your own expectations and reactions, some of it is adjusting for the biases of others.

Same. When I was at a point where I was skipping a meal a day to save for rent, it was the boots problem. If I could get the nicer, more durable thing, it was always worth it in the long run but not usually affordable up front. But sometimes there are easy wins. I found my first and only cast iron skillet I’ve had in the last 15 years covered in grease & surface level rust next to a dumpster on the way home. Some oven cleaner and flaxseed oil and it has been good to me ever since.

It started then by saying no to eating out bc it’s unaffordable, now it’s saying no to eating out at a lot of places bc they have awful food, service, and management treats their workers like crap. Starbucks wasn’t worth it to me for a long time before the anti union stuff, now I have two reasons (actually more) never to go there again.

I always think of this post whenever I hear someone dead-set on nothing less than massive, systemic change.

Conscious consumption! I like it. It’s a big part of what they advocate on the Frugal Friends podcast. Just need to figure out the “we have McDonalds at home” of fossil fuels. Hybrids & bikes can be a good first start.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. If you wait until you feel great and have all the time in the world to ever go to the gym you might work out 1-2 days a year. If you wake up late and are tired but commit to at least going out and walking down the street and back at lunch and you do the latter more often then you’ll be way ahead of the former situation. Maybe different strokes for different folks. Perfectionism ruins a lot of dreams and ambitions of people that would accomplish a whole lot more if they just stopped overthinking about it and learned to leave well enough alone. Just ask any former ‘gifted and talented’ student.

Anything over the web I think it’s anyone’s guess without more proof. But after the Moore County Power attack in 2022 I’m never going to fully rule out bad actors in the states.

IMO the precedent needs to be a proportion or percentage based item, not an arbitrary number. Something big enough to massively hurt, like 30% of this or last years’ post tax profits will be fined and Alphabet and all subsidiaries will be deemed ineligible for any tax waivers, deductions, or credits for a number of years to be determined by a jury, no less than 1 no greater than 100.

From personal & anecdotal experience, I think exposing kids (and adults) to a life of wide variance helps inoculate from echo chambers. My parents dragged me to my grandparents’ place in the countryside one weekend a month or more where cell service didn’t exist and internet was dial up. It got annoying at times and I don’t think it was perfect but spending so much time playing in the woods helped get my energy out, fostered a different kind of creativity, and often made me get out of my own head. Whatever was going on at school, drama via texting, or me just raging bc I sucked at video games didn’t seem so important when I was so far away. One of the most valuable parts of the Army was the people, the opportunity to truly meet and learn to work with people you wouldn’t have otherwise. Even in public school, you tend to stick to your clique and at its most diverse you’re really only meeting people you live in the area with. But the Army was different; the US is a freaking huge country with a ton of different subcultures. I learned a lot at an early age just by asking people where they grew up and what it was like. It introduced nuance and spoke against stereotypes in a way a lot of people need, and that diversity of experience helped a younger me appreciate that things aren’t always what they seem.

It’s easy, as a young man especially, to be in one place doing one thing and get really worked up about something, and echo chambers work towards that in many ways. It helps to physically move to somewhere else and burn off some energy. I find it much easier to reframe things when my physical environment is changing and I don’t have such a huge pile of energy to act as fuel to the online flame wars. It helps to know in the back of my mind, however worked up I get, that “I’m angry now, but there is a place I can go where none of you losers matter and however big and loud and frustrating you are here, you are so small and quiet and barely existent when I go to that place.” And if I can go somewhere else and have those loud, dumb, frustrating things shut up, then maybe they’re not that loud or intimidating or big or even frustrating at all. At least not big enough for me to spend so much time thinking about it.

TL;DR: In the short term, moving around (physical motion/travel) helps. In the long term, moving around (longer term trips and travel to new places & experiences) helps.

I would not have known about it had OP not posted & you not commented, thank you.

Asus has some pretty jank DDNS and remote access defaults, and they like to push their suite of mobile apps for managing that crap. If SoHo users aren’t limiting device connections to trusted endpoints then maybe that’s how these routers are being compromised? It’s not manufacturer specific but Asus is the majority according to the article.