the most secure possible? you’ll need to learn a ton. you’ll get there, but it’ll take a while.

decently secure? install Linux Mint, install your updates, don’t run sketchy commands with URLs in them unless you know what you’re doing, maybe follow a hardening guide. you’ll be okay.

if you need to be extremely secure and private, install Tails on a USB stick. it will be slow and frustrating, and you’ll need to save files to a second USB drive, but it will probably keep you pretty safe, and it’s decently user-friendly. just make sure you keep Tails updated! you’ll have to do that by flashing the new Tails onto a new USB drive, there’s no easy way around that.

those are your two most user-friendly, safe approaches.

whoa that one is like 4000% worse than the others. Jesus. they’re not all bad though, just wildly inconsistent. it’s giving radical centrism.

Jesus wouldn’t narc on you, but he might tell you to surrender yourself to police. no murder is one of the Ten Commandments. this is how Catholic confession works, at least (I am not Catholic.)

I suspect the kid consented to the pastor calling the marshals, after deciding to turn himself in. otherwise how would they know where to find him that quickly?

guessing that granddad wasn’t Jewish and served in WWII, so the spam was what he ate in the trenches.

did Ground News report that as fact? journalism 101: when you report on a rumor, clearly mark it as a rumor. or just don’t report rumors in the first place.

he called his dad and confessed. his dad advised him to turn himself in. he said he’d rather commit suicide. his dad called his youth pastor to talk him down, who called the US marshals to secure him. I feel bad for the dad… that’s got to be a genuinely horrible situation to navigate.

the Overton window has shifted so far right that racism went from unacceptable to fringe but acceptable.

look at all the propaganda memes depicting anti-racists as only having white friends, and racists as having PoC friends they jokingly razz. they’re trying to rehabilitate overt racism.

1. say as many unhinged, hateful things as possible to farm outrage.
2. leftists share her content out of outrage.
3. fascists flock to her because she triggers the libs.
4. fascists gain power, she rides their wave.

there’s so many examples of this kind of thing. Richard Spencer and Nick Fuentes are other examples.

I can only think of USSR and DPRK. maybe Maoist China, but China (at least now) allows religion (though it prohibits Tibetan Buddhism and iirc Islam.)

I definitely wouldn’t consider DPRK to “shine with the best of humanity.” good luck to you if you decide to move there; don’t pull an Otto Warmbier!

if the idiot in question got your fingers cut off as well as theirs, I would take some pleasure in their pain. I’m not proud of that. it’s very corrosive, and it’s not good for my soul. but… it quenches my anger, somewhat. :/

I hope they get what they voted for. specifically, I hope that they’re on the receiving end of what they voted for. the Hitler Youth turned out for the Nazis, and paid for it in the trenches. same right now with a lot of the young Russian soldiers who supported Putin.

they have Parliamentary systems :/

the US is fucked because the President is enormously powerful and elected directly by the people.

the proper way is to do a hostile takeover of the Democratic party.

Trump wasn’t really a Republican, he was a nationalist (in 2016) and now a fascist (in 2024.) Republicans were neocons, libertarians and classical conservatives.

in 2017 he purged the actual Republicans from the Party, and filled its hollowed husk with MAGA. by 2024, the takeover was complete. actual Republicans (e.g. Liz Cheney, Romney) abandoned ship. the name is the only thing that stayed the same.

so, we need to do the same with the DNC. the formula is simple. hijack the primaries, shove the existing leadership out and show the Republicans what “socialism” really means.

“HRT” smuggle if you want. The procedure is not the problem. The political capital needed to defend it is.

right, this is the major sticking point. you seem to think it’s a “special right for trans people” but it’s not:

• doctors have the right to practice medicine
• patients have the right to consent to medical treatment
• medical decisions are between doctors and their patients

there was never a law that gave trans people the right to HRT. we just asked our doctors, who researched, and agreed, and prescribed it to us. we used the same rights as everyone else.

it’s not a “special right” for trans people to own guns. we have a 2A right to own guns, same as anyone else (since you’re not American, you may not understand the controversy: see this - the government was trying to ban trans people from owning guns by classifying us as “mentally defective.”) there’s no “special right” for trans women to use the women’s bathroom. there weren’t any laws restricting who could use what bathroom at all until this moral panic started.

do Jews have a “special right” to practice Judaism? no! all people have the right to practice their religion. banning Judaism wouldn’t be revoking a “special right,” it would be taking a universal right away from a targeted group.

all of these bans work by removing rights from us that everyone else has. we’ve never been given special rights in the first place.

most trans people cannot survive without HRT. that’s why the suicide rate was so high. banning it will kill many of us - those who can’t get asylum abroad.

our deaths may be an acceptable loss to you. but I won’t vote for a party that lets my people die for political points. I assume Palestinian Americans felt similarly in 2024 - if there will be genocide either way, who cares? why should I care about the country if either choice leaves me and my sisters dead or disfigured?

“bathroom bills” could be a range of very different policies. A law that says “trans women are men for the purposes of going to the bathroom and vice versa” is fine. A law that say “trans cannot go to public bathrooms” is not. As I said, don’t give them preferential treatment (pro-trans), but don’t hurt them specifically (anti-trans).

it’s not preferential treatment. you want Kim Petras to use the men’s bathroom? I guarantee that will go poorly. she’ll be harassed by men who are confused why a woman is in the men’s bathroom. and what about FTMs? you want to make Buck Angel use the women’s room? dude is a jacked bodybuilder who looks like he could break you in half. that would absolutely terrorize women.

Same with workplace discrimination protections. “Being trans” is not a firable reason just like having 4 fingers isn’t.

under Bostock v Clayton this is currently true, but the Trump administration has specifically declared that Bostock doesn’t apply to Federal jobs - meaning they could fire a postal worker just for being trans. the religious Right has been pushing to overturn this decision, so they can refuse to hire trans (or gay) people in their (secular) businesses.

“Gender marker changes on documents” is way too broad of a question.

should someone who has fully medically transitioned be able to obtain a driver’s license or passport that reflects their gender? I look like a woman, but my passport says M because of Trump’s order.

“Adoption rights” I don’t know enough about how the adoption process works or why this is a trans issue.

because bigots think trans people are groomers, and want to make sure orphans only go to straight, god-fearing couples. we’re not asking for special rights, we’re asking to have the same right to adopt that you have. that’s all.

“Gun rights” no civilian other than those with very regulated permits should have permission to own a firearm. Same as before, being trans has nothing to do with guns.

would you oppose a law that specifically bans trans people in particular from owning guns?

“Military service” this actually has something to do with trans, since some countries treat men and women differently in the military. Since it’s a physically intensive job, they should be treated as their biological sex. Or even better, they should be treated depending on physical performance. But we both know that’s not gonna happen anytime soon so no need to waste time on that.

women can serve in the US military. men can too. trans people cannot again, beside of Trump’s executive order, which says we lack the “honor” and “integrity” required for military service.

“Public service” again, too broad of a question and idk what it has to do with trans.

can the government refuse to hire qualified postal workers, administrators, intelligence analysts or rocket scientists, just because they’re trans? can the government fire all trans employees?

“Prisons” prisons in general are very complicated and I don’t know how to manage them. About trans, the best should probably be to keep them about biological sex. But of course listen to their complaints, if they complain credibly that they are sexually threatened, keep them in a separate section of the prison. But that goes even if not trans, there’s lots of same-sex rape in prisons going on.

so let’s say a trans woman transitions at 13, passes perfectly, and has a vagina. you want to put her in a prison cell with a bunch of violent men who will almost certainly rape her?

“Don’t say gay” idk what those laws are about. It’s illegal to say “gay”? Anyway, it should be about “not say trans” right? In that case, that’s against free speech, you can’t make it illegal to say a word.

the laws make it a fireable offense for teachers to mention their gay (or trans) significant others, at school, or to discuss LGBT issues at all. in a recent Florida case, the school fired a trans woman schoolteacher just for referring to herself as “she.”

“Social media” again, free speech. If it is covered under free speech, can post it. If not, can remove it. Or if it goes against the social media’s policies. Those are private entities, not government agencies.

conservatives are pushing for social media sites to block minors from accessing “adult content.” they’re also pushing to define any LGBT themes, such as pride flags, TV shows with gay/trans characters, or posts by trans people (including other minors) as “adult content.” would you support blocking access to (for example) PhilosophyTube to those who prove they’re 18+, just because that YouTuber happens to be trans?

“Banning insurance” kinda weird question. If the procedure is banned, the insurance too. If not, not.

hold the fuck on. you were saying it was an issue of “subsidizing” gender care. if a private insurer wants to cover HRT, that’s not a subsidy. that’s a policy decision. are you talking about banning HRT?

“HRT for adults/minors” this procedure is specifically for trans. It is not worth the political capital to prevent its ban. Do a survey and listen to the people. What decision would get more votes? Do that.

if you ban my HRT, I will smuggle it into the country. I cannot live without it. that’s like banning antidepressants for suicidal people. I’ll bring enough for my community, and I’ll try to help as many of us as possible escape this hellhole.

so basically, you’re fine with laws specifically punishing trans people, removing rights we had back in the goddamn '70s, as long as they’re not actively putting us in concentration camps?

nah fam. fuck that. I’m not voting Democrat if that’s what Dems are prepared to do. I might as well let Trump have a third term - it’d be the same.

if you take my rights away, I’ll let them take yours away too.

Kavanaugh did, in a concurrence. I strongly disagree with his Opinion but at least he put words to paper. the others didn’t, so I assume the conservatives are fighting about the legal basis for their ruling.

they will have to eventually explain themselves at least, once this case makes it to the regular docket.

is Mamdani woke? is Luigi woke?

they’re both extremely polarizing, hated by the establishment and extraordinarily popular. kinda like Trump was, actually.

almost as if the Democrats should run an actual Leftist candidate so the Left would turn out for them.

worked for the Republicans. the Right turned out for Trump after the party withered under decades of neocons.

if the Social Democrats would just concede the Jewish Question, they could have kept the Nazis out of power!

I’m not saying they should go opposite, and go anti-trans. Just that they shouldn’t fight for trans people more than any other group. For example fighting so they don’t get assassinated by the government is ok, but subsidizing trans-related spending (such as hormones or whatever) is not.

so our assassination isn’t acceptable, but dropping HRT from Medicare is… let’s find the line you’d take. which of these are acceptable sacrifices:

• bathroom bills?
• workplace discrimination protections?
• gender marker changes on documents?
• adoption rights?
• gun rights?
• military service?
• public service?
• (post-op) trans women in men’s prisons?
• “don’t say gay” laws in school?
• suppression of LGBT social media?
• banning private insurance from choosing to cover HRT?
• banning HRT for minors?
• banning HRT for adults?
• conversion therapy?

genuinely interested where your breaking point is, since the current administration is pursuing all of these.