Thank you for this kind reply; I needed it this morning.

I’m a bit perturbed by the overlap of “toxic-tech-broism” and authoritarian support; to a point where I sometimes want to escape corporate tech all together. I’ve posted a while ago on Beehaw asking how to transition from corporate to a possibly non-profit or government job instead; but my battery for this effort is depleted right now. There is an end in sight within a few months for this project, and my plan is to find a different job with a more progressive team hopefully.

May you also find peace in your own journey in this world; it’s nice to know it’s not a lonely route.

Because your protest is failing to consider the ramifications of a Trump Presidency should he win. Project 2025 is no hidden secret and Trump has made it clear he will act like a dictator and purge dissidents. It is hard to take you concern for Palestinians as sincere when Trump has advocated for “finishing the job” and you’re willing to set Trans, Minority, and Reproductive rights on fire. A protest vote was already attempted in 2016 with Hillary and instead we have 1 million plus dead due to a botched pandemic response. There are those less privileged who can’t just escape should we fall into theocratic fascism.

Guess who benefits from a Trump win: Russia, China, and Isreal. And no doubt they appreciate “useful idiots” to sow discord and create voter apathy because that is the best way to allow Republicans to win. Ukraine will fall, China will be more emboldened to attack Taiwan, and Netanyahu will have his buddy back in office rubber stamping even more terror.

Recently learned that an individual who is causing the most strife and division on my team is super hard-core MAGA Trumper. It really brings a clearer picture on why he is attacking I and the other women on the team and why those he hired are only white men. I’m already nervous about the upcoming election, but to see a supporter so emboldened in his views in the workplace gives me a more in-your-face view of how these people want their day-to-day.

Hillary won the democratic nomination because older voters turned out more to vote in her favor. While young voters primaries for Bernie, the overwhelming majority of those voting in the primaries were older.

Like Barack Obama eight years ago, Bernie Sanders captured the vote of younger voters under 30, and they made up a greater percentage of the electorate in 2016 (17 percent) than in 2008 (14 percent). And Sanders fared better among these younger voters, winning 71 percent of voters under 30 (compared to 59 percent for Obama in 2008). Voters between 30 and 44 made up 23 percent of Democratic primary voters, and they were almost evenly divided between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. In most of the states where exit polls were conducted, the candidate who won the vote of 30 to 44 year olds won the primary. Six in 10 Democratic voters were over the age of 45, and as she did eight years ago, Hillary Clinton won the support of older voters. Clinton won 64 percent of voters between 45 and 64 and 71 percent of voters 65 and older.

Source

If more youth turned out to vote in the Primaries in an equal or stronger force than older voters, Bernie would have had the nomination.

Regarding Democrats not doing anything to support immigrants, DREAM Act and DACA were ushered in with greater force and an expansion was attempted due to Obama despite Republicans consistently fighting it or Republican Governors suing against it. The expansion was stalled by our conservative Supreme Court, but would have been successful if we had more left leaning judges. General overview. It’s not that democrats are not attempting these things, but more so we lack the majorities in Congress and on SCOTUS. There is the potential of more justices retiring in the next presidential cycle and whoever wins has the ability to make the court more right or left leaning which will have an impact on this.

I currently live in a very red state with an anti abortion law that took affect the moment Roe was overturned. There are no exceptions and we even had our own case of a young girl being forced to give birth from a rape because her mother could not afford the hours long trip to the next closest abortion clinic. That young girl’s life is forever hindered by giving birth too young; now multiply that by 1000s should a nation wide ban be placed. Or the radicals who want to remove no-fault divorce and keep abused women in dangerous relationships. I have the means to escape, but that’s a very much a “fuck you, I got mine” mindset when I recognize the abject poverty that exists for the majority here.

We’ve already been through this 8 years ago after Hillary lost the election. Democrats didn’t “wakeup” and over a million people died in the US from a botched pandemic response. Accelerationism is a privileged view when you have nothing to lose, but those less fortunate are hurt by its repercussions.

Our current system is broken and no means perfect, but burning it all down isn’t how we change it. It is far more likely that an authoritarian takeover will occur instead of the rose-tinted glasses utopia that these non-voters think will happen. All the death, pain, and destruction won’t magically shock people into changing it because they’ll be too focused on just trying to survive the hellscape wrought on them.

It is not more of the same when one side clearly wants to instill a Christian Theocratic takeover. Trans rights, minority rights, reproductive rights, environmental protections, and so much more are also on the line. Both are bad candidates, but one is not calling for Christian Sharia law. You’re throwing the baby out with the bath water when it comes to fallout of what will happen to those less fortunate.

I’m sorry, but this reply reeks of privilege. My reproductive freedom is on the ballot this year after already losing so much after SCOTUS was able to be stacked with conservative judges. If Trump wins, SCOTUS will forever be this way in my lifetime and my rights will erode even more as a woman. After the overturning of Roe, a 10 year old rape victim from Ohio and those who assisted her were harassed all due to providing her an abortion. States are disbanding maternal mortality boards or putting extremists over them. For the love of God, we are headed into a Handmaid’s Tale if Trump is elected!

“Well the democrats should have encoded it.” I literally don’t care. That was then, this is now. Women are suffering now and the alternative will make it worse. When the Republican party wants to codify Christian sharia level law, that’s an immediate danger to me and other women. We can’t continue to protest the atrocities of Israel if we are forced into reproductive servitude. There are way to many Republicans advocating against anti child marriage laws in an age where they can be raped without a means to terminate.

I am equally frustrated about Biden’s handling of Palestine, but setting my own rights on fire removes all energy and possibility to advocate for them! This attempt to accelerate us into punishing the democrats for giving us bad choices is only going to hurt those who lack the funds and privilege to easily escape a Fascist takeover.

The scary thing is, this is legit how the marketing course I had to take taught the concepts. The whole course was from the perspective that people are too dumb or overburdened to make decisions on what products they should buy, so marketing and ads are our savior to take that oh so hard critical thinking away. I wish I was kidding, but everything about that class felt like “how can we abuse psychology to force people to consume.”

It’s all in effort of “line goes up” in the immediate short-term despite the fact that a year from now these companies are going to struggle to complete difficult projects. My company has layed off a number of 10, 15, 20+ year veterans because they were highly paid. Now there are gaps in knowledgeable folks to tap for help and Juniors are being forced to perform to a Senior level without proper support.

The pandemic growth periods caused every company to loose their damn mind to make growth projections based on those insane numbers for a time that should have been ruled out as an outlier. I know these MBA fucks had to take a business stats class, but literally dropped the fundamentals when they saw big $$$. Now they’re cutting the talent that fostered their primary growth and will be looking back 6 months from now wondering why they still aren’t growing. Well surely the Juniors aren’t working hard enough!

While I know it isn’t an exact match to the flavor you can get from Wok Hei, I’ve pulled off some great dishes using a wok intended for electric stoves. Being a renter, finding apartments with a gas range in my area of the US is impossible. So I’ve made due with a wok with a slightly flatter bottom to help assist.

I haven’t tested it yet, but using a kitchen torch is another option to add that flavor depth. Serious Eats has a write up on it and I’ve seen Kenji use his as well to intensify the Wok Hei.

I’ve heard that about charities and non-profits; it’s just the nature of the work they do. I am worried about the grass not exactly being greener if I were to go that route. But at the same time if I found the right one, I know I would feel more motivated for the work if it was for a good cause. I’ve had to put in the crunch and grumble over last minute changes, but it’s one thing if it’s for keeping up with a competitors marketing promo vs assisting a system to support refugees. I like working with people, but I hate it when those people are profit driven.

Thank you for sharing your own experience. While part of me wants completely out of tech, I really think the right company culture plays a role in that. I wouldn’t mind staying in the field if I found something similar to your own job.

Out of curiosity, how did you find your current job? I’m used to using LinkedIn, but I feel it has become very Facebooky and very corporate America. I’ve heard of Dice and Indeed, but haven’t heard if one is better than the other for these types of jobs.

I’m so happy for you! You got this and you’ll do well!

The US is literally on the precipice of deciding if they should become an authoritarian, fascist, theocracy in the next election. Project 2025 is literally staring us in the face and a Biden loss for 2024 all but ensures the end of our democracy. Is it good at this so called democracy now? Not exactly, but it is sure better than the alternative with Trump.

Yes, I am absolutely angry and upset about the situation in Gaza. It bothers me, but I also realize the realities of our current election situation. There is too much on the line for reproductive rights, Trans rights, minority rights, and so much more. Project 2025 puts us one step closer to Handmaid’s Tale becoming a reality and marginalized individuals being targeted and possibly put to death. Biden and Trump are our options in this sham two party system and yet I realize not voting for Biden is a sure fire way for things to get worse.

So when I and others see a trend of negative post after negative post about Biden, it reads as a social engineering attack to brew apathy to convince people not to vote. This happened in 2016 with Hillary and we were all told not to worry about Trump. Well I loss my own authority over my reproductive freedom, anti-Trans rhetoric rose, and a chunk of our population became convinced BLM was the bad guys. I and others aren’t perfectly happy Biden is the Democratic pick, but him winning a avoids Project 2025 and a GOP Fascist takeover.

Oblivion is hands-down one of my favorite games I have ever played and I feel it’s a more engaging game than Skyrim was. Sure it has its quirks and certain annoying features that are dated, but it captivated and locked me in way better than Skyrim. It was colorful, weirdly fantastical, and constantly had me going down random rabbit holes that revealed cool surprises! That is the Bethesda quality I desired that made me want to play their games.

If it was 2016 again and I heard this news about ES VI, I would be on the full hype train. But alas, we are post Starfield and I have lost any faith they will actually deliver on a decent follow-up. It was lackluster, boring, and all grey; nothing whimsical that used to draw me to their games. The doubling down on criticism tells me that creative spirit is gone and development has just turned into get the task done with a set time frame.

Carby Boi! One of my cats has the same affliction and will rip open any unsecured bread, rolls, muffins, etc.

Best of luck with the bed bug situation!

I sorta started this week wanting a career change, I just don’t know what or how. I’m just so tired of being in tech because I thought it was a stable career path. But now all I see is a drive to crunch, offshore everything, and perpetual layoffs because the predicted growth didn’t hit “expectations” despite record profits. I’ve found a better position in comparison to my old one, but it is so hard to give a damn about “build X feature to deliver Y value” for bullshit things that are just selling services or more of X item.

I’m glad I’ve moved from a purely dev type role to more so project management/product owner stuff, but I hate being responsible for things that feel meaningless. I hate being the person telling devs to keep crunching to build out functionality to allow our product deals to be onnpar with our competitors; woooh developing for over-consumption! Then completely being neutured to pushback because it goes against what the business wants in profits; WLB be damned. I really want to find a way to transfer my skillset to a meaningful non-profit, an actually impactful company (if it exists), or maybe a museum or something else similar. Part of it is I don’t quite know how to make that journey or if those type of jobs are even available in my area.

Prior to Twitter being bought by Musk, I was pretty active on there due to being part of NAFO. Typically I would call out Russian disinformation regarding the invasion of Ukraine, but I noticed some of these Pro-Kremlin accounts had associations with gamergate. One individual had something like “gamergate survivor” in his profile and I proceeded to call him out for it. In came the false narrative and derogatory language, but I’m guessing my shitposting responses got to him. Within minutes of interacting with this guy, someone was trying to get into my account. Fortunately I had MFA setup, but the mere fact that this so called gamergate survivor launched an attempt to hack into my account tells me I struck a cord with him mocking the whole movement. It’s so damn childish.

This feels like the AI equivalent of men telling female workers to smile more. I’m totally sure that bias wasn’t cooked into these algorithms. Honestly, how is this not profiling for neurodiverse individuals?

I live in a very red state and until recently didn’t have the option to just jump to another more progressive state. But I also recognize that the ability to just jump ship is a privilege that the majority do not have. Even now I am on the fence because this is still my home where I have grown roots. The issue is those who decided to abstain or vote 3rd party in 2016 allowed for the rise of Trump. From there SCOTUS became a right-wing powerhouse and Roe was overturned. If Hillary had won in 2016, SCOTUS would have been provided justices who would not have taken that action. As much as I disliked Hillary, I knew she was the safer choice when it came to my reproductive rights and the rights of other minorities.

I cannot for the life of me find a gynecologist that isn’t some crazy pro-lifer obsessed with bAbieZ and the overturning of Roe only has made this worse. I’ve called gynos in my conservative state asking if they’re trauma trained and every damn time they act like they’ve never heard of sexual assault. It’s all talk of how can we get you to have bAbieZ because how dare you want to be a child free woman in such a godly state! How many other women are in my position in similar red states and delaying vital checks for cancer when the only providers want to shame you? All the decent gynos that I would have seeked care from have no desire to practice in a state that is so restrictive on abortion so instead it caters to the extreme.

As much as Biden’s backing of Isreal bothers me, I will still vote for him because the situation above will only get worse for I and other women. There’s also the whole war against Trans and Gay individuals by those on the right, and voting for Biden is another dam preventing their way of life being persecuted federally. The right is itching to hurt or even kill those they do not agree with and abstaining to vote just ushers this possibility to be greater and allow Trump to return.