That's not really a fair statement...

There is an ongoing linguistics debate about water being wet.

Just in case anyone starts getting the wrong idea, all ICE agents look like they are on an all carb no protein diet.

But not all carb no protection diet looking people work for ICE.

If you see my bread inflated ass coming down the street, I can't understate how important it is that you don't mistake it for an ICE agent!

This is what Applerankings.com has to say on the Granny Smith.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when apples came in two varieties: “Red” and “Green.” Generally, “Red” apples corresponded to the now contemptible Red Delicious and “Green” apples referred to the famed Granny Smith. For decades, children in school cafeterias across the world sang the praises of the mouth-puckering alternative to the “Teacher’s Pet” Red Delicious. This was an apple for the cool kids, it inspired its own candy flavor, and showed how truly original its eaters were.

How sad it is that so many unfortunate souls still cling to the stray bits of personality they gleaned from proudly declaring themselves a Granny Smith fan when they were but mere tots. It is the dawn of a new age in Appleandia and Granny Smith (an actual British ex-pat who lived in Australia) is long dead. It is time to bury her apple along with her. Admittedly, this is a superb baking apple perhaps the best, but as for munching, the Granny Smith’s densely packed flesh and insurmountable skin create a most unpleasant eating experience.

Here are the straight facts: the Granny Smith’s tough flesh and skin will quite literally make your gums bleed, it was borne from the trash of Granny Smith’s French crab apples, and science has determined that this is the most undigestible apple in the world (which, to be fair, is actually good for gut flora). To all the Granny Smith acolytes: it is time to grow up. There are now superior sour apples on the market.

BONUS POINTS: +1 Uniqueness, +1 Historical Significance, +1 Baking

Can you change your DNS again to test? Just pick Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or google (8.8.8.8) or something. It's plausable that you actually can connect to the internet and are instead just unable to perform name resolution. Presumably the vpn is using a different dns server, hence it solves your problems when connected.

Or I guess you could try to ping a known good ip to see if the dns is the problem. I just pinged google and got this if you want to try it. 142.250.72.14

I've got my beliefs sorted, I want to be able to express myself however I choose. Including using censored curse words if I so choose.

And my point is, as I've said a few times, that I find it funny how censorship has gone from "polite" to "offensive".

What if I don't "not want to swear", what if I want to used self-censored curse words? Should I sacrifice my freedom of speech to appease others?

Depending on the circumstance, I completely agree. There are certainly many cases where censoring yourself is giving away your power and freedom of expression.

However, it's not disingenuous to say that if I want to censor myself, for any reason, on the internet I will likely be shamed by folks who want to assert their values over mine. And in such I am once again giving away my power to the people who want to dictate what I do with my life.

Perhaps I want to do it because I find it funny. Or perhaps I want to do it because I'm trying to emulate a classic comic book speech style, which often had to use censorship because they were being controlled, but now has become a recognizable convention. Or perhaps I want to do it simply to assert my right to speak how I choose, as I already mentioned, despite the "higher authority" of the crowd. For whatever reason, giving up my freedom of expression, as you already mentioned, f*%king sucks actually.

For example, take this post. OP didn't care if it was censored or not, they just wanted to share something funny and didn't want to work to do it. Yet most of the comments are about the rage felt by folks who wanted OP to do more work so they didn't have to see a black bar.

I always find it funny how cursing used to be "contrary to polite speech", and in doing so you were asserting your freedom of speech.

But now, on the internet, self-censorship is considered "uncouth", freedom of expression be damned. So now you will be attacked if you say "I'll F*%Kin talk however the f$$k I wan't Sh*thead!"

If you think this post is about being tailgated in the passing lane, instead of the crazy amount of (usually truck) drivers that tailgate in every lane and on every road, then it's very likely you are the problem being discussed.

Yes, I get the humor.

No offense was taken, I though adding a little Futurama quote would show that it was all supposed to be in good humor. Sorry if I came across as defensive, offended, or otherwise offended you with my response. It was not my intent.

Was just adding my 2 cents as a 90's kid that the "smoking is cool" propaganda and marketing still existed, and was still effective.

I was a child in the 90's, I found it cool. Hell, I still find the "lighting up one last bent cigarette before going out in a blaze of glory" or the "smoking melodramatically in the rain" scenes in old movies to be cool tbh. Marketing, like nicotine, is a hell of a drug.

It's like Bender said in Futurama (in 2003 no less):

Viewers of the world, do smoking and drinking on TV really make me cool? Of course they do! How about committing crimes and violence? Again, the answer is yes. But do we really want our kids exposed to that kind of trash on TV? I say, absolutely not!

Cheers to your moral superiority tho.

a barely functioning windows environment...that’s only useful for very specific things.

Sounds like a full Windows install to me.

¯(ツ)/¯

Does Hiren's BootCD PE count?

Counterpoint: Evo Moment #37

Up is subjective...

Very true

...and arbitrary

er... not quite as true.

That's what I thought he meant when he said I'll find a way to make it work. I could swear I heard him wink through the microphone when he said it.

Yeah, we really just wound up with the FAANG Firewall instead.

Not sure what practical solution there is that will protect the general public, but I know this aint it.

No more wars is the coldest take ever

I'd call it "an oldie but a goodie".

Well... that's not really what I got out of this, and I don't see how your suggestions would help... But if it's what you think is best I'll do it. You've never steered me wrong before.