Why are your citizens somehow more valuable than any other citizens? I am not even saying do nothing. I am saying killing people indiscriminately is not OK.

Second, if these are unprovoked attacks I have no idea what in your world constitutes provoked. I don’t think attacks being provoked makes them right but they didn’t come out of nothing. Israel is not an innocent party here. Neither is Palestine.

There is another question on a micro level. How many people who are not about to kill you can you kill in self-defence to save how many people?

While in theory, every human life is as important and valued as another we do often in practice allow some movement morally.

The third question is immediacy. Are you allowed to kill someone in self-defence if you know they will kill you tomorrow? Is it just current action, and how far current stretches.

But while those are simplified questions on the philosophy of ethics in these situations they don’t entirely apply to Israel and Palestine. That is because they ignore the power imbalance.

If Israel wants to keep occupying an area, yes they do have the responsibility to keep supplying vital supplies to Gaza. Even if some of them would be terrorists. And while some of them could be called terrorists, you do not have permission to deliberately cause harm to everyone in largish area.

You being attacked does not allow you to commit war crimes, genocide or ethnic cleansing. This is not a grey area.

I might have to print it and put it on a lanyard. Or it sometimes feels like that.

I am 86 baby and you are one of the only very few people born in 80s or earlier that had really early adoption to computers in addition to me. I could use MS-DOS before I could write anything else as I also had had computer available since pretty much birth also because of my dads job.

No one said the people running it are competent.

Starting fire is pretty relevant skill in Finland for multiple reasons from saunas to cabins to campfires. While I partially learned at home, scouts are pretty good here and definitely taught me a lot of wilderness and survival skills.

It is also not always about our intelligence but our skill set. I rarely have hard time learning when I want, but issue in my case has been in addition to probable ADHD and mental health issues that the system wasn’t designed to teach me studying.

I am crossing this divide now. I have secondary education but no university and I am working to get to med school now (In Finland it is a combined undergrad and med school). I think I can do it but I don’t really know how to study. I know how to learn but learning in schedule is the issue. I was too ill to go to university when I should have and I could have gone to easier courses I could have gone to without an entrance exam and done OK but I always wanted medicine. Or well, I not easier but easier to get into like maths. After I got better I ended up in aid work, and stopping that is really hard. But I still want to become a doctor so I am trying now in my thirties. Having what looks like undiagnosed ADHD that is now under investigation and crappy childhood might explain part of why I never became what people felt I should have but the fact that I never had to learn to study because I didn’t need to get through is up there.

I try to remember that our education does not mean anything for our value, but it seems hard when it comes to you.

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Of course, don’t lay down. Really learn and train to become useful in those situations. You don’t need to be professional, just properly trained. There are multiple ways to do it but you need more than a couple of days a year to also keep that training up to date.

I just have a lot of experience with people making things worse because they think the basic to medium first aid courses will make you able to help properly. And then make things worse. So my comment might have come out too harshly. But advanced first aid with the psychology of emergencies and scene management with the right attitude (mostly listening to those more experienced) will actually be useful.

I am a humanitarian aid worker working in emergencies with a decade under my belt. I am not saying civilians are not useful if they are properly trained. First aid courses that are not advanced, often repeated can help but it really is nowhere near enough to think you are ready to even halfway towards the front lines. Often simple first aid courses can also make you think you know more than you do. That also commonly coincides with attitudes where people are not listening.

I just have absolutely too much experience with people making bad situations worse with their actions. And even some people causing emergency situations because of what they don’t know. But I do not disagree with you. I think we are talking about two different things. I am talking about normal first aid courses people take every couple of years what you are talking about is actual advanced first aid courses that properly teach emergencies, how they work and how you need to act.

I would disagree. I say that everyone should take a first aid class, but to be useful in any real situation in general you need a shitton of training. Honestly, from experience, I want fewer people who think they are useful when being everything but useful in emergency situations. It leads to situations where I need to babysit them and work. At worst, they endanger themselves and/or others.

I know a lot of people who are not used to these situations feel like an extra pair of hands is always a plus but I have not met any first responders, health care workers, military or aid workers that agree with that statement. It is a common subject of discussion as it really is driving most of us up the wall.

Living next to Russia has never been easy. Living between Russia and Western powers has been worse. I’m Finnish and while we have not really seen ourselves as Eastern Europeans for a long time, we are. Just got lucky past century.

Not in America only but how bad it is depends on the country. In most, even when things are miles better, if you are a racial minority or other minority, the likelihood of cops doing shit goes higher. In mine, I can’t remember a case where people have been killed in these situations but I do know a lot of cases of structural and open racism. In other countries I have lived in, it can get a lot worse.

I think the beauty of Fediverse is that the majority of people can find pretty amazing instances for themselves. I could say the same of mine.

History fits the majority of Eastern European countries but yes as said they are Estonian. Actually, now that I think about it can’t really think of any Eastern European countries that it doesn’t fit at all.

In addition to general learning which might be my favourite, I have multiple.

Maybe the most niche is a historical reenactment and historical costuming. Latter usually based on extant garments or garment finds. I try to get as close to the original in techniques, tools and materials using the best evidence I can find.

I also plan things that will never happen. I decorate houses and apartments on paper. I make extensive plans for travel that I can never afford unless I win in Lottory. Which I even never play.

I spend absolutely too much time playing with spreadsheets.

At least in Europe, a lot of people find sparring partners through historical reenactment groups. I encourage you to join reenactments for other reasons too.

Do you also do historical reenactment or just sword fighting? I never personally got into the fighting side of things but the former has been one of my favourite hobbies for decades.