askchapo

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Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

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submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) by Andrzej3K@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
 
 

Mine is Se7en because it's about a young couple who travel to the big city while expecting a child and the story culminates in the giving of a religiously motivated gift.

Also, Die Hard with a Vengeance

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Is ARM the only way to get there? And if so, why isn't Microsoft pushing for Windows on ARM? Are they too busy working on Copilot?

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proven-wrong-1 I'm including a Charlie Kirk picture in each of the presents I'm giving out this year. proven-wrong-1

I found a really good free site like last week, but I cannot remember the URL for the life of me (why did I use a Private Browsing window obama-spike) - only that it was completely free and would let you download the generated image & title it something along the lines of "kirkified-[numberstring].jpg". It had a 'number of faces in image' selector too.

It is not:

  • https://kirkified.com/ (trash)
  • https://kirkify.wtf/ (this one is actually decent/clearly made by someone as a joke but it is not as good as the one I was using. Downloaded images are titled 'Charlie' lmao)
  • https://kirkify.io/ (this one is what most of the ones you'll search for will be like, credit based and probably does a shit job anyways)

if you tell me to download StableDiffusion or something I'm gonna throttle you I just want to upload 2 stock images and get Charlie Kirk's face. Yes I could probably do a decent photoshop job of it myself but I'm lazy

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Like I hear a lot of people trying a lot of different distros till they find the one they stick with.

Is there a point in Distro hopping ? Like assuming im mostly content with my Mint. Have been using it for about 10 days now.

Ofc Im curious about Desktop enviroments for example. Cinnamon is nice if a bit basic. But beyond that am I missing out on some cool stuff :3

Sorry if this a babys first Linux question.

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He's really into communism. He won't read a book. What do I get this child

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Something to make people think about it while they try to solve the cognitive dissonance, or to Atleast make them view it more than a simple totalitarian state where everything was bad and even the grass was white

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I have not read every document the two wrote regarding the subject, so I may be misunderstanding; but the ProleWiki makes it sound like Marx and Lenin--and therefore Marxist-Leninists would--disregard the revolutionary potential of the lumpenproletariat. It seems like sex workers and homeless folks and disabled people are all spat on by the bourgeoisie and would be glad to help take them down? I'm disabled and mostly unable to work (I do work a little, but not even enough to be part-time) and I consider myself an ML.

The wiki describes the lumpen as exploitable by reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces, but we've seen in the West that the proletariat as a whole is susceptible to these forces. See Zohran run one of the most radical campaigns we've seen in a while and then put on Zionist officials and advocate for changing the system from the inside. The working class is content to sit down and wait for someone else to make change for them. Most disabled people I know, on the other hand, are ready to tear the system down with their own hands. So are we supposed to just gloss over a group of people who've been pressure cooking this whole time? If so, why?

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From what I can gather, when capitalist democracies cut government departments, they just end up outsourced to private companies who reap whatever infrastructure was there and replace it with their own, cheap and barely functioning version for profit.

So basically the government service is still there, it's just privatised and crappier.

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I made the title sound like a joke, so feel free to laugh, but it's actually serious and very personal. The question how to deal with conservative family members comes up a lot around the holidays. My case seems like a first-world problem in comparison. I mean, we share the same opinion for almost every immediate real world political issue that comes up.

The thing is, my family dosn't really talk about feelings or express affection verbally (like, not ever!) and it's a whole thing. But at least connecting over shared politics used to be easy and feel safe with him. It was kind of our thing and that safe space was important for us! Now it kind of doesn't feel as safe anymore? We both feel passionate about things and discussions tend to get dragged out and emotionally exhausting. I don't want that this year.

I love him and I'm incredibly proud of him. He's super smart and he's doing a lot of great work in his org.

But he also:

  • quotes Trotzky, which makes me cringe

  • and he's sort of a tailist about being anti-parties, pro mass movements (even though he is in a party, but he wants parties to support councils and hand over power to them after revolution, I'm not sure I understand correctly).

  • Opposition to "stalinist parties" (as if any party defined itself as stalinist) is really important to him, same with bureaucracy and I'm not even sure what that even means.

  • He's says he's anti-imperialist (about NATO, Palestine, etc.), but doesn't want to hear any good word about China or the Soviet-Union. I think our duty in the West is to counter NATO propaganda about China and fight our imperialists at home.

  • And he thinks Russia is at least as much to blame for the war in Ukraine as the US, or more cause "they send troops first and have the same imperialist interests". I disagree... (he's still against the military buildup in the EU though).

  • He thinks China is "state-capitalist" and every bit as imperialist as the US, because they export capital (with this, he refers to Lenins definition of imperialism, though he dosn't like the terms "finance capital" or "monopoly capital") and do "land grabbing" in Africa. To me, it's plain ridiculous to compare that to the US empire, but I guess he's talking about what he thinks China might become in the future?

I'm not a perfect marxist-leninist and I don't have perfect arguments for all of those points. Or I struggle to put them into words. Now maybe the answer is easy: just connect over something else. But what, how and do I really need to avoid talking politics? It seems silly, since, being both Marxist, we agree on a lot.

It looks similar to the whole problem about splits in marxists orgs, but on an individual scale. But it's actually more. I definitely wouldn't feel as deeply about it, if it were anyone else. He already randomly cut me nearly completely out of his live for a while, years ago, when he had a terrible depressive episode and completely retreated and I couldn't get through to him at all. Thankfully, he's back on top with medication, therapy and a better social circle (part of what helped him is to meet cool people in his org, where he became trotzkyist). But I'm kind of still traumatized from how sudden the break was and how long it took. Also, we both probably have rejection sensitivity...

So maybe, I should work on connecting over other topics than politics, learn more about theory, be honest about when I'm not sure or don't know something and try to talk feelings more.

What do you think? Anyone ever had something similar going on? Any good tips on how to talk about those political topics or on how to bridge a years old emotional gap?

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7023275

Around the fire, we try to keep warm in the harsh cold. Our family actually does not have our own tent; we live with another family in their tent and only sleep there, while the rest of the day we spend outside.

Every moment in the cold and rain reflects the hardship we are going through, and we hope to find a small shelter for our family.

Any help or donation would be a true treasure for us, enabling us to buy a tent to protect us from the cold and rain. From the heart, thank you to everyone who extends a helping handπŸ™πŸ½πŸ™πŸ½πŸ’”

https://www.gofundme.com/f/surviving-an-onslaught/cl/s?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&lang=en_GB

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Bottom text

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I have jury duty this week. Maybe. it looks like I will have to go in, but don't know if I'll get selected. But my aim is to try to get on, and if I can then probably do the Null-word without ever saying the Null-word. I do have a few questions for anyone who might know about this stuff. This is in the US.

First off, I have been on a jury before and it ended in a hung jury result and I do take credit for some praxis there even though it was a long time ago before I fully knew what that word meant. Anyway, several people who I told I was previously on a hung jury have told me that means I can't be on a jury again, but I don't know if they know what they're talking about. Is it true? Am I disqualified? If so, do I even have to report that fact?

The trial I was a juror for last time was over 15 years ago, so there are some things I don't remember well and other things that have probably changed since then. Like will it be on a questionnaire where they ask if I've been on a jury before and what the result was? I know they ask some questions vocally in person if you're being considered for selection, so is it only then that they ask about history as a juror? I assume in either case, I'd be at risk of perjuring myself if I "forgot" and wrote/said "no" for that question? Or maybe they even like it when someone has been on a jury before, just not for a hung jury, and I could leave off that particular detail?

If my well hung history isn't a deal breaker for whatever reason, what else should I know about so that I would be more likely to be selected? I'd guess a lot of it is context dependent.


This next question is a whole other topic really but I've been wondering about this site's thoughts on it even before getting the summons. As an ML on a jury within a capitalist penal system, would you say there's an obligation by principle to always nullify? It seems like edge cases must exist, even if it is playing into the bourgeois system. For example, a case where there is abuse of a child and it appears clearly evident that the defendant is guilty. I realize the system set to "rehabilitate" this person is not even "broken" but functions to punish the working class and facilitate legalized slavery, while benefiting and protecting the ruling class. It is still better to do what's necessary to help prevent more abuse by this individual from occurring, and go for conviction in that very specific case. Right? Another kind of edge case might be one where every once in a while, very rarely maybe that blue wall cracked just a little, and the defendant is actually a cop on trial for doing usual cop shit, but did it too openly or something. In that kind of one in a million case the obligation is to do everything possible to convict the bastard, I'm sure.

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(not srs)

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Can anyone's neck just do that? At any time?

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Recently I have tried to do this "touching grass" thing, again, and it's difficult. Any fleeting joy of participating in this thing we call society, the moment I notice a homeless person struggling, it just evaporates. How can I enjoy participating in social events when most of them involve exchange of goods that could have been used for the purposes of helping those in need?

Do I need to donate a certain % of my income and then I get a pass? Well I don't have an income, how much do I need to give then? Should I deduct a % of any money I get and set that aside for donations? Should I donate to local causes or international? Who gets the priority? Can I justify spending any money on things like a movie ticket to see a movie with friends, why so? What makes me more important than the person struggling on the street right next to the theater?

Are there any resources or guides you could point me towards? Is this something you've struggled with and found ways to cope with it? If so how have you managed?

(edit: I made an update in the comments. )

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Because the shutdown shitshow and Dem capitulation means subsidies are in limbo, how are you navigating this disaster? Will you downgrade your plan or cancel altogether?

Also a reminder that the deadline to change your plan for 2026 is tomorrow!

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Is copyright a good or bad thing? Why? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

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Please and thank you negative

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I literally just got fucking scolded and told I have some "accountability for my behavior" or whatever because I replied to someone who was insulting me, defaming my character, and lying about me with "Fuck you, you lying piece of shit." This isn't the first time this has happened, and it's always in these anarchist/"radical" mutual aid groups. I was flabbergasted. It was like I was on some other planet.

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The MLP wiki has high quality diarized transcripts that look like this:

Pinkie Pie: I'm awake! I'm awake! What time is it?! Did we sleep through the test?! [snores]
[beeping stops]
Rarity: No, but school starts in thirty minutes!
Sunset Shimmer: [sighs] How's everybody feeling about our test?
Fluttershy: Even after our all-night study session, I still don't know the difference between vaporization and sublimation.

Ideally, I'd like to have a tool that I can feed this to which will spit out some synced subs. The exact per-character diarization isn't actually important, since I'll certainly strip out the character names (and probably the [SDH things]) to avoid problems with alignment and they won't be in the final subtitles; rather, I want to make sure that the boundaries between speaker utterances are respected.

MFA seems like it could work, but I'm unsure of how best to preprocess the transcript/audio to get good results. I tried aligning with and without the built-in segment command as well as bumping the beam and beam-retry values with less-than-stellar results.

I'm also aware of some commercial services that offer this functionality (Descript and YouTube), but I'm looking for a solution I can run locally.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated! stalin-heart


Sort of a separate question, but is there a tool that will allow for precise line-splitting when using word-timestamped transcripts (e.g. the JSON output of Whisper)? It seems like it should be fairly straightforward, but it doesn't seem like SubtitleEdit can do it and I had trouble finding a tool that can handle it. Would be a really nice feature, since splitting lines is probably the most tedious task when dealing with automatic transcripts.

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What's the liberal reasoning for why we should have borders at all? I understand having some "soft" boundaries so people can, say, choose to live in Illinois instead of Nebraska and have different tax structures or road rules, but "hard" borders don't really make sense to me.

Borders to me seem like a barrier to a fundamental human right to be able to do the best you can for yourself and your family.

It's easy for material goods to cross borders and extremely hard for humans.

I shouldn't have to go through years of paperwork and jump through legal hoops to the point where immigration attorneys are needed if I just want to leave the U.S. and live in, say, Chile.

And don't get me started on all of the wars and violence that occurs because there's some imaginary line that says being born on one side gives you special privileges that the other side doesn't. Because God forbid we trust humans the same no matter where they come from.

Kind of ranty because it's late and I'm tired, but maybe if you can share how the liberal mind justifies these invisible lines that cause so much human misery and suffering then maybe I can some up with short answers & talking points to debunk their points.

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For context, I've been out of work for over two years now. First, I got laid off (which was effective immediately), then my dad had a medical emergency two weeks later and ended up passing away. Then my grandfather died four months later. Two months later, my spouse caught COVID from our kid, ended up going to the hospital multiple times over the next month, and was semi-bedbound for almost a year from long COVID. I was their caregiver during that time, and my spouse ended up more or less making a full recovery, thank fuck.

Since then, I've been looking for work for about a year, but it's been pretty awful sending so many resumes into a void, and I've effectively exhausted my network as well. I've also been ghosted after interviews so many times, including the most recent interview where I made it to the final round, so I am completely jokerfied at this point. There has also been the added pressure of my spouse losing their job a few months ago because of their dipshit toxic, transphobic boss. So we're both looking for work now.

This is also by far the worst market I can remember in my adult life (I'm early 30s).

I've tried to be upfront about the gap up to this point, but I think I am done being honest. I think the gap is fucking me over, especially in this market.

Anyone have experience with successfully lying to cover up an employment gap?

If it helps, I previously worked in one of those bullshit fields at a tech company for like 5 years. It's a type of work that can be freelanced as well. So I guess freelancing is an option to put on the resume. I've been trying to get back in this field, but have also found myself expanding my search in recent months because of the lack of success.

I've heard some people also just straight up make up positions at companies on their resume, but I've been hesitant to do that because I feel like that wouldn't pass a background check, no? I'm not sure how thorough the background check is for the average company.

I'd really appreciate any advice, thanks!

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