Notices by The Dread Slender Gnome (gnomeshatecheese@spinster.xyz)

I can sort of understand the woke left's insistence that immigrants should be taken in, on the basis that they fundamentally don't believe national borders should be considered important, and people should have the right to move from one country to another at will. Based on this, I can sort of understand their insistence that illegal immigrants shouldn't be deported either.

But what I really, really don't understand, is the insistence that dangerous, hardened criminals should not be deported, or even arrested, if they are immigrants.
I'm not talking about suspects either, but proven ganbangers and other career criminals.

Yet Andy Ngo's stream is full of reports of how wokesters are publishing ICE agents' actions and locations, in order to actively stop them from arresting and deporting these actual dangerous criminals.

I can sort of understand, logically, believing that people should be allowed to stay because they should have the right to live in another country if they so wish. But I can't see what kind of logic could possibly lead to "these members of a hyper-violent Latin American gang must not be arrested/deported".

The only thing I can see leading to this is a knee-jerk "ICE bad" reaction, which at this point amounts to a thought-terminating cliche.

It just makes no sense.

@Flick @Gelatinousrube @amerika I have to say, if I were into smoking, I'd definitely opt for a pipe. Something antique style, like those pipes with veeery long stems and tiny bowls.

However, seeing as I loathe smoking, that's never going to happen.
Just saying that pipes are definitely cooler than cigarettes.

@Zerglingman This is an interesting point, because I know some people who precisely love the UI. My work tangentially involves dealing with UI matters, so it's interesting the extent to which people differ on this.

But I'm not personally arguing with you.

I have an operating system question.

My work computer will likely need to be replaced in the coming year. I was offered the possibility to switch over to a Mac, with the main reason for the suggestion being "the easy stuff is so much faster".

However, I'm not sure I want to, for several reasons. First, I hate, HATE switching computers in itself, and the thought of having to also learn all new software promises even more rage. I did do a quick search and at least some software I'm accustomed to either has a direct Mac version, or an equivalent exists there. Still, it's bound to be an infuriating experience.

Second, I like the option of playing games in my down time. I checked and looks like Steam works on Mac, but I have no idea if the individual games I like would also work. If no, I would need a whole different computer for gaming, which is not ideal for lots of reasons.

Third, things being faster isn't that much of an issue for me. It annoys me that the present computer takes ages to boot up, but I don't really need for example my word processor or email software to be fast.

Fourth, I like customisability. I've done quite a few small things to set this computer up in a way that annoys me as little as possible, and from what I hear, that's much less possible on the Mac. For example I managed to disable one program's updates, since the company removed an essential feature, so I'm permanently running an older version that still has that feature. It is my impression that such shenanigans aren't really possible on a Mac.

Another However.
The new computer would likely run Windows 11, and so far I've heard not so good things about it. If it's as infuriating as some review videos suggest, switching to another OS completely might not be that much more annoying in the end. I've also heard people say that customisability has been reduced a lot, which would be infuriating in itself.

I pretty much hate Windows, but from what I've seen, Mac would annoy me just as much. I really, really hate reorganising and relearning my system, but that may end up being on the cards anyway, whether I switch or not. Question is, would going from Win 10 to Win 11 be less annoying, and less beneficial than going from Win 10 to Mac?

So.
Opinions?
Keeping in mind, that I'm a luddite who will only follow the simplest instructions found online and who doesn't know or care what things like RAM or processors are. I am aware of the existence of "command line", but I loathe doing anything through it.

@kirby Everything has a learning curve.

The only question is how much rage potential is contained within it.

@Flick

(direct link if you want to see the hovertext https://xkcd.com/2827/ )

PSA to everyone who posts links to Twitter threads for information!

Twitter is now not visible without signing in, so those of us without an account won’t be able to view the posts or threads you link.

If you’re linking something important, you may want to consider using a screenshot, the threadreaderapp, or just a quote or a summary of the content.

@Ducking But will it work to open a particular link?

I don’t browse Twitter. I just look at it when someone posts a link to a tweet.

@LaylaAlexandrovna In general I don’t like telling people what they should or should not do.
But the truth is, if they can take Peterson down professionally for expressing certain political opinions outside of his practice, they can do it to someone else too, and for different opinions.

I would argue that if anyone defends Peterson in this case, it’s not so much about saving his career, as it is about protecting the careers of other potential targets down the line.