Matt the Knife
@messerman.org
Proud father, lucky husband, decent improviser, experienced software engineer, avid reader, podcaster (Knights of the Rolled Table, Hacking the Grepson), gamer (single player).
Be kind, or shut up.
For legal reasons, this account is satire.
Be kind, or shut up.
For legal reasons, this account is satire.
Pinned
Matt the Knife
@messerman.org
· Jun 10
Believing that all people should be treated with kindness and respect (regardless of their nationality, skin color, monetary status, health, etc) should not be considered an extremist viewpoint.
Being opposed to that, however, should be.
Being opposed to that, however, should be.
Plus, I have to remind myself to be careful not to take on too much responsibility for things I don’t have power over.
a man is talking to an elderly woman in a hospital bed with the words you 're not superman you know
ALT: a man is talking to an elderly woman in a hospital bed with the words you 're not superman you know
media.tenor.com
January 17, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Plus, I have to remind myself to be careful not to take on too much responsibility for things I don’t have power over.
I just realized that the power/responsibility relation is key to my moral framework - I am morally responsible to help those I have the power to help, but those that I don’t have power/control over do not require (but can still take on) great responsibility.
Spider-Man is perhaps THE best comic book character for a future leader to read - the balance of personal vs professional life, anxiety and stress, closer ties to lower-middle class working people, and of course “with great power there must also come great responsibility”.
January 17, 2026 at 7:25 PM
I just realized that the power/responsibility relation is key to my moral framework - I am morally responsible to help those I have the power to help, but those that I don’t have power/control over do not require (but can still take on) great responsibility.
Spider-Man is perhaps THE best comic book character for a future leader to read - the balance of personal vs professional life, anxiety and stress, closer ties to lower-middle class working people, and of course “with great power there must also come great responsibility”.
January 17, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Spider-Man is perhaps THE best comic book character for a future leader to read - the balance of personal vs professional life, anxiety and stress, closer ties to lower-middle class working people, and of course “with great power there must also come great responsibility”.
My wife and I turned to each other in the theater: “what are we watching right now?”
January 17, 2026 at 4:50 PM
My wife and I turned to each other in the theater: “what are we watching right now?”
Reposted by Matt the Knife
FYI:
“There won’t be elections” and
“There might be elections but they’ll just deny the results so it won’t count”
IS VOTER SUPPRESSION LANGUAGE.
You say this, YOU are participating in discouraging people from voting.
You are part of the problem.
“There won’t be elections” and
“There might be elections but they’ll just deny the results so it won’t count”
IS VOTER SUPPRESSION LANGUAGE.
You say this, YOU are participating in discouraging people from voting.
You are part of the problem.
January 16, 2026 at 10:04 PM
FYI:
“There won’t be elections” and
“There might be elections but they’ll just deny the results so it won’t count”
IS VOTER SUPPRESSION LANGUAGE.
You say this, YOU are participating in discouraging people from voting.
You are part of the problem.
“There won’t be elections” and
“There might be elections but they’ll just deny the results so it won’t count”
IS VOTER SUPPRESSION LANGUAGE.
You say this, YOU are participating in discouraging people from voting.
You are part of the problem.
Someone needs to put a law in place that says any public communication from the President has to be done under oath.
January 17, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Someone needs to put a law in place that says any public communication from the President has to be done under oath.
My daughter was born 10-weeks premature and both she and my wife almost died during her removal from the womb. So, yeah, definitely became more vehemently pro-choice after that!
(kiddo is now 16 and doing great)
(kiddo is now 16 and doing great)
January 17, 2026 at 7:36 AM
My daughter was born 10-weeks premature and both she and my wife almost died during her removal from the womb. So, yeah, definitely became more vehemently pro-choice after that!
(kiddo is now 16 and doing great)
(kiddo is now 16 and doing great)
I DO need to be right, but not the way most people think. I don’t need my current worldview to be right - I need to understand which contradictory fact is wrong, so I can update the information in my brain and then be correct from then on (and the other person can do the same thing - it’s a win win)
There's an extremely common misconception that autistic people need to be right. That we are always correcting others because we think we know better than everyone else.
And I want to explain why this is a wildly inaccurate understanding of the internal autistic experience...
And I want to explain why this is a wildly inaccurate understanding of the internal autistic experience...
January 17, 2026 at 7:32 AM
I DO need to be right, but not the way most people think. I don’t need my current worldview to be right - I need to understand which contradictory fact is wrong, so I can update the information in my brain and then be correct from then on (and the other person can do the same thing - it’s a win win)
Reposted by Matt the Knife
We are *compelled* to correct *information* (not people) when we believe it is incorrect or inaccurate because it confuses our understanding of the world around us.
It confuses our own learned knowledge, perceptions, and experiences.
It confuses our own learned knowledge, perceptions, and experiences.
January 16, 2026 at 11:24 PM
We are *compelled* to correct *information* (not people) when we believe it is incorrect or inaccurate because it confuses our understanding of the world around us.
It confuses our own learned knowledge, perceptions, and experiences.
It confuses our own learned knowledge, perceptions, and experiences.
Reposted by Matt the Knife
We actually seriously looked into moving up there but it was during the quarantine and we couldn’t even visit. Might be time to look again.
January 17, 2026 at 7:15 AM
We actually seriously looked into moving up there but it was during the quarantine and we couldn’t even visit. Might be time to look again.
If you could leave a wee window open near Vancouver for me I’d appreciate it.
January 17, 2026 at 7:07 AM
If you could leave a wee window open near Vancouver for me I’d appreciate it.
You can do stuff too, you can pressure your government to threaten the US more directly. I want to hear other NATO governments coming forth and saying what’s in this post. We’re doing what we can, here, but it’s not like all of us can teleport to Minneapolis or whatever.
January 17, 2026 at 6:59 AM
You can do stuff too, you can pressure your government to threaten the US more directly. I want to hear other NATO governments coming forth and saying what’s in this post. We’re doing what we can, here, but it’s not like all of us can teleport to Minneapolis or whatever.
Tagline: Golden (but not until after that first cup, seriously don’t talk to me before then)
January 17, 2026 at 6:48 AM
Tagline: Golden (but not until after that first cup, seriously don’t talk to me before then)
Even I find Tor confusing, and I’ve been a software engineer since the ‘90s. We can definitely do better.
January 16, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Even I find Tor confusing, and I’ve been a software engineer since the ‘90s. We can definitely do better.
Even fewer actual agents - that number, I believe, includes administrative staff, etc. California’s National Guard is bigger than ICE - and that’s just the one state, between the other “blue” states they’re grossly outnumbered - and that’s before you count the rest of us.
January 16, 2026 at 10:53 PM
Even fewer actual agents - that number, I believe, includes administrative staff, etc. California’s National Guard is bigger than ICE - and that’s just the one state, between the other “blue” states they’re grossly outnumbered - and that’s before you count the rest of us.
Even dumber is there is already actual nudity of her from at least two movies just off the top of my head. User is dumb and gross on may levels.
January 16, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Even dumber is there is already actual nudity of her from at least two movies just off the top of my head. User is dumb and gross on may levels.
Doing that though won’t separate us from spying, but good encryption + trustworthy and secure VPNs could do it. That’s how the Tor Project works, I believe.
January 16, 2026 at 10:48 PM
Doing that though won’t separate us from spying, but good encryption + trustworthy and secure VPNs could do it. That’s how the Tor Project works, I believe.
That depends on what you mean by “internet”, I think. The infrastructure (IP addresses, DNS, actual wires carrying the signal, ISPs, etc is going to be hard (not impossible) to replace at scale. But if we piggyback the existing one with encryption (maybe new protocols on top of eg TCP) - much easier
January 16, 2026 at 10:45 PM
That depends on what you mean by “internet”, I think. The infrastructure (IP addresses, DNS, actual wires carrying the signal, ISPs, etc is going to be hard (not impossible) to replace at scale. But if we piggyback the existing one with encryption (maybe new protocols on top of eg TCP) - much easier
It’d be great if California could just secede - but of course that would almost certainly put the match to the powder keg and result in a full scale civil war.
January 16, 2026 at 10:40 PM
It’d be great if California could just secede - but of course that would almost certainly put the match to the powder keg and result in a full scale civil war.
Then I agree - I think that was the actual intention of this post, “changing parties” was being used as shorthand for “changing their values and policy positions”
January 16, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Then I agree - I think that was the actual intention of this post, “changing parties” was being used as shorthand for “changing their values and policy positions”
What if their new policy is in direct opposition to their campaign promises?
January 16, 2026 at 6:11 PM
What if their new policy is in direct opposition to their campaign promises?
That’s one of the things that really blew me away when I interviewed at my current job - they made a big deal about the company culture and why it was important. It helped that I agreed with pretty much (possibly all?!) of it. Id never seen such a thing
January 16, 2026 at 5:28 AM
That’s one of the things that really blew me away when I interviewed at my current job - they made a big deal about the company culture and why it was important. It helped that I agreed with pretty much (possibly all?!) of it. Id never seen such a thing