Two chicks at the same time, man…

I reject your original false premise that “so many” are actually doing this.

I have faith that pro-Palestinian folks are on the whole, rational and empathetic enough to know that trump will end the comfort, and even lives, of so many groups of vulnerable people, decidedly inclusive of the Palestinians there. We elect Harris today so that our democracy lives another day. That preserves our rights to fill the streets in protest and interrupt commerce until Israel’s genocide ends WHEN Kamala actually has the power to stop it, after being sworn in.

Until then, we stay vocal and we place the pressure to end this where it firmly belongs - Netanyahu and the Israelis instigating and enabling this historically horrible thing.

You just risk staying in limbo if not direct/literal effigy IMO… All young males in general have the earned reputation of typically being oblivious of expressed female romantic advances (just search Reddit, you’ll see 300 posts speaking to this per day). On top of that general difficulty, you have the compounding factor of their atypical mental processing.

So do what you think is right. Hope it works out for you both.

The nuerodivergent part suggests you’re going to just need to be direct.

“I really enjoy our friendship, it’s important to me. I want to make sure we keep that friendship regardless, but I’ve also realized I might be developing more romantic feelings for you that I’d like to explore together - maybe you’ve had thoughts/feelings like that about me before? If not, that’s cool, I just feel better having said it to you so it’s out of my head :) but yeah, I like you and I’d like us to get dinner on an actual date date sometime and see how we both feel. What do you think?”

Or there’s always Margaret Cho’s technique…

No worries. Just phrase as “What are some android games that are good for kids, age X - X, with a traditionally feminine or “girly” aesthetic?”

That asks your same question, without implying (intentionally or not) that all girls are a “princess that likes pink”

Just whatever makes sense

You know what is a great android game for girls… Any good android game. And that’s because girls are people. They have a diverse set of interests and are not one single thing.

Yes, common that folks in more privileged positions can have these skewed views on products, like, “Uber is a pretty good service and a good value…” but you only pay on your corporate expense account… When normal people need a ride now, it’s $80 for a 14 minute ride that used to cost 25-30 bucks. Someone’s we can just live fully different realities from most people.

You often forget to close camera shutters (they are often tone on tone and designed to be more invisible, or they can fall open/off. The microphones are also often located near/in camera modules, so a slide shutter can give a false sense of security, but you can still be heard even if not seen sometimes. I do hope it gets to a point where HW disconnect is the norm

They don’t “often come with” I’d say it’s fairly rare, and especially in the last generation of computers that most have now.

Also, what you mention are all steps above and beyond OP’s direction to “just unplug it” and they come with compromises - I.e. A shutter cover isn’t a HW disconnect, two very different things. And, a sticker isn’t really removable temporarily when you actually do need the camera deliberately. Certain high end laptops have a purported physical HW disconnect toggle or even some “flip around” cameras that are only deployed when needed, but again, few and far between.

Majority of “webcam” use is in laptops, tablets and phones, grandpa… No “unplug the damn thing” to be found?

“We’d love to not pay you for labor!!!”

:)

Check check, check da emails!!!

Testing

Duct tape your heart to someone else’s heart, double heart, so EASY. DOCTORS HATE!!!

App controlled shoes aren’t the outlier though by any means? Just about everything has a companion app these days and through enshitification they eventually lock away features and charge subscription (if they didn’t from start) until they inevitably shut down servers and brick devices or at lady severely restrict usability.

The android community often revives these products, giving them a second life and retaining their core functionality at least - because the platform allows for it in its design.

This same thing doesn’t happen in the box, because the box doesn’t want its friends ability to pull the plug denied them. Again this is objective fact at this point and ubiquitous to the point that you routinely see casual reference to this style of joke.

And to “most people will never use X functionality” that’s a self fulfilling prophecy because most people in the box have never known those features as any kind of possibility. “Most people held hostage in a basement from birth, fed only saltines, won’t want Oreo cookies” is the same idea.

See, just stumbled across this on another thread, you box folk are just the open butt of the joke everywhere…

For those that can afford to enter the box and maintain all of its required ancillary pieces, you may very well be able to have that experience and save yourself “the burden” of thought or choice, yes.

Voting is hard too, having to research multiple candidate’s histories against their stated intentions, marketing and funding sources can be downright exhausting at times, maybe you can let Apple do it for you?

Raising your kids includes so many difficult and impactful choices… Maybe we can send our kids to Apple, pay a subscription, and they can raise them as might best boost shareholder value?

It’s not shameful.

As long as you stay in your box.

Birthed by and killed by capitalism. Tone deaf retailers charging too much for not enough for too long PLUS general trend to take away “free” public places where regular people can casually gather and kill a few hours having low/no cost fun.

Fixed.