The problems aren’t the treatments, the problems are still the assholes pricing the treatments that exacerbate issues with treatment affordability and selection.

Plenty of them do.

They just don’t fetishize them, treat them like fashion accessories, or wear them like an identity badge on their sleeves the way right-wingers do.

Didn’t even think of that, but true. The device would only work as long as a service provider is willing to support it. Or your subscription runs out.

Doesn’t matter if they’re “made up”.

The conditions that precipitated those words have always existed. The resistance to creating the terms doesn’t make the conditions not exist, it just means that the disagreeable person can justify to themselves that they don’t have to acknowledge them if they can avoid the words.

IOW, terms can help legitimize. They don’t want the conditions legitimized so they don’t have to acknowledge them.

Agreed. The flaw in the system is people. I hate to say it with the context of this comic, but the solution unfortunately isn’t “no rules” anarchy. That’s similar to the libertarian view, which somehow relies on the idea that if you get rid of regulation corporations and people will suddenly behave well by themselves when in fact history has proven time and again that it just turns into a big power grab. Corporations start dumping waste everywhere, get rid of environmental and worker protections, etc. whatever it takes to get ahead and make the most money. Same for people. There might be some places that can sort out some kind of effective shared governing and resource managment, but that still means rules, not anarchy.

Rules and laws keep people, the rich, and corporations from running roughshod. Problem is that those same people try to bend and shape those rules so that they can get away with doing just that. There is no “win” and being done, it’s a never-ending battle against greed.

“There’s no AI of dubious value”

The whole thing is of little to no value. Maybe a good idea for people with physical limitations like bad arthritis where swapping a battery might be difficult, but for the average person it’s tech vaporware waiting to fail.

“Community notes”

Provided by the same communities that post stuff about flat earth, mole children, and election fraud.

They’re high on their own supply.

People who are divorced from the fallout of their creation. More corporate-think where they chase the objective that costs jobs in favor of the bottom line, even if it’s a shitty idea, and just let it “sort itself out”. The “sorting out” part being not having to deal with any moral, emotional, or financial consequences personally for the result of their pursuits.

which has become a synonym for search engines or finding answers online.

If you’re my age, sure. But it’s crap.

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I’ll offer this as a possible reason: Kids don’t solo travel like they used to. Kids not wanting driver’s licenses as much is a thing.

I think I can speak for older generations a little - we couldn’t wait to get enough independence to have a bike or driver’s license to get out of the house. There was only the telephone to talk to people - as in no internet, no social media, not everyone had computer games or consoles. Eventually you had messaging services like AIM or IRC, but you didn’t really meet up with friends on them because not everyone had PCs, or cared to learn how to use one. There was cable TV if you were lucky, but you didn’t watch that all day. We went from one friend’s house to another, or friends of friend’s homes. You got exposed to a lot more living conditions, often while completely unsupervised. Bored kids or kids with home problems didn’t mind pilfering the alcohol from the parents, or got whatever drug they could. Usually pot. Nothing else to do. Plus some peer pressure.

Now? Kids text. They meet up online on discord or whatever VoIP or messaging service is cool right now. Group chats. Play online games. They don’t need to leave the house to hang out, and in-person hangouts seem way less important to my kids than it ever was to me when I was younger. That’s a lot less opportunity to be introduced to alcohol or other drugs and have the access to them.

So maybe less peer pressure isn’t necessarily a Covid result, it’s the result of social interaction moving to online spaces and not physical spaces where access to alcohol or other drugs are present.

Yay, privatization? Just post it to a social media platform so the official org doesn’t have to dedicate IT resources or further effort to it?

I guess it was that or a blow job.

“Do you know about our lord and savior, Linux? Let me tell you about it…”

I miss them when they were good and effective. Like Groupon.

They all got enshittified and overrun by people trying to exploit the userbase for clicks.

No idea. If they want to waste their money on it it’s not my problem. I don’t participate in any social media that uses them.

That’s apples and oranges. They don’t want users with fetishes and gore. They can’t control those narratives. Some bot that they can control? That’s fine.

If an AI mentions their product, either by chance or deliberately, it can drive engagement and sales. These AI aren’t here just to be generic personalities or space fillers, they’re here to drive engagement and make money.

Does it make them money?

If yes, then they’re ok with pretty much anything.

Meanwhile, the USA is 24%-ish renewables and 60%-ish fossil fuels. Damn fossil fuel industry and anti-progress politicians.