I am an Indian and I have become hyperaware of the people and the culture that surrounds me and I am beginning to see the flaws in it. One of the flaws that trouble me the MOST is how most Indians behave when they encounter any authority figure (mostly higher class or "higher" caste or the wealthy or the bureaucrat class).

When an average Indian walks into a Government office with a corrupt bureaucrat in it, he begins treating himself as an insect, he is way too afraid and he is way too submissive and slavish, this doesn't end here however, if you meet someone of a higher social status than yourself you become slavish and submissive there too and this happens every time an authority figure is in the room and even with people who think very highly of themselves(at their homes, with their families etc.,) I dress well and look somewhat well so once I had a guy who is my father's age call me sir and use language which is reserved for "the higher classes". This is not ok! I wish he had a spine, I don't want to be him when I grow up, but I know he didn't choose to be that way, it's the environment he was brought up in and not being aware of one's own slavishness.

I am not blaming my people, but I do detest the culture which caused this. And don't be fooled, I am not an observer, I (used to) do this too and I hate this

It's like our bones melt and our brain switches off and we become in our own eyes the lowest form of life on earth. Probably justifiably because the education we have received is subpar (counter-productive) in most cases. And you can't think highly of yourself if you are capable of doing anything productive, but it's not just that, it happens with those people who are productive members of the society, but to a lesser extent.

I have heard many Southern Asian countries are like this in this aspect. So, I was wondering how you treat authority in your culture and if you thought it was healthy. I would be very much interested if your culture is similar to mine and what you think might have caused it.

And most importantly, how do you think I can get rid of this disgusting habit, is it even possible in India? (fellow Indians jump in here)

edit: Thanks to everyone who replies! :)

I am an Indian and I have noticed that Indians are way too proud of their country for some reason and at the same time lack any civic sense towards it, they are extremely loud and extremely proud. We feel like the world revolves around India and our culture is superior to that of others. Also, a considerable chunk of the population has been sold the "India is a world-leader" myth and they think India is somehow leading the world in innovation, science and technology, human development etc.,

Now, I know for a fact that this is not true, when I try to gauge the perception of Indians abroad on Twitter, I get pretty negative results, but Twitter has nothing good to say about any group of people, so... I kinda wanted to know what you people though of India, don't base it upon the etnic Indians who might be your friends and are decent people, but base it upon the news you read, the stories you hear from those Indians, etc.

I should be studying right now, but everytime I sit to study, I can't sit there long enough, I want food even though I am not hungry, I want to watch TV/youtube, self-pleasure... etc...

No matter what productive work I want to do, I will try to not do that and do something which gives me momentary pleasure. I want to masturbate, eat lots of food even though I am not hungry while watching TV/Youtube and I don't seem to be able to break the cycle and it's destroying me. How can I break the cycle and do something good for a change instead of pleasuring myself in the moment meaninglessly?

The media won't give me great answers to this question and I think this I trust this community more, thus I want to know from you. Also, I have heard reports that Russia was winning the war, if that's true, did the west miscalculate the situation by allowing diplomacy to take a backseat and allowing Ukraine to a large plethora of military resources?

PS: I realize there are many casualties on both sides and I am not trying to downplay the suffering, but I am curious as to how it is going for Ukraine. Right now I am hearing ever louder calls of Russia winning, those have existed forever, but they seem to have grown louder now, so I was wondering what you thought about it. Also, I am somewhat concerned of allowing a dictatorship to just erase at it's convenience a free and democratic country.

Modified post. Read the edit at the buttom.

Now, call me crazy, I don't think so! I have been an addict and I know how it is to be an addict, but I don't think sugar is as addictive as cocaine. And I really am frustrated with people who say such things.

This notion that it's as addictive drives me crazy! I mean, imagine someone gullible who says, well, "I can control my addiction to ice cream, heck I can go without ice cream for months, if it's as addictive as cocaine, why not give cocaine a chance? It's not like it's gonna destroy me or something?" Yeah, I have once been this gullible (when I was younger) and I hate this.

I do crave sugar and I do occasionally (once per week and sometimes twice a month) buy sugary treats/lays packet (5 Indian Rupees, smallest one) to quench that craving, but I refuse to believe that it is as addictive as cocaine or any other drugs. PS: My last lays packet was 45 ago and I am fine, and this is the most addictive substance I have consumed.

I am pretty some people here have been addicted to cocaine (truly no judgement, I hope you are sober now), so what say you?

PS: If you haven't been addicted to anything drastic as drugs, you are still welcome to chip in.

edit: thank you all for adding greater context.

I realize now that when they talk about sugar, they are not just talking abt lays and ice creams, but sugar in general. I get the studies now. But media is doing a terrible job of reporting on studies.

Also, the media depiction of scientific studies is really the worst. I mean, they make claims which garbage and/or incomplete data or publish articles on studies which make more alarming claims. Also, maybe wait for a consensus before you publish anything, i.e., don't publish anything which isn't peer reviewed and replicated multiple times. Yes, your readers might miss out on the latest and greatest, but it isn't really helpful if the latest and greatest studies in science aren't peer reviewed and backed up well by data.

I feel like a headline "SUGAR IS AS ADDICTIVE AS COCAINE" can and will be life destroying if you don't give enough information. I feel like there should be an ethical responsibility to not sensationalize studies, maybe instead of "SUGAR IS AS ADDICTIVE AS COCAINE" give a headline like "Sugar and Addiction, what science says."

also, https://i.imgur.com/VrBgrjA.png ss of bing chat gpt answering the question.

some articles: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/25/is-sugar-really-as-addictive-as-cocaine-scientists-row-over-effect-on-body-and-brain

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/experts-is-sugar-addictive-drug

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/cravings/202209/is-sugar-addictive

https://brainmd.com/blog/what-do-sugar-and-cocaine-have-in-common/

edit: hey guys, 60+ comments, can't reply from now on, but know that I am grateful for your comments, keep the convo going. Thank you to the y'all people who gave unbiased answers and thanks also to those who told me about Waydroid and Docker

edit: Well, now that's sobering, apparently I can do most of these things on Windows with ease too. I won't be switching back to Windows anytime soon, but it appears that my friend was right. I am getting FOMO Fear of missing out right now.

I do need these apps right now, but there are some apps on Windows for which we don't have a great replacement

1. Adobe
2. MS word (yeah, I don't like Libre and most of Libre Suit) it's not as good as MS suite, of c, but it's really bad.
3. Games ( a big one although steam is helping bridge the gap)
4. Many torrented apps, most of these are Windows specific and thus I won't have any luck installing them on Linux.
5. Apparently windows is allowing their users to use some Android apps?

Torrented apps would be my biggest concern, I mean, these are Windows specific, how can I run them on Linux? Seriously, I want to know how. Can wine run most of the apps without error? I am thinking of torrenting some educational software made for Windows.

Let me list the customizations I have done with my xfce desktop and you tell me if I can do that on Windows.

I told my friend that I can't leave linux because of all the customization I have done and he said, you just don't like to accept that Windows can do that too. Yeah, because I think it can't do some of it (and I like Linux better)

But yeah, let's give the devil it's due, can I do these things on Windows?

1. I have applications which launch from terminal eg: vlc would open vlc (no questions asked, no other stuff needed, just type vlc)
2. Bash scripts which updates my system (not completely, snaps and flatpaks seem to be immune to this). I am pretty sure you can't do this on Windows.
3. I can basically automate most of my tasks and it has a good integration with my apps.
4. I can create desktop launchers.
5. Not update my system, I love to update because my updates aren't usually 4 freaking GB and the largest update I have seen has been 200-300 mbs, probably less but yeah, I was free to not update my PC if I so choose. Can you do this on Windows? And also, Linux updates fail less often, I mean, it might break your system, but the thing won't stop in the middle and say "Bye Bye, updates failed" and now you have to waste 4GB again to download the update. PS: You should always keep your apps upto date mostly for security reasons, but Linux won't force it on you and ruin your workflow.
6. Create custom panel plugin.

7. My understanding is that the Windows terminal sucks? I don't know why, it just looks bad.

I am sure as hell there are more but this is at the top of my mind rn, can I do this on Windows. Also, give me something that you personally do on Linux but can't do it on Windows.

[SOLVED kinda]

I now know the cause of this. I have scrcpy, syncthing and KDE connect working in the background. So, if I upload something from one device to another, it gets treated as upload using data bandwidth and it gets counted, even if I am not uploading it to the internet.

vnstat won't show me accurate data, it's estimates for today are 1.66 times greater than what it should be. If the data usage is 6 GB, it would show me that it is 10GB, pretty inaccurate readings. Is there a way to fix this? Also, sometimes it's 1.66 times and sometimes it more/less. It isn't accurate is my point.

PS: I need it to be vnstat as I have a script which works on vnstat

But, if there is another better package, do tell me about it.

here is the script, (strictly not relevant)

#!/bin/bash
eleven=$(vnstat --json | jq --arg day "$(date +'%d')" --arg month "$(date +'%m')" '.interfaces[0].traffic.day[] | select(.date.day == ($day | tonumber) and .date.month == ($month | tonumber)) | (.rx + .tx)/ (1024*1024*1024)')
rounded_eleven=$(printf "%.2f" "$eleven")

echo " $rounded_eleven GB"

What are you comparing it to? I’m pretty sure vnstat is using the raw.interface counters. This would include all protocol overhead. I would expect it to be higher than, for example, an application level counter.

___

[SOLVED] This seemed to have not worked before but on a closer look xfce package xfce4-netload-plugin 1.4.0 works well. This was pre-installed into MX Linux and does the job. None of you seem to be using xfce, any reasons?

MX x86_64 Xfce 4.18 Xfwm4 with panel xfce4-panel & mx-conky

file of the conky on pastebin or is what I am after, I don't have a plugin for xfce that works.

I have the config file for this particular file and I have uploaded it in pastebin, I can make it appear on panel if I get the command, but I don't know what command conky is using. I am pretty sure one can get that if they have access to this particular conky file. Unfortunately, I am not THE ONE.

Are you THE ONE? If you are, then help me please :')

[SOLVED] Hurray! I did it!

Solution: You need to have Generic monitor xfce link installed [available almost on every DE out there]

Two finger Tap on Panel Panel (dropdown) > Panel Preferences > Items > Add Item > Generic Monitor

In generic monitor give the exact location of the script like I have done here (also copy other details too)

Now save

Here's what is in the trial file

#!/bin/bash
eleven=$(vnstat --json | jq --arg day "$(date +'%d')" --arg month "$(date +'%m')" '.interfaces[0].traffic.day[] | select(.date.day == ($day | tonumber) and .date.month == ($month | tonumber)) | (.rx + .tx) / (1024*1024*1024)')
rounded_eleven=$(printf "%.2f" "$eleven")

echo " $rounded_eleven GB"

And that' about it, for Network Usage Gouger you need Network Monitor Package xfce4-netload-plugin You can see more into here

Adios!

[ORIGINAL POST]

edit: I am open to installing other packages, I ain't married to any of these packages.

I have installed vnstat package and it's quite handy. I have a few questions about it though.

1. What is rx & tx mean in this package? rx stands for received tx stands for transmission

Is there a command to check data usage on my system using this? I mean, I want to create a Add an item to my panel which will show me my daily data usage updating it every minute. Basically, I want to to see what the arrow points to on the panel next to my date and I want it to update it every minute. I have 1.5GBs of data a day and I usually am not able to use it efficiently or I use too early and spent hours without data. So, I want to try and handle this problem by monitoring my data.

Note: I want to measure gauge data speed here, not do a speed test on how fast my internet is.

Also, I want to monitor the instantaneous rate of data usage and for that package bwm-ng does a great job, but I want to see in the panel and I want it to update every 0.5 s how can I achieve this?

I would like for a command to either view red arrow or the black arrow with the right mark depending upon which of them is instantaneous data speed

Note to Future self: rx : received tx : transmission lo : local loopback wlan0 : ethernet

https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/pirating-streaming-movies-in-germany

I didn't know how Germans pirated and how they got caught, so I tried to do some research and found the article above, which is quite nice.

To summarize, your IP is visible to your ISP (internet service provider) and a law company can basically send a legal letter asking your ISP to identify you and you will be identified and your address and details will be given to the Lawyers. Now, you can either pay up or hire a lawyer and pay a lesser amount.

Now, the solution the article provided was, just use a VPN bro. But yes, VPNs can fail and not all VPNs allow you to torrent. So, how do these Germans pirate and not get caught?

PS: I obviously don't condone pirate, asking for a friend who is an author.

I am Ganesh, an Indian atheist and I don't eat beef. It's not like that I have a religious reason to do that, but after all those years seeing cows as peaceful animals and playing and growing up with them in a village, I doubt if I ever will be able to eat beef. I wasn't raised very religious, I didn't go to temple everyday and read Gita every evening unlike most muslims who are somewhat serious about their religion, my family has this watered down religion (which has it's advantages).

But yeah, not eating beef is a moral issue I deal with. I mean, I don't care that I don't eat beef, but the fact that I eat pork and chicken but not beef seems to me to be weird. So, is there any religious practice that you guys follow to this day?

edit: I like religious music, religious temples (Churches, Gurudwara's, Temples & Mosques in Iran), religious paintings and art sometimes. I know for a fact that the only art you could produce is those days was indeed religious and the greatest artists needed to make something religious to be funded, that we will never know what those artists would have produced in the absence of religion, but yeah, religious art is good nonetheless.

edit: Guys, I now yt-dlp is the way to go, but is there a gui front end for yt-dlp with all the options that I get on cli? Or else, just advice me on how to use the yt-dlp cli

I need the best audio-quality and I want it to be webm and want it to be downloaded with transcripts too, so what should I do?

I tried this snap video-downloader and it was able to download a webm file and it's amazing. I love it. But, I am not sure if it's the best quality I can get. I was wondering what Linux native software you used to download Youtube audio in it's best quality.

btw, when I downloaded the .webm file, I got it along with the transcribed text and it plays in the place where video subs play and it's quite nice.

Something else

https://www.makeuseof.com/download-youtube-videos-yt-dlp-linux-terminal/

Removes all sponsors and downloads the best audio into Videos/yt-dlp

cd Videos/yt-dlp &* youtube-dlp yt-dlp -x --audio-quality=0 --sponsorblock-mark all --sponsorblock-remove all [YOUTUBE-URL] && cd ~

sudo snap video-downloader

Video-downloader snap downloads the package Video-Downloader and this can be opened through terminal (you can create a .desktop file through menulibre for this) And all videos with varying degree of quality can be downloaded here. But, this doesn't include sponsorblocks so idk, use yt-dlp here too, but I don't download videos so I don't really care for this.