IMO, the second sentence feels like it’s cut off because I’m expecting an adjective at least, like:

He gazed toward the elementary school with a glint in his eye.

Or,

As his gaze drifted toward the elementary school; his nose grew, as he muttered ‘I wouldn’t hurt them’.

Though the one-sentence format is preferable for me.

I would hope Switzerland isnt stupid enough to do this. Their reputation as a country is based around trust. Dozens of highly profitable privacy based companies would be forced to relocate.

While these companies make up a very small percentage of the GDP, they’d take people out of work, hurt their reputation, and take a minor blow to their budget.

Though, this isnt considering future prospects; the Proton suite is getter better, fast. It wouldn’t surprise me, if in a few years, their suite could rival Google’s or Microsoft’s.

It could be very profitable in the future, but kneecapping the VPN would really slow things down.

The Mr. Plinkett cat.

You’re erring on the side of caution, and I get the impulse. But there’s a fine line between giving voice to the unheard and drowning out the current conversation by crusading on their behalf without actually checking whether they wanted a champion in the first place.

Language isn’t static, and if people who would’ve been the target of a slur no longer feel targeted by a modern, benign use of the word, maybe it’s worth listening to them instead of getting stuck in etymological guilt.

This is essentially justification for tone policing, language gate keeping, or inventing offenses that marginalized groups themselves aren’t actually calling out.

Campaigning on their behalf looks less like allyship and more like self-importance wrapped in a savior complex.

“The pejorative nature kind of got lost somewhere along the way.”

Not according to some, who I’m surprised havent descended into this comment section yet.

It genuinely amazes me that some people learn of a racist origin and immediately crusade against it, on behalf of people who dont give a fuck.

Words change. When the majority of people are using a phrase in a benign manner, then dragging the racist origins back into the light is a really dumb way to fight against bigotry.

Guilt tripping people into adapting new phrasing isn’t just arrogant and patronizing; it’s counterproductive - it makes the actual fight against racism seem petty and performative.

I can’t tolerate not calling them drug holidays.

How many years have you been taking it?

Yeah, you’re the guy on the left, for a few months… Then it becomes normal, and then you up your dosage, until you hit 70mg of Vyvanse daily, and need to take drug holidays just so they work well enough, not to look like the guy on the right.

NixOS Impermanence, Everywhere, All at Once (2022)

Minewhile, NixOS:

“Nice try buddy, now step the fuck away from my read-only file system before I put my flake in your ass”

The first time I saw this post: sunglasses

The second time: 375mL can of beer.

The third time: my cat.

Fuck yeah, I’m moving to New Zealand!

Fair assessment. Though I didnt go as far as to assert that it ‘was’ all bullshit - and is the reason I prefaced my comment with an admission of ignorance.

In any case, I’m convinced that my friend was not doing it right, either by his own failure to understand, or the lack of adequate instruction during guided meditation, because he didnt seem to have any meaningful insight into his own mind - beyond having a better imagination, which I suppose does translate to a more creative mind in general.

In addition, he didnt comprehend the idea of being able to ‘drop in’ to a meditative state when not actively practicing. After introducing him to mindfulness, he found it far more insightful and beneficial in general.

I talk like a guy who read a pop psychology book? That’s very judgmental. I did my best to articulate my thoughts and you arrogantly claim your own response is better, even though the court of public opinion regards my explanation as preferable.

You claim meditation is helpful for focusing attention, but this reply is the first which isnt riddled with grammatical or structural errors. You dont need flowery language to describe your sensations.

As for the dichotomy between drugs and meditation, it all depends what metric you’re evaluating. The ones aforementioned in my comment (which you’ve reduced to ‘getting high’) are the metrics I’ve used, but doesn’t encompass the entire spectrum of drug use. There are ways to compare them, and way they’re different - it’s a very narrow perspective to simply claim that one is just a more extreme version, or that the other is ‘better’.

It might be more beneficial for some people to think of ‘meditation’ as ‘exercise’.

If someone says they’ve exercised, we dont automatically assume they’ve lifted weights, or done cardio, or stretches; we know how broad this term is.

One of my friends did ‘meditation’ during his karate days, but failed to understand a lot of basics around the science focused practices like mindfulness.

Turns out his dojo was practicing zen meditation, which involves trying to illicit vivid imagery in the mind (according to him).

Now, I dont know a lot about zen-meditation, maybe they did it as a cultural thing, but from what he was able to tell me, it sounded like a whole lot of junk mind flailing.

Let’s break this down: You’re essentially saying that paying attention to something is how we experience reality. Well, no kidding. If you pay attention to something, you’re going to notice it more. But that’s not some grand, cosmic revelation. That’s just basic human perception.

I think there’s a bit of overcomplication here. Yes, meditation involves focusing attention, but describing it as the “axis of your reality” is a bit much. The basic idea is that by concentrating, we become more aware of certain things, which does influence our experience. That’s a simple process, not some deep philosophical mystery.

The “wings” analogy also feels like an attempt to make meditation sound more magical than it really is. Meditation is a way to help focus the mind, find calm, and possibly gain insight. But it’s not about discovering some hidden set of “wings” or some grand spiritual power. It’s just a practice for mental clarity.

As for the comparison to drugs, both meditation and drugs alter consciousness, but in different ways. Drugs can give an intense experience, while meditation tends to offer a slower, more controlled shift in awareness. Saying that drugs are weak because they’re like a “dumb machine” doesn’t really capture the complexity of either experience. Both have their place, and both can have benefits, depending on what someone’s looking for.

In short, meditation isn’t some mystical or supernatural process, it’s about training attention in a specific way. The real value comes from consistency and practice, not some grand revelation.

Edit: also, bold of you to assume my experiences are scant, and born of conventional thought - when you have no way of actually understanding what experiences I’ve had.

It’s evident that your experiences with meditation aren’t sufficient to counter your hubris.

Meditation is essentially a self-imposed flow state; an artifact of consciousness reflecting extreme focus. It’s akin to a runners high. Its features include ego dissolution, a distorted sense of time, reduced perceptions of pain, and feelings of bliss.

This is normally due to the release of neurotransmitters - dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and GABA, the same chemicals affected by common recreational drugs.

These features are regrettably short-cut with drug use. With training, these states of consciousness can be attained without any downsides (barring destabilizing intuitive realizations like free will being an illusion), though at the cost of not being quite as powerful as drugs.

Think of it this way, meditation is like pouring happy juice on your brain slowly. Taking drugs is like placing the bottle on your head and smashing it with a hammer - sure, you’re going to get a lot of happy juice on your brain, but the glass might make it unbearable, you have no choice when it ends, and the next day you’re going to be forced to pick the shards of glass out.

Weird analogy I suppose, but it helps to illustrate why OP might prefer the slow drip.

At the end of the day, there’s no debate about whether meditation can produce these feelings - it’s simply a matter of whether a person has the time and interest to seek these things out, or whether they want to flood their brains with happy juice.

Personally, I live in both camps; I’ve had profound realizations about my own mind while meditating, but I also like getting zonked off my gourd.

Shout to my own comment from a month ago

Lol OP is actually right but not explaining it well in the comments.

The Fap Door