“I use Linux as my operating system,” I state proudly to the unkempt, bearded man. He swivels around in his desk chair with a devilish gleam in his eyes, ready to mansplain with extreme precision. “Actually”, he says with a grin, "Linux is just the kernel. You use GNU+Linux!’ I don’t miss a beat and reply with a smirk, “I use Alpine, a distro that doesn’t include the GNU Coreutils, or any other GNU code. It’s Linux, but it’s not GNU+Linux.” The smile quickly drops from the man’s face. His body begins convulsing and he foams at the mouth and drops to the floor with a sickly thud. As he writhes around he screams “I-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT’S STILL GNU!” Coolly, I reply “If windows were compiled with GCC, would that make it GNU?” I interrupt his response with “-and work is being made on the kernel to make it more compiler-agnostic. Even if you were correct, you won’t be for long.” With a sickly wheeze, the last of the man’s life is ejected from his body. He lies on the floor, cold and limp. I’ve womansplained him to death. Here is a quick text about GNU/Linux:

"I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!"

Understood? No? Here then:

“I installed Linux and the feeling of freedom and privacy hit me so hard that I immediately began committing crimes, knowing that the FBI could never track me. Piracy, sexual assault, trademark infringement, petty larceny, tax fraud, you name it. I also own several fully automatic firearms even though I live in the state of California, but it doesn’t matter. Ever since I removed Windows 10 from my computer and replaced it with Arch Linux, and began using a PinePhone as my daily driver phone, police can’t even stop me in traffic. Windows may have a lot of video games, but the benefits of Linux should not be understated.”

I’d prefer not having people “sell” Linux to me each and every time someone says something about any software.

If you do that, you absolutely deserve this comment.

• How do you recognise a Linux user ?

• No need to do anything they will tell you immediately

I have a friend who’s kinda like that, he says he’s communist but also says that freelancers are bourgeois because “they don’t need to exploit the proletariat to be the dominant class” ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Why ?

We’re a dying species on a planet that will heat up until we’re all gone, do I really need another horror story ?

You mentioning the chekist is just the old and tired whataboutism where you point out horrors committed by the Soviets to justify your point of view. I could give you horrific stories where people were tortured and/or killed because of corporate greed and/or imperialism. What good will that accomplish?

Will hearing that people were locked inside a sweatshop while it caught on fire change anything about your view of capitalism ?

People falling in poverty because they can’t pay medical bills, killing themselves because of their job, getting tortured for information they don’t have, seeing their leaders get overthrown and living in a military state because of that.

Are you capable of seeing the horrors wrought by capitalism, not just those in the past but also those we see every day, and answer the question “Would that have happened if the redistribution of resources was fair ?”

If you want a movie recommendation “Sugarland” (2014), it’s just a fun movie about sugar, showing how insidious and pervasive capitalists can be, don’t worry no torture porn here but you’ll still feel like shit at the end.

Let’s find a compromise between “equality” and “fuck you, all for me”.

That’s just a false compromise argument promoting a middle ground that doesn’t exist

For anyone interested, here is some more context for this quote : https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1936/03/01.htm#:~:text=Real liberty can exist only,of home and of bread.

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Of course, if it isn’t available to people, my point falls apart completely and I was in an ideal situation that isn’t as accessible to most people. (I live close to a mental health center specialized in autism)

Still it helped me tremendously and I want to encourage people to seek a diagnosis.

For people who don’t/don’t yet know, support groups like this one or ND friends are invaluable

Just state your opinion, no need to be a dick about it

Because a diagnosis can tell you what you are, it’s not a supposition anymore, and you don’t have to convince yourself as it becomes an objective truth. I used to think I was autistic, and while I wasn’t that far, autism wasn’t the right diagnosis and that new information allowed me to act on the right things. I live a much better life now than when I was relying on my self-diagnosis

Uniforms in school don’t wipe distinctions, they make them less visible to outsiders, every kid still knows who is rich, who is poor, who is religious and who is not. Uniforms serve as a security theater, and limit considerably the freedom of every child who wears one while augmenting the parents expectations of how safe a place the school is.

My bad, the part about Tibet’s independence was there in response to another comment, I forgot to delete it.

And about everything being guarded, I wouldn’t care a rat’s ass about what rich people are allowed to do while travelling, I’m actually more concerned about what freedoms the locals lack.

I’m already aware of what happened in Tibet and the horrors that happened there, and I’m already a communist, and I don’t want nor mean to defend any capitalist ideal, but I don’t think the situation in Tibet is going well for the local population (to my knowledge, I welcome any new information about the current situation, I think my information is at least 5 years old)

Lhassa is still one of the most guarded cities in the world and Buddhist monks there are not allowed to talk to any outsiders. Reportedly, few of them are even allowed to enter the areas where the visitors are, when they are allowed it is under heavy surveillance. The surveillance extends to most of the city. Many reports say that the city still feels like it is under occupation.

There was a de facto independance from China, and China had to resort to a military solution to take back that region.

How is that a successful integration ?

To be clear I’m absolutely not defending the US everything they touch turns to shit and not surprising anymore, I’m just trying to understand how the situation in Tibet can be considered a good example of integration

That could be true, but I think only if there’s a systemic effort to diagnose and put those children into specialized establishments. Where I’m from, it doesn’t appear to be the case.

One time I tried to talk to someone about communism in general to get him to understand exactly what it stands for, I realised 15 min into the conversation that the guy was some kind of libertarian/fascist. I still tried to get my point across for another 15 min, but he wouldn’t hear any of it, always referring to the same shit over and over again. I left while I could still stay sane.

On the other hand, I successfully deprogrammed my coworker (I don’t know if that’s the correct term in English) and introduced him to marxist ideas and over time he went from borderline fascist to socialist. It took time and effort but I think it was worth it.

Some people are just lost, don’t know why they think what they think and it’s hard work to get our point across and for that point to be properly understood but its not lost on everyone, it’s tiring but it’s necessary. I guess the main thing is to know when you’re wasting your time and energy.

That’s not what I’m saying, my point is that usually communists are people who took a step back to reflect and question themselves on the world we are living in and I’m disappointed to see the same herd mentality you see everywhere else where anything that isn’t coming from inside that echo chamber is rejected outright. There are many “flavours” of communism and we should be able to have a healthy discussion between different communist groups but I don’t see that anywhere.

Which Chinese people ? The exploited or the bourgeoisie ? Are you being vague because you don’t want to discuss this in good faith ?

Someone happens to have a different view on a subject and that means it’s time to present the most vapid argument because you know it’s gonna get supported.

Even if you support something, most of the time shit’s nuanced and doesn’t stop at “Chinese know Chinese things more so you’re automatically wrong”

Anyway, I don’t understand this community, I thought there were gonna be communists here, let’s go back to the part where everyone unequivocally supports the regime.

The implication that GN did bad journalism by not contacting them is a fair point though. It is considered good practice to give a chance to the accused party to defend themselves about the allegations presented by the journalist.