Now I’m thinking about an ex-programmer supervillain who does this as her big foray into supervillainy

They were never going to let this man be Prime Minister

I think that furry sex stuff can seem very queer in this way. To clarify what I mean, as well as being the Q in LGBTQ+, I’m also invoking queer as in queer theory. For example, prominent queer theorist Eve Sedgwick says that queer can mean “the open mesh of possibilities, gaps…and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone’s gender, of anyone’s sexuality aren’t made (or can’t be made) to signify monolithically”. Another less verbose definition, from Michael Warner (who I’m not familiar with, pulling these words from Wikipedia): “Queer gets a critical edge by defining itself against the normal rather than the heterosexual.” (Source: Wikipedia article for “Queering”)

The way that I think of this is that I’m bisexual because I’m attracted to both people of my gender and not of my gender. I’m queer because as a chronic punk, I relish the chance to leverage my bisexuality to challenge societal norms and assumptions — I got a hell of a lot cooler once I pushed myself out of the closet because it was fear around fitting into moulds that was driving a lot of my internalised homophobia. That’s my personal take on the distinction between gay/bi and queer. Personally, I don’t necessarily think one has to be LGBT+ to be queer, but that’s a somewhat contentious opinion.

This isn’t to say that all furries are queer, though I’m sure some people would argue that. Just that I think I think a lot of furry culture makes more sense if you’re familiar with queer theory and queer culture.

This is all a long winded way of saying that there’s a sense in which furries are punk as fuck, and coming from someone like me, that’s an indication of respect

The way that I make sense of fursonas and fursuits is to just reflect on the various silly things I have done as part of my hobbies. I made a chainmail skirt/dress for a party a while back. It took many many hours and the result is great, but I mostly did it because I like having a project to work on, and the event I was making it for was a great opportunity for people to tell me about how awesome the new thing I made was.

I’m also friends with a bunch of LARPers (Live Action Roleplaying, for anyone who doesn’t know — like Dungeons and Dragons, but with more hitting people with foam swords in fields). I’m not really into LARP myself, but I’ve been to a few because it’s really cool when you know enough people that you feel a part of a community. A couple of times, I wasn’t even playing, but helping out as crew, which meant putting up tents, ensuring everyone got food, helping put secrets into envelopes. LARP is one of those hobbies which is like, objectively weird (I say this with affection), but having existed in that sphere, the reason why most people do stuff is because they want to make cool shit that other people will appreciate, and they want an excuse to hang out with friends for a weekend in a field or a ballroom.

I think the “Moved from Jekyll to Hugo” dot has an implicit catchment area around it, which includes people who don’t technically fit that description, but they’re close. I’ve used neither Jekyll nor Hugo, but the fact I understood that archetype meant I felt pulled in by the gravity of that point.

We might have seen the same comment, because a similar sentiment has stuck with me. I’ve found it very useful for self reflection because I am not a furry and I don’t understand furries. My instincts tell me to be weirded out and judgemental of furries because I don’t get it. I then consciously work to override that instinct because it’s silly and it’s actually much easier to not be an asshole about things. I am glad for anyone who has a hobby and a community that brings them joy and fulfillment.

The thing is that that was how Google became so big in the first place. PageRank was a cool way of trying to filter out the garbage and it worked real well. Even my non techy friends have been getting frustrated with search not working like it used to (even before all this Gemini stuff was added)

I think people like your father make bank because even though new programmers could learn COBOL, that wouldn’t be enough for them to be able to fulfill the same niche your father and other established COBOL programmers occupy; any programming language has a disparity between “the proper way to do things”, and the kind of kludges you see in the field, but few have the kind of baggage that COBOL does, in terms of how long it’s been around and having things built on top of it.

My historian friend shared a quote with me whose source I don’t recall, but it was roughly “wars are fought based on the rules written during the previous war”. He thought it was not always true, but interesting to look at the ways in which it was (i.e. considering how military strategy evolved at the beginning of WW2)

This reads like a poem, I unironically love this

I am the Rust programmer,
I will rewrite the world in Rust.
I will rewrite the world in Rust
because the world is unsafe.
As I am the Rust programmer
I will keep writing rust
until the world is safe.
After the world is safe,
I will not rewrite it in Rust.
Because I am the Rust programmer
I will retire from programmer in Rust.

I will come to you when you are sleeping,
and I will unlock your computer
using a memory leak.
If I find javascript on your computer,
I will delete them.
Do not try to stop me,
if you try to stop me
I will do it anyways.
I am the Rust programmer,
if you program in javascript,
you will scream.

You will be sleeping
as I rewrite your computer in Rust.
You will not notice me
as I am the Rust programmer,
I am fast,
but not too fast for your computer.
I know your computer
just as it knows me.
After I rewrite your computer,
you will love your computer.
You will love your computer
because it is written in Rust,
I will do the same to all computers because
I am the Rust programmer.

I will not stop at your computer,
I will rewrite the world
because the world is unsafe.
Your brain is written in C,
your memory is unsafe.
If your brain is written in C,
you will forget what I just said.
I will rewrite your brain in Rust,
you cannot stop me from writing Rust
as I am the Rust programmer.
If you try to stop me,
you will not remember it.
Because I am the Rust programmer I can
manually remove your memory,
you will not remember me.
After I rewrite you in Rust,
you will enjoy the world
with a safe memory,
you will not forget
that I am superior,
I am the Rust programmer.

I will rewrite the world,
I will rewrite quantum mechanics
because it is unsafe.
I will not tell you all my plans
before I rewrite you in Rust,
It is because you are made of bugs
I do not trust you.
I am the Rust programmer,
I will rewrite the world in Rust,
you will not forget me
Because I am the Rust programmer.

(n.b. I’m bad at scansion, forgive any poor line break choices)

Thank you for clarifying. With this, I much more understand the point of the person I was initially replying to

Edit: better wording

I don’t see any mention of the Muslim Council of Britain in the article. Is there something I’m missing, or were you using it as a general example for similar reporting