OT: personal stories (Was: Re: Schneier, Data and Goliath: no hope for privacy)

D <nospam@example.net> writes:

On Mon, 24 Feb 2025, Salvador Mirzo wrote:
>

It is amazing! It was the 2 worst year of my life, and destryoed my
trust in democracy. I stopped voting after that.

>
I stopped voting by never quite beginning.  As soon as I could vote, I
went to live abroad.  I got back 10 years later, when I didn't want to
vote anymore.  A vote contributes to a perpetuation of a system.
Politicians use our votes to make their money.  I want nothing to do
with this.  Similarly to why I don't run Whatsapp.

>
Yes, not to perpetuate the system is one of my reasons for not
voting. It is funny, when I was young, I was very conservative. And as
the years have passed, I've become more libertarian. My father, when
he was young, was a communist, and during his life, he becase a
moderate conservative.

I can say the same.  I was quite more leftist years ago.  It is very
sensible: if people need protection, say, it makes perfect sense that
we'd use our resources to protect them.  But then, with more experience,
you realize how non-trivial the situation is and that all of the
/sensible/ policy actually ends up working against itself.

But I found a company that did saliva-based tests, and I called a
doctor who watched me perform the saliva based tests on the phone,
and eventually she was so tired of the process that she said, what
ever... write your own certificate, slap my name and signature on
it, and just email me if you travel so I know.
>
So for 1 years, that's what I did. =D

>
Lol.  She got tired. :)

>
Yep! But the did also not like the vaccine, and let me in on a little
secret.  About 30% of her clinics staff were not vaccinated because
they thought the tests were too few and it was too early. Officially
all said they were, and no one spoke about it out of fear of getting
kicked out of the clinic, but in private, during hushed lunch
conversations, many admitted to not getting vaccinated.

Very interesting.  I have a similar experience.  Every now and then I
hear from someone that they did not take any vaccine, or took one the
first shots, giving up afterwards.  Some (sadly) remark that they took a
first shot (or a few shots) but they never wanted to.  I have a very
close friend, for instance, who said she wouldn't take anything at all,
but that her son unfortunately took because he wanted to go to the
cinema.  (I almost couldn't believe what I heard.)  Another friend
remarked that she took three shots because she couldn't find a way out
due to her work---but she works in the same organization as I do.  The
rules were the same for the two of us, so that's a case of unclear
understanding of the rules.  That's something I've been telling my
family for many years.  We need to understand how the system works---in
this case, what was available at our work place that we could use to
protect ourselves?  The more we understand, the better we can protect
ourselves.

But towards the end they hooked up all testing facilities to some EU
surveillance register, so then it did not work anymore, but it was
towards the
end, so I didn't have the energy to get connected to it, but if it would have
continued, I would have started my own corona clinic.

>
That [would have] been wild. :)

Fixing my typo above.  Instead of ``have'', I effectively added ``not''.

Yes. I hope I will never have to. An acquaintance told me about a
croatian doctor who earned good money with fake vaccinations of
italian patients.  Italians who did not enjoy getting vaccinated
traveled to croatia to this doctor, he would fake a vaccination,
emptying the vials and putting on a fake bandaid and all, enter "all
good" into the EU system, and that was it.

I think the fake vaccinations certificates can be seen as self defense.
It's harder to argue for the profit generated.  Perhaps one line of
defense is to make everything look perfectly normal for a perfect self
defense strategy.

Then 6 months afte I quit the consulting gig, she kicked her out.

>
They kicked her out.  Sad.  But pretty typical.
>

I laughed a lot! What goes around, comes around. I still wonder if
she has that
tattoo? =D

>
She could do another one on top, which is a typical thing.  But the more
you do it, the more it hurts your skin.  So if she removed it (somehow)
or did something over, it's just getting worse.
>
Sad, but can we do?  People can be pretty... You know.
>

Lol.  I'm saying all of this to say that I would never believe that it's
really impossible for you to have kids.  Life is full of adversities.
My idea is that we should work on them 'til the end---unconcerned with
the end result.

>
This is a very sound philosophy! I do feel perfectly at ease with
either result, child or no child, but I have told my wife that as
long as she wants it, I support us continuing trying. No matter the
outcome, I'm fine with it. She is not however, which does make me
sad.

>
She's not fine with either result?  Meaning she wants kids no matter
what?

>
Well, not no matter what, but let's say there is a very strong desire there.

Which is understandable.  Desires are something to pay very close
attention to.  I believe that sometimes a desire is really a call from
nature---not to say religious words here as I've been too religious
lately. :) But sometimes a desire is really pathological pleasure
seeking.  You know, you eat a chocolate, which feels awesome, and then
on the next day you want it again, and then again and again and again...
Even if it's not in excessive amounts, that's very likely a repetitive
search for pleasure, which might be more properly classified as a
dysfunction than something natural, but that's for the experts to
consider, not me.

So I pay very close attention to myself.  I do want kids and I seriously
want it.  But let's have a look at another side.  I have a close friend
who in years past worked on a non-governmental organization for
empowering women.  We've had lots of conversation about her work, which
was always very interesting to me.  One time she remarked that in poor
areas, young women often want to have kids because it gives them a
status in their community.  Women with kids are seen as more respectful
because they have to take care of kids and all that comes with it.  She
then concluded the story by remarking that, consequently, many young
women end up having kids without really wishing for the kids themselves.

In such cases, I can't say the desire to have kids is healthy.  So
desires are complicated matters to be paid close attention.