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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • I use Pi-hole, except that I originally retrofitted after setting up DNScrypt years ago to connect to Cisco OpenDNS. That’s not the only DNS server you can use with it, though, and it’s added more features since.

    To use DNScrypt with Pi-hole on the same device, set DNScrypt to listen on 127.0.0.1:54 and point Pi-hole to that as the DNS server.

    The only time I have ever had any trouble with this setup and DNS resolution is when the network is recovering from a power outage; there’s a race condition somewhere between the Pi and my modem/router that I’ve never found the time to pin down (given outages are so infrequent I just haven’t gotten around to it) and it’s easily resolved by rebooting the Pi.


  • Evangelicalism encompasses many styles and streams—fundamentalist, holiness, Bible churches—but none are as dynamic and fecund as the Pentecostal sects. Each has a singular approach to MAGA, Trump, and Epstein, but none are more ardent than the Pentecostals. Disparaged as Holy Rollers and Tongues-Talkers for their highly emotional worship and ecstatic prayers, even by fellow born-again believers, numbering approximately 600 million worldwide, with ten percent of them in the US, making them the dominant strain of evangelicals. A subset of Pentecostals, called Charismatics, form the core of MAGA’s religious adherents. Within that group is another theological variant often called the “prosperity gospel,” referring to a teaching that purports health and wealth as marks of divine approval.

    Being familiar with these types of Christians here in Australia, this checks out. This particular type always struck me as being emotionally driven (rather than using reason and logic to make decisions). It makes perfect sense that they’re the majority of evangelicals that support Trump and MAGA.










  • What has been particularly telling for me as an Aussie is the sheer number of radio ads I’ve heard in the past few months trying to get people to travel to the US, or offering competitions where the prize is a US holiday (which, if I was the type to actually phone and enter radio station competitions, would be a deterrant for me!). It’s clear that US tourism has taken a nose-dive and plenty of us non-Americans don’t want to visit any more (it’s a bit disappointing as there are a few things I would like to have seen, but wouldn’t risk going there now).




  • Depressingly, narcissism is more socially acceptable than autism (and I suspect narcissists can “play the game” more easily, too). My impression is that this more applicable in western culture with our emphasis on individuality, with the US taking top place with its “American exceptionalism” (to be fair, my own country did export one of the worst - Rupert Murdoch).