The majority of my currently held opinions on things have been shaped and influenced by over a decade of online forums discussion boards and conversations with strangers who hold different views as mine

I usually explain the phenomenon of the internet similar to that of the printing press. It makes the smart people smarter (easier access to information) and dumb people dumber (they can’t detect misinformation and manipulation thus will trend towards the worst possible outcomes). If you are a smart person without access to higher education YouTube and Wikipedia is the greatest invention of mankind; if you are a retard then YouTube leads you to binge watching Candace Owens

To pat yourself on the back

Building a cheap NAS with shucked drives running Plex on unraid was the best decision ever. I won’t lie it’s not cheaper than just paying for 1-2 subscriptions and I have spent time managing it but having agency over the content available is so nice and if I don’t have disposable income for a time I can just not add new drives

Better quality, don’t need 7 subscriptions to access all content, and don’t have to worry about things getting shelved. It’s funny because Netflix in like 2014 is why I stopped pirating but it was Netflix in 2019 that made me start pirating again. Spotify is getting real close to making me pirate music again too