LIES!!

Europeans traveled the globe to spread the love of God and everyone they encountered they treated with the utmost respect because they realized these people, like themselves, are God’s creation, created in His image. That’s the beauty about Christians throughout the ages, you can safely trust upon their moral compass because they adhere to the laws of God and God only. If Europeans weren’t truly guided by God, and ever behaved in bad ways as is suggested here, you would expect to see examples of such unprovoked death and destruction across the globe all throughout the age of exploration and colonialism. But what we see, for the most part, is harmony and bliss, ever lasting peace and prosperity, like a mirror image of the Kingdom of Heaven brought to earth. And people across the globe converted because they were impressed by the moral superiority of the white man, saviors of humanity, chosen by God himself to guide us to His perfect light. And yes, of course, in some instances, when indiginous people would threaten this harmony, the good Christians needed to defend it, as warriors of God, and sometimes harsh measures needed to be taken. But to frame this genocide, ethnic cleansing, rape, torture, theft, etc. as immoral is shortsighted. They raped and tortured in self defense, or if not that, in His defence. Sometimes it may not be immediately obvious how these actions by Christians are part of Gods plan, but God and his true believers in His name, work in mysterious ways, and to question these ways, whether guided by hatred or logic, is to disrespect God, because it shows you have no faith. When you act out of faith in God, this requires no logic, no justification. The actions of the Christian man are it’s own justification. Submit and all will be well. But if you resist you deserve everything that’s coming to you, fire and brimstone, whether it’s in Hell or here on earth, you will burn, as the abomination you are.

Say it with me, ‘for the Grace of God, DEATH TO ALL NON-BELIEVERS!’

/s (obviously…)

If we were to rank people on the basis of how far they are on the path towards enlightenment, without a doubt Jeff Bezos would have all the world in front of him.

Aside from the pricking scandal, what a fantastic idea.

On “Fête de la Musique” people are urged to play music outside.

Here my country is stuck with Christian holidays that noone remembers the meaning of.

(Somewhat unrelated to the subject, but I felt like writing my thoughts on Iran in general.)

Iran being a Shia theocracy seems repressive and backwards to us, and surely they are as theocracies tend to be. This means that thinking about Iran westerners tend to think they themselves are on the good side, while Iran is on the bad side. But this is fundamentally wrong and the west is clearly the bad actor, given that it does not have any legitimate interests in the area and only engaged for imperialistic reasons.

If you look at Iran’s history you’ll learn that the Islamic Revolution of Iran was a response to western influences, and those western influences came along with the 1953 coup d’etat. And this coup d’état was supported by the US & UK. And the only reason this was done was for the purpose of oil. It was in reaction to Iran trying to nationalize it’s oil industry, which obviously was a good idea, but bad for the western imperialists. So you install a puppet regime, that begs for a revolution, and surprise surpise, there’s a revolution and it happens to be religious and conservative. So ever since the people of Iran have been stuck with it’s theocracy, Undeniably this is in part the fault of the West.

Then of course there is the anti-Israel stance of Iran, which is constantly used as proof of Iran being evil. But if just for a second you try to look at Israel from the perspective of someone from the Middle East, you’ll see that Israel is a colonial state, founded by zionists who from the very start commited ethnic cleansing to secure their state. The Nakba isn’t talked about much in the west, but just try to imagine a similar event happening in your region of the world by foreign powers, and you’ll understand the impact that would have. That is not forgotten after a few decades, especially because Israel is still driving people from their lands and colonizing it till this very day. This isn’t ancient history, this is in the present. They even returned to committing genocide all over again. Also, Israel has been the base for the US influence in the region and all the wars and interventions that come with that. How can you possibly expect Iran to not view Israel as their mortal enemy? Just imagine a Middle Eastern colonial state located in Europe or the US, created by ethnic cleansing the local population. We’d view that state as a mortal enemy and want to drive these people of our lands. I am not saying this is the proper thing to do, I am saying it’s obvious that this sentiment is broadly shared. It’s hardly surprising. Victims tend to have harsh views of those who attacked them.

And Iran is being attacked again, supposedly for developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile Israel has had nuclear weapons since the 60s. But in the views of westerners this is not a problem, because Israel is good, being a democracy and all that, while Iran is bad, being a theocracy. But these are all just western frames. Why in the world would a bomb be in safe hands with a hyperagressive colonial ethnostate that has repeatedly engaged in ethnic cleanings? But not in the hands of an admittedly backwards, conservative theocracy, that wants to secure itself from western imperialism. The Iranian interest in having a bomb seems completely reasonable actually. Again, just imagine a Middle Eastern colonial hyperagressive ethnostate founded by the ethnic cleansing of your local communities. And now they have nuclear bombs. And not only that, Middle Easterns powers are constantly engaging in wars all across your region. Would it be unreasonable for you to also want a nuclear bomb in such a situation? It’s a no brainer.

And as much as I dislike theocracies, I can’t help but think that if the west wasn’t as imperialist as we have been and still are, Iran would’ve developed into something completely different. Iran/Persia has always been the center of regional powers, from the Achaemenids 500 bc till today. It’s a beautiful country, they have a beautiful and rich history and they have an incredible culture, from the Islamic geometry, to the persian miniatures, to the incredible Sufi poets. You can’t expect a proud people as they are to lie back and be dominated by western imperialism. And the more you repress people, the more they’re bound to turn to theocractic conservatist populism.

TL:DR we’re not the good guys, Iran are not the bad guys.

The world needs to move to digital sovereignty. It’s amazing to think that a country like Iran, that is constantly under threat of the US, has so many people using Whatsapp, and probably relying on much more US software.

I think you’re right in what you’re saying except for my intentions. To be honest, I never make news posts on here, this is my first one. I came across this fact in Dutch news and hadn’t seen it on here, so I decided to share it. I am first to admit that maybe I should’ve paid more attention to the correct wording of the title. What would you deem proper. Something like “Microsoft blocks email-access for ICC prosecutor in accordance with US sanctions over Netanyahu arrest warrant”?

care to elaborate?

You’re right. The word ‘just’ is out of place. Freedom often depends on people not complying.

Lol, absolutely not

care to elaborate?

13.2% of the inhabitants of Luxembourg are Portuguese.

Thinks people shouldn’t take medical advice from him,

…proceeds to give medical advice to people.

Studying the Child marriage in the United States Wikipedia page. Looking at the map legenda that says ‘red = 0’, thinking ‘surely that means it’s forbidden, right? right??’ What the fuck.

Old enough to marry but too young to divorce. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard this week.

I have not made a point of cars not serving a purpose in rural areas. If you say there are many rural areas in the US, then it is implied that I am not speaking of those areas. Cars are overused in densely populated areas where possibilities for public transit are immense, and cars are an extremely inefficient method of transport. Surely you’re not suggesting that there aren’t any densely populated areas in the US… And yes, of course there is some public transport already. But it’s far less than it could be and it needs proper investing. We’re not doing good on that front here in Europe, not good at all, but the US is hardly doing better. Efficient/collective solutions often seem to lose from individualistic options, despite the massive costs of the latter, and I find that a shame.

I’m not saying cars don’t serve a purpose in sparesely populated areas, like West Virginia. They do. But cars are overused in places where public transit would be a thousand times more efficient, like big cities. Also, trains are perfectly suitable to cover large distances. I happen to go on holiday to Italy next week and I do it solely by train. And Europe doesn’t even have good high speed raillines. Perhaps less so than the US, but Europe also neglects public transit in favor of the car lobby.

Sure in some rural places possibilities for public transit are limited. But in the US most people live in cities and they could very well have decent public transit, it’s a political choice to not invest in trains. .

Yup, Netherlands and public transport is pretty good here. As well as towns, including mine, are walkable/cyclable.

If it’s trying to get Tesla to go bankrupt, I highly doubt that will happen. And I also don’t really see what it achieves except for annoying Musk.

I hate Musk, Tesla, and cars in general. (I like trains). But I also dislike people who are wasteful, destroys things like everything is replaceable without any harm done. I also dislike people who are dishonest for their own benefit. This is not helping built a better future. It’s dishonest and destructive. Lose lose.

Late response, but there is BookBrainz, the book-equivalent of MusicBrainz. It’s catalogue isn’t as big as OpenLibrary but they’re doing way better on the front of keeping their data clean and without duplicates. I hope someday it will find more users and be the base for other apps to built upon.