For folks actually interested in defending themselves and not just cosplaying as Delta Farce or Gravy Seals:

If you can’t handle the fact that you may have to take a life someday, DON’T BUY A GUN PERIOD. Gun ownership is a serious responsibility that we as a country unfortunately don’t treat as such. If you do decide to get one, the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to train, even just target practice, don’t buy something and stash it in a shoe box (have somewhere secure to keep it!). Make sure you take a stop the bleed class (good idea if you’re American period), and know your local self defense/gun laws backwards and forwards. If you’ve never touched a gun before, have someone who can show you how to safely operate and handle it before even considering buying one. This may be difficult if you’re openly leftist/LGBTQ+, but there are liberal/LGBTQ+ gun owner groups, or the Socialist Rifle Association, who might have, or help you find local groups/organizations/stores that aren’t right wing cultists. They should also be able to guide you on buying something that fits your use case (e.g. Home Defense or Concealed Carry) and that you can safely handle.

For a few options that aren’t an AR: In states that ban the AR by name but don’t have a blanket AWB, you may be able to get a Ruger Mini 14. Uses the same caliber, and has interchangeable magazines, only difference is it’s wood and patterned after the M1/M14. Ruger also makes something called the PC Carbine, which is a 9mm carbine that can take Glock magazines. Then, there’s the SKS which can be retrofitted to take box magazines, but those are now rare and expensive. There’s also the good ol’ AK-47/74 but those tend to be swept up in legislation that ban weapon platforms by name. You could also choose to get really, really good with a lever gun or shotgun. Heck, if you join the Civillian Marksmenship Program, you can get an M1 Garand! You can also get a pistol such as a Glock 19 or 43x which, while less effective than a long gun, is something at least. I would choose the 43x if you decide to get a concealed carry permit; it’s very slim, good for small hands, and has a 10 round magazine which is legal most everywhere. There’s a lot of options to choose from out there that get overshadowed by the AR, and thanks to our gun fetishism, it’ll probably be a while before they’re all legislated away.

A Ruger mini-14 is the same thing as any AR-pattern rifle that a cop carries. They use the same cartridge even. Difference is one is wood the other is plastic

good thing we can breathe money

These idiots forgot that an “america first everyone else last” president might alienate a pretty big part of their customer base, i.e. the rest of the world

My hope is this will be another nail in the coffin for the giant bro dozers. Everybody I know who does actual real truck stuff have been crying for this exact vehicle for years. A small (in American terms) utilitarian vehicle for getting your truck stuff done. Essentially an American kei truck

Plus I think there have been a lot of small smart-car sized EV offerings, but I can’t really think of a small truck besides the Telo truck.

I live in a rural area and need to do truck stuff frequently (ex. We have no trash pickup and have to haul it ourselves to the dump). Something like this is very appealing to me. I could also see this being useful as a fleet vehicle that doesn’t really leave campus grounds (think facilities/grounds/maintenance).

Probably not, my automotive sibling

He’s been accused of a lot of things. Doesn’t mean anything until he gets punished

Just ban him from using IVF treatments to conceive. His mangled penis will never produce a child

As an American I have to second this. Please don’t fall in line to lick trump’s boot

Can’t wait to start putting Trump “I DID THAT!” stickers next to $5000 walmart laptops

That one DankPods video of the “AI Rice cooker” comes to mind

I’ve grown up with windows (started with windows 95 in elementary school) and have been a Linux user since 2009. Watching windows decline and the Linux desktop grow and mature has been quite the ride. I’ve been distro-hopping for years and have finally settled on Debian Testing. It does exactly what I tell it to do. It helps me accomplish whatever task I’m doing and then gets out of the way.

Windows on the other hand is the polar opposite of that. Constantly nagging you to use OneDrive. New panels and “experiences” popping up out of nowhere. Unskippable OOBEs after a major update that force you to navigate some dark pattern if you have the audacity to resist using a Microsoft account. The telemetry that you know is running under the hood 24/7. Hands and knees begging you to use Edge to open PDFs?!?! Using windows today is like using Clippy - the operating system.

Linux has come such a long way, and outside of some proprietary edge cases, I can no longer imagine using Windows as a daily driver