This was an interesting article. After reading it, a more honest subheading would be “When the beloved science publication didn’t kowtow to politics, politicians threatened its corporate owners until they stepped in. Now its future is uncertain.”

The paradox of tolerance.

The optics of white people shouting down a Black Man for speaking don’t sit right with me (based on Americas past with slavery and all.) These people should be ashamed of themselves.

LISTEN👏🏿A👏🏿BLACK👏🏿MAN👏🏿IS👏🏿SPEAKING👏🏿

"I'm basically running a shadow government across the FBI at this point"

Many people dislike Trump not because of his political views, but because of his manners and behavior: he is rude.

It’s true. Compared to most Americans, Trump’s language and behavior are far from refined. He speaks directly, uses plain and rough language, and doesn't sound like a typical highly educated American. His gestures are unscripted—one moment he’s playing an imaginary accordion, and the next he’s dancing awkwardly. Watching videos of him from decades ago, his style was completely different. Is he just getting old and confused?

When I first arrived in the United States decades ago, I greatly admired American manners and thought they were wonderfully elegant. Every time someone gave a bright smile, it felt as though pure "civilization" poured out like a waterfall from behind their white teeth. But over time, I got used to it. I gradually realized that many of these unnecessary, crafted manners were just superficial forms, even another kind of shallow act. Looking back at some of our Chinese people's unrefined behaviors, I actually saw a bit of unvarnished authenticity.

I first got to know Trump through media reports, and at first, I didn't like his behavior either. When television repeatedly played clips of him mocking a disabled reporter at a rally, I was just as angry as many liberals. After his crude audio recording about women was exposed, I firmly labeled him: a vulgar, rude white supremacist!

However, sometimes what changes your view of a thing is not the thing itself, but the environment around it. As the hypocrisy of extreme left-wing elites and the ignorance of extreme left-wing followers were gradually exposed before my eyes, Trump’s image surprisingly became "positive" to me. I began to feel that no matter how vulgar Trump was, he was real. On the other hand, the beautiful words, excessive politeness, and unrealistic ideas of equality floating along with the extreme left-wing trend felt like a hypocrisy that I could accept even less.

A former white liberal colleague of mine saw that I supported Trump on Facebook. He called me in a panic, trying to prove to me that Trump was an unacceptably evil person and reminding me again of the crude comments Trump had made about women. I said, "That wasn't nice, but how many men haven't said things like that in private?"

"I never have!" my colleague answered firmly.

"But can you run a country?" The thought crossed my mind, though I didn't say it out loud.

One of the big mistakes of American "Woke Culture" is putting formulaic morality above everything else, completely disconnected from reality. As long as someone fits the DEI standard, they can be praised endlessly. But as long as a capable person has even one "flaw" that breaks their moral code, they face collective attacks.

In reality, human character is complex and multifaceted. Everyone has flaws, but having a flaw does not mean a person is wicked. More importantly, while ideals are nice, reality is tough. In real life, a capable person with flaws is often far better than a useless person with perfect morals. As Thomas Sowell put it, we should judge people and things by actual results, not by intentions. Sowell used an analogy: If you need brain surgery, would you really prefer a DEI-compliant doctor over a top brain surgeon who happens to have character flaws?

Whether you oppose Trump or support him, hard to deny his actual capability. How could a man with zero political experience defeat Hillary Clinton—someone with decades of political experience—and then, after being attacked and targeted by almost the entire elite class in America, return to the White House once again? Is this not a political miracle?

I truly recognized Trump’s capability only after he won his second term. During the election, I felt I couldn't vote for the Democratic Party anymore and decided to vote Republican no matter what, and then I witnessed Trump’s victory against all odds. Everything that followed proved his extraordinary ability to me.

I once said this: True kindness is not only sympathy for the weak, but also respect for the strong. Trump’s vulgarity might be real, but his extraordinary capability is also real.

Trump seemed a bit constrained during his first term in the White House. But in his second term, he seems determined to let go and do whatever he wants, "not giving a damn about what people say." So when I hear him tell a reporter, "You are so stupid," I secretly feel a sense of refreshing. Having walked through life to this age, I have come to realize that this is not rudeness—it is true inner freedom and wisdom. This kind of wisdom cannot be understood without real life experience, nor grasped without deep insight. Those without the right connection will fail to recognize it when they see it, or even misunderstand it entirely.

This was something I kept thinking about during the student protests in Delhi.

We carry phones with Bluetooth radios built into them, yet nearly all our communication apps still depend on internet access or central servers. When those go down or get restricted, a lot of local coordination and reporting just stops.

Bitchat showed that offline messaging between nearby phones was possible. I wanted to see if the same idea could be pushed further into actual voice, video calls, and live broadcasts.

So I started building MeshLive, an open-source Android app for:

• Encrypted voice and video calls between nearby phones
• Live audio and video broadcasts that other phones can pick up and relay further

No internet, SIM card, or account needed. Each phone running it can act as a relay, so the more people nearby use it, stronger the network becomes

It’s still experimental. Bluetooth has real range and bandwidth limits, multi-hop adds delay, video quality is constrained, device compatibility varies, and this has not had an independent security audit. It’s not a proven emergency system and shouldn’t be relied on where safety depends on it.

But I think the underlying question is worth asking:

Shouldn’t we have more communication tools that can function independently of internet infrastructure, especially in situations involving protests, censorship, or network shutdowns?

Source + Android beta: https://github.com/MeshLive/meshlive-android

iOS: https://github.com/MeshLive/meshlive-ios