Rants
This is probably the most extensive, least objective and most opinionated infodump.
Almost all blogs have them, few if any desinate them as such.
Why would you want to read them
Well, least objective doesn't mean that the perspective is useless.
The fact that it's opinionated is not a blanked cover-my-arse statement. Just an observation that I have an opinion and don't agree with the zeitgest most of the time. I will draw your attention to the following few rules that I try to adhere to:
- Give people the benfit of the doubt;
- Call out stupid ideas;
- Call out technologies that don't function as well as they ought to;
- Call out bad decisions (see point 2);
- Reserve judgement for decisions that can be justified;
- Don't pretend to be apolitical;
These principles are applied in order. So for example, if I can justify that the idea is stupid, point 4 overrides point 5.
As for pretending to be apolitical... I disagree with the modern framework of political discourse; if you call me "left wing" or "right wing**, I will add you to the naughty list. Healthy disagreement is fine, though.
Another point is that I'm a Caucasian male, I live near Caucasus, and I harbour practices which are familiar enough to Europeans. That does not make me an accessory to the slave trade that built up the Brittish colonies. My ancestors were very likely participating in the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, Persian, Turkic, Mamelukic, Mongolian, and then Ottoman slave trade, most likely as slaves, so I will pre-empt my relationship as sympathetic, but reasonable. Do with the male part what you will, but don't weaponise it against the point.
Due to a few quite important factors, which you can find out more about, here, and here, I will not sugarcoat my opinions on some governments.