Flags have become a warning over the last decade or so about the person waving it. It no longer has the hope of a better America, solidarity, or welcome; it’s a symbol of a myopic, selfish, aggro, uneducated person full of performative nationalism and real hatreds.

Our independence was supposed to free the people of kings and tyrants. It’s been 249 years since 1776, we have undone what the Constitution authors fought for.

I’m sure the laws will focus on protecting IP - specifically that of AI companies or megacorps, the famous and powerful, but not the small creators of content or the rabble negatively affected by AI abuse.

The rest of us will have to suffer through presenting whatever damaging and humiliating video to a court. If you can even afford a lawyer to do so. Then be offered a judgement that probably won’t be paid or won’t cover the damage done by an image that will never be able to be erased from the internet. Those damages could include the suicide of young people bullied and humiliated by such deepfakes.

Shouldn’t be an app. It should be a site accessible using vpn and private browsing with an appropriate browser. Nobody should have to worry about the Stasi finding the app on their phone regardless of the situation.

I pay $60 (or whatever), pay for my data connection, and get to play my game literally for years. It’s one of the cheapest forms of entertainment around. I get tons of value out of my purchase, it reduces stress, I get a sense of challenge out of it, and for the amount I spent I get a lot pf return.

Now if only health care were free. That’s just a bullshit statement and not even worth responding to. That said, In its current state it’s the opposite of video games. It’s expensive. The amount you put in is often not what you get out. It’s stressful.

Maybe the only way it’s like games is that someone can pull the plug on you when it’s not profitable anymore.

Yep. Book wasted time with unnecessary callback lists, obscure shows, and a hero that was kindof a jerk. The movie was fun - not deep or anything, it didn’t waste time though.

Yeah, never use rental car agency toll payment. Too late for you now, but they treat it the same way they do the gas fill charges. If they do it they’ll double the cost. Use your own toll pass if you have one, add the rental plate to the pass while you’re using it.

Yep. The astroturfing and hive mind made it easy to leave after the API debacle. Any modestly large sub pretty much made outside opinion not worth sharing. Smaller subs were still mostly ok, but even those were being overrun with reposts or people skirting the purpose of the sub trying to get karma. You couldn’t have discussions anymore, it was people posting for karma and people responding in ways to hop on karma coattails.

OpenVPN into my own LAN. Stream from there to my device.

That and a maga hat and I’d have a complete outfit.

Wait a few more decades. You’ll get there again.

All those power lines in the window view feed just that apartment.

You’re insistent that a mythical person would agree with me? Like I said, you might as well be arguing with me that Gandalf would as well. You’re changing the subject.

I’m atheist, so I don’t particularly care. Jesus was a socialist in the simplest terms according to his actions in the bible, and even his system placed demands on his followers. Or at least the system created in his name.

You might as well ask me what Gandalf advocated.

Socialism is an economic theory second to the form of government. IOW, you can have authoritarian + socialism, authoritarian + capitalist, or whatever combination might exist, like Democratic + socialism, or social policy.

All systems rely on forced redistribution in some form unless it’s anarchy.

No. We have our own dystopia, our kids get shot in the classroom. We don’t have them assemble the guns to kill other people.

Big difference.

Hah, yes. This is a good take.

It’s like buying a knighthood from an organization that claims to have rights to grant such things. Even though the title is meaningless.

Mensa is the same.

IOW it’s an organization designed to take your money for a title. They get money, you get a meaningless membership.

The citizens, in general, don’t. We want to do the same thing every other country’s people want - live our lives and hopefully give our kids a good or better one.

I have no fucking clue what the government is doing to make these decisions.

IMO the limited subset arguing here support authoritarianism. Generally a male dominated profession. Seems to be a burgeoning market these days.