No it wasn’t and it never did.

The constitution itself allows for a very small group of individuals to control the entire country, from the first moment it was written.

It was never truly reviewed to allow a proper redistribution of voting power throughout all the states and it still allows for indirect election of the most powerful state figure, where it should instead by directly elected by popular vote.

The gerrymandering, the filibusting, two chambers system, common law system, etc.

The american government was never created to be a proper one; it was an emulation of the english system but even more botched.

The document itself should have been thrown in the trash and a new one written, the moment the civil war broke. And again it should had been trashed when the market crash happened.

There is only so much an ammendement can do.

Imagine if any country could manage itself, by thinking ahead and admiting bad actors could arise, thus preparing in advance for it.

I understand your take but it is not really hard to grab the basic mechanics and make a thriving city in any game.

The basic mechanics are universal.

What throws off the managing part is “enemies”, “natural disasters” and other excitment mechanics.

A managed economy could happen and would be highly efficient, especially because running a nation is a collective endeavour. Individuals fail but groups have memory.

That one.

Start by your own privacy.

I boarded that train about twenty years ago. I tried the evangelizing route. I failed miserably. Which led me to care for myself first and foremost.

I started by abandoning Windows. Not of my own volition; I bought a computer that had no OS. Enter Linux. None of my family, friends or acquaintances understood. It was all about the convinience. When my machines started outperforming while outliving theirs, it caused a ripple.

Then came the usual slew of questions: where can I get a free anti-virus, office, media reader, whatever? That was when I introduced FOSS. After the initial resistance, things just settled into place. LibreOffice works. VLC works. PeaZip works. Thunderbird works. Etc.

When smartphones became a thing, I started moving as fast as I could towards FOSS. This made things a bit more laughable as “free” android applications are ubiquous. But they fill your phone with junk and ads. While my apps provided me ease of use, safety, security and privacy.

But when push came to shove, I just refused to join. First I left FBMessenger. I never boarded Whatsapp. I never entered Instagram or any major social networks. I discovered Signal and remained there.

It’s my way or no way.

Unfortunately, stupid heartless people are a dime a dozen.

A couple that lived near me had a little thai cat, a sweet of an animal. They would let the cat out daily.

At some point, they just decided to leave the country and abandoned the cat.

The creature became the neighbourhood boss. Killed several males in fights, some even larger, fought off dogs, became a ferouscious hunter and never agaim entered a house.

That cat was king of the street for three years until one of his own blood dethrowned him.

The man is in frail state. I’m not wishing his death but does he have to keep “producing”, as a proper slave to politics, or is he deserving of going as painlessly as possible with as little suffering as humanly attaineable?

The man’s frailty and dwindling health was visible. I sincerely hope a therapy can be found to mitigate suffering but let’s not hold illusions: it reached the bone, it’s aggressive; the man does not have much time.

The last one broke ground with his name/title. I liked it.

Wasn’t there a pope called Leo?

Pius number something. Pious… yeah. Missed that mark.

That’s a nice thought. Charitable. Wishing to see hell empty, as in without anyone there.

I once tried to delete something I was not supposed to and the system was quite adamant on advising against it. The system was to be reinstalled so I was just trying things.

It’s been a while but I recall the system giving me a first warning that my command woud delete X, Y and Z, which could render the system inoperable.

Then it questioned me if I was sure I wanted to proceed with the operation.

The final warning was a sum of the potential damage I would do to the system and that it would be irreversible, without a full system install.

So, three strikes.

The entire car. Not the infotainement alone.

Nobody can pay me enough for me to carry their logo as free publicity.

I wear logoed clothing because the logo acts as identification and grants me special acess to fenced off areas, which I otherwise wouldn’t be able to lawfully acess. But when the clock is off, the logo is off.

I’ve seen Linux kernels powering eletrical instalations control monitors. I’d risk we can say that if it runs on electric impulses, it can run Linux.

When will EVs be jailbroken?

Thank you for sharing.

I’ve read it. And it’s a hard read, indeed. But strangely enough it helped to put into place a few loose pieces in my mind, on a good deal of matters.

I have no words and I tend to talk too much. Between what you have told me and what I read, I’m simply horrified.

And it should be up to the parent to show that it was indeed an extreme circumstance that needed an extreme reaction, it shouldn’t be assumed.

Completely agree.

And after your reply, I also noticed I needed to clarify another thing.

I understand “corporal punishment”, in the context we are talking, is severe and recurrent physical aggression; that is not what I intended to parse when I mentioned “extreme measures”.

An “extreme measure”, in what I intend to convey is a swat - on the back of the head, on the butt; at the very worst a slap - just to cause a break in a locked state of mind and set a hard boundary, from where something positive can be done.

I suffered “corporal punishment”. That is aggression and abuse, calculated and reiterated. I’m not advocating for that.

if a child’s disrespect went unpenalized, they’d lip off to a biker and get killed

This snippet caught my attention. At an intuitive level, something tells me this is not about discipline and education but control, physical and mental. And that shows the “respectful and upstanding” citizens (parents and teachers) are the true bad actors.

I’ll read your link a bit later. Thank you.

My father was abusive. He often told me I had it good because unlike his father, he didn’t use the belt to punish me. I was under surveillance at school because that little sentence slipped from my mouth once and he was warned that if I ever gave signs of being abused, they would immediatly call the authoritiesm

Meanwhile, my grandfather from my mother’s side, raised my mother with care, concern and respect and nothing beyond a stern word ever came her way. That same man told my father he’d beat him to death with a shovel if ever hit after I showed up bruised for visiting my grandparents.

And at school, we had a teacher that found it adequate to twist kids ears and bang their forehead on the blackboard. When that came to be known by my father, it was the only time he stepped up to prevent abuse on me and threatned to beat the woman if she was ever to lay a finger on me.

Corporal punishment is wrong. But let me add one caveat: under extreme circumstances, extreme measures are required.

I do not hit my children. I’m stern but I don’t take myself too serious and my pants don’t fall to the ground if I have to apologize for a wrong decision or word from me. But I do not subscribe to the quasi-cult of ever showing or even imposing hard limits to kids. And kids, more often than not, like to push boundaries and test limits. And there are extreme cases where one single swift swat replaces quickly and effectively hours of negotiation. It saddens me to watch grotesque scenes play out in public venues with kids throwing tantrums, screaming their heads off and demanding this that and the other because parents, and now I quote a couple I personally know, “do not believe in negative reinfforcement, be it by words or actions”. Theirs and other kids alike are horrible humans.

I’m sad for what you personally lived. It’s inhunane and monstruous. And belief is never an excuse for any behaviour.

Just out of morbid curiosity: where do those religious folks find the backing in their books to uphold those rotten ideas?