Ok but I already have about 700 hobbies and projects I could be working on or learning, I would just like to click the button that does the thing.

People actually installed or used 8? 😋

Lol agreed though, the entire reason I am attempting to swap to Linux is because 7 was the last good Windows.

With Windows (pre-10+) at least I can generally avoid the frustration of fruitless internet searches by just mucking around in the control panel for a bit. Or even, yes, Regedit. I like to find a menu that offers me relevant options and then click a button to do a thing. Maybe it takes more time than just typing a command shortcut to do the thing, but clicking menu buttons is something I can just kind of figure out myself by exploring rather than reading the manual or consulting the eldritch lore of the internet every time I want to learn how to do a new thing. .

I’m trying Mint too, for the most part it has been a relatively intuitive transition from Windows… up until the moment I try to customize things. Fuck me for trying to pin programs to my panel, make my own shortcuts/launchers, install things to my choice of directories or recategorize my start menu shortcuts. I’m so used to just being able to right click on something and have the thing I wanted to do be an option there, or be able to just click and drag something somewhere and it just does the thing. Looking up the directions for how to do a really basic thing after the third or fourth time gets reeeeal old.

I’ve been trying to swap over to Linux and I don’t like using the Terminal because I have zero memory retention for literally anything that isn’t Weird Al songs

It’s because he’s actually smiling

Sad that the immediate assumption is friends can’t hold hands 😕

An RNSC article links to a “Interactive Polls” tweet that mentions the info is from UNH. So I searched the UNH polling dept stuff and got the link which says it was released on the 23rd, so the times match up.

Seems to be another UNH one.

https://scholars.unh.edu/survey_center_polls/897/

I did have to follow some breadcrumbs to get there but it was the one linked by some Twitter accounts

No one is born a racist, and no one is born a Nazi. If it’s something someone chooses to be they can stop. There are a lot of stories of reformed white supremacists.

I genuinely don’t think he got there though, based on his posts on Reddit made from 2016-2021. He would have had plenty of opportunities to make toxic, racist or violent shit posts there but the worst they dredged up on him was antiquated homophobic bro-talk that is unfortunately common in the military. Won’t deny that that’s a bad look but it’s a far cry away from some of the things quoted from MAGAs currently in office.

Of the people in my life, some of the ones who have served in the military are the most disillusioned with the establishment. Listening to him, he sounds burnt out with American Imperialism. I was watching his town hall last night, it’s worth hearing him talk about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLEftvgSBJs

Considering this is a day and age where people who are overtly fascist, who have been pretty open about being Nazi-adjacent if not straight out Nazis, are winning elections on that platform then I would think if he held those views he would just run on them. Why be a secret authoritarian and masquerade as a progressive when the extreme right is the majority in US government and persecution of minorities and violent rhetoric is in vogue? It just makes a lot more sense to me that either he didn’t know, or was in some toxic male circles at the time. Either way I don’t think that’s who or what he is in this moment.

Interesting that the website you linked uses heavily biased language, cites a source that’s literally a guy who knew a guy who knew Platner, and consistently attacks the most prominent left-ish figures in American politics like Mamdani, Sanders and Cortes. Looks to me like a phony left website set up to trap leftists into thinking it’s on their side. Hmmm what does Common Dreams have to say?

https://www.commondreams.org/tag/graham-platner

Interesting.

I forgot politicians are always honest about their intents and goals on their platform websites, my bad.

Sometimes they are.

https://www.project2025.observer/en

Still waiting on the evidence of white nationalism and violent rhetoric in his platform. It’s clear the establishment is scared of him and is trying to use the common concerns of leftists to attack him, but it’s just kind of silly to call him a secret cryptofascist white supremacist when there are openly unapologetic ones already in government.

He said it was gotten in 2007 and has since gotten it covered up. Until I see evidence of him saying actual Nazi things like advocating for violence, holocaust denialism, admiration of authoritarianism/dictators, persecution of minorities or ethnicities, and other supremacist nationalist rhetoric I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

His website has some good policy positions.

He wants election finance reform, believes in environmental protections, medicare for all, protecting small businesses and is anti-billionaire. Seems like the right kind of anti-establishment populist and it’s refreshing to see someone so unapologetically progressive.

She got an honorable mention from me in my post. She was a lot of fun to play as and the game would not have been the same with any other MC.

Probably April Ryan from the Longest Journey. She was clever, empathetic, funny, and grounded. She certainly had more than enough opportunity to get annoying over the many, many hours it takes to play that game but I found myself reading the journal that served as a story tracker just to see what she had to say about events. I genuinely missed her during Dreamfall. Though I had a few other favorite games with female protagonists that I loved (like Rynn from Drakan, Cate Archer in No One Lives Forever), it says something that decades later I still remember April’s name, and her major character traits.

I’ve posted this a few times but here it is again for you:

I have managed to nearly eliminate Amazon entirely from our lives for the past two years. I usually find things by searching what I want to buy on DuckDuckGo and then adding “-amazon”, “-etsy”, “-walmart”, “-temu” and “-pinterest” as search modifiers.

A lot of little shops are perfectly legit, but watch out for:

Things being ridiculous bargains. Small shops will almost always be more expensive due to higher overheads and less bulk

Too much variety in product (unless they’re a marketplace with 3rd party vendors). A legit shop will have inventory that makes sense together in its theme. If they sell everything from bubblebath to uranium they’re either probably not actually selling it or drop shipping it.

Pictures that look like they come from lots of different sources, or no consistency in images. If they don’t have their own pictures of products or standards of presentation that’s suspicious

Some general recs that apply if you’re in the US:

For anything electronic or computer related: B&H Photo or Microcenter

For music stuff: Sweetwater, but there’s a lot of great small music stores, or you can use a marketplace like Reverb

For clothes: if you have any clothes you already enjoy, go directly to their brand website. If you don’t, go to local secondhand shops and touch, handle and try on some clothes to see them in person. I’ve discovered some brands I like by finding something in a thrift store that was well made but not my size or preferred color.

For house repair and DIY stuff: we order from a local building supply store, but there’s also hardwareandtools.com, 1stoplighting, Waysource, Lightbulbs.com, Timothy’s Toolbox etc.

For food items, local grocery stores often offer online shopping and delivery. If it’s a specialty item or imported the import companies sometimes have their own websites.

For cosmetics, skin care and some home cleaning things, there’s Hive or Grove Collaborative which try to prioritize sustainability

For tea, coffee and spices, Adagio and its sister websites

For that “everything store” experience, Costco will ship a good percentage of its offerings for free with a membership in the continental US.

For something hard to find you can’t find another site for, try Ebay.

I do business with all sorts of independent retailers and have only had good experiences with them. These are sites that I’ve personally bought from but there are a lot of smaller sites just trying to make a place for themselves on the internet