However, I do believe that China’s existence is necessary for more ideal systems to emerge around the world.

That is an important point, and it could be applied to some more radical political figures in general. I don’t want to live under a radical communist government, but a radical communist politician is needed to make a moderate socialist look like a sensible alternative to “the center”. Unfortunately this works the other way around as well, as we see absolutely lunatic fashists emerge who make otherwise far-right populists look sane.

Norway? Massive oil reserves and natural resources in a country with a small population. Imagine Quatar with a more sane government and much more sane (and richer) neighbours. Plus self-sufficiency in terms of agriculture.

Switzerland? It was the one neutral country where everyone parked their emergency money. They played all sides in ww2 and won. Everyone needs a neutral ground to negotiate and put their fuck-off money.

Both very exceptional cases.

Precisely. Among massive corruption, a decadent ruling elite, and some less than ideal foreign politics, if I remember correctly.

Just because one thing is bad, it doesn’t mean that the other extreme is good. Maoism had massive flaws, but it transformed a practically medieval country ruled by warlords into a single, somewhat industrialised nation. The reforms by Deng and others, including Xi, turned it into a country with a half-decent standard of living and competitive economy. But they introduced other problems, such as massive wealth inequality and environmental issues.

I think the position of those people is “Maoism was bad, the reforms were good, but they overcorrected”. Imho a perfectly coherent position as well. Quality of life in modern China is surely better than during the Mao era, and not only because if material wealth, but surely this current state is not perfect. Far from it, if you ask me.

Congrats on that btw, it’s those things that give me a tiny shred of hope in humanity.

But the “uneducated” part is not necessary, come on. Just because someone on the other side of the planet has probably not investigated the finer details of your domestic politics such as what social media platform was used to organise protests?

I have only heard some old-fashioned sailors and marketing people call it Dacron, everybody else has settled on polyester

At least the man who provides the documentation is huge.

Huh, what exactly are you using? I tried to run home assistant’s, well, assistant, and qwen 2.5 3B just didn’t properly call any tools. And bigger models become pretty slow on my ryzen 2400 “thinclient” home server. I’ve tried it via Ollama, even did some dirty hacks to use the iGPU, but that’s about the size that I can run without waiting a minute for a simple prompt.

I tend to be dumb as a brick, and even when I’m not, I’d rather have a polite “no thanks” than wondering what if.

Hey, you can show mutual connections, even check their CV for suspicious gaps and given how fucked up half the people on there are, they’ll probably tell you their private and political opinions!

Sweet home Alabama, where the sky is so blue…

Change the names and dates, or just tell a story “you heard from a friend”. Obviously don’t dox anyone, including yourself.

I bought a cheap 8" tablet on eBay many years ago, and really liked using it for college. Then when my regular laptop broke and I had some money, I went for one of those 13" Yoga thinkpads, thinking it would replace both the tablet and the aging laptop.

In the 7 or so years since I bought it, I can count the number of years that I used it on two hands. I’ve used the shitty old 2013 dell tablet more than the touch screen / pen input on the laptop. It mostly lives in a docking station on my desk, or gets used as a regular laptop. It’s just too big to be used as a tablet, period. Cool concept, wasn’t worth the extra money for me.

Also, you have to wonder what else they’ll lie about for sex. Good way to catch something more serious, or become a parent. Not worth the risk, regardless of gender. Better rub one out and move on than ruin your life.

Probably someone who is into kinky stuff, but very much in the closet. I know because I kind of was the same. I hope for her and her future lovers that she realises and reads the right stuff and is able to live out her fantasy in a healthy way with someone who is into that, too.

Full-time is rare. But as far as I know, the stereotypical backpacking locations are still full of unwashed backpackers

Clearly the AI thinks you need therapy, financial advice and lectures on how to sell yourself better. Interestingly, I feel like it might be up to something… I know I wouldn’t say no to that :)

But then, I’d rather hump an anthill than date a finance person, so maybe not.

Hah! You obviously have never heard of SSTV!

No need to get all racist, mate

Honestly? At this point, I’d rather verify with dick pics than with my face. My dick looks pretty generic, I doubt there is a national dick pic database, and you cannot easily identify me with my dick pick in the street. Really, the privacy-focussed compromise is taking a picture of your junk.