Your criteria exclude much that is useful. For example, scientific studies that confirm theoretical predictions or replicate previous results, which are both essential to good science. Your emphasis seems to be entirely on challenging established understandings and institutions and shaking things up, but if that’s the only thing you respect as not “drivel”, you just end up pushing contrarianism. Sometimes it’s valuable to agree, or to come to consensus. Sometimes it’s valuable to delve into the subtleties of an existing way of understanding the world. Sometimes it’s valuable to explore how others already understand the world, while keeping quiet and not asserting anything of your own until you are well steeped in it. Not everything needs to be shaken up or disrupted all the time - to look only for this is the unwisdom of hubristic tech bros and conspiracists.

Yes, “reduce, reuse, recycle” in that order. It is better to sell or give away an old PC instead of just sending it for recycling or even landfill.

The Linux experience has changed quite a lot over the years. You’re unlikely to have trouble getting your computer to work with it now.

You’ll be more vulnerable to malware because it won’t be patched against newly discovered exploits.

You can’t generalize about public transport across the whole of the USA. It’s very variable between different cities, and some have pretty good systems.

They have played us for absolute fools.

Would lying flat and wriggling your way to safety like a big wet human worm help? Or always traveling with a taller, damper friend?

It could actually be a good thing, since it opens up the possibility of unsnoopable channels of communication, using encryption that would be disrupted by any attempt to intercept it.

Give it time.

Yes, as a Brit I’m a bit of a beer snob. Some of the best beers I have ever tasted have been from independent breweries in the USA and Canada. It’s really very different from how it was a few decades ago, when good beer was hard to find in these countries. Now it seems to be everywhere.

The USA and Canada have a ton of good beer from small breweries, but the stuff that gets exported does taste like piss. It’s like judging British beer on the basis of Carling Black Label.

Still, it’s run by a large American tech company and has a federation model that makes self-hosting and true decentralization somewhere between difficult and impossible.

Isn’t Bluesky still US big tech?

Yes. And the language is Danish.

There’s not really anything wrong with being incompetent, so long as you have the humility to admit it and learn from people who know better, and try not to cause harm. That’s not Musk’s minions though.

I agree, if you can find something more local with warranty support it’s preferable.

If you stick to official sellers and sellers with plausible-sounding positive reviews, AliExpress can be fine, and shipping is often quick, though warranty support is a bit of a gamble. There are loads of cheap N100/N150 boxes and other Mini PCs on AliExpress.

It might be a good idea to shorten that URL.

https://lemmy.world/post/26379948

Ah there goes another thing that distinguished the USA from China and Russia.