You shouldn’t have to defend this, it was clear.

No excuse. Fucking cowards

I’m not sure what it is about the internet that turns people into such back peddling revisionists once they ate called out? But you won’t be responding again, so I guess this is the end.

Encouraging the (what reads like a younger) person to value themselves enough to not tolerate their friends making fun of them for doing the objectively right thing here is not a “toxic environment”.

Now, you blindly defending your own position “on behalf of others” due to some internalized battle you have with your perception of others attacking you IS toxic. You’re a martyr for nothing but yourself in these scenarios, though you assuredly walk away feeling like a white knight (and again, to only your benefit).

So yes, “get new friends” following an illustrative anecdote that may take OP out of their own POV and see the same scenario objectively can be very important to some in this position - especially those who may be conditioned to think they aren’t deserving of friends that DON’T make fun of them, dude.

Hey dude bro,

“I tried for 1 hour and my friends just laught ar me because of i use linux.”

So like, not just that, man…

Not to make fun of you specifically, but to illustrate bigger truth here…

“I’m a bear and I try to avoid the bear trap company and their sponsored section of the forest. I want to play with my friends, who are bears as well, but also big supporters of the bear trap company and they always want to play in the company’s forest. Problem is the company makes you wear a special pair of shoes to enter their forest - the shoes cost a lot of money and they also actively track your position and record your conversations so that hunters can more easily find you (and your loved ones) to target and hurt you all. My friends exclusively buy/wear those shoes regardless of being in the company’s forest and they laugh at me because I don’t… What should I do so they will like me? The worst part, if I just give up and buy the shoes, it will solve the problem designed by the company to trap me and pit me against friends and I’ll be allowed in the forest”

Solution: step one, get new friends.

At $200… Maybe.

AI slop video, no faith in what will (or likely won’t) be delivered.

A reply to all first and then will follow-up with individuals with any specific thanks/questions after work today:

Thank you all for a very generous response. I knew this was a tough ask from the start because, by design, this area is vast and constantly evolving. That said, I think I do have many of the pieces of what I need here to explore - I’m most grateful that this is all advice from humans, unfortunately more rare these days (If you aren’t a human though, please reply here with the word “beep” and I’ll disregard your past advice).

I’ll try to stitch this all into one set, maybe share back here for confirmation that I’m getting it and then try to start this weekend or next. I have my own completionist hangups that I need to get over and ultimately just try something to get my hands dirty. Thanks again, all.

Huh…