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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 7th, 2023

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  • Man, I still really struggle to understand​ how we can reliably age-gate anything on the Internet without sacrificing privacy for everyone.

    IRL you can just show your govt issued ID, but there’s virtually zero privacy risk doing so. Bouncers don’t register ID scans, typically, and they’re just one person. The govt doesn’t know you went to that club or drank at that one bar, unless they’re actively surveilling you.

    But if I needed to identify myself as an adult online, simply by virtue of how digital systems work, that probably requires checking against a govt database, and that database will keep logs, and now Trump knows I went to Pornhub, and likely also exactly what I watched or searched for.

    Maybe I’m dumb, but I really don’t know any way around this sort of thing.


  • I remember reading a Haidt article for an ethics class in grad school. The analysis felt… underwhelming? It’s been too long to remember the article, but I think it was something about the “morality” of conservatives being not worse but different than liberals (limited to the US, iirc). I just remember reading it and going… yeah conservative morality functions differently. It’s also just demonstrably worse, though, even based on what the article was focusing on?

    That class was weird though. Mostly just a bunch of folks going,“yeah well this is what I care about” and disagreeing with each other with seemingly no intention whatsoever to try and evaluate or engage with one another.













  • I’m a former Christian, if that counts.

    DC Talk - the album Jesus Freak is peak Christian Rock, but the earlier, hokey rap stuff was fun, too.

    Five Iron Frenzy - ska band that I absolutely adored as a teen. Saw them live at a reunion tour a few years ago (as an atheist) and had a great time.

    Audio Adrenaline - more Christian Rock, just a good all around band.

    Relient K - really fun and melodic punk/alternative. Went more rock than punk over time, but always solid quality. They made one of the better Christmas albums on offer, too.

    And just for fun, try singing Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan’s Island!






  • I was a sophomore in high school. A senior girl I vaguely knew but wasn’t friends with, apropos of nothing, leans over to me and goes, “You’re nice. I like nervous, twitchy virgins.”

    I don’t know if I’ve ever been more baffled in my life. I don’t even remember if I responded or what I did after that. I just remember thinking, “what the heck just happened?”