uBlock Origin works fine with Firefox but it’s not better. Brave Shield is basically UBO rewritten in Rust and integrated directly in the browser code so it isn’t limited by the extension API and works more efficiently.

This! I never understand people who recommend Librewolf or other forks over Firefox just because some default settings are better.

I trust Vanadium but it’s not the best if you like your web ad-free.

It depends. The artist being a bad person doesn’t automatically make the art bad. But I also don’t want to support bad people. So, relevant questions to me are: Is the artist still alive? Do they profit from my consuming their work? Do I promote them perhaps indirectly? The answers will be different for e.g. Lovecraft vs. Rowling, or rereading a book I already own vs. convincing my book club to buy new copies.

Getting downvoted in a What’s your most controversial opinion? thread is just funny.

Having children in general is selfish and immoral. People shouldn’t be forced into existence to give their parents’ life meaning, take care of them, and/or keep civilization going.

Actually, yes! What is “important” in a general sense is a similar question to that of the meaning of life. In the end there is no external, absolute rule of nature that decides this for us but we must create our own values. And privacy is such a value. In part you can derive it from others like personal freedom but that only moves the question. Different opinions on what our values should be and how to resolve conflicting ones in specific situations is the subject of ethics and has been debated since humans could debate.

Because knowledge is power and most people don’t like giving whomever power over them for no reason. Also, it shouldn’t matter why privacy is important to people, the fact that it is should suffice to protect it.

I can understand that many people find reaction videos useless and low-effort content. Personally, I enjoy rewatching a lot of shows and it adds to my enjoyment doing so with somebody else. I have nobody in my life who is interested in that, so reaction videos work as a parasocial substitute. I can still see people I like (as little as I really know them) sharing the experience and sometimes having interestingly different reactions and observations.

BTW: For those who think reaction videos are a sensible way to not pay for the original content, may I introduce you to BitTorrent?

Something self-made is probably the way to go. Another option could be books, especially if you can come up with something that both meant a lot to you and you think would be enjoyed by the recipients. This can be quite cheap if you have secondhand bookstores nearby, and you can personalize them with a handwritten inscription.

I’m German and switched from Mama/Papa (mom/dad) to their first names sometime in my early teens as did my sister. I couldn’t say how exactly it happened—just felt too old to use the former. But that’s not universal here; I know people who still use the nicknames in their forties.

What helps short term for me are workouts, mostly strength training, and playing board and role-playing games with friends (often online), a nice combination of socializing and concentrating on something. On bad days I’m ignoring the news even though I like to keep informed. For long term improvement I’m looking at getting more into Buddhism, which has shown some promising early results. It’s all about alleviating personal suffering, basically a system of therapy so effective, people made a religion out of it. (The religious trappings can easily be ignored and usually are outside of Asia.)

GrapheneOS has been working flawlessly for me for years. Highly recommend!