silicon_reverie

joined 1 year ago
[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I agree that intent is an important consideration. In war, combatants are obligated to be intentional with who they target. That intentionality is even codified into international law. It's why we say that civilian casualties must be minimized whenever possible. By law, commanders must attempt to discriminate between military and civilian targets, applying force appropriately to target only those who are part of the conflict. By law, retaliation is governed by the principal of minimum force, meaning only so much force as is required to remove the threat, and no more.

When those of us outside the conflict zone are confronted with dead children on the front page, that's the standard of "intent" we're weighing our reactions against. For many, it's hard to see how attacks on refugee camps were intended to spare refugees. How attacks on aid convoys and ambulances intended to spare the sick and wounded. How refusing to allow food, water, and the gasoline that hospitals need in order to operate is intended to safeguard the welfare of civilians who have been forced to drink sea water just to stay alive. Even if Hamas is using the population as human shields, it doesn't change that the intent should be to spare those civilians in spite of Hamas' actions. They're fellow human beings. They deserve that bare minimum of thought. Sure, dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza City would wipe out the terrorists, but I think we'd all agree that'd be a war crime since it would also murder millions. The same logic applies here on the smaller scale (though 10,000 residents - half of them children - isn't exactly "small scale"). That's why it's hard to see intention in those headlines. At least aside from the intention to do exactly what you'd expect bombing a refugee camp to do - murder refugees. The indiscriminate leveling of a region isn't targeted, but it sure as hell looks intentional.

I desperately want to be wrong here, and like I said, I'm an outside observer from America just like you. But that's the train of logic that I see dominating calls for a humanitarian pause over here, and it's rather compelling.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (11 children)

It's a good way to frame things. As an outsider, the subjectivity of the IDF's target is why I wonder if people are choosing one term for the war over another. Some see the intentional bombing of refugee camps, ambulances, and aid convoys as targeting the civilians of Gaza in what amounts to a systematic extermination of Palestinians. The casualty numbers seem to heavily favor that interpretation. So could this be one reason for some news outlets to frame the conflict as Israel vs Gaza itself? Or is the word choice more nuanced than that, given how it seems as though the two names are being used interchangeably on both sides of the line?

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

I'm just not sure what we're all arguing about any more. We all largely agree with one another, but the comments in this thread are all over the place

  1. Are we trying to make an argument against the outrageous price of pre-packaged food (which we all agree have gotten out of hand)? If so, we should be comparing frozen veggie patties against their non-pre-packaged counterparts, not against beef or sandwich bread or whatever else people keep bringing up in the comments.
  2. Are we trying to argue that OP is dumb for picking the most expensive options on the shelf if they're going to complain about price? Because yeah, everyone already knows that a 70% lean turkey burger on Wonder Bread is going to be cheaper than Kobe beef on an artisanal brioche bun with truffle butter. Veggie burgers have always been expensive because they required years of R&D to make them palatable since they have to survive the freeze & thaw, sit on the shelf for months, and be viable as a boxed product (unlike our home-made versions). What's worse, they're still niche enough that they don't benefit from economies of scale. It's old news.
  3. Are we trying to argue that inflation is going nuts right now (which we also already agree on)? Because if so, OP picked a dumb collection of ingredients to make that point since I doubt many people have an instinctive feel for how much Gardein used to charge. Show us the price for beef & bargain buns today, then compare that to what a burger used to cost and then we'll talk.

My point was just that if you're arguing the first one, then actually pick comparable ingredients for your comparison instead of beef.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yeah, sounds like they're just garden-variety vegetarians so it wouldn't matter what they're picking up as long as it's not meat. Although to your point about meatless burgers, home-made versions often do contain egg as the binding protein.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Yes, but also this isn't strictly a case of "convenience food makes price go up." OP is making veggie burgers, not beef burgers, so you really should be comparing "Gardein pre-packaged veggie patties" to "black beans + brown rice + bell pepper + onion + mushroom + eggs + chili powder + cumin + bread crumbs etc" that you'll mash into your version of a DIY veggie patty. The pre-packaged ones will still probably be more expensive, but at least you'll be comparing apples to apples.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

I absolutely loved NixOS on paper, and it's undoubtedly the best way to combat updates that break my dependency trees, but I still found myself spending a majority of my time attempting to hard-code various app configuration files into my convoluted configuration.nix with its esoteric syntax rather than actually using my computer. Am I missing something, or does a good install script covering my favorite packages and a git bare repo storing my dot-files get me 90% of the way there without the hassle of bending my whole OS around a single nix config monstrosity?

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How would you define "independent"? Typically, it refers to whether or not the organization has direct ties to an outside source that it allows to alter the ethical standards of fairness or impartiality. No news outlet is truly unbiased, and The NYT might be center-left, but they still do a damn good job at reporting facts, issuing corrections when they get things wrong, and maintaining reliable credibility for the majority of topics over the years. They've got an editorial section, and that part of the paper is biased (which is kind of the whole point of editorials), but it's also clearly labeled as editorial and not news. They are not state sponsored, they do not rewrite facts in exchange for payment, and they generally strive for truth. Might not nail it every time (because no one can), but they largely fess up when they make a mistake. That's the definition of independent.

For reference, this is the Media Bias Fact Check summary:

Overall, we rate the New York Times Left-Center biased based on wording and story selection that moderately favors the left. They are considered one of the most reliable sources for news information due to proper sourcing and well-respected journalists/editors. The failed fact checks were on Op-Eds and not straight news reporting.

And when defining Center-Left bias:

These media sources have a slight to moderate liberal bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes) to favor liberal causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information but may require further investigation.

I'm with you on their lack of criticality when it comes to the NYPD. I wish that reporting was better as well. I'm also with you on wanting to see them take more chances with their reporting rather than stay within the narrow realm of beltway politics. But the latter has nothing to do with independence, and you're going to need specific examples and critiques if you want to build your case around the former. It's a discussion I'd honestly welcome. But "establishment vs anti-establishment" and "independence" are two wildly different discussions.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

... which is not to say that it's free or even affordable (despite the name), or that residents in every state have equal access, or that the government is providing the plan. The ACA is a subsidy that slightly reduces the cost of private insurance, provided that you're poor enough to qualify and that your state chooses to accept the federal government's help beyond a certain threshold.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I don't think he's encouraging Republicans to reproduce so much as he's trying to justify forcing all the other women to give birth against their will. All of those children of rape and incest, those kids whose parents aren't emotionally or financially equipped to raise them, those kids whose high-risk births might cause their moms to die in labor, those kids who have congenital heart defects, or who will be DOA when they're born. Moms aren't allowed to speak for those fetuses, or have a say over their own health and safety. Because every baby that Republicans can force to be born is another new taxpayer to fill our coffers. Obviously.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Anyone with insurance. If they're charging your insurance provider $1,400, then you'll either see that cost passed directly on to you when you get COVID, or see it as an increase in everyone's monthly insurance cost as they spread out what they're paying across their whole customer base. The money's got to come from somewhere. Granted, insurance companies will likely negotiate on the price and not pay that full amount, but it's not exactly a good-faith negotiation if their starting offer is a 10,000% markup.

Also, 2028 is less than 5 years away and COVID is set to be a persistent staple of society like the yearly flu indefinitely. They're basically saying that anyone who gets it while committing the heinous crime of being poor is SOL, even though it costs them almost nothing to produce and was developed using our tax dollars to start with.

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Everyone here keeps talking about how the UI is amazing, so maybe this is the right place to ask: is there an FOSS office suite that has a command pallet like coding editors and GSuite do, where you can tap a hotkey and type the tool name without having to dig through menus?

[–] silicon_reverie@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Sounds like a pretty good excuse to me. The code is viewable, which speaks to the privacy and accountability crowd. He allows personal modification, which appeases the tinkerers. The only group it doesn't benefit are the ones trying to make money off of his work by degrading the user experience with ads. Are there better licenses he could have picked to accomplish his goal? Yes. Am I going to go on a Lemmy rant over a dev's choice of license when he's already done so much right? Hell no. It's a win. Take the W and uninstall later if he changes his tune, just like with any other app whether open or closed.

I do agree that true open source is better for everyone as it allows the community to truly own, improve, and evolve the app into the best version of itself. But this is the Privacy group, not the FOSS one. As far as my money is concerned, it ticks the boxes and earned my install. We'll see where it goes from here.

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