There was a massive shift in how our culture understood morality when, after World War II, the general public realized “just following orders” was not an excuse for crimes against humanity. Now we need another moral shift in which we decide, as a culture, that “for the benefit of the stockholders” is not an excuse for anything.
Late last year in the US, a Senator with a military background released a video reminding military personnel that they have the legal right to refuse unlawful orders, and the President of the United States tried to have him tried for treason. [x]
random PSA, I know a lot of people use duckduckgo as a Google alternative search engine, but it always kind of annoyed me when I was using it because it felt like No Name Brand Google
I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.
also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo
also private, European based, least annoying search I've used lately (RIP old "don't be evil" Google)
i have one of those, scraped from multiple different rec posts:
Search Engines
Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy
DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)
WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.
Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.
Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.
Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines.
Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted.
Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy.
Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.
Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden.
MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.
Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching.
Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar.
https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results.
https://www.mojeek.com/
https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites.
https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.
https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.
https://yep.com/ is a crawler
https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx
https://www.dogpile.com/
https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)
https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?
https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?
https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.
Other Searchers
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.https://cosine.club/ is an electronic music similarity search engine
"While those working at private companies can at least earn a little money, they face possible punishment if they refuse, from being denied family visits to being sent to higher-security prisons, which are so dangerous that the federal government filed a lawsuit four years ago that remains pending [note: article is from 2024], calling the treatment of prisoners unconstitutional.
Though they make at least $7.25 an hour, the state siphons 40% off the top of all wages and also levies fees, including $5 a day for rides to their jobs and $15 a month for laundry.
Turning down work can jeopardize chances of early release in a state that last year granted parole to only 8% of eligible prisoners — an all-time low, and among the worst rates nationwide — though that number more than doubled this year after public outcry."
No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama.
So anyway, the USA needs a new 13th Amendment without the penal exemption. Allowing anyone to profit off the labor of persons convicted of and imprisoned for crimes creates perverse incentives to deprive Americans of our liberty.
Chaining a human being to a stove is serial killer type behavior btw. If you have to stoop to a serial killer's level to "punish crime" then you're not punishing crime, you're just making two tiers of criminals.
Eddie who’s big into PDA with his partners. Hanging off of them, holding their hand, kissing any part of their skin. Practically inseparable from his partner when he’s in a safe space to express his love.
And Steve who watches from a distance longing to be the object of Eddie’s love.
fuuuck dude let's open a new specialty coffee shop... yeah with metallic counters... man and let's make it like solid 7 euro for a latte... fuck we are innovators... yeah come on kiss me man we are winners
Based on this post by @nancywheelesbian @jinkies-brooms-scoob and @twosunson
“I can’t shake him,” Eddie exasperated as he dropped his bookbag into the empty chair next to Jeff.
“Who?” Jeff asked quietly. There was at least four other tables full in the library’s study hall, but he knows the librarian has it out for Hellfire.
“Harrington,” Eddie hushed.
“Steve?” Jeff asked surprised. The librarian shushed in their direction. Jeff lowered his voice. “That Harrington?”
“Yes,” Eddie stressed. “I — uh —“ he physically lowered himself towards the table as he lowered his voice. “Hooked up with him this weekend and now he won’t leave me alone.”
“Hold up,” Jeff wrinkled his brow. “You’re telling me golden boy king Steve — with you? And now he’s following you around?”
“Like a puppy,” Eddie whined. “The only thing that’s keeping him from here right now is wood shop.”
“Okay, I’m still wrapping my head around this,” Jeff said. “What do you mean you bagged — that and now he won’t leave you alone?”
“Yeah!” Eddie said throwing his hands in the air. “Exactly. I don’t get it either!”
“Boys!” The librarian hushed.
“Was he high?” Jeff whispered.
“I mean we smoked,” Eddie whispered. “But it was barely a buzz. It wouldn’t have affected Gareth and he’s a lightweight.”
“So what are you going to do?” Jeff asked.
“I don’t know,” Eddie groaned. “I’ve tried shaking him but he keeps finding me.”
“Does he got something against you?” Jeff asked. “Is he like — blackmailing you?”
“Jeff —“ Eddie looked around before lowering down on the table and voice so quiet yet high pitched panic. “He sucked my dick. I got more blackmail on him.”
“What?”
“Boys!” The librarian snapped. “One more interruption and you can leave —“
The two looked at each other before breaking out into shit-eating grins.
“Balls!” “Cock!”
“Get out!”
Eddie and Jeff scrambled to pick up their items before dashing out of the library laughing, forgetting the reason that they were kicked out in the first place.
———
Hawkins High was no exception to cliques, each table was practically assigned to a group. The jocks, band geeks, the popular kids, and Hellfire Club. There’s hardly any deviation. Except —
“Eddie!”
Eddie snapped his head up, watching Steve pass by his friends’ table to set his lunch tray next to Eddie’s.
“Missed you in English today,” Steve said, as if they normally interacted in their English class. Eddie looked over Steve’s shoulder to Tommy Hagan, who looked like he was about to explode.
“Yeah,” Eddie said. “Got kicked out of study hall. Took a little adventure into town.”
“You should’ve told me,” Steve pouted. Honest to god pouted. “I would’ve went with you.”
“Jeff went with me,” Eddie said, throwing his thumb over his shoulder to Jeff sitting beside him. He quickly glanced, catching Jeff’s wide eyes. The little shit didn’t believe him. “He’s my best friend since middle school.”
“Steve,” Steve said, introducing himself.
“Yeah,” Jeff nodded. “We — uh — share home ec together.”
“Right,” Steve said. “You made those killer brownies last month.”
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “There — uh — a special recipe of mine.”
“Did you make weed brownies in class?” Eddie asked.
“No,” Jeff grinned. “I made weed brownies without weed in them.”
“So not special special brownies,” Eddie joked.
Steve snorted his drink. It wasn’t even that funny of a joke.
“Hey.”
The table turned to Gareth’s big ass frown and Freak, standing at the edge of the table.
“What’s he doing here?”
“He’s Eddie’s new friend,” Jeff said. Eddie shot Jeff a glare. “He’s having lunch with us today.”
“Steve,” Steve introduced himself again.
Gareth sat down with a huff.
“Freak,” Freak kindly introduced himself. Steve glanced at Eddie wide-eyed.
“Frank is his government name,” Eddie explained. “Some dick in his freshman English class read his name wrong and it stuck.”
“A badge of pride,” Freak grinned.
“Nice to meet you guys,” Steve said.
“Thanks for letting me sit with you for lunch.”
“You can’t sit with your own friends?” Gareth sneered. Eddie guessed if anyone was going to ask Steve the obvious questions no one wanted to ask, it would be Gareth.
“I mean I can,” Steve shrugged. “Just wanted to spend time with Eddie.”
Eddie took another glance towards Tommy Hagan and his table. Eddie knew Tommy and Steve had a falling out and that Tommy seemed to follow Hargrove around, but after winter break the two seemed to be at least on talking terms when Hargrove wasn’t around.
Eddie felt a hand squeeze on his knee.
He jerked up, barely avoiding smashing Steve’s hand into the table.
Steve pulled his hand back.
Eddie kind of missed the touch.
“Sorry,” they said simultaneously.
“Okay,” Jeff interrupted, seeing the need to pull the attention away from Steve. “We need to figure out a set list for tomorrow.”
“What’s tomorrow?” Steve asked.
“Our first gig,” Freak grinned.
“Gig?” Steve asked. Gareth groaned.
“We have a band,” Eddie explained. “Metal — like heavy rock. We got hired to play at the Hideout. If all goes good, it’s gonna be a regular thing for actual money.”
Steve’s face brightened up. “Can I come?”
“Uh — sure,” Eddie said, his brow furrowed for a brief moment. “It gets loud.”
“I’ll find earplugs,” Steve said. The first bell rang. “Shit. I got a test coming up I need to study for. I gotta go. I’ll catch you later?”
“Sure?” Eddie said unsurely.
“Great,” Steve squeezed Eddie’s shoulder as he stood up. “Nice to meet you all. Can’t wait to see you play tomorrow.”
Steve grabbed his lunch tray and left, the boys all watching him as he took his tray to the return spot and leave the cafeteria.
“What the hell was that?” Gareth asked sharply. “Who does he think he is?”
“I don’t know,” Eddie admitted honestly. “This all started this morning. He’s following me around —“
“Like a love sick puppy,” Jeff said slowly. “Congrats Eddie. That’s your new boyfriend.”
Me and @jinkies-brooms-scoob were talking about potential high school Steddie and the dynamic is just. Elite. Because they don’t know each other well and don’t have the kid connection yet so Eddie doesn’t have much to go on. And would obviously assume these are gonna be secret locker room hookups. Only for Steve to try and wave at him in the halls and sit with him at lunch
He literally tried to make Nancy one of the cool/popular squad- who's to say his audacity wouldn't reach the heights of not caring about dating the Freak??
Steve wraps an arm around him in the hallway and Eddie’s like “what the fuck does he want me to suck his dick in a hall closet??” but no he just wants to be sappy.
Gareth and Jeff like “???? Eddie why is HE here are you being held hostage???” and Eddie has to explain later that he gave King Steve one (1) blowjob and now he has attached himself to Eddie like an imprinted duckling
then of course he finds out they’re cool with the gay thing so he shows up to hellfire just to hang out and be openly mushy with Eddie
