Category Archives: Society

Posts about society, people, manners, communities, or whatever that concerns humans and humanity.

Brain rot

Posted on by

I just witnessed something genuinely horrific. The worst case of brain rot I’ve ever seen.

I watched someone try to get through a two-minute video clip and completely fail. They couldn’t sit with it. They sped it up to 2x, skipped ahead a minute, jumped back to catch a “key part,” then hit 2x again. All over a video that barely lasts longer than a song.

It was rough to watch. Not being able to focus for two minutes says a lot about what endless scrolling and short-form videos are doing to people.

So I asked, half joking and half serious, “How do you watch a movie or read a book if you can’t even wait two minutes for this?”

The answer was simple: “I don’t.”

That was it. No explanation, nothing. Honestly, that’s what stuck with me the most. I feel bad for anyone who’s become like this. If you have reached this point, I’m truly upset for you. I hope you can reverse the effect.

Please use social networks

Posted on by

While politicians and ruling powers continue their efforts to restrict social networks and control the free flow of information, it is our responsibility to speak out, share the truth, and defend our right to freedom of speech and expression.

There are people, such as myself, who find social networks mentally overwhelming and choose to avoid them. They are not designed and built for everyone. Still, it doesn’t mean that social networks are inherently bad. Today, social networks are one of the most important platforms for free speech. People expressing their opinion, uncensored, is what makes democracy great.

As governments around the world tighten their grip on the cyberspace, it becomes harder to preserve our anonymity. We must fight to protect our rights. Absolute power always lead us to dictatorship. To safeguard our freedom, resistance is essential.

Using social networks is part of this resistance. The more people speak up, sharing stories of injustice and unfairness, and voicing their opinions without fear, the harder it becomes for any system to silence them.

Organizing rallies and protests isn’t simple. You have to bring together people who care about the same issue, keep things peaceful, respect the rights of others, set the right time and place, and make it big enough that the message actually gets heard. And even with guides on how to attend safely, many people worry about being recognized, which is often reason enough for them to stay away.

Social networks have made things easier. People everywhere can share their opinions and be heard without having to show up at a protest in person. But it’s still not completely safe. Many have faced punishment for what they’ve said online. House raids, lawsuits, and threats simply for speaking out against those in power. And while some believe using a fake name makes them anonymous, the reality is that there are plenty of ways to uncover someone’s true identity.

It’s worth reminding people that while protesting on social networks has value, it doesn’t replace showing up in person. Online speech is still speech, but politicians aren’t nearly as intimidated by posts as they are by physical marches and protests.

We should not take online protest for granted. If it were useless, those in power wouldn’t try so hard to censor it. It remains one of the strongest tools we have today. It spreads free information, gives people access to new knowledge, and helps communities stay informed about the issues that matter to them.

Even though I do not use social networks myself, I encourage others to take part in them. If it ever becomes necessary, I will use them too despite the problems I might face. Nothing is more important than our freedom, and if speaking out on these platforms helps protect it, then being active is not a choice but a duty.

This is especially clear in many Middle Eastern countries where less democratic regimes hold power. Authoritarian governments depend on keeping people uninformed, which makes social networks a direct threat to their survival. That is why they impose heavy censorship and work relentlessly to block the free flow of information in any way they can.

It hardly needs repeating that Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, was assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. In the MENA region, journalism that serves the people is often treated as a dangerous profession. Dictators understand the power of information, which is why they work so aggressively to control it.

That is why it is important to take back control of your online and digital life. Your presence in cyberspace matters, because every time you show up, you make it harder for those who want to silence you.

Using social networks is important, but what matters even more is staying in control of your data. Dictators are never afraid to use force, silence voices, or treat people unjustly, which is why owning your data is essential. Silo platforms such as Twitter (now X), and Meta (including Facebook, Instagram, etc.) harvest personal information and hand it over to third parties, including governments. That makes protecting your digital life just as critical as speaking out.

Safer social networks such as Mastodon (or more broadly the Fediverse) are better options. But it is still very important to choose your instance carefully, since the server you join shapes your experience and determines how your data is handled. They give you a voice, are designed to respect users freedom and privacy, and they’re free (as in freedom) software.

Freedom was never achieved easily, and the digital age is no exception. Whether through marches through the streets or voices raised online, every single act of resistance matters. Social networks can be powerful tools, but only if we use them wisely and remain in control of our data. The fight for freedom is the fight for our future, and it begins with each of us showing up, speaking out, and refusing to be silenced.

Taking advantage

Posted on by
Tweet by user @your_nutt replying to @TheDamaniFelder. The original tweet shows a comic titled “How to liberal” with two panels: in the first, a bearded man with glasses holds a sign that says “DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM!” and a button reading “The system is exploitative and unsustainable!”; in the second, the same man panics in front of a falling stock chart, shouting “NOOO NOT THE SYSTEM!”. The quote tweet text reads: “if I’m locked in a cage, and I repeatedly say I don’t want to be in the cage because the cage is bad, it is not hypocritical for me to panic if the cage catches on fire with me inside.”

I used to feel guilty about taking advantage of opportunities I have. In an unstable economy, such as one I live in, you try anything you possibly can to survive. Most of you probably have no idea how it’s like to sleep at night and wake up in the morning to see your money is now worth half.

In this kind of economy you try your best to invest wisely. You won’t keep cash, you buy gold. You won’t buy something that can lose value by using, you buy something that keeps it. Everything you have is an investment. Even your phone. A phone you buy for a thousand dollars will probably worth the same, if not more, one year from now.

We even invest for short terms, such as weeks. If I want to buy a laptop, I won’t keep cash, I’ll try to buy some gold so a month from now I won’t pay twice the cash I saved. That’s how it is to live in sanctioned and collapsing economies.

Gold is one of the most famous investments all around the world, but it’s even more popular here. Since it’s valuable everywhere in the world, so you’re no limited to local market, and it doesn’t rely on your state’s economy, it’s rising everywhere so if your economy collapses, you don’t lose everything.

Now when you invest in short terms, sometimes you feel guilty. If I buy ten grams of gold today so I can save for a new laptop, say for a month, and the price of that gold decreases in the month, so I actually lose a little, I’d probably be sad. But should I? Doesn’t that mean I’m actually sad because the economy is getting better?

Isn’t it wrong to feel happy when the price of gold increases (as a matter of local economy improving)? Well for people who experienced this for decades, no. I know the economy won’t improve in long term, because of the political situation, and the improvements we see are most-probably some trick to take away what I have.

I used to feel guilty about feeling happy when some prices go up, because I had investments in that area, but no more. I’m in a cage and I don’t like it, nevertheless I won’t like it if the cage catches fire with me inside. Let me be free, and then do whatever you want with the cage.

Privacy has never been more important

Posted on by

As technology is advancing every day, specially today, in the age of so-called artificial intelligence, privacy becomes more and more important. Today, everything we do and everywhere we go is recorded somewhere. There’s a track of our daily life somewhere in the hands of someone who is not supposed to know about it.

Sadly, technology is aiding this more and more and governments and powerful organizations depend on it to put control on our actions. Whatever we do, whatever we say, whatever opinion we have, every single detail of our lives are recorded. But happily, we’re not totally powerless.

Our freedom depends on our privacy. Privacy safeguards our fundamental rights. The ability to express our thoughts and feeling is crucial for our freedom. As a Middle Easterner, I get to gain a deeper understanding of this. Middle East is a special place. It’s where tyrannical governments do whatever they can to take away people’s freedoms and the way they do it is by taking away people’s privacy. More and more surveillance everyday and putting every single person under constant watch makes governments powerful enough to take control of what people can and can’t do.

Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered in Saudi embassy in Turkey in 2018, simply because his journalism and activism wasn’t in favor of the Saudi government. Saudi isn’t losing anything over this. Nobody actually cares about this anymore. They actually got to host the World Cup in 2034. What it left as a precedent is that now more activist fear for their lives. If the government can assassinate a well-know journalist in its embassy in a foreign country, then they can make you disappear in a blink of an eye.

Privacy makes us bulletproof against these threats. I know it’s hard to disappear from the radar completely but there are steps to make it harder for the Big Brother. By using tools that enhance our privacy rights, we can effectively mitigate their attempts to impose surveillance on us.

I understand that it may be hard at our first steps but it worths the effort. We may not be able to pay cash for everything, or never carry our phones, or never give away any piece of personal information to someone, even if we try, mistakes will happen, but least is we gave it a try.

Ditching Gmail for a more privacy-focused alternatives, using web browsers and browser plugins that are designed to limit the data we share, using privacy-enhanced messengers and more importantly, encrypting whatever data we have is a start.

Doing so is not so hard. There are multiple good sources on the internet, and there are services and sites that guide people to start with taking their privacy more seriously. PrivacyGuides is one source I like.

We’re advancing. Every piece of technology we use today is somehow taking away our privacy and mining our personal information for the benefit of massive corporations and tyrannical spying governments. It’s so easy for them. Every piece of data we give these AI bots today are going to feed this surveillance machine, designed and launched to take away our freedom. There will be a day that none of us can speak freely because none of us will have enough privacy against regimes that rule us. This is of course preventable if we take serious steps towards more privacy.

We all have data we need to protect. It’s not about what kind of watch you wear, or what dog breed you think is the cutest, it’s about building a complete profile of you that will determine if you’re a threat to the ruling power. It’s not about what you post on Twitter today, it’s about what you’re going to shout in a protest against people who oppress you.

Let’s take a step forward and guarantee our freedom, and a safer place for our children.

Woke culture has gone too far

Posted on by

Two days ago president Trump signed an executive order to ban trans people from competing in women’s sports. I’ve read that he mentioned Imane Khelif as an example of one who was assigned the male gender at birth competing in women’s sports, which is wrong and she was always a woman, but nevertheless this was a good order. (Edit: I stand corrected. I’ve read that new lab reports show Khalif is biologically male. I don’t know which report is correct, whether Imane Khalif is male or female, but if Khalif is male, competing in women’s sports is wrong and an injustice to women.)

I never liked Trump. I never liked his personality, I never liked how he talks, I never liked how he acts, and I believe he is corrupting everything he touches. I believe he is not suitable and qualified to run the president’s office but I gotta admit, he is hell of a man for doing what he’s doing.

Woke culture has gone too far and someone needs to stop it. As much as I hate Trump’s personality, he’s doing a good job on this matter. We need some order. No man should be able to compete in women’s sports. There shouldn’t be 100 genders to “choose” from. There’s a man and a woman and if this is how biology works, then this should be what we use to separate genders.

There shouldn’t be sexual material, in any way, in schools. No man with giant implanted breasts to teach underage kids, no drag queens telling stories and possibly confusing children. No life-changing choices for kids under 18 such as gender-affirming surgeries. If someone is not qualified to drive a car or drink alcohol, that person is not qualified to choose to cut his penis off or go through excessive hormone therapy which in many cases have irreversible effects.

I have no problem if someone wants to call himself a woman. I have no right to choose what a person does in his/her private and I have no interest in telling consenting adults to what to do with each other, but when it comes to public, and when it’s going to effect everyone’s lives, it’s not up to debate.

There can be 100 genders and I respect you if you choose any of them but if it’s sports, there’s only two sexes which have fundamental differences with each other. When it comes to public toilets, there’s only two sexes and each one only has right to enter one.

It’s not up to debate that only one sex can get pregnant. I shouldn’t be crucified if I call someone a man when that man was born with XY chromosomes, has male appearance, and was assigned the male sex at birth but he chose to be a woman after 30 years. I respect that man’s choice, I even will try to call him “She/Her” if he wants me to but that doesn’t change anything for me.

I’ve seen drag races in streets where some people are dressed as sexually revealing as possible and there are children watching. Children should be banned from these shows and their parents should be tried and punished for bringing them there.

Right-wingers are crazy as hell, I know, but the left is not helping. I understand how ridiculous is the Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law, but should we really make everything gay to fight it? Should we really put gay characters in every movie? I completely understand that they are a minority with a history of being excessively oppressed but I don’t think making everything gay everywhere is the solution to normalize them.

And I’m not a bigot. I don’t hate anyone and I respect everybody, but sometimes the ones on the opposite side make some good points and one of these good points is that the woke culture has gone too far. The cancel culture has gone too far. Not everyone is racist, not everyone is a bigot, not everyone is a sexual predator, not every feeling is valid, and we got to stop caring about everyone and start to put some sense in our lives.

I’m tired of respecting everyone’s feelings. I’m sorry if you’re hurt, I’m sorry if you’re angry, I’m sorry if you feel something I may never understand but you got to understand, I’m not the problem here. I didn’t invent you, I didn’t create your problems, and I certainly didn’t do some weird magic to make you queer, I respect whatever you are and I try to get better at interacting with you but if you have a penis, please get the hell out of my daughter’s bathroom and no matter how woke you are, no matter how much you assure me that you feel as a woman inside and your gender is different from your sex, man I can’t risk it.

If you’re not born as a woman, I think I have the right to know and choose if I still want to have a romantic relationship with you or not. It’s not that I think something is wrong with you, it’s just that I think I have the right to know what and who I’m dealing with.

The woke culture has gone too far. Too far that it made me accept and actually like one of Trump’s executive orders. I don’t know how many people agree with me, I don’t know how many people think the same, but I think there are a lot of them and Trump being re-elected into office just proves that.

I hate racial injustice, believe me, as a brown person who was regularly be called a sand-nigger on social networks I completely understand the pain but do we really need to bold the matter in every scene and episode of our movies?

I hate a sexist person. I hate a sexual predators, man or woman, but should we really believe every accusation against people? Should we cancel people based on people’s claims? And should I really be canceled because I listened to some music or watched a movie from someone who is believed to be a predator? I mean should we really disregard everything 100s of people did to make that movie only because one person did some evil stuff?

And why stop on these matters? How come woke culture cares about what Greta Thunberg says (I love her btw, since he roasted that Andrew Tate son of a bitch), but doesn’t care about thousands of sweat shops in East Asia that work for Tech Giants? How come nobody cares about Apple or Google’s evil policies regarding privacy, people’s rights and digital/non-digital freedoms, and many evil things they do regarding human decency?

How come nobody of these woke people care about how Nike or Adidas shoes they’re wearing are produced by children, literally children, in countries such as Vietnam, India, and China?

The way to win people over changes this. culture want is not what is currently happening. It’s but slowly and carefully explaining the reason behind what it’s trying to achieve to people and let them actually decide if they agree or not. Maybe there’s still chance to do good.

Christmas holiday season

Posted on by

I’m very excited for the holiday season in West. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. Now I have only experienced it through movies and books and news, but it still makes me feel good. The videos and imagery of snow-covered streets combined with twinkling lights and families holding hands going shopping and stopping to take a picture with Santa make me excited.

The songs, movies, and everything we see on Internet and elsewhere are so good. It make me feel a sense of warmth comfort. I watched “Red One (2024)” few days ago, starring Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson. Not my type of favorite movie but still made me laugh and feel joy.

We have so much good Persian traditions which I adore but they can’t stop me from wanting to experience the traditions of Western cultures. Everything I see sparks my curiosity. Many of the traditions aren’t even specific to Western cultures, such as exchanging gifts and visiting family members, they are some of the most-respected values we have in Persian culture, yet they seem somehow different in West.

The portrayal of these celebrations in Western media has painted a picture of unrealistic happiness in my brain which I know may be a lot different in real life yet I can’t control my desire to experience them.

Winter is my favorite season so you can understand how a holiday in the winter, which is always shown to me with specific pictures of snow-covered houses and decorations, can make me this much excited.

But the celebrations and festivities aren’t all I’m excited for. As a Middle Easterner, you surely can understand how the feelings of unity, happiness, goodwill, and celebration are carved in our DNA so I want them as well. It’s not just about the cold weather and good decoration, it’s about embracing deep feelings too.

Perhaps one day I find the opportunity to participate in these celebrations, to create memories and blend in with people who truly appreciate these traditions. Until then, I’ll continue enjoying movies and videos, pictures on Internet, reading good news about it, and talking to my friends. I can enjoy the season imagining I’m part of it as well.

Middle Easterners are numb

Posted on by
Image shows two boys sitting amidst rubble in what appears to be a war-torn or conflict-affected area. They are surrounded by debris from destroyed buildings, with the walls of a damaged structure visible behind them. The building's windows are shattered or boarded up, and laundry is hanging from some windows, suggesting that people may still be living there despite the devastation. The boys are wearing casual clothes and appear to be in conversation, possibly sharing a moment of reflection amidst the destruction. One of the boys is wearing a yellow T-shirt, and the other is wearing a striped shirt. The overall scene conveys a sense of hardship, resilience, and the impact of conflict on civilian life. The palm tree in the background adds a slight contrast to the otherwise bleak environment.
Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash | License

If you’ve followed Middle East news in past weeks you surely know about the attacks exchanged between Israel and Iran(-backed forces). We’re know one step closer to full-blown war. We’re one step closer to a total war and nobody seems to care.

As a Middle Easterner, you get used to certain things in the region, and one of them is war. We’re born with it and many have died with it. It’s been here for thousands of years but modern conflicts date back to 1902. It’s always been here.

I don’t have a memory of a single day without war in the region, nor does my father, nor did my grandpa. We’ve always had war and years of experiencing and getting used to it made us numb.

For the past week I’ve seen my colleagues’ flights being canceled on fear of missile attack from Israel and the only thing I’ve heard from my co-workers is how much angry they are that they can’t go home (for their monthly rest). Nobody seems to care or be feared that if Israel attacks one of the petrochemical and refinery plants here, where we work, every single one of us would likely die.

Nobody seems to even fear that there will be war directly towards us and we most certainly will suffer the consequences. We’re so numb from the war that the only reaction I see from people is them making jokes. Pretty funny jokes actually, made me laugh hard sometimes.

I bet if there’s a threat against some European or American countries, people there would panic and get everything ready to combat the aftermath but it’s not like this here. War has lost its meaning here. I’ve seen people lining up in gas stations to get a full tank so they can flee the city in case of an attack but it was a really small group of people.

I was wondering what the hell is wrong with us here? We know what war can do to us, we’re seeing it every day, and yet we’re continuing life as nothing is happening. War is not funny, it’s not something that will ever become normal, yet it is in here.

Human captcha

Posted on by

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have captcha on us? Like when people want to interact with us, we would make them solve the captcha. Are you human enough? They would be forced to answer it with real answers.

Human Captcha: Verify you are human
Human Captcha: Verify you are human enough

A list of random questions would be presented to people:

  • Are you racist?
  • Are you sexist?
  • Are you a bigot?
  • Do you support fascists?
  • Do you support terrorists?
  • Have you ever discriminated against a group of specific people?
  • Do you respect people’s privacy?
  • Are you a cheater or a betrayer of trust?
  • Are you a professional liar?
  • Do you secretly do what you preach against?
  • Are you a snob?
  • Are you trying to interact only to use me for some benefit?

These are just few questions I had in mind. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could present people with this kind of captcha?

What would you put on your human captcha?