DNS request will go to the DNS server but from what I can tell the packet wont go anywhere else. At least on my own network, traceroute gives only one entry and its the final destination. I assume this is because the router knows its own public IP and as such knows the packet doesnt need to be sent anywhere else.

I will always understand having grievances for the democratic party because all they do is defend the status quo - I do too - but not voting over that is just fucking stupid. You want to change that? Go to protests, vote in primaries, support local initiatives for ranked choice voting, donate to causes you find actually beneficial, support local politicians that dont just support the status quo, support movements you believe in. If its about Gaza, speak up about that, donate to humanitarian funds, etc. There are ao many things you can do that can impact these things. But refusing to vote does actually fucking nothing for that cause.

There is no world in which more people refusing to vote for Kamala would have gotten us a better president or stopped genocide in gaza. Or really had any impact in any way that wasn’t making trump more likely to win. IMO the folks that did that were doing it more for themselves so they could feel morally superior because they didnt vote for the candidate that supported genocide or the “status quo” even though it literally never would have had any impact on either of those things.

(And let’s be real - trump is way worse for Gaza than Kamala would have been. I’m sure she wouldn’t have done enough, just like Biden, but at least there are voices in that party calling out Israel. Those voices fall far more deaf on this administration’s ears)

Ok, the openAI thing is not great. However…

they advertise themselves as degoogled, but instead let you connect to Google/Microsoft/etc services

What the fuck are you talking about? Degoogled doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be allowed to connect to Google services. It just mean that it doesn’t require Google services to function and that the default configuration shouldn’t include any Google services. If the end user actively wants to use google/microsoft/etc services then they should be able to. It seems as though you are advocating for an open source operating system to lock itself down from allowing the end user to use certain features, which is against the FOSS ethos. Remember, “free” as in “freedom.”

The thing that’s been bothering me is, since when did a local, “ragtag group” of activists have this much influence on the actions of massive corporations? Bigger, more powerful groups have tried and failed to make changes like this over and over again. Why does collective shout have so much pull? It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Not that I disagree with you, but I do honestly think this stuff is more important.

I guess in his defense it wasn’t too bad before 2018, as far as I can remember. Most of the enshittification of fandom I can remember has happened since.

It’s not necessarily a problem, it just shouldn’t be the first thing you try. On windows people are used to always downloading the program directly from the internet first thing, but on linux you’ll have a better time if you check the package manager and/or flathub first for programs. Then, if it’s not there, then yeah download direct from the internet.

Remember all those times that lawmakers were rejected from inspecting ICE facilities?

I wonder how many more cases we’d know about if they had been allowed to.

He’s scared. Simple as. We had him begging Texas to redistrict, now this, he’s down in polls… he knows that he’ll lose ground next year. A democratic majority in the house or senate would be devastating for him, and that’s where things are headed right now.

I’m not sure what the “or” is for. Acts of civil disobedience are generally illegal or close to it. This is theft and civil disobedience, though not one I agree with (nor do I think it would be particularly effective, tbh). But something being civil disobedience doesn’t make it not illegal or not wrong it’s just the reasoning behind doing it.

Mint is a good option, yeah. Should feel familiar if you’re coming from windows.

Note that coding experience isn’t really relevant. Only the most advanced users ever really need to write code for their system. 99% of linux users, including the experienced and power users, don’t have to regularly code, per se. Note that I’m referring to actually writing programs, not terminal use. Using a terminal isn’t coding but that may be what you were thinking of, it’s similar but imo not the same. If you wanna do more advances stuff, you’ll definitely want to learn the terminal, but for most stuff you’ll get by just fine with GUIs like you’re probably used to. Mint is particularly good at keeping stuff to GUIs.

Something to note: coming from windows, you’ll be used to getting programs by finding downloads on the internet. On linux, that’s generally best avoided - you should always look on your distro’s package manager first. On mint is believe it’s called something like “software center” or “software manager,” can’t remember off the top of my head but it will be preinstalled for you.

But we can’t increase the workers’ wages, that would drive up prices!

Just ignore the prices constantly going up anyway while these guys conveniently get million dollar raises