@cy @bob not finding noblisse - but noblesse apparently means "nobility of a foreign country, often France"... Yeah, I can see how 'douche' might apply, but don't see how it applies to me in this context.

@bob One of the duties of those of us who've benefited from privilege (as I have) is to be the ones who poke our heads above the parapet to lead change that provides that rising tide. We can afford to, and I think it's our moral responsibility.

Part one of the solution to almost all of our digital ills?

Do everything open and decentralised digital spaces first, and then, if resources allow, address those in centralised proprietary spaces.

If we all do this - because, let's face it, those of us in the Fedisphere are clearly the vanguard of digital tech makers and users globally - the rest of the world will eventually follow because (and I'm confident of this) they can't continue to function as they are without our help. .

@grob you're already in the elite if you've even had a crack at using your agency. Most people are completely disempowered and have succumbed to generations of learned helplessness. Don't underestimate your 'vanguardness' :)

@controlfreak I have a Zip drive (and a few disks) in a drawer somewhere. I think it had a parallel cable connection. Egads.

Wow, just noticed that the external (almost-never-used) DVD writer I have was made by "iomega". That's a blast from the past. Wonder where they are now?

*sigh* yesterday I saw that a young band I was really impressed with have allowed one of their songs to be used by Microsoft to advertise the "Surface"... Too bad. Sorta ruins their music for me. :(

@tulpa my dual 4k screens work great with Linux Mint and either KDE or Cinnamon...

Right. The kids are in bed, company's left. Wife's reading. Time to record.

@liamdiprose @clacke keep in mind, we only consider a few of the 10 commandments valid any more. I certainly don't consider them rules for my life - or, those that I adhere to, I didn't hear about them as commandments before I chose to adhere.

@liamdiprose @clacke I think many animals are better than we are in many ways... I don't think we differ only in degree, not in some fundamental way... I don't really see 'spirituality' as a special thing... it's just an outgrowth of self-awareness and our incomplete understanding of the world around us. I think animals can experience that same wonder.

@liamdiprose that's just one reason why I think National's new leader, Luxon, is already a dead duck. Aotearoa NZ society's "worm has turned". And I fervently hope that the 'conservative' (code word for "Christian") view point becomes socially unacceptable, like smoking cigarettes.

@liamdiprose I'm afraid I consider that a naive position. Religion is *always* about control and subjugation. In order to be cost-effective, it uses the "faith as a virtue" and "afterlife payment" as the carrot which never comes due for those benefiting from the power.A cult (pejorative) is a proto-religion that has the potential to topple the currently dominant religious order and threatens its power base. Initially they use derision to discourage mass adoption.

@liamdiprose I find the agnostic idea of "not knowing" to be acceptable for one who's young and inexperience in life, but it feels like a cop-out for those who're older. Feels to me like someone who just hasn't done any 'soul searching', is perennially indecisive :) , or is scared to 'come out' as a non-believer to their religious family.

@liamdiprose I don't think there's such thing as heaven except as a hypothetical. And a superficial one, at that, created by a mind that needs a break.

I've spent a lot of time reading ideas of 'heaven' and invariably upon further consideration, they look a whole lot more like hell...

@liamdiprose @clacke to me, what you're calling theism I simply call idealism. No controversy about blind faith, no need for a sky father/mother. Why do you insist on calling that a god? The whole god concept is entirely unnecessary in what you're espousing. In my opinion, calling it 'god' cheapens it. To me, being idealistic, and living up to those ideals, is what's required to be a good person who works to improve society and the lot of other individuals.

@liamdiprose @clacke and, again, I reject that assertion of god because that's neither what I nor, in my experience, most people mean by god. Why not just call your god your 'ideals' and be done with it. Am I right in my suspicion that you're a life-long Christian who has had the benefit of education and is seeking to rationalise his faith? That's what it sounds like to me.

@douginamug @yojimbo of course, Mac hardware reputedly runs Linux quite well, even the M1-based lappies 😎

@liamdiprose I think that's a much better question - I think there are lots of non-faith-dependent strands that can help bind a society together.

@liamdiprose I think I almost entirely disagree with your perspective on this. I think that the increasing loss of religion has both eased the system prejudice against various minorities in society, and provided a useful contrast to the part of the society that still identifies itself as "Christian". We see the depravity of it emerging every day with various investigations around the world into child abuse, with indigenous children as frequent victims.