To be totally clear, the UK has been a fucked up place for centuries, I don’t think Meta fundamentally changed the culture.

Having said that, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc are tools that enable political influence over the population at levels that were previously unimaginable. Look into Cambridge Analytica a bit or borrow Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie from your local library for details.

Starting as early as 2012 we have evidence that Facebook was pivotal in stoking racial tensions in Myanmar, leading to a genocide.

There’s evidence that Meta was a major factor in Brexit, which more specifically relates to my claim with respect to influence in the UK.

The US election in 2016 was clearly influenced by Meta platforms, including taking Russian money to stoke racial tensions in line with the Russian Manifesto, The Foundations of Geopolitics.

I’m currently reading through Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, which is a memoir about how these systems were conceptualized and built at Facebook, and so far I’d recommend it.

Obviously Meta isn’t the only problem, Tiktok is clearly a problem of similar size and scope, and other social apps have their own challenges (X being owned by the richest man alive and actively influencing the algorithm, for example), but in many ways Meta is the OG, and blazed the trail for others.

Meta happened. UK, US, all over the world there is a correlation between the adoption of Meta’s products and the corrosion of basic human rights.

You should try asking people about the last EULA they read the next time you’re at a party. You’re gonna be blown away.

But how could the trolls enrage well meaning people into moving to a less privacy respecting browser if the post wasn’t designed for performative outrage?

A buddy of mine works for a fortune 500 company that started giving out MacBooks as the standard hardware this year. Apparently you need to jump through a bunch of hoops if you want to run Windows. I was shocked to hear it but Microsoft deserves to be humbled.

Literally everything you said is just dumb hater bullshit. You added nothing to the discussion.

It’s too bad there isn’t a way to use something like a flipper zero to compromise the cameras and simply disable them, or insert malicious video files into their network…

Oh I agree that you won’t be able to fire your shotgun in a large urban area, but if you’re someplace less densely populated I can imagine being able to drive up from behind in the middle of the night…

It’s too bad there isn’t an easier way to deal with this problem, especially in the instances where the cameras are being installed without consent.

Akin to having foreign adversaries set up a spy network within our borders, and instead of being punished for it, many law enforcement agencies are choosing to buy the subscription plan!

Anyone have any intel on how well these cameras hold up against buckshot?

We’ll have to fight like hell or we won’t have a country anymore

You might be a daft fucking idiot but at this point as long as you get out and vote for someone who isn’t a fascist, I could be convinced to share enough drinks that we forget our differences.

The racists and bigots (Heritage foundation and plenty of others) have been working on this shit literally since Reconstruction and we’ve been able to rebuff their insane ideas for over a hundred years. Then, after 4 years of insanity under Trump, culminating in a global pandemic, Jan 6, and election denialism, we get Joe Biden.

What steps do you think would be appropriate to take as the most powerful leader in the country in 2021 to help the country heal and avert future calamities like these? From the top of my head I can spout off a long list but accountability for Trump and those who enabled him are at the top of the list.

Why didn’t Joe take decisive action to fix our broken political system? Why did he allow Merrick Garland to slow roll the “investigations” for 4+ years and ultimately do nothing? How could he and Kamala run on a campaign of, “save the country from the fascists” and yet do nothing to save the country themselves? The Supreme Court ruled, during Joe’s term, that the President has absolute immunity for any actions taken as president. How could Joe’s administration get this kind of power while facing down a planned fascist takeover and DO NOTHING?

You’re coming at me like I’m “blind and stupid” while suggesting that Joe was the second coming of Christ in America, and I’m here to tell you that he simply did not perform his constitutional role to do everything in his power to maintain the Union. I like the guy, but he fucked up.

Project Nazi 2016-2025? Bruh, who controlled the government 2020-2024? Clearest troll yet. Unreal.

Stop rejecting the facts simply because they are unpleasant.

I am righteous in my displeasure with Sleepy Joe and the larger Democratic establishment that enabled MAGA to thrive. Are you so blinded by your hatred for MAGA that you’re unable to objectively evaluate the results from the election?

Look, I would have voted for 4 more years of Joe in a heartbeat, I voted for Kamala; but a majority of Americans voted for our current path. I do not think this is the best path for our country, but I also won’t pretend this happened in a vacuum. The Democrats steadfastly refuse to consider their own failings, and that includes lining up behind Joe Biden when his administration was polling in the gutter.

Fascism isn’t looking great but Americans clearly aren’t willing to vote for democracy on its own merits when the democratic leaders don’t have a policy that resonates with voters.

Tl;dr it’s not because I’m fascist that I call Joe sleepy, it’s because I demand better from our leadership. If that gets under your skin then you’re part of the problem.

Lmao I’m a MAGA? You’re a clown. 🤡

So we agree, rich douchebags took over our democracy while Sleepy Joe sat back and did NOTHING to stop it. Jan 6th? Trump sees no consequences. Numerous other indictments for Trump? No need to rush. Musk buying votes in PA? Seems fine.

All the while Joe sits around insisting he’s strapped in and ready for another term. He got elected on the premise that he would be a 1 term president then decided he was comfy, in spite of incredibly clear polling numbers showing that his policy was remarkably unpopular. Then Kamala picked up the mantle and when she asked what she would do differently? No notes.

Policy-wise Joe was better than most but politically he gave away the country to the fascists.

Sleepy Joe is a big part of the reason we’re in this mess to begin with. I say fuck him, he had his chance to earn a better nickname.

5x the property tax rate for all vacant housing?

Lovely, thanks for the reminder on massgrave. I made the switch to Linux and haven’t looked back, but there are some games that require root kits that I’d like to play so I was considering virtualizing Windows and this would be perfect.

Discord… Still isn’t public?

They’re certainly talking about it but they haven’t announced a date yet.

Having said that, element and matrix are both more privacy respecting so I do agree with the recommendation in general.