And yet we don't want our posts to be fed into AI slop, nor do we want independent hosts to pay for the massive amount of traffic generated by a massive corporate entity to trying to consume data en masse.

I used to be a POS tech. It's such a gross, mismanaged walled garden.

Currently I spend a lot of time advising against pop ups like that :^)

Shitty in the interim for sure, but it's nice knowing how disruptive it's getting. I outright tell work places I will not go. I also have brought up the embarrassing but truthful act of needing to look up bathroom laws for places I travel to. A lot of coworkers after meeting me realize just how absurd it's gotten; and how transphobia affects them even.

I hate having to be the trans representative for so many people, but the fact it's had a noticeable affect on people's viewpoints is nice at least.

I have some friends in Florida; one moved there recently in part against his better judgement. He told me I'm welcome to stay with him if I ever were in the area. I had to tell him it's not only dangerous but outright illegal for me to. I'm not risking a fraud charge for having changed my gender marker.

So yeah. Their loss, and they're starting to feel it.

Don't let the TV see a network and use a Chromecast. It makes life so much easier than any of the integrated trash

Fedora with Cinnamon desktop has been gooood to me. Admittedly it's on a Thinkpad

You call people who view things from a different scope emotional, but I'm ultimately concerned about my safety, and the safety of everyone I care about.

Only one side is dogwhistling against minorities, and when it comes to trans people, advocating for outright "elimination of transgenderism". They want us removed from the public eye, and will do everything they can to achieve it. Legislating access to healthcare away from us, jeopardizing our safety, and encouraging their base by trying to say it's morally just. While the "live and let live" types such as yourself don't see the insidious nature happening along party lines. Trans people simply don't matter enough to the average Republican, so no matter what they say, as long as the taxes are lower for them, who cares if some minorities have to suffer for it?

A lot of it stems from sexist views, and revolves around beauty standards. Bad faith arguments like "women's spaces"/sports, may seem reasonable upfront even.

The end result ends up with cis women also under threat due to a multitude of factors. Deep voice, gender nonconformity, hormonal disorders, intersex people, the list goes on.

Cis children are being harassed in Canada, cis women have been harassed in bathrooms. "Transvestigators" love to spend their time trying to clock people.

CE is still used far more frequently than you'd think. I had been phasing it out for retail clients, but one of them had received brand new time clocks that ran CE

A small handful of friends have had their phones die at my house because neither me nor my neighbor I'm friends with have any iPhone cables. Them being able to charge their phone now might get them to see the light a bit. (and hopefully stop being the only reason our group chat isn't rcs)

I'm genuinely sorry to hear that

Yeah :c

Told someone I played rust and they asked if I was racist or suicidal because those are apparently the qualifiers.

It really does bring the worst out of humanity, but at the same time I've met and known people for years who were my neighbors or even rivals