Yet my EDC (Every Day Carry) is a beautifully designed and wonderfully functional Walther PPQ. Germany has no problem with weapons - some of the finest in the world are made there. What troubles me is that the government forbids the German people from owning them.
We in the US live under the delusion that our government represents us, answers to us, and should fear us - not the other way around. I know thatâs idealistic, but our founding fathers were a radical bunch and were high off that whole successful revolution thing.
Yeah, and we sell them all around the world, even to countries where this might not be a good idea - not talking about the US here, but there are customers that trouble me quite a lotâŠ
Iâm fine with that - I donât need nor want a weapon, so I donât feel restricted at all - but on the other hand I know that some really stupid people around here (we have our own bunch of lunatics over here, who for example claim that our state doesnât even existâŠ) wont get their hands on such things as well. Or will get into serious trouble, if they do. Basically nobody here owns a weapon (like I said, except for the few people who are huntsmen or police officers at work or such), and that gives me a quite peaceful feeling, in a way. Might be deceptive, but still feels good
Represent - yes, ideally. In Germany, the government represents the majority of those who vote, so, maybe not me personally, but the âpeopleâ. Answer - yes, ideally. Might be a bit complicated, but it is possible^^ Fear - nope. I do not think anything good springs from fear, neither this way round nor the other. Politicians know they depend on the public opinion and that their career might end fast if they do shit, but that is more awareness than fear. People know there are laws to follow, and that there are bad consequences if they donât, but again, thatâs not fear. I fear neither my government, nor the police of the country I live in - assholes exist everywhere, okay, but most of the time, the âofficialsâ over here are pretty nice. I fear those people who use fear to control other, maybe seriously stupid, people - and thatâs something going on here, sadly.
Yes, this is one of the rare forums I dwell in that seems to be frequented mostly by educated, intelligent and level-headed people. It is very refreshing. If the rest of the internet was like that, I wouldnât be so damn bitter about the state of it.
Yep. I think it was actually meant to be that way - there is a text, maybe pretty outdated today, maybe looking naive to many, but I still love it and at least try to keep it in mind when engaging in discussions online (though sometimes, it doesnât work )
Itâs from 1996, I guess many of us here will already know it, but I think this is just exactly what the web should be like. And itâs up to us to try to make it that way - and in this forum, I found a place where it actually is that way. Wonderful.
The manifesto that defines the future I was promised when I was young and never happened is from 1986: the hackerâs manifesto
Sadly the days of the smart technies breaking new ground in the brave new world of electronic communication have been replaced by a global network of crass consumerism and equal expression rights for those who have nothing to say and should keep their trap shut. Iâm not impressed.
But at least here, it feels more like what I enjoyed on BBSes (you know, when there was no internet - gasp! )
Oh yeah, that oneâs great, too⊠I think it shows the motivation and feelings of the beginning âhacker sceneâ pretty well, while the declaration above showed more of an âonline utopiaâ that actually never came to life, sadlyâŠ
This one is difficult⊠somehow. I value free speech a lot, and I am totally against any form of censorship especially on the web. Still, I see things online that make me want to smash my head onto my desk⊠people spreading stupid nonsense and staying in their echo chambers, so everything becomes âtrueâ after a while, simply because there is nobody to speak up against it. Itâs so boring to have discussions only with people with whom you already agree! Okay, itâs great once in a while to feel totally understood, I like that too (who doesnât ), but the discussions that make you advance, that make you think about your own beliefs and all that, are those with people with whom you disagree. I like that.
So do I. But free speech is enjoyable only when most of those who speak have received an education. But that seems to be going down the crapper. There are more and more ignoramuses, and they donât have the common sense to realize they donât know their ass from their elbow. Worse, they wear their ignorance proudly, and the less they know, the more vocal they are. The internet we have today is set up to amplifies the opinions of the more vocal, which is why the voice of reason gets drowned out.
Iâm slowly beginning to think we live in the age of anti-enlightenment. Objective facts, reason and science are beginning to get superseded by feelings or subjective opinions or worse, pseudoscience exploiting the good reputation of science. Just too much to put into words. It all makes me intensely sad and angry at the same time, and really breaks my heart. We all have biases and irrationalities within us, and I believe that education makes us recognize them and compensate for them so we can be more complete. And at the moment, thayâs not going too well.
Someone here recently called me grumpy. Damn right I am. And what I say doesnât even begin to describe how enraged I am to be in the world I live in today.
This is NOT the world I was promised as a kid. Back then, it was shaping up to be the triumph of reason, the beginning of the end for religious thinking at last, the end of wars, universal education and access to knowledge for all thanks to those newfangled computer things, health, longer and better life for all. And look, whatâs happening: the exact opposite. Itâs beyond unbelievable, and maddening as hell.
I genuinely feel Iâve been cheated out of my future.
But no reason for that
I got my own things that make me sad, angry, questioning mankind as a whole. Lots of things are going terribly wrong right now - things where we all agree they are wrong, and others that might be wrong for me and right for others. But it doesnât help the least bit if I am just sad, angry, questioning mankind. It doesnât do anything to change all that I am angry about. The only thing that happens when I sit here, being angry, rumbling at whatâs all going wrong, is that I feel worse. And I do not like that
It always sounds so incredibly naive, but I like to keep my positive thinking. I like to think that I can change a bit of the world I live in, just by being - friendly. At least most of the time, hell, I have my bad days, too, and there are people that seriously piss me off⊠But Iâm working in a shop, and I always ask myself why people are so freakin unfriendly to other people they do not even know and who didnât do them any harm⊠I sometimes sound like a stupid hippie even to myself, but it is so much fun if I just randomly smile at someone in the streets (me, dressed in black completely, having a bunch of metal in my face) and recieving a pretty surprised look first and a broad smile afterwards - and, thatâs just a tiny second in which two people just had a nuance of a better day
Mankind has never been much to write home about. But at least before the commercial internet happened, the part of it that doesnât have a clue about nothing didnât have a soundboard to spew out bullshit far and wide.
Well, unlike you, I know I canât. Thatâs why I moved to a place that has 9 inhabitants per square mile, and you can have an intelligent conversation with all 9 of them. The rest of the world can fuck right off. At this point in my life, I really donât give a ratâs ass anymore.
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