Why are your citizens somehow more valuable than any other citizens? I am not even saying do nothing. I am saying killing people indiscriminately is not OK.

Second, if these are unprovoked attacks I have no idea what in your world constitutes provoked. I don’t think attacks being provoked makes them right but they didn’t come out of nothing. Israel is not an innocent party here. Neither is Palestine.

There is another question on a micro level. How many people who are not about to kill you can you kill in self-defence to save how many people?

While in theory, every human life is as important and valued as another we do often in practice allow some movement morally.

The third question is immediacy. Are you allowed to kill someone in self-defence if you know they will kill you tomorrow? Is it just current action, and how far current stretches.

But while those are simplified questions on the philosophy of ethics in these situations they don’t entirely apply to Israel and Palestine. That is because they ignore the power imbalance.

While Israel is part of the cause of Islamic terrorism in Europe, I think we should not pat too much on our backs. Yes, our countries’ positions taking sides on Israel is problematic as hell and so is us being tied to the US in the minds of many people outside Europe. But so is our own Islamophobia. I get where it comes from, but othering and sidelining people will lead to further radicalization. Which for people whose Islamophobia is rooted in current oppression in many Islamic societies, is entirely opposite of what they want.

If Israel wants to keep occupying an area, yes they do have the responsibility to keep supplying vital supplies to Gaza. Even if some of them would be terrorists. And while some of them could be called terrorists, you do not have permission to deliberately cause harm to everyone in largish area.

You being attacked does not allow you to commit war crimes, genocide or ethnic cleansing. This is not a grey area.

Which was influenced largely by the antisemitism of the West and the rise of Zionism for Jewish people which is partly radicalization as a response to thousands of years of oppression. But Brits were still in power with colonialism in full force.

I had it but really had to scroll to the bottom. It was also not Reddit but articles saying it was the first result. Which is kind of ironic.

Starting fire is pretty relevant skill in Finland for multiple reasons from saunas to cabins to campfires. While I partially learned at home, scouts are pretty good here and definitely taught me a lot of wilderness and survival skills.

Not in America only but how bad it is depends on the country. In most, even when things are miles better, if you are a racial minority or other minority, the likelihood of cops doing shit goes higher. In mine, I can’t remember a case where people have been killed in these situations but I do know a lot of cases of structural and open racism. In other countries I have lived in, it can get a lot worse.

In Finnish. Pilkunnussija is the word.

Just be warned Moomins are a gateway to communism (Weird internet theory). Or at least to more Moomins. We literally have Moomin everything here.

In addition to general learning which might be my favourite, I have multiple.

Maybe the most niche is a historical reenactment and historical costuming. Latter usually based on extant garments or garment finds. I try to get as close to the original in techniques, tools and materials using the best evidence I can find.

I also plan things that will never happen. I decorate houses and apartments on paper. I make extensive plans for travel that I can never afford unless I win in Lottory. Which I even never play.

I spend absolutely too much time playing with spreadsheets.

At least in Europe, a lot of people find sparring partners through historical reenactment groups. I encourage you to join reenactments for other reasons too.

Thank you! This really does point me in the right direction.

And as an aside, I absolutely love how welcoming the open source community is.

Do you also do historical reenactment or just sword fighting? I never personally got into the fighting side of things but the former has been one of my favourite hobbies for decades.

My personal favourites from Finnish.

“Ei ole kaikki muumit Muumilaaksossa” “Not having all the Moomins in Moomin Valley” Used for people who are either stupid or lack sanity. There are other variants of this and Moomin one is not older than a couple of decades.

I find our version of Grammar Nazi pretty great. We call them comma fuckers.

“Ei voi kauhalla ottaa jos on lusikalla annettu” “You can’t take with a ladle if it was given with a spoon”. This refers also to a lack of something, usually a lack of intelligence or sense.

Hmm. I have been moving towards more and more open source. But my ability to code is very limited. Is there any kind of guide on how to get involved when you can’t code?

Maybe because it was a left versus right conflict leading to decades of Franco’s more or less fascist dictatorship.

You are absolutely right that we need to recognize both genocidal and oppressive policies in our countries and where possible restitute people or their descendants, the majority of society usually did directly contribute to those policies. However the case example by the person that answered you is actually more relevant than you would think. While we can’t make our ancestors pay for their direct and indirect crimes, oppressed people who make use of horrendous policies should be exempt even in the level of thought.

To give a modern-day example of international law. Asylum seekers can’t legally be punished by the mode of entry. Not because it changes it into a good thing but because oppressed people have so few options that are sane.

Reconciling and instituting is also not enough by a mile. We as Western countries need to stop these inhumane policies. I am not American. But mine while being better than most (based on rankings not my opinion) has shit ton issues.

Things either need to be really, really bad and people are done or we need to find what they care about more than being comfortable. I was not always politically active. It took until my late twenties and seeing how bad things can really be. I have been an activist on the human rights front for about a decade. And it only happened because I really saw the issues in my country and continent. But while my family knows as I make sure they know, and some kind of care, it is not important enough for them.

But weirdly. My country had literal neo-Nazis as a minister and everyone with a brain thinks we still do as bids of the same feather and so on. And suddenly my leftist but not active friends became active, online and outside that. It is weird when I have been warning that this is the road we are on for the better part of a decade it took it to happen for people to take action. Thankfully we are still solidly democratic so this might work. At least for a few years.

This summer I have switched my Reddit, web browser, password manager, laptop, external keyboard, mouse type and now I either have to learn to live with Windows 11 or deal with the head ache of installing Linux. In other words I feel you. And figuring how to make Windows 11 to be tolerable and having to look into keyboard as touch typist is annoying as hell. I am not sure how I can completely degoogle myself as I use or used everything they have although not for really sensitive content in long, long time. But the fact is my gmail is my first adult email address and is even older than my Reddit account is.

I remember some time in high school somewhere around their IPO my friend told me google will be the next really big thing. If I had had listened listened him and had had some money I might have become a lot richer than I am. There was some now weird optimism and exitement around the now big tech companies. The vision I have of google is really different now than then but I still carry some attachement as sentimental person. I guess I am taking steps. And if anyone has input into which securish cloud storage to use that is somewhat cheap for multiple terabyte of things and can be used from file explorer, please tell me. Thankfully sensitive data is mostly elsewhere.